- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Tor; First Edition First Printing edition (8 Nov 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0333900707
- ISBN-13: 978-0333900703
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.5 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 466,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Misspent Youth
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Peter Hamilton is famed for SF blockbusters of far-future interstellar adventure. By contrast Misspent Youth is a social comedy set in the year 2040 in England. When gene therapy rewinds Jeff Baker's age back to his early 20s he finds that wisdom and experience are no match for hormones...
The rejuvenation treatment, developed by federal Europe to impress laggard America, is so complex and expensive that only one person every 18 months can receive it. Jeff is the first because he's a celebrity inventor, father of the "datasphere" which superseded the Internet.
Family upheavals follow. An "arrangement" with his much younger, still beautiful wife Sue lets her enjoy lovers while the aged Jeff turns a blind eye: now things are different. Meanwhile their 18-year-old son Tim is struggling ineptly with teenage sexual pangs and the impossibility of understanding girls. All part of growing up, but Jeff's renewed youth brings farcical complications.
It's not just that Jeff now fancies Sue again. He can't resist even younger women. An early one-night stand is publicised all over the datasphere. Embarrassment escalates when he's seduced by the granddaughter of a long-time pub companion. Worse, several of Tim's ravishing female schoolmates are interested in Jeff the celebrity stud. The dishiest of all is Tim's latest, most hopelessly adoring girlfriend.
Can it be coincidence that the action mostly happens in Rutland?
This comedy of embarrassments and revelations has a darker background: Europe is plagued by separatist movements whose terrorist habits make the old IRA look like pussycats. The turning point in Jeff's tangled relationships comes when he attends a London conference surrounded by protest that breeds riot--with Tim among the protesters.
A foreshadowed twist leads to a finale that mixes cynicism with sentiment. En route Misspent Youth is a lot of fun. --David Langford
Review
From the talented Hamilton, a provocative look at the days not too long after tomorrow. It is 40 years into the future and, following decades of research on genetics, Europe is finally in a position to rejuvenate a human being. The first subject for treatment is chosen: Jeff Baker, the father of the datasphere (which replaced the Internet) and philanthropist extraordinaire. After 18 months in a German medical facility, the 78-year-old patient returns home looking like a healthy 20-year-old. Misspent Youth follows the effect his reappearance has on his family and also on his long-term pals who are now all pensioners, and starting to resent what Jeff has become. Standing quite apart from his previous novels, a very welcome new SF outing by a British leader of the field.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Classifying this book as science fiction would seem to be against the Trade Descriptions act. It would seem to belong in a genre that has more to do with xenophobic old men's sexual fantasies. I had read and enjoyed all of Peter Hamilton's books up to this one. His usual story telling style was absent. No captivating threading of the story and no substance to the story by the way of clever science fiction props and setting. Right up to the end I kept hoping the story would get going but it just didn't. Very disappointing but I'll allow him this one based on past performance.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Rarely have I been so let down by the new works of one of my favourite authors. This book fails on many levels: The characters are unbelievable and shallow. Our Hero, like previous Hamilton heros, is highly charged but lacks any of the humanity which the previous characters fell back on. The plot is thin, without any surprises or turns and it all leads to a dissapointing fanale.
Hamilton has been a fantastic SF writer - previoulsy his books have felt more like rock videos than films. But take away the excitement, guns and spaceships and youve just got the rich people having sex, which reads more like Jilly Cooper. I dunno, perhaps hes intentionally switching audiences - I certainly will be casting a more cynical eye over his next work before it reaches the checkout.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having reviewed and highly praised Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy for The Times (those are my quotes about 'interstellar overdrive' and 'recapturing the high ground for British scifi), I picked this up expecting more of the same. Instead, this is a simplistic plot with a predictable denouement and some trite generalisations about humanity, all as a thin disguise for a rant about Britain and the EU, and Hamilton's dearly-beloved Rutland. In short, it's not science fiction at all; in fact, it's barely fiction, and certainly not readable, unless you want a political pamphlet with a shabby story line. Disappointing. He might be better advised to give up writing and start a fringe political party.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Unrecognisable
The author of this book is unrecognisable as the Peter Hamilton who wrote the Night's Dawn Trilogy and so many other truly original and inventive books. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Typograf
Thought-provoking vision of the near future
As I've often stated I'm not that well-read on the SF side of speculative fiction. Not having a hard science bone in my body, made me think I wouldn't understand the science in... Read more
Published 12 months ago by W.M.M. van der Salm-Pallada
By far his worst
A horrible book. The characters are all so loathsome I couldn't actually finish reading it all. I forced myself to read through about two thirds of it, but could not carry on. Read more
Published 14 months ago by OxfordDon
A grim story but great
This book is about an old man who gets the first rejuvenation therapy for inventing a super new way of storing digital information. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Dr. J. A. Hiscox
A very different Peter Hamilton book
This is not a typical Peter Hamilton novel we have all become used to. NOT a space opera. I felt like this book was an experiment trying to target the teenager market except for... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Michael Tattan
Not a bad book. Underrated perhaps?
I thought this was a good book. To be fair, I haven't read any Peter Hamilton before but I doubt I'll change my rating once I've read The Commonwealth Saga and the Void trilogy etc... Read more
Published 22 months ago by I. Cummings-knight
Dorian Grey?
I can't quite work out why this novel doesn't work. It doesn't. That is clear. I find it quite surprising that Hamilton, having successfully produced two really good trilogies,... Read more
Published on 11 May 2009 by Rod Williams
Utter garbage
Easily the worst book I read in 2008.
Peter F Hamilton does have some writing skills - he's good at describing hard sf, tactical battles and continually raising the bar... Read more
Peter F Hamilton does have some writing skills - he's good at describing hard sf, tactical battles and continually raising the bar... Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2009 by P. Kay
Excellent setting, but the characters can be a let down
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... Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2008 by Mark Chitty
His weakest novel by far, but not entirely without merit.
Misspent Youth is the eighth novel by British SF author Peter F. Hamilton, originally published in 2002. Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2008 by A. Whitehead
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