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Great North Road
A century from now, thanks to a technology allowing instantaneous travel across light-years, humanity has solved its energy shortages, cleaned up the environment, and created far-flung colony worlds. The keys to this empire belong to the powerful North family - composed of successive generations of clones. Yet these clones are not identical. For one thing, genetic errors have crept in with each generation. For another, the original three clone "brothers" have gone their separate ways, and the branches of the family are now friendly rivals more than allies.
Or maybe not so friendly. At least that's what the murder of a North clone in the English city of Newcastle suggests to Detective Sidney Hurst. Sid is a solid investigator who'd like nothing better than to hand off this hot potato of a case. The way he figures it, whether he solves the crime or not, he'll make enough enemies to ruin his career. Yet Sid's case is about to take an unexpected turn: Because the circumstances of the murder bear an uncanny resemblance to a killing that took place years ago on the planet St. Libra, where a North clone and his entire household were slaughtered in cold blood.
The convicted slayer, Angela Tramelo, has always claimed her innocence. And now it seems she may have been right. Because only the St. Libra killer could have committed the Newcastle crime. Problem is, Angela also claims that the murderer was an alien monster.
Now Sid must navigate through a Byzantine minefield of competing interests within the police department and the world's political and economic elite...all the while hunting down a brutal killer poised to strike again. And on St. Libra, Angela, newly released from prison, joins a mission to hunt down the elusive alien, only to learn that the line between hunter and hunted is a thin one.
Or maybe not so friendly. At least that's what the murder of a North clone in the English city of Newcastle suggests to Detective Sidney Hurst. Sid is a solid investigator who'd like nothing better than to hand off this hot potato of a case. The way he figures it, whether he solves the crime or not, he'll make enough enemies to ruin his career. Yet Sid's case is about to take an unexpected turn: Because the circumstances of the murder bear an uncanny resemblance to a killing that took place years ago on the planet St. Libra, where a North clone and his entire household were slaughtered in cold blood.
The convicted slayer, Angela Tramelo, has always claimed her innocence. And now it seems she may have been right. Because only the St. Libra killer could have committed the Newcastle crime. Problem is, Angela also claims that the murderer was an alien monster.
Now Sid must navigate through a Byzantine minefield of competing interests within the police department and the world's political and economic elite...all the while hunting down a brutal killer poised to strike again. And on St. Libra, Angela, newly released from prison, joins a mission to hunt down the elusive alien, only to learn that the line between hunter and hunted is a thin one.
948 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2012
About the author
Peter F. Hamilton
181 books9,500 followersPeter F. Hamilton is a British science fiction author. He is best known for writing space opera. As of the publication of his tenth novel in 2004, his works had sold over two million copies worldwide, making him Britain's biggest-selling science fiction author.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,334 reviews
February 5, 2015
imagine a 13-year-old boy genius. he loves science fiction, he loves world-building, he loves physics and biology and all the sciences. he also loves his family and he definitely loves girls. he loves binge-watching exciting tv shows. he's open-minded and appreciates diversity. overall this is a great kid and I'd be happy to know him. now imagine if this boy genius were to write a book. what would it be full of?
it would be full of GEE WHIZ EXCITEMENT of course! and spaceships! and alien threats! and super-science! and super-powered advanced humans who can live centuries! and clones! and xenobiology! and a Jupiter orbital! and dangerous futuristic weapons! and gateways to other worlds! and scary alien threats! and military threats too because humans are trigger-happy and if there's military that means some torture too! and a complex future-history complete with a timeline and cast of characters! hey maybe it will have a detective story in it, a crime mystery! and so it will have world-weary cops and corporate espionage and gangsters and devious criminals and all the details of a police procedural! and don't forget, it will have the girls! in particular a really hot girl who is super smart and cunning and righteous and powered by secret weapons and she has a glamorous past and a tough past too, she's the whole package! and since she's in it, that means a couple sexy sex scenes too, yay! all that is great, but because this is a good boy who has a supportive family, it will also have a lot about family in it too because good families are awesome! yay for awesome families!
yay for GEE WHIZ EXCITEMENT!
so all those exclamation points above may lead you to believe that I am being sarcastic and old man-ish and that this is a bad review. well, if you thought that, you would be wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!
don't be so cynical!!!!!!!!!!!
Peter Hamilton is one of my favorites. he's not subtle and Great North Road is elephantine like most of his stuff, but he does know how to write and he knows how to create an absorbing narrative that is full of fascinating speculation and intriguing flashbacks and fun fun gee whiz fun. it hit me right in my inner 13-year-old boy. thanks, Hamilton! this book did not challenge me in any way, but who cares, it sure hit the spot and it was great to be immersed in this mega-book for most of January.
it would be full of GEE WHIZ EXCITEMENT of course! and spaceships! and alien threats! and super-science! and super-powered advanced humans who can live centuries! and clones! and xenobiology! and a Jupiter orbital! and dangerous futuristic weapons! and gateways to other worlds! and scary alien threats! and military threats too because humans are trigger-happy and if there's military that means some torture too! and a complex future-history complete with a timeline and cast of characters! hey maybe it will have a detective story in it, a crime mystery! and so it will have world-weary cops and corporate espionage and gangsters and devious criminals and all the details of a police procedural! and don't forget, it will have the girls! in particular a really hot girl who is super smart and cunning and righteous and powered by secret weapons and she has a glamorous past and a tough past too, she's the whole package! and since she's in it, that means a couple sexy sex scenes too, yay! all that is great, but because this is a good boy who has a supportive family, it will also have a lot about family in it too because good families are awesome! yay for awesome families!
yay for GEE WHIZ EXCITEMENT!
so all those exclamation points above may lead you to believe that I am being sarcastic and old man-ish and that this is a bad review. well, if you thought that, you would be wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!
don't be so cynical!!!!!!!!!!!
