Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Mindstar Rising

  • The Greg Mandel Trilogy, Book 1
  • By: Peter F. Hamilton
  • Narrated by: Toby Longworth
  • Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,645 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Mindstar Rising cover art

Mindstar Rising

By: Peter F. Hamilton
Narrated by: Toby Longworth
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Singularity Trap cover art
Street: Empathy cover art
Glass Houses cover art
Live Free or Die cover art
The Collapsing Empire cover art
Dune cover art
Save from Wrath cover art
Cryptonomicon cover art
Snow Crash cover art
Hardwired cover art
Nightlord cover art
Wild Cards I cover art
Daemon cover art
Reality 36 cover art
Reamde cover art
The Diamond Age cover art

Summary

It's the 21st century, and global warming is here to stay, so forget the way your country used to look. And get used to the free market, too – the companies possess all the best hardware, and they're calling the shots now. In a world like this, a man open to any offers can make out just fine.

A man like Greg Mandel for instance, who's psi-boosted, wired into the latest sensory equipment, carrying state-of-the-art weaponry – and late of the English Army's Mindstar Battalion. As the cartels battle for control of a revolutionary new power source, and corporate greed outstrips national security, tension is mounting to boiling point – and Greg Mandel is about to face the ultimate test.

©2011 Peter Hamilton (P)2011 Audible Ltd

What listeners say about Mindstar Rising

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    881
  • 4 Stars
    484
  • 3 Stars
    180
  • 2 Stars
    55
  • 1 Stars
    45
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    894
  • 4 Stars
    275
  • 3 Stars
    76
  • 2 Stars
    18
  • 1 Stars
    13
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    682
  • 4 Stars
    367
  • 3 Stars
    137
  • 2 Stars
    51
  • 1 Stars
    35

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Do Tory Droids dream of cyber babes?

Somewhere along the line I got the idea that Peter F. Hamilton was one of the most promising of the current generation of SF. Clearly publisher's hype. I've now deleted the others by him I had put into my wish list.

Why on earth is this guy rated?

Hamilton writes two dimensional characters in flat, functional prose. He clearly has no pretensions to literary glory. Don't hope for another running mate for J. G. Ballard or Will Self here. The likes of them are consigned to a galaxy far, far away. Back here on grubby earth we have a Pro clearly focussed on designing a commercial genre monster.

Judging from this novel, all Hamilton's creative energy goes into constructing an imaginative scenario through which to run some sort of Games Generation modular set of characters. It's all cinematic pictures and cheap thrills in the pulp tradition. Adolescent escapism for squaddies and bedroom-bound seventeen year olds; Little Englanders to a boy.

Speaking of squaddies, the central character Greg Mandel is ex-Military turned detective. The plot is a standard detective story dressed-up like cyber tech fantasy. So it's all kit description and action sequences out of a bad war novel. These are interspersed with babe-action and musings on Mandel's half-baked, right-wing, rugged individual political philosophy.

But the poor chap is only reacting the fictional cultural context that has produced him. He is, of course, the familiar diamond geezer, action hero. He goes everywhere commando. And his busty bird, Brazilian.

Mandel's hired by an uber-Tory technocrat multi-billionaire (a throw back the ye olde Victorian Capitalist Hero stereotype beloved of Thatcherites) to help him re-build a crushed England brought low by climate change, credit crash and a disastrous Second Reformation.

Standing-in for the oppressive Round Heads we have the PSP. They are a hard-core Maoist style party whose disastrous policies, corruption and incompetence have reduced tropical England to a semi-functioning agrarian society (shades of Cambodia under Pol Pot).

Greg's against 'em. It's personal.

The Neo-Conservatives have booted them out though and are re-building the economy with Mandel's client leading their free-booting charge. But the shining path to a fully functioning Capitalist Future is blocked by a PSP gone underground. They are foiling the big man's schemes to construct a permanent recovery (via endless Trickle-Down one supposes) and to re-establish themselves. Now read-on.

To say more would be a spoiler, but you get the idea.

The best thing about the novel is the way in which this fantasy future Blighty is laid out. Hamilton-vision is quite good fun in this respect. I also enjoyed the tech-enhanced ESP powers enjoyed by Mandel and his ex-Mindstar unit chums. A core narrative device centres on the fusion of human consciousness and cyber reality enjoyed by central characters.

The advantage of this is that it helps the reader get a sense of the technological dominance of the possible future Hamilton asks us to enter. A lot of the key action is computer-bound.
In the hands of a more talented writer (capable of conveying philosophical depth and sensual subtlety for instance) this synthetic consciousness might really have been taken us somewhere interesting and possibly insightful, even. You know, like good SF aspires to.

Forget it here though. This essentially is a miss-mash, rehash of pre-existing SF tropes with a crude political subtext I found increasingly tiresome. The climax even features a big explosion. Behind the technological smoke and mirrors there isn't much originality.

I can see cinema producers taking options and bringing in good writers to improve the plot and character interaction to shape it up into a glossy franchise. It's potentially a good commercial vehicle for a mass audience conditioned by over thirty years of Neo Liberal economic culture.

