Customer Reviews

Misspent Youth

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Peter Hamilton is probably my favorite author for his Night's Dawn Trilogy, Fallen Dragon, and the recent Pandora's Star, so I had high hopes for this book as well. While this book isn't bad, it just doesn't live up to the standard set in Hamilton's other books.

First of all, this book is much more driven by the characters than the story or the setting, which is somewhat different than the other books I mentioned where Hamilton does a great job of creating a complicated believable setting for the stories to take place. This story is set much closer to the present, so he does not have as much leeway to mold the setting which is what he really seems to excel at. Despite this, however, I really thought that it would be interesting to see one of the technologies Hamilton uses so well to shape his stories in its infant stages instead of when it is already perfected and widespread. And that part of the story was pretty good. But the characters, while likeable and interesting, just weren't all that believable, which is more important in this story as it is driven mainly by the characters.

The first part of the story is spent painting Jeff as one kind of person, then throughout the story we see that he isn't that at all, but is something much different than we have been led to believe, and that also is pretty well done. The problem comes in towards the end of the story when we're again led to believe that he is the kind of person that we started with, despite the bulk of the story which assures us that he isn't. It just isn't very well done.

If you're a fan of Hamilton, this is probably worth reading, but just don't expect the same quality, or the same epic feel of some of his other work.

Being a fan of Peter F. Hamilton I would have bought this book blind, but the theme of rejuvenation and its implications for morality caught my interest as well. However, I'm sorry to say this book does not live up to the high standard I've come to expect from Hamilton. Perhaps Hamilton elected to write a novel that can finally be produced as a single movie?

In Misspent Youth, one man is given the opportunity to undergo an experimental rejuvenation treatment, with the tab picked up by the EU. Jeff Baker is chosen because of his enormous contribution to innovation by inventing the memory chrystals that are essential to the successor of the Internet. His elderly mind is given the body of his former twentyfive-ish self, with the understanding that he will apply his considerable intellectual powers to helping figure out a room temperature superconductor.

It all sounds pretty scifi so far, but in reality the book is a family drama more than anything else. What's an old man in a young body to do? Party, Drinks and Nookie of course! Preferably with his son's friends. However, the way that Baker strays seems, well, a bit mundane. The real questions, like how to determine the age of someone rejuvenated (by memories or by appearance) are only touched upon, but not fleshed out.

The story quickly degenerates into a tale of love, lust and jealousy, with Jeff and his son Tim as the main antagonists. Of course by the end of the book everything is neatly wrapped up but it takes a lot of increasingly unrealistic sex scenes to get there.

That said, I did have a very good time reading the book. Hamilton has a knack for portraying girls and women we would all like to fall in love with (or be like). As a holiday novel, this should easily get you through a long tedious flight or a few days at the beach. Bring sunscreen!

What utter crap.

After reading the Night's Dawn trilogy and Fallen Dragon, I eagerly snatched and bought this one. While the concept of rejuvenation hasn't been explored fully, and the way in which Hamilton deals with EU politics of the future is entertaining enough, the novel's degeneration into bad character development and description, lousy ending and all-too-predictable scenes made me wonder if it was the same author.

All in all, one star for the steamy scenes - just because you don't get much of those in mature SF - and one star for the well-developed world - because after all my ranting, it is still a good setting. But the book as a complete work is bad. Very bad.

I bought this book because I loved "Pandora's Star" by Peter F. Hamilton and his website led me to believe "Misspent Youth" was a kind of a "prequel" to it. It is in a sense that it placed in a time earlier than the events depicted in "Pandora's Star" but that's about it. What's more, it's even hard to tell what the purpose of this book was. 90% of the story is about sex. Not that I object to sex in books but as part of the story, not a story in itself. If you want to read about horny teenagers and a 70-year old who became another horny teenager, this book is for you. It tells a story of the first man given the rejuvenation treatment that made him 20 again. Unfortunately, instead of exploring implications of this monumental discovery, the author decided to make his main character act like a horny teenager let off the leash for the first time in his life and concentrated on describing his "adventures" in great detail. It's really impossible to feel anything but a mild disgust for all of the characters in the book and it makes it extremely hard to read. All the time I kept thinking "when is the story finally going to begin?". The joke's on me. The teenage love/sex exploits are the story here. I am glad I'm finally finished with it.

Jeff Baker is the creator of the ultimate storage device, the memory crystal. Able to hold masses of information, it has caused the downfall of copyright: everything is now public access. With this freedom the world is living in an age where anything can be stored, from constant security footage to the entire backlog of all media ever created. But Jeff is not only famous for the creation of this crystal, his fame comes from the fact that he didn't patent the crystal and gave away the technology to whoever could build it, making him known the world over.

Now, after years of research, rejuvenation is possible. Jeff is chosen as the first subject because of his past achievements and also the promise of working toward a superconductor once treatment is complete. After months being rejuvenated Jeff wakes up to a face he hasn't seen in fifty years, with family and friends having to adjust to his younger appearance, new outlook on life and behaviour to go with it.

Misspent Youth is the story of one family's experiences after a historic landmark and all the problems and consequences thrown up by it.

The world created by Peter is once again full of ideas and has a history that is evident in the writing. This is something that I always enjoy when getting into one of Peter's novels - I don't want a flat world that isn't alive past the immediate surroundings of a scene. Some of the highlights of the novel are the background things - an ongoing race to get a commercial vehicle to space, the build up to the European presidential election and the imminent (and superbly realised) Million Citizen march in London. Combine this with a history where copyright has crumbled and all data is free in a society with instant access to anything you can imagine and you've got a great setting, one that doesn't come much better.