Peter Hamilton is one of my favorites. he's not subtle and Great North Road is elephantine like most of his stuff, but he does know how to write and he knows how to create an absorbing narrative that is full of fascinating speculation and intriguing flashbacks and fun fun gee whiz fun. it hit me right in my inner 13-year-old boy. thanks, Hamilton! this book did not challenge me in any way, but who cares, it sure hit the spot and it was great to be immersed in this mega-book for most of January.
November 19, 2015
I'm afraid that this huge doorstopper of a novel is going to be one of those love-hate jobs. I now only love it after having finished it, but I felt my stamina drain and drain and drain through long long passages of mind-numbing boredom and a litany running through my head went, "Where is the editor? Why can't these last 150 pages be safely omitted without losing any story whatsoever?"
*sigh* It's rather the same problem I had with The Reality Dysfunction, although, to be very fair, I think this one was the superior of the two.
For one, the whole North thing was highly amusing. They're a clan of clones who had built one hell of an empire. The worldbuilding was frankly amazing, too. The amount of depth and creation was awe-inspiring, although, to be realistic, it was mostly filled with names and places and huge Zanthswarm worries, so we can mostly just chalk that up to consistency and organizational charts. After all is said and done, everything appears in order. All the long passages of time spent in either the present where things don't seem to be getting anywhere, or the even longer time spent in flashbacks that were, to my built understanding, already gone over fairly well in present dialog.
And here's where my complaints come in.
For ninety percent of this huge novel, we were treading over slightly shifting ground, either past or present. It was only very late in the reading that I realized that the MAIN MAIN MAIN character was Angela. The murder mystery was actually rather entertaining, with all the complicated issues of discovering who or what was behind the murder of a North, but I only had the vague sensation that a slightly important bit player, Angela, was something special.
I'm here to tell you now, dear reader, to just ignore everyone else and focus on her. The other stories are fine, but in the end, they all just revolve around her. You can say that all roads lead to Angela, and you'd be just fine.
You see, that's the problem with a novel that is allowed to be so freaking huge and detailed and dense to develop a life of its own. It's hard to tell who's most important. I believed Sid and the investigation was the most important. I believed it for a freaking long time. And then a painfully long backstory for a minor character dominates the novel. And other long backstories of others start cropping up. And then more long backstories start growing like some intelligent plant that has grown to be the most genetically dominant life form of a whole planet, driving away all animal and insect life. (Whoa, where did that come from? Oh hell. It's a spoiler. Sorry.)
What should I say to anyone struggling to get through this novel as they hit these wtf moments?
Patience. Just have patience. I wanted to DNF it. I really did. But since I just don't pull that crap, I flogged myself to stay on target.
What do you know? It paid off. Everything converged and wove a pretty awesome tapestry of coolness. I sure as hell got a huge primer on Angela. I even enjoyed the detailed existence of all those Norths.
Another problem: Maybe I'm just a shallow reader, but I probably would have reacted better and had my flagging attention sit up straighter had I known that such cool action and conflict and Important Shit was happening later on both the Earth and St. Libra. The BIG THINGS THAT HAPPEN could have been intimated earlier, such as when the murder investigation stalled. A Really Big Hook would have revved my engines right about then.
Reader advisory: Things Do Get Cool.
*If you're patient. If you're patient.*
And after all is said and done, I STILL think a liberal dose of a red pen would have done this novel a great justice.
That being said, I'm still giving it a 4 star because the opening, great swaths of the story, and the ending were all pretty damn cool. Do you like clones and aliens? Do you like epic invasions and being an invader? Do you like murder mysteries and questioning the nature of humanity? Well good! You'll probably like this novel. It's nothing if not ambitious as fuck.
*sigh* It's rather the same problem I had with The Reality Dysfunction, although, to be very fair, I think this one was the superior of the two.
For one, the whole North thing was highly amusing. They're a clan of clones who had built one hell of an empire. The worldbuilding was frankly amazing, too. The amount of depth and creation was awe-inspiring, although, to be realistic, it was mostly filled with names and places and huge Zanthswarm worries, so we can mostly just chalk that up to consistency and organizational charts. After all is said and done, everything appears in order. All the long passages of time spent in either the present where things don't seem to be getting anywhere, or the even longer time spent in flashbacks that were, to my built understanding, already gone over fairly well in present dialog.
And here's where my complaints come in.
For ninety percent of this huge novel, we were treading over slightly shifting ground, either past or present. It was only very late in the reading that I realized that the MAIN MAIN MAIN character was Angela. The murder mystery was actually rather entertaining, with all the complicated issues of discovering who or what was behind the murder of a North, but I only had the vague sensation that a slightly important bit player, Angela, was something special.
I'm here to tell you now, dear reader, to just ignore everyone else and focus on her. The other stories are fine, but in the end, they all just revolve around her. You can say that all roads lead to Angela, and you'd be just fine.
You see, that's the problem with a novel that is allowed to be so freaking huge and detailed and dense to develop a life of its own. It's hard to tell who's most important. I believed Sid and the investigation was the most important. I believed it for a freaking long time. And then a painfully long backstory for a minor character dominates the novel. And other long backstories of others start cropping up. And then more long backstories start growing like some intelligent plant that has grown to be the most genetically dominant life form of a whole planet, driving away all animal and insect life. (Whoa, where did that come from? Oh hell. It's a spoiler. Sorry.)
What should I say to anyone struggling to get through this novel as they hit these wtf moments?
Patience. Just have patience. I wanted to DNF it. I really did. But since I just don't pull that crap, I flogged myself to stay on target.
