- 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 (46 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 633,390 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 Jeff is the first because he's a celebrity inventor, father of the "datasphere" which superseded the Internet.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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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Wrong Book Classification,
By A Customer
This review is from: Misspent Youth (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.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A real stinker!!!!,
By Theriex (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Misspent Youth (Paperback)
I'm just going to make this short to save you the trouble:If you read the night's dawn trilogy and thought Mr Hamilton was a pretty good writer, I would strongly advise you to not read the utter waste of paper that "Misspent Youth" is... It's shock full of sex-fueled-teenage-angst-soap-opera-isms and (regrettably) very short on actual content... Plese, if you will, stay very, very far away from this travesty...
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Jilly Cooper in 2040,
By MR M L JONES (Newmarket, Suffolk United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Misspent Youth (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.
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