As I've often stated I'm not that well-read on the SF side of speculative fiction. Not having a hard science bone in my body, made me think I wouldn't understand the science in Science Fiction, so I stayed safely on the Fantasy side of things. After discovering last year that actually I rather liked military SF and that not all SF equals scientific equations, I decided I was going to broaden my scope. Misspent Youth, the first book set in Hamilton's Commonwealth Universe, is another step on that path. And I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this jaunt down Science Fiction Road!While there is most definitely an SF setting - the overarcing story of the EU, the separatists, and the development of technology which sets up for the rest of the Commonwealth Universe - this book is a human tale at heart. Its core plot deals with a father and a son and their struggle to connect again afer the intrusion of advanced (medical) technology in their lives. It's about the psychological fall-out of the complete transformation that Jeff undergoes, not just physically, but mentally as well. And it's also a classic story of growing up and gaining independence.As might be surmised from the above description, Misspent Youth is largely character-driven and as such has a strong cast of protagonists. The four main viewpoints we get are Tim, Jeff, Annabelle and Sue, with here and there interspersed chapters from the viewpoints of secondary characters. Despite this, the characters at the heart of the book are Tim and Jeff. I liked Tim, he was just the right mix of sullen teen and adolescent with a good head on his shoulders. Though in my opinion, he got over some things perhaps a little too easily or at least he's more forgiving than I would have been. One thing is certain though, Tim is required to grow up in record time and while he messes up at times, he ends up well. And seemingly even at peace with his father and what he has become. I, on the other hand, didn't know what to make of Jeff. Perhaps following along the same path that Tim's feelings run, I liked him at the start, but he just did so much wrong things, as Tim's friends would say, it was really hard to keep liking him. Then again, it must be severely disturbing to go from old and physically creaking, back to the bloom of youth, while still remembering most of the eighty-odd years you'd lived before, so perhaps he should be cut some slack. It's not just Tim who has growing up to do in this novel, his father has to regain his maturity as well.On an ideas level, as a librarian, there was a lot that spoke to me. The idea of the Datasphere, the freely available information, is at once what we strive for, but it is also frightening to contemplate. As it is, with the advent of digitalisation of most academic journals and a lot of monographs, our work is slowly moving from providing access to information to more of a filtering and curating sort of position. We need to help our patrons sift through the information deluge and help them judge which information is relevant and trustworthy and which information is better discarded. Information literacy, including transliteracy, is becoming a larger and larger part of a librarian's job, whether they actually teach it in a classroom or not. The Datasphere would increase this information deluge to an almost unnavigable torrent. Added to this is the far more explicitly expressed consequence (and perhaps danger) to the Arts: the deprofessionalization of the artist, be they writer, musician or visual artist, to the point that originality and quality are rare. It's taking piracy to extreme, or rather it's piracy legalised and accepted by society and content creators being forced to accept it as well. In a way it is today's situation extrapolated, as even today musicians share their music online for free under a creative commons license and more and more self-published authors find their way to the public with the advent of ebooks. On the other hand, the free availability of information also provides opportunity of incredible scientific advancement, as the free sharing of research data allows scientists to cooperate and elaborate on each other's results. Advocacy for Open Access publication of scientific publications and data sets in institutional repositories and the implementation of linked data are items that are on the agenda of many academic libraries today. The way Hamilton casually mentions things happening today, blew my mind, especially since the book was first published almost a decade ago.Sue grinned. 'It means you can avoid the mistakes which Tim and his friends are about to spend the next fifteen years making. You'll enjoy yourself a hell of a lot more this time around.' (p. 141)In the end, Misspent Youth is a book that will stay with me both for the human story it tells and the barrage of ideas it launched at me and the questions it made me ask myself, not just regarding the world at large, but regarding the development of my professional field in particular. Whether Jeff is able to avoid the mistakes we all make growing up, as Sue suggests in the passage above, is doubtful, one thing that is sure is that he makes a whole bunch of new ones no one would have thought of before. How much fun he has this time around, is also debatable. What isn't up for debate, however, is how much I enjoyed reading this thought-provoking book. The story is great and makes for a remarkably fast read. If you are looking for an accessible novel to get started in reading SF and don't mind being challenged, I can't recommend Misspent Youth enough. Look out for reviews of Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained in the near future, as they're already to be found on my TBR-pile and have moved up quite a bit after reading Misspent Youth. Maybe there is an SF reader hiding inside me after all...