What do you know? It paid off. Everything converged and wove a pretty awesome tapestry of coolness. I sure as hell got a huge primer on Angela. I even enjoyed the detailed existence of all those Norths.
Another problem: Maybe I'm just a shallow reader, but I probably would have reacted better and had my flagging attention sit up straighter had I known that such cool action and conflict and Important Shit was happening later on both the Earth and St. Libra. The BIG THINGS THAT HAPPEN could have been intimated earlier, such as when the murder investigation stalled. A Really Big Hook would have revved my engines right about then.
Reader advisory: Things Do Get Cool.
*If you're patient. If you're patient.*
And after all is said and done, I STILL think a liberal dose of a red pen would have done this novel a great justice.
That being said, I'm still giving it a 4 star because the opening, great swaths of the story, and the ending were all pretty damn cool. Do you like clones and aliens? Do you like epic invasions and being an invader? Do you like murder mysteries and questioning the nature of humanity? Well good! You'll probably like this novel. It's nothing if not ambitious as fuck.
July 23, 2014
1087 pages !! - UK arc edition
Only a few points for now with a more detailed review later:
I finished Great North Road by Peter Hamilton and on the whole I am a little mixed; addictive but very self-indulgent, a new universe and a somewhat fresh take on the author's usual themes (long life, the rich, sense of wonder, detailed world building, alien aliens...) but also a lot of repetitions...
This is truly a book that should have been slimmed down considerably and could have easily done with much less from the Newcastle police investigation which takes probably about half the novel and gets very boring after a while. Also lots of mannerisms that are funny once or twice but get tired quite fast, with "pet" the worst offender by a lot.
If you are a fan of the author, you will most likely enjoy this though I bet you will shake your head at the self indulgence (editor, editor, editor!!!), otherwise go and read Reality Dysfunction, Pandora's Star, the Dreaming Void, the Mandel books and even Fallen Dragon which had some great stuff despite its structural weakness
Edit: I went fast again through the book and on the second read it definitely improved in so far I knew to avoid the large chunk dealing with the Newcastle police investigation and just focus on Angela's saga which is actually excellent; so I am changing to a recommended book as about half the book - though it mostly starts after about 300 pages or so - is indeed the vintage PF Hamilton I had expected, while the rest which should have been compressed to about a fifth is skip-able without missing that much.
Read Angela's story and browse through the Newcastle investigation and you will have a much better experience reading the book and will appreciate it more; a superb PFH is hidden in this self-indulgent way bloated novel and this is the way to discover it
One more edit after a second reread of the part of the novel outside the police procedural (so about 600/1100 pages which clarified why I felt so let down to start with and why my opinion has improved dramatically since:
If you get stalled into the book, start at page 232 (and look up the chapter with Angela early in prison etc) and then skip everything that takes place in Newcastle (no loss as anyway what happens there is updated for the heroes of the space opera part in a few lines every now and then) except towards the end and you will have one of the most gripping reads of PFH - I reread once more those parts yesterday and I was even more impressed and if the book would have consisted only of those probably 600 pages or so, it would have been awesome and one of the best PFH; the police procedural though that takes the other 500 or so pages is just booo-ring to the nth power except for the last couple of chapters or so...
The problem is that of the the first 232 pages, most are the police stuff and i easily see people being turned off and putting the book down when they read the nth detail about how to track a taxi and the like
Only a few points for now with a more detailed review later:
I finished Great North Road by Peter Hamilton and on the whole I am a little mixed; addictive but very self-indulgent, a new universe and a somewhat fresh take on the author's usual themes (long life, the rich, sense of wonder, detailed world building, alien aliens...) but also a lot of repetitions...
This is truly a book that should have been slimmed down considerably and could have easily done with much less from the Newcastle police investigation which takes probably about half the novel and gets very boring after a while. Also lots of mannerisms that are funny once or twice but get tired quite fast, with "pet" the worst offender by a lot.
If you are a fan of the author, you will most likely enjoy this though I bet you will shake your head at the self indulgence (editor, editor, editor!!!), otherwise go and read Reality Dysfunction, Pandora's Star, the Dreaming Void, the Mandel books and even Fallen Dragon which had some great stuff despite its structural weakness
Edit: I went fast again through the book and on the second read it definitely improved in so far I knew to avoid the large chunk dealing with the Newcastle police investigation and just focus on Angela's saga which is actually excellent; so I am changing to a recommended book as about half the book - though it mostly starts after about 300 pages or so - is indeed the vintage PF Hamilton I had expected, while the rest which should have been compressed to about a fifth is skip-able without missing that much.
Read Angela's story and browse through the Newcastle investigation and you will have a much better experience reading the book and will appreciate it more; a superb PFH is hidden in this self-indulgent way bloated novel and this is the way to discover it
One more edit after a second reread of the part of the novel outside the police procedural (so about 600/1100 pages which clarified why I felt so let down to start with and why my opinion has improved dramatically since:
If you get stalled into the book, start at page 232 (and look up the chapter with Angela early in prison etc) and then skip everything that takes place in Newcastle (no loss as anyway what happens there is updated for the heroes of the space opera part in a few lines every now and then) except towards the end and you will have one of the most gripping reads of PFH - I reread once more those parts yesterday and I was even more impressed and if the book would have consisted only of those probably 600 pages or so, it would have been awesome and one of the best PFH; the police procedural though that takes the other 500 or so pages is just booo-ring to the nth power except for the last couple of chapters or so...
The problem is that of the the first 232 pages, most are the police stuff and i easily see people being turned off and putting the book down when they read the nth detail about how to track a taxi and the like
December 29, 2013
If you’ve not read one of my reviews before:
So if you’ve not yet read any of his work – good move checking him out. But would I start here? Great North Road is a stand-alone novel, not part of a series, so it’s less of a commitment. But this is still a HUGE book, and it has some inevitable pacing issues as a consequence of that– so, on reflection, this is probably not the best place to start.
