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Misspent Youth

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Misspent Youth

By: Peter F. Hamilton
Narrated by: Steven Crossley
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About this listen

A gripping introduction to the world of Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth Saga, Misspent Youth is set in the near-future, over three hundred years before Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained. For fans of Iain M. Banks and Stephen Baxter.

Read by Steven Crossley, narrator of C.J. Sansom's Shardlake series.

Jeff Baker is granted the gift of eternal youth. However, it’s not all it seems . . .

It is 2040 and, after decades of research, we can finally rejuvenate a human being. At seventy-eight years old, Jeff Baker – renowned inventor and philanthropist – has given the world much of his creative genius. He’s therefore selected as first choice for this gift.

At first, rejuvenation feels like a miracle. Until the glow begins to fade. Personal relationships start to break down and the world waits for more brilliant new work. Living the dream will come at a cost, but can Jeff pay the price?

‘The owner of the most powerful imagination in science fiction’ – Ken Follett, author of The Pillars of the Earth

‘Hamilton handles massive ideas with enviable ease’ – Guardian

 Classics Fantasy Fiction Genetic Engineering Science Fiction

Critic reviews

Peter F. Hamilton peoples his story with strong characters . . . clever and sharply observant
Incredibly real . . . highly recommended
The world created by Peter is once again full of ideas
All stars
Most relevant
Not sure what percentage of a story needs to be sci-Fi in order for it to be listed as a Sc-iF book, but you won't find much in this. This was almost a Jeffrey Archer listen. Unfortunately it is a long winded and dull. I very much enjoyed this authors other books but think this book is a dud.

Sci-Fi

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Peter Hamilton is the master of exploring the impact deferent technologies would have on a world, looking at every aspect and facet from the functional to the social political and economical, it's one of the reasons his world building is so exceptional and creates such believable universes.

This book is a tighter focused work on the introduction of just one piece of technology (Rejuvenation) and its impact on individual people and the society as a whole. It does an excellent job of exploring the social difficulties this introduces and some of the moral dilemmas it causes.

This book feels like Peter Hamilton is exploring a slightly different writing style, and a different kind of story telling. With such a tight focus this book doesn't have the epic scale that you might be used to from a Peter Hamilton book or the widespread science fiction elements.

As a prequel book to the Commonwealth Saga it unfortunately falls short of it's potential to give us an interesting insight into what the main character from the original books were doing at this early point in the Commonwealths history. Some of the characters do appear but this book for the most part feels like a standalone story that could just as easily not be set in the Commonwealth universe.

Peter Hamilton but with a difference...

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Probably not Peters best book and the narrator totally killed it for me... Gave up half way through. If you want to give Peter Hamilton a fair go I would suggest Great North Road

Poor Narrator

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Unfortunately after reading and falling in love with Peter F hamiltons epic space opera stories, especially those set in the commonwealth, I decided to listen to this in hope of some back story to the development of the rejuvenation process. If your looking for an epic Sci fi story with an epic plot with all the twists and turns we've come to expect from Hamilton, or in fact any plot then don't listen to this, if your wanting a story about a father and son relationship and there feelings for each other than this is just that book.

Unfortunately I went into this book expecting way too much, which possibly could have ruined it for me but after listening to it, I wish I hadn't stuck it out to the end in hope of a big finale as there just wasn't anything worth waiting for!

Apologies to slate the book but it isn't sci-fi and is definitely not my kind of thing, it's more a romantic novel.

Boring Soap opera

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Great link into Peter F Hamiltons universe. love listening out for some future carrictors

Great story great link

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