The book jacket description led me to believe this would be my kind of science fiction - the kind that uses the sci-fi element to explore human psychology and sociology, rather than just being an adventure story set in space or the future (though those can be enjoyable too). And it could have done that, if it hadn't gotten sidetracked by male hormones. Apparently the author feels that the only thing a man suddenly made young again will want to do is have sex with as many women and girls as possible. Admittedly, this could be true in many cases (though I like to think that while wanting lots of sex may be universal, some men would at least be monogamous in such a situation). The patchwork attempt to lend the story some larger overarching purpose or message via the European Union/Brussels/independence protests storyline seems more like an afterthought, a thin attempt to put a more sophisticated veneer on what is basically a catalog of sexual conquests by the protaganist. Maybe I dislike this book so much because it has more realism regarding humanity's darker tendencies (lying, cheating, gratuitous/meaningless sex, violence), but I've read plenty of books with those elements before that I still enjoyed. The difference is that they at least had some redeeming factor, usually in the form of a protaganist I could actually like or relate to. Overall, this was a disappointing read - I kept waiting for the payoff that would make reading it worthwhile, but it never came.
What do You think about Misspent Youth (2015)?
I was almost scared away by the 2 star review this book seems to carry with it, but I'm glad I picked it up anyway. Misspent Youth was a departure(albeit a pleasant one)from the space operas I expect from Hamilton. A core group of three or four characters all interacting to form a fairly dysfunctional family experience character development and individual changes that his stories don't usually get the opportunity to delve too deeply into considering how much is always going on with as many characters as are usually involved in a typical Hamilton plot.You will love and hate all of the characters at some point, and by the end, you'll really come to appreciate how important they all are to one another.What I really enjoyed about this book was the focus on the characters living their lives through the short window the story covers. Typically in most Sci-fi I've read, certainly in most of Hamilton's books, the story is one of heroes accomplishing extraordinary things in a high tech world; here is a story that just took a family, put them in the not-too-distant future, and looked at how life would be different. Even the main character's major lifetime accomplishment, the one which garners all his current status, occurs before we meet him. To be sure, there are some out of the norm things happening to this group, but for the most part, it's not their doing. They are just normal people who have found themselves in fairly understandable circumstances in a different, but not un-relatable world.
—Roger
Set in the very near future, this novel speaks to the shallow nature of our advancement. Much like the populations in Jack McDevitt's novels, Peter F. Hamilton gives us a future of "intelligent idiots," people who are brilliant technologically, but definitely not advanced in any sense emotionally or socially. However, McDevitt usually manages to elevate one or two of his brain-dead geniuses into some kind of psychological advance, whereas Hamilton's heroes are pretty much obsessed with sex, money, and power. In other words, we may be able to give a person two lifespans, but all he wants to do with it is bed beautiful women. Seems like a real waste to me. On the other hand, the sex is pretty good.
—Paul Baker
Oh, man what a great read. Ok, I know it was first published in england in 2002 and from what I can gather from the acknowledgements is that it was published in the united state in 2008. That is such a log gap!So the book is about a man who gets gene treatments that reduce his physical age from 80 something down to 20 something. But he keeps his memories. For any of you in the over 30 crowd you know how valuable those lessons are.They can be very difficult - falling in love way too hard and later looking back and realizing that she just was NOT ever going to be the one. And regrets about some things you could have done but didn't and regrets about what you did do.Then there's questions about what it would be LIKE to be that guy who gets a 2nd chance at youth.Behind all of this is the backdrop of a cry for independence from the world's 2nd attempt at continental unification - the EU.It was an absolutely magnificent read. Now I am waiting on Hamilton's Mindstar Rising to arrive by post.This book is a definite must read for SF fans. =) Easily in the "Oh, man you have to read this" list.Love ya'll!
—D