I’d recommend Mindstar Rising as a yummy first taste. Yes, it’s the first in the Greg Mandel series, but it’s a closed-ending story – not dependant on the sequels. They’re space-opera detective stories about a military prototyped psychic private-eye, working for a downloaded-personality whose body has been murdered – in a near-future, global-warming flooded, post-revolution England. They’re excellent books, and half the size, half the complexity, half the reader-calories of his ‘big’ works.
Most people who’ve ended up here are probably existing Hamilton fans. You’ve probably read Night’s Dawn, The Commonwealth Saga and/or The Void Trilogy and are wondering how this one ranks against them. Well, I’ve read all his works (except one short story collection and an old, rare YA book) and have him listed on my literary Pantheon of very favouritest authors – so I’m probably well qualified to field this one.
Let me allay any fears to start with – it’s good, alright!
If the four star rating didn’t already tell you that!
It’s not perfect, but it’s a damn fine book.
It’s near future (compared with his other works). Humans have wormhole technology and have branched out to other worlds (so far, so Hamilton). The story focuses on just Earth, and one other planet St Libra, which is very restrained for Hamilton.
The alien angle is interesting – humans have encountered something called the ‘Zanth’ which is like... a weird-cool giant quantum crystal space-plague THING! It comes out of nowhere, starts crashing rocks into planets which grow, encase everything, and then absorb them... it’s not sentient in any known way, but it only seems to target inhabitated planets and there’s no way to fight it... the human effort is based on stalling the Zanth while we try and evacuate the afflicted planet. None of this is a spoiler because Great North Road isn’t about the Zanth at all, it’s just an incidental thing going on in this universe that I thought was very cool!
This books revolves around the Norths: a human clone army/family/business. They’re megarich. They run a whole industrial planet. They all look identical. One of them turns up dead in the river. All hell breaks loose. The story is set in Newcastle, which was a very nice touch (gotta love the Geordie vernacular) and one major thread follows Sid, the cop on the case. It’s the biggest case ever. Limitless budget, some very nice police technology – a good sci-fi C.S.I. thread, and Sid and his close crew of coppers are a very likeable bunch. The bad-guys have done a top-drawer job though, so this is a tough case to crack and this thread is a little light on the action.
The other major thread covers a military mission to St Libra, the industrial planet run by the North clone corporation. There is evidence to suggest there may be a sentient, hostile alien species somewhere in the jungles of St Libra. St Libra is a frickin’ weird planet, and not long after the mission gets out deep into the tropical jungle, cut-off from all civilization, the cosmological tables get turned in truly epic fashion. This is the ‘action’ thread, but that’s something of a misnomer as this is really a gothic-horror inspired suspense-and-mystery thread. Lots of atmosphere, lots of creepy shapes in the shadows, if you catch my drift. This isn’t Hamilton’s usual style, but I think he handles it very well.
That’s as much as I’m going to share plot-wise- there are a few minor thread characters, some flashbacks, etc, but by-and-large it chugs along on these two axles. I’m also very pleased (and relieved) to say that the ending does not disappoint. There’s always the risk after such a long journey that the conclusion will be anticlimactic, but I thought he did a very solid job of managing the momentum. I guessed the ending just early enough to feel smart, without having it ruined, which probably means he got the foreshadowing spot-on.
It took me an age to read Great North Road , due to other things going on in my life, but it was always a pleasure to dive back into. For me, he’s a writer who never disappoints – big, bold and imaginative, yet his characters are always very human. One of the most underrated sci-fi writers working – and this is an excellent addition to his catalog.
After this I read: Spin
“Hello, lovely to meet you. My name is Chris, but I’m here on Goodreads under the ‘handle’ of Clouds because I thought it was a rather nifty moniker – one which captures neatly what stories are to me: subjective shapes seen in the random patterns of clouds, snatched down and bound with words to share with friends over a good cuppa.Will you shut-up already and tell me something about the book?!
Some of my reviews are firmly on-topic, but others tend to waffle and wander. I’m a firm believer that a readers opinion of a book is rooted solidly in what’s going on in their life at that time, and what elements of the book resonate with their experiences. So I think it’s good to have a bit of context around a review, and a reviewer.
OK – OK – I’ve prevaricated enough...
We’re having another baby!
I’ve wanted to share that for a while :-)
This is the book I was reading when we found out and for me it will always be emotionally linked with that delightful discovery – any and all opinions expressed here are tinged with the pride and joy that comes bundled up with the expectation of a new baby!
This will be our second and I adore being a Dad. I could talk about this all day...
*Sigh...*If you’ve never read any of Peter Hamilton’s work – Great North Road would be an interesting place to start. He’s a writer of epic space-opera, with big emphasis on the EPICNESS of it all. He generally writes series, with each book in the series being a ‘kitten-squisher’ unto itself. He’s good – in my opinion, very, very good. I’d go out on a limb and call him the best sci-fi author to never win a big award.
So if you’ve not yet read any of his work – good move checking him out. But would I start here? Great North Road is a stand-alone novel, not part of a series, so it’s less of a commitment. But this is still a HUGE book, and it has some inevitable pacing issues as a consequence of that– so, on reflection, this is probably not the best place to start.
I’d recommend Mindstar Rising as a yummy first taste. Yes, it’s the first in the Greg Mandel series, but it’s a closed-ending story – not dependant on the sequels. They’re space-opera detective stories about a military prototyped psychic private-eye, working for a downloaded-personality whose body has been murdered – in a near-future, global-warming flooded, post-revolution England. They’re excellent books, and half the size, half the complexity, half the reader-calories of his ‘big’ works.