Personally I've no further interest in checking out anything else by this author when there is so much good stuff filling the bookshops these days. I don't know if he's actually as Tory as his writing suggests or if maybe the following parts of the Greg Mandel Trilogy will do a twist and we find our boy toughing-it-out between a political rock and a harder place. Don't care.

This novel has it's imaginative strengths, is a fun ride in places and it's professionally tight but Hamilton's fiction reads like blatant, aesthetically tacky, cultural propaganda dreamt up by some party spin-doctor.

Toby Longworth's reading is quite funny in places. Mandel is like Sean Bean. He can't do a Lincolnshire accent but I loved the way he voiced the PSP Leader as Tony Blair. Good job. No messing.


Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

54 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Intelligent, well crafted and absorbing spaceopera

I listen to audio books on long car journeys - if they are any good then the journey appears to take no time at all. Listening to this, the first of the Mindstar trilogy, caused me to enter a time-space vortex in which I was transported nearly 200 K without any sensation of movement, time or other reality. My esper sense clearly helped me to drive while the gland secretions enabled me to do so safely - either that or the other road users just gave me a wide berth. I cannot believe this was narrated by one person; awesome is the only real reaction. I particularly liked the evocation of one of the evil characters who sounded remarkably like a former UK prime minister!!! I think you either love sci-fi or just don't get it. If you love it - you will definitely get this. My feeling about what makes a really good audio book (or any book come to that) is - are the characters believable, do you care about the characters and what is/will happen to them, is the plot immersive and does it make you want to guess? I would answer yes to all those points and just say that the creation of England post global-warming is intelligent and very well articulated. I loved the idea of Peterborough becoming a major sea port and a kool place to live - now that really is science fantasy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

48 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great!

Given was written in the early 90s, the setting is eerily apt and poignant right now. Near future sci-fi, elements of cyberpunk, corporate scandal and detective story to boot and Toby Longworth's performance (because that's what it is) is first class. Highly recommended!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Good plotting poor characters

Right wing, sci-fi/action novel with interesting dystopian world creation, competently read.

Mainly consists of detailed descriptions of ships and vehicles; monotonous sexism and railing against evil socialists.

Characterisation is terrible, if believable characters are your thing, then this isn’t for you!

Women are described solely in terms of their,ahem, ‘assets’ (seriously-every single time- he’s obsessed by size!) and are generally passive, flimsy and relevant only by who they’re sleeping with.

The main character is an unintentionally funny stereotype of a gruff, tough guy/James Bond knockoff who is meant to be manly and self-reliant but comes across as a paranoid creep instead. It’s a sort of middle aged bloke fantasy where everyone wants to sleep with him.

Good sci-fi ideas poorly executed with flimsy characterisation and monotonous misogyny.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

20 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Sixth Star for Toby Longworth.

I have had a print edition of this book since the late nineties. It is one of those books we all have that are the equivalent of comfort eating for the mind. I must admit I was sceptical about an audio edition as I had some definite ( or so I thought ) ideas as to how the characters sounded. These thoughts were blown away by Toby's performance. It is like listening to an ensemble reading but from one man. This should be a recording that they give to all budding readers and say .... Like That One Please.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant Sci Fi Story & Setting

This is an excellent read if you are into "not too distant future" sci fi. Present day politics, companies etc, but with twists. The story doesn't hold you by the hand, from the get go it used terms (mimox crystals etc) I wasn't sure on, I thought had I missed something from another one of Peter Hamiltons books. But things are revealed bit by bit and I have to say, I rather liked it like that. Not explaining everything as soon as it appears, the story lets you piece this world together yourself, but does expand on it later. A great story, excellent world and Greg Mandel is now number 3 in my list of top main characters, after Jack Reacher (Lee Child) and John Clarke (Tom Clancy). I am definitely getting the second and third parts of the trilogy, and will probably get the rest of Peter Hamiltons books, on the back of this great story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Good book, excellent narration

Hamilton is always good value and the narration from Toby Longworth was top-notch and has prompted me to look for other books he has narrated.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great start to a great series

Mindstar Rising is narrated excellently by Toby Longworth and sets the scene for a genuinely excellent sci-fi trilogy. I originally only got this as it was on special offer but I wouldn't have begrudged paying full price at all. The characters are very well detailed and the future Earth that they inhabit is given its own unique, thoroughly described reality.

The real key as to whether to start a series though is whether it delivers consistently and having read the other volumes in the trilogy it does. If you like this one I believe you'll like the rest.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • P
  • 11-09-12

Didn't think I would like this

After listening to the void trilogy I was looking for something else from Peter Hamilton but these didn't appeal to me, I think the near future bit and name put me off. However when I decided to give this a go I was hooked. I still prefer the distant future novels but this was very enjoyable and have since purchased the remaining 2 books. Would definitely recommend no messing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining

An early Peter Hamilton novel which lacks his later polish but enjoyable never the less. Toby Longworth's excellent narration was worth an extra star.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful