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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

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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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I love Peter F. Hamilton and have read and thoroughly enjoyed all of his books, this one not so much. I read it when it first come out and thought I would give it another go. It is an overblown story of a extremely intelligent but very silly self centered man who after rejuvenation goes on a screw fest. At the end it sinks into sentimentality. I think it might have been good as a (very) short story.
Other than the rejuvenation aspect there is no science fiction in it, much more of a bum-wincing soap opera.
On the audible web sight it is coming up as part of the Commonwealth Saga but it is not, it's a stand alone book.

Not his best

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As this review title states, I really am so glad that I read The Commonwealth Saga before this; had I read/listened to this first, I never would have continued with any of Peter F. Hamilton's other stories. As it stands, I'll avoid any standalone books from here on out, but I hope the next series that I read of his brings the amazing story-telling ability that I saw back in the first two Commonwealth storylines back; this story was 95% sex, and concludes with a disappointing ending (in my opinion).

I did enjoy the narrator's performance, though the sound itself fluctuates in the extreme throughout (from very, very quiet to very loud due to having to turn the volume up just to hear the quiet parts). Overall rating 3 out of 5.

So glad I read The Commonwealth Saga first

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