Most people who’ve ended up here are probably existing Hamilton fans. You’ve probably read Night’s Dawn, The Commonwealth Saga and/or The Void Trilogy and are wondering how this one ranks against them. Well, I’ve read all his works (except one short story collection and an old, rare YA book) and have him listed on my literary Pantheon of very favouritest authors – so I’m probably well qualified to field this one.
Let me allay any fears to start with – it’s good, alright!
If the four star rating didn’t already tell you that!
It’s not perfect, but it’s a damn fine book.
It’s near future (compared with his other works). Humans have wormhole technology and have branched out to other worlds (so far, so Hamilton). The story focuses on just Earth, and one other planet St Libra, which is very restrained for Hamilton.
The alien angle is interesting – humans have encountered something called the ‘Zanth’ which is like... a weird-cool giant quantum crystal space-plague THING! It comes out of nowhere, starts crashing rocks into planets which grow, encase everything, and then absorb them... it’s not sentient in any known way, but it only seems to target inhabitated planets and there’s no way to fight it... the human effort is based on stalling the Zanth while we try and evacuate the afflicted planet. None of this is a spoiler because Great North Road isn’t about the Zanth at all, it’s just an incidental thing going on in this universe that I thought was very cool!
This books revolves around the Norths: a human clone army/family/business. They’re megarich. They run a whole industrial planet. They all look identical. One of them turns up dead in the river. All hell breaks loose. The story is set in Newcastle, which was a very nice touch (gotta love the Geordie vernacular) and one major thread follows Sid, the cop on the case. It’s the biggest case ever. Limitless budget, some very nice police technology – a good sci-fi C.S.I. thread, and Sid and his close crew of coppers are a very likeable bunch. The bad-guys have done a top-drawer job though, so this is a tough case to crack and this thread is a little light on the action.
The other major thread covers a military mission to St Libra, the industrial planet run by the North clone corporation. There is evidence to suggest there may be a sentient, hostile alien species somewhere in the jungles of St Libra. St Libra is a frickin’ weird planet, and not long after the mission gets out deep into the tropical jungle, cut-off from all civilization, the cosmological tables get turned in truly epic fashion. This is the ‘action’ thread, but that’s something of a misnomer as this is really a gothic-horror inspired suspense-and-mystery thread. Lots of atmosphere, lots of creepy shapes in the shadows, if you catch my drift. This isn’t Hamilton’s usual style, but I think he handles it very well.
That’s as much as I’m going to share plot-wise- there are a few minor thread characters, some flashbacks, etc, but by-and-large it chugs along on these two axles. I’m also very pleased (and relieved) to say that the ending does not disappoint. There’s always the risk after such a long journey that the conclusion will be anticlimactic, but I thought he did a very solid job of managing the momentum. I guessed the ending just early enough to feel smart, without having it ruined, which probably means he got the foreshadowing spot-on.
It took me an age to read Great North Road , due to other things going on in my life, but it was always a pleasure to dive back into. For me, he’s a writer who never disappoints – big, bold and imaginative, yet his characters are always very human. One of the most underrated sci-fi writers working – and this is an excellent addition to his catalog.
After this I read: Spin
December 23, 2012
Things I learnt from this book:
1. Rich sociopaths are awesome and we should let them do what they want because they are much better at governance and science than faceless bureaucrats.
2. Long expeditions into boring jungle are boring.
3. 1000 pages requires more than two major plots and one minor.
4. Approximately 600 pages of this book could have been removed without affecting the plot.
5. There's no happy ending too pat that can't be used in a welded on ending.
1. Rich sociopaths are awesome and we should let them do what they want because they are much better at governance and science than faceless bureaucrats.
2. Long expeditions into boring jungle are boring.
3. 1000 pages requires more than two major plots and one minor.
4. Approximately 600 pages of this book could have been removed without affecting the plot.
5. There's no happy ending too pat that can't be used in a welded on ending.
July 23, 2013
Peter F. Hamilton writes large. He writes 1000 page behemoths of narrative. And he writes with ideas that are space and time spanning, far beyond the usual windows of ordinary lives. And his words are imbued with the power of ideas and concepts far above today's water cooler subjects. Yet, despite the immense dimensions of his imagination, he keeps it all within reach, grounded on human sensibilities, maintaining a keen sense of the grand human drama.
So in this decidedly large book, Hamilton mixes together inscrutable alien swarms, cloned megalomaniacs, monsters with bladed fingers, interworld portals, smart personal networks, sentient worlds, manufactured oil, medically-enabled longevity, with recognizable and easily accessible characters --- a persistent police investigator, a deeply religious military spook, a seemingly helpless woman wrongly imprisoned, three clones who pursue three separate ambitions of wealth, long-life and freedom --- and vast and sundry characters that a reader from the 21st century can easily relate to. He weaves a tale that could simultaneously be categorized as crime/mystery, political intrigue, spy/military, green environmental/survivalist, alien/first encounter, family drama/love story, action/SF ... all interlaced together in Hamilton's insistent style that impels and brooks no doubt that you, the reader, will hold your disbelief.
From my perspective, the most powerful aspect of this sprawling, decidedly Anglo-centric book, that which holds it together and fills it with passionate motivation and narrative impetus, is the story of Angela. Compared to her the rest of the characters seem quite mundane. Or, conversely, without her, this big, booming behemoth of a book may have failed to engage.
Hamilton has clearly improved with practice; from the Mandel detective stories, to the Nights Dawn series, onto the Void trilogy and now the amazing feat of Great North Road. One thing I can say is read Hamilton now and savor his work while he is at his inventive and imaginative best, for a hundred years hence who knows how we would appreciate his writing in the light of different mores.
August 13, 2013
That. Was brilliant.
