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Misspent Youth cover art

Misspent Youth

By: Peter F. Hamilton
Narrated by: Steven Crossley
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Summary

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?

©2016 Peter F. Hamilton (P)2016 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

Critic reviews

‘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

What listeners say about Misspent Youth

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Plot of a soap opera

Struggled through tithe end in the hope of a plot because I'd paid good money to listen to this book. no better than a day time soap episode, just very poor.

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9 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Sci-Fi

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.

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6 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Boring Soap opera

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.

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5 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars

Not Hamilton's usual standard.

Slow story. Not very enthralling as the only characters that I felt any empathy for were minor roles. Was more of a soap opera than sci-fi. (If you like stories where Bob is knobbing Dave's girlfriend and the resultant drama that occurs when Dave inevitably walks in at the worst possible moment... then this might be for you)

On the plus side, there were a couple of cameos from later books that were quite a treat.

Ending felt rather abrupt.

Audio performance wasn't great either. Very little range between characters.

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4 people found this helpful

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A porn novel desquised as a sci fi book

This book is about a 78 year old who gets the body of a 25 year old and lives a playboy life that destroys the family.
It starts out interesting, but the author throws away the story in order to describe sex scenes with good looking teenagers.
If you just want sex, horny teenagers, parties shallow characters, and no story this is the book for you

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3 people found this helpful

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Terribly disappointing

The performance was like a teacher reading to a class of 3-year olds. While the story may have been good on its own, the narrator utterly destroyed it and I was unable to finish at all.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Peter Hamilton but with a difference...

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.

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Loved it

Bit slow to get into but after that. Your it is a good listen 😊

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Not a sci fi

Really disappointed. no contribution towards the brilliant Common wealth saga. no real plot or direction.

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Dreadful plot no sci-fi narrated like Jackanory

I love Peter Hamilton books but this was dreadful and the narrator sounded like he was reading to children. The worst book ever

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1 person found this helpful