Of course, this helps to set the tone of the novel, which is noticeably split due to the perspectives it is told through. Jeff, a 78-year-old with a brand new body already has lifetime of experiences, and now with a youthful body he knows how to get what he wants, if not always how to do it the right way. Jeff can be a nice character at times, while at others he just doesn't seem to think straight and the actions caused by this lead to some very interesting and awkward situations. Tim, Jeff's son, is just 18 and has his fair share of problems when it comes to girls and partying. Because of this he can be more than a little annoying at times, although he does have some redeeming qualities that are enough to make him bearable and someone you can relate to.

Most other characters are a joy to read, although the exception is Annabelle, Tim's first love. Without giving anything away, she certainly doesn't appear to care much for those she hurts. I'm sure everyone out the knows someone like Annabelle - a slapper with no care of how her actions affect others. Perhaps a little harsh, but she isn't a likable character and the weak link.

Despite all the faults with the characters, they are what they are, and the story just wouldn't be as effective without them.

I guess you could say that Misspent Youth is double-edged sword when it comes down to it. A great setting and story that can be hampered at times by the characters. From Peter's past works many will come to this expecting something it isn't, an action filled space opera. However, come to this with no expectations and read the book for what it is and you'll enjoy it a lot more.

I have absolutely loved Peter F. Hamilton's novels, but this book was unreadable. Is is one of the few books that I have ever stopped reading midway through. NOTE - as pre-reading for the Commonwealth series, you need not read this book. It is referred to in cursory fashion in the next five books but i gained very little insight into the Commonwealth world as a result of flogging myself with this book.

(This review is for the British 2002 edition. Hamilton has said that the 2008 American edition is noticeably different and better.)

This is probably, not considering The Web: Lightstorm (Web Series 1), Hamilton's most obscure and least respected work despite it being the first novel in his recent Commonwealth Saga. I myself read all the other Hamilton first.

In some ways, this novel returns to the beginning of Hamilton's career and the Greg Mandel books which made his reputation. Like those, it is set in the near-future and in Hamilton's hometown of Rutland, England. However, the usual detailed combat sequences, the crime, and the espionage usually in his books don't show up here though the book does end with some riots.

While he has said that some characters from later Commonwealth books show up here very briefly, I must have blinked because I missed them. Some technologies central to the series do show up here.

Those technologies are tied to the life of the novel's protagonist Jeff Baker. In his younger days, he invented the solid-state crystal method of storing huge amounts of information and, incidentally, helping to destroy large sections of the entertainment industry via piracy. Respected for his abilities as a physicist and loved for not patenting this invention, Baker is chosen to be the first subject of the European Union's massive science project to rejuvenate the human body. And it's just in time too because, in the year 2036, the health of 77 year old Baker is failing.

He gets that rejuvenation and much of the rest of the novel is the playing out of those two old laments: "Youth is wasted on the young" and "If I only had it to do over again." Well, Baker's biological clock is set to his early twenties, and he, now handsome, famous, and rich, uses the opportunity as many a man would: to bed as many women as possible and live out his sexual fantasies. The consequences for his marriage to an ex-model and his relationship with his teenage son are not good.

Despite large amounts of sex, Hamilton usually isn't very explicit in describing the various encounters, only their preludes, the descriptions of his characters' bodies and clothes. And the concerns about family are a fitting opening to the Commonwealth Saga. Those books are full of family dynasties, and readers of the Void trilogy know that one of its heroes, Eduard, laments most the loss of a grandchild.

Like most near future science fiction, this one has dated some already. The entertainment industry, so far, hasn't collapsed from piracy and disregard for copyright whereas in Hamilton's book "pre10" entertainment is all that's really available. Still, some of the political and social problems in this novel's world are still with us - the tax load needed to sustain pensions in European countries, the consequences for Europe's elderly as the continent goes through a demographic contraction, and the resentment of some countries' populations at Brussels' negation of national sovereignty.

Like everybody else, this is not my favorite Hamilton book, but it is enjoyable considered on its own terms.

I've enjoyed other books by Peter F. Hamilton, specifically the Reality Dysfuction series, and I'm sorry I wasted my time with this tripe.

This book was too heavy on the steamy sex and neglected the other important elements, namely character development and the plot. While the book is fairly well-written, it's basically a soap opera set in a mildly dystopian future. The entire time I read the book, I was hoping it would get better. It never did.

This is science fiction, but not the kind of science fiction that we are used to getting from Peter Hamilton. If you are looking for interstellar space travel in FTL warships and epic battles with alien beings, you won't find it here. This story is more like some of Ray Bradbury's scifi works. This book is a human story with science fiction being the backdrop. Most of the story takes place in the quiet English countryside. Hamilton examines human nature, and what happens when advanced technology gives someone a "second chance" at life. I enjoyed this book.

I love near-future but it's difficult to pull off the technical details. This book pulls it off, and with a premise that everyone can relate to. The characters are generally strong and I enjoyed the political backdrop (without being whacked over the head with it).

What drove down the enjoyment for me was that Hamilton seems to insult the reader's intelligence by regularly telegraphing major plot developments well in advance. The two greatest surprises in the book were foreshadowed pretty heavily, and as far as I could tell for no good reason. If I want that sort of thing I'll watch network television.

Lots of sex, so if that's offensive take a pass.

Worth my time, but not worth hardcover $$.