It took me three weeks to read this nearly 1000 page monster of a book. Normally that would seem like a long time on one book, but not here. A busy schedule kept me from devoting large chunks of time to it, but that was okay. I was able to savor it.
I'd never read Hamilton before, and now I'm a fan. It's rare for a book this size to churn along without boring parts, but this had very few of those. Part mystery, action-adventure, police procedural, epic scale space opera, and human psychological drama, this made for a fantastic experience.
It's a stand-alone novel, so there is no "next book" to pick up. I will be reading more Hamilton though, that is certain.
It took me three weeks to read this nearly 1000 page monster of a book. Normally that would seem like a long time on one book, but not here. A busy schedule kept me from devoting large chunks of time to it, but that was okay. I was able to savor it.
I'd never read Hamilton before, and now I'm a fan. It's rare for a book this size to churn along without boring parts, but this had very few of those. Part mystery, action-adventure, police procedural, epic scale space opera, and human psychological drama, this made for a fantastic experience.
It's a stand-alone novel, so there is no "next book" to pick up. I will be reading more Hamilton though, that is certain.
May 13, 2019
This book followed the traditional pattern I have found in this author- detailed astrophysics, well elaborated and constructed worlds, highly integrate characters and sophisticated plots that run concurrently, along with parts that slog down to a near grinding halt.
There are times this author keeps me fascinated. The plot moves quickly, events shock me, and I am riveted. Then I reach parts where everything crawls to a halt. The details in his world building are enormous. So enormous, in fact, my mind has a hard time getting around all of them.
This book read like a serial killer mystery novel. It reminds me a little of his incident with the Starflyer in the Commonwealth series. Is there an alien? Is there a serial killer? Is it a corporate plot? The best parts are when the suspense mounts and the environments of St. Libra are explored in detail. There are times I was transported to another world in my mind, which is, after all, why I read. Hamilton has the ability to be able to do this- the problem is it fluctuates between that and mind-numbing details that completely overwhelm a new setting.
I seem to have discovered an art to reading this author. I am able to read the huge amount of detail built into a scene, while extracting what is necessary to move eon and leave the rest in a sort of blur of words. The science fiction ideas are big. Not as big as those found in Commonwealth, but certainly not small. The book racks in at over 900 pages, which goes a lot faster than it sounds. Each 100 passed by fairly quickly. The pacing is quick enough to make up for the slow parts, and the story ends in a satisfying, if deliberate, manner.
4.0 stars.
There are times this author keeps me fascinated. The plot moves quickly, events shock me, and I am riveted. Then I reach parts where everything crawls to a halt. The details in his world building are enormous. So enormous, in fact, my mind has a hard time getting around all of them.
This book read like a serial killer mystery novel. It reminds me a little of his incident with the Starflyer in the Commonwealth series. Is there an alien? Is there a serial killer? Is it a corporate plot? The best parts are when the suspense mounts and the environments of St. Libra are explored in detail. There are times I was transported to another world in my mind, which is, after all, why I read. Hamilton has the ability to be able to do this- the problem is it fluctuates between that and mind-numbing details that completely overwhelm a new setting.
I seem to have discovered an art to reading this author. I am able to read the huge amount of detail built into a scene, while extracting what is necessary to move eon and leave the rest in a sort of blur of words. The science fiction ideas are big. Not as big as those found in Commonwealth, but certainly not small. The book racks in at over 900 pages, which goes a lot faster than it sounds. Each 100 passed by fairly quickly. The pacing is quick enough to make up for the slow parts, and the story ends in a satisfying, if deliberate, manner.
4.0 stars.
December 29, 2012
I'm not sure why I keep reading Hamilton's books. There's a nugget of excitement lurking in them, but in this case it's pretty hard to find.
The book could have easily been cut down to half its size without loss. Like many of his books, it's full of pointless detail. He seems to have an interest in buying property and property development, which we are treated to the details of. We also get endless descriptions of some crazy arcane police procedure. It is only near the end of the book where there is some exciting action.
The sci-fi element seems rather mixed up too. Science here is a fantasy element to drive the story. Humans seem rather scientifically advanced in some respects. For example there's smart dust which can picture what's going on around it, devices to record everything we see, and wormholes to travel to other planets. However, in other respects there's virtually no technological advancement. For instance, there doesn't seem to be a simple computer program which can follow taxis along a road in a computer record.
It feels as if he has to stuff some human interest into his stories, such as details of the kids, career advancement and relationships. Of course, these are normally an integral part of a story, but here they feel like padding that has been inserted. They barely affect the plot itself.
I also don't like the glorification of money and abusive billionaires, which is a common theme through several of his books. He includes some "nice" poorer characters such as Saul, but here they just seem weak and ineffectual.
The book could have easily been cut down to half its size without loss. Like many of his books, it's full of pointless detail. He seems to have an interest in buying property and property development, which we are treated to the details of. We also get endless descriptions of some crazy arcane police procedure. It is only near the end of the book where there is some exciting action.
The sci-fi element seems rather mixed up too. Science here is a fantasy element to drive the story. Humans seem rather scientifically advanced in some respects. For example there's smart dust which can picture what's going on around it, devices to record everything we see, and wormholes to travel to other planets. However, in other respects there's virtually no technological advancement. For instance, there doesn't seem to be a simple computer program which can follow taxis along a road in a computer record.
It feels as if he has to stuff some human interest into his stories, such as details of the kids, career advancement and relationships. Of course, these are normally an integral part of a story, but here they feel like padding that has been inserted. They barely affect the plot itself.
I also don't like the glorification of money and abusive billionaires, which is a common theme through several of his books. He includes some "nice" poorer characters such as Saul, but here they just seem weak and ineffectual.
