Misspent Youth

Peter F. Hamilton

Sep 2008 · The Commonwealth Saga · Sold by Del Rey

About this ebook

Readers have learned to expect the unexpected from Peter F. Hamilton. Now the master of space opera focuses on near-future Earth and one most unusual family. The result is a coming-of-age tale like no other. By turns comic, erotic, and tragic, Misspent Youth is a profound and timely exploration of all that divides and unites fathers and sons, men and women, the young and the old.

2040. After decades of concentrated research and experimentation in the field of genetic engineering, scientists of the European Union believe they have at last conquered humankind’s most pernicious foe: old age. For the first time, technology holds out the promise of not merely slowing the aging process but actually reversing it. The ancient dream of the Fountain of Youth seems at hand.

The first subject for treatment is seventy-eight-year-old philanthropist Jeff Baker. After eighteen months in a rejuvenation tank, Jeff emerges looking like a twenty-year-old. And the change is more than skin deep. From his hair cells down to his DNA, Jeff is twenty–with a breadth of life experience.

But while possessing the wisdom of a septuagenarian at age twenty is one thing, raging testosterone is another, as Jeff discovers when he attempts to pick up his life where he left off. Suddenly his oldest friends seem, well, old. Jeff’s trophy wife looks better than she ever did. His teenage son, Tim, is more like a younger brother. And Tim’s nubile girlfriend is a conquest too tempting to resist.

Jeff’s rejuvenated libido wreaks havoc on the lives of his friends and family, straining his relationship with Tim to the breaking point. It’s as if youth is a drug and Jeff is wasted on it. But if so, it’s an addiction he has no interest in kicking.

As Jeff’s personal life spirals out of control, the European Union undergoes a parallel meltdown, attacked by shadowy separatist groups whose violent actions earn both condemnation and applause. Now, in one terrifying instant, the personal and the political will intersect, and neither Jeff nor Tim–or the Union itself–will ever be the same again.

Ratings and reviews

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 all 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.

This book is a real laugh! Don't draw it out, you've gotta read it in a single evening. it looks like Peter F was just having a bit of fun with this. It's a nice icebreaker before starting on Pandora's star.

Nowhere near as good as the commonwealth saga

About the author

Peter F. Hamilton is the author of numerous short stories and novels, including The Dreaming Void, Judas Unchained, Pandora’s Star, Fallen Dragon, and the acclaimed epic Night’s Dawn trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God). Hamilton lives in England.