April 15, 2016
Proof that even when Hamilton is bad, he's still very good.
First things first, let me get this off my chest: Long. Loooonnnnggg. Too long. Far, far too long. There's not enough story here for the book to be this long and large swathes of the book could and should have been trimmed in any sensible editing process. I'm guessing that by this stage of his career, the author and his publisher consider page count to be a selling point with Hamilton's audience, so that there's little appeal in doing the sort of editing that this book so desperately needed.
Humans have developed stargate technology and have used it to create a few dozen colonies which we have sloppily sprawled into, continuing our polluting and exploitative industries. A key part of this is the world of St Libra owned by the North family of clones and responsible for producing most of the human gate system's energy requirements in the form of biooil. The gateway to St Libra is in the English city of Newcastle where the dumped body of a North clone is found with bizarre wounds that are similar to that of a mass killing 20 years ago of another North clone and his staff.
The story follows the lead investigator of the murder Detective Sidney Hurst and the person accused of the original mass killing, Angela Tramelo. Angela has spent the last 20 years in jail after being tortured by the government for information, but due to a genetic legacy she still looks like a teenager. The story alternates between Sid's methodical investigation of the North killing and an expedition to St Libra that Angela has been press-ganged into joining to find the monster that she believes is responsible for the murders.
Nearly all of Hamilton's regular themes are present here. Future police work, genetic engineering, nanotech and its implications, stargate technology, interesting aliens, politics/economics and stern warnings about stagnation of human progress and technological dead ends. However, I believe he's done this story far better in the original two Commonwealth books. The Primes and Morning Light Mountain were far more interesting aliens than either the monster in this one or the threat of the Zanth.
The first half of this story was like pulling teeth. The expedition that dominates the second half of the book doesn't even really start until about 40% and most of the murder investigation to this point is glacial and largely irrelevant to the plot. Once things get going in the second half the story gets a lot better, but given the sheer size of this book you need to read about two normal book's worth of dull to get there. It makes it all very had to summarize, but I will say that Hamilton does normally do very satisfying endings, and this is definitely one of those.
First things first, let me get this off my chest: Long. Loooonnnnggg. Too long. Far, far too long. There's not enough story here for the book to be this long and large swathes of the book could and should have been trimmed in any sensible editing process. I'm guessing that by this stage of his career, the author and his publisher consider page count to be a selling point with Hamilton's audience, so that there's little appeal in doing the sort of editing that this book so desperately needed.
Humans have developed stargate technology and have used it to create a few dozen colonies which we have sloppily sprawled into, continuing our polluting and exploitative industries. A key part of this is the world of St Libra owned by the North family of clones and responsible for producing most of the human gate system's energy requirements in the form of biooil. The gateway to St Libra is in the English city of Newcastle where the dumped body of a North clone is found with bizarre wounds that are similar to that of a mass killing 20 years ago of another North clone and his staff.
The story follows the lead investigator of the murder Detective Sidney Hurst and the person accused of the original mass killing, Angela Tramelo. Angela has spent the last 20 years in jail after being tortured by the government for information, but due to a genetic legacy she still looks like a teenager. The story alternates between Sid's methodical investigation of the North killing and an expedition to St Libra that Angela has been press-ganged into joining to find the monster that she believes is responsible for the murders.
Nearly all of Hamilton's regular themes are present here. Future police work, genetic engineering, nanotech and its implications, stargate technology, interesting aliens, politics/economics and stern warnings about stagnation of human progress and technological dead ends. However, I believe he's done this story far better in the original two Commonwealth books. The Primes and Morning Light Mountain were far more interesting aliens than either the monster in this one or the threat of the Zanth.
The first half of this story was like pulling teeth. The expedition that dominates the second half of the book doesn't even really start until about 40% and most of the murder investigation to this point is glacial and largely irrelevant to the plot. Once things get going in the second half the story gets a lot better, but given the sheer size of this book you need to read about two normal book's worth of dull to get there. It makes it all very had to summarize, but I will say that Hamilton does normally do very satisfying endings, and this is definitely one of those.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2013
A decent story muddled with far too much technobabble. The story drives itself along well but it seems like once one of the subplots gets intense or interesting it will take a long vacation while the book switches to a subplot. This leads to a constant ramp up then slow release of tension and it gets kind of frustrating. Most of the characters stay very flat and undynamic until they suddenly snap into a new role without much reason to do so. The "twists" if you can call them that are also way too smashed into the last 200 pages leaving a very rushed feeling ending. And it doesn't matter if you pieced together any of the twists earlier in the book because while most of the things a reader has any chance of figuring out are hinted on very early but aren't revealed as truth until the last 4 chapters. The Commonwealth Saga is much stronger than this and this really feels like a cheap knock off with regards to the technology. Can't say I would recommend this unless you are a Hamilton junky that feels the need to read more of him.
April 5, 2021
Purely by coincidence I found some reviews for this book here on Goodreads. This is 'my kind of book' exactly. It doesn't give great insights, it is not a literary masterpiece, but it is a delightful SF adventure combined with a police procedural. I happen to like both genres a lot. It took me a while to finish it because I've been very busy, but I'm glad I bought the book.
January 7, 2014
It only took a little more than 9 months to read. And I teared up in the end. Good book.
October 25, 2021
Screw Americans.
12/30/12 -
Come on B&N, I know you have the book in the back. Just give it to me.
And I know you have it too Audible. I can see it on your site when I'm not signed in.
pg 26/948 (32h) - All the high quality tech, thought out world, and characters are there, plus it's a bit more timely. I hope I can finish it. There's quite a map, Time Line, and character list in the front of the book.
Here's the first page of the Time Line:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A_di5T_CY...
pg 70/948 - I'm a sucker for chicks that kick ass. There's no Paula Myo here, but we do have Angela. She's in jail right now for 10 years. But I think that will change soon. Plus she has that enhancement.
pg 148/948 - Angela is intense. Yes the kindle version has page numbers. No whisper sync for voice for the audiobook. :( It's over 60 bucks anyway.
pg 228/948 - If there's another thing I'm a sucker for, it's exotic planets. I'm just savoring this detailed new world of St. Libra. I think epic fiction fans would enjoy this book. And even more characters get introduced, like this old pilot, and yet he's immediately compelling.
Apparently a lot of the characters talk in a 'Geordie' dialect.
[image error]
Some of the characters are very religious too, the 'Gospel Warriors' in kind of an army, ready to fight the 'Zanth'.
pg 306/948 - In kind of an 'in between' area now. Peter Hamilton loves to describe buildings.
A more balanced review: http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/873.html Guess I have to get to page 450. By the way Luke will review it soon. (Here it is: http://www.sfbrp.com/archives/591)
pg 415/948 - Stuff is happening!
pg 524/948 - Things are definitely moving into high gear. It's getting like a part of the Night's Dawn trilogy. But, oh geez, here comes another flashback. Didn't Peter read Stephen King's On Writing (my review with quotes)?
Actually there is some romance and sexy time here and there. Maybe it could be a future Vaginal Fantasy book club pick. ;) Although the couples tend to be beautiful young women and older male schlubs.
pg 604/948 - This is what's wrong with the book. It looks like someone got killed, but before we can see it, there's several pages describing the weather.
When do we actually meet the alien(s)??
I wish there were in AI character. Peter is good at that.
pg 732/948 - Um, this is turning into man vs nature. Kind of like a Jack London novel, but not an irish setter in sight.
pg 766/948 - Hopefully we're done with this (wo)man vs nature crap. I was so grateful people got hurt to break up the monotony. Then there was a pretty cool scene in the Jupiter area... Less than 200 pages to go! Oh, excuse me, looks like someone is about to get knocked off.
pg 817/948 - It's about time! Lots of scifi stuff is happening. Revelations galore!! (said like Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride)
Only 131 pages left! *pant* *pant*
pg 836/948 - Omg she's...oops, time for a 20 page flashback. Watch the screen get all watery...
pg 881/948 - Actually that flashback was pretty good. Angela finally had the attitude I wanted her to have. A lot of the characters are really coming together now.
pg 916/948 - One hour to go. I have never read so many flashbacks in one novel. But there were a lot of mysteries to resolve. This is turning into Star Trek, although with higher quality action. What of the Zanth?
There's some other Scott Westerfeld writing tip, where he maps the emotion and amount of tension of each chapter. I'll have to try that as a reader sometime.
Here it is: http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/2009/... Scott calls it 'pace charts'. I wonder if Hamilton does it.
Wew! All done. It's very unusual for me to finish something this big. But I'm a Hamilton fan, and I know there'll be some good stuff in there. But this is a book badly in need of an editor. There's a lot of mundane police procedural detail, and fighting elements of weather on another planet. But if you're a regular Hamilton reader you'll probably read and enjoy it. If not, maybe just check out this last two chapters for a cool look at the far future.
With this book, I was also getting confused with all the North's with similar short names beginning with 'A'. If you read it, keep that straight. :)
Angela was an interesting character because of her . But sometimes I felt like she had 3 different personalities. I wanted the tough ex-jail girl, and I didn't get much of it.
Peter F. Hamilon on the Sword & Laser youtube show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxE8tr...
UPDATE:
whispersync deal: 5.99 kindle, then 4.49 audio
12/30/12 -
Come on B&N, I know you have the book in the back. Just give it to me.
And I know you have it too Audible. I can see it on your site when I'm not signed in.
pg 26/948 (32h) - All the high quality tech, thought out world, and characters are there, plus it's a bit more timely. I hope I can finish it. There's quite a map, Time Line, and character list in the front of the book.
Here's the first page of the Time Line:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A_di5T_CY...
pg 70/948 - I'm a sucker for chicks that kick ass. There's no Paula Myo here, but we do have Angela. She's in jail right now for 10 years. But I think that will change soon. Plus she has that enhancement.
pg 148/948 - Angela is intense. Yes the kindle version has page numbers. No whisper sync for voice for the audiobook. :( It's over 60 bucks anyway.
pg 228/948 - If there's another thing I'm a sucker for, it's exotic planets. I'm just savoring this detailed new world of St. Libra. I think epic fiction fans would enjoy this book. And even more characters get introduced, like this old pilot, and yet he's immediately compelling.
Apparently a lot of the characters talk in a 'Geordie' dialect.
[image error]
Some of the characters are very religious too, the 'Gospel Warriors' in kind of an army, ready to fight the 'Zanth'.
pg 306/948 - In kind of an 'in between' area now. Peter Hamilton loves to describe buildings.
A more balanced review: http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/873.html Guess I have to get to page 450. By the way Luke will review it soon. (Here it is: http://www.sfbrp.com/archives/591)
pg 415/948 - Stuff is happening!
pg 524/948 - Things are definitely moving into high gear. It's getting like a part of the Night's Dawn trilogy. But, oh geez, here comes another flashback. Didn't Peter read Stephen King's On Writing (my review with quotes)?
Actually there is some romance and sexy time here and there. Maybe it could be a future Vaginal Fantasy book club pick. ;) Although the couples tend to be beautiful young women and older male schlubs.
pg 604/948 - This is what's wrong with the book. It looks like someone got killed, but before we can see it, there's several pages describing the weather.
When do we actually meet the alien(s)??
I wish there were in AI character. Peter is good at that.
pg 732/948 - Um, this is turning into man vs nature. Kind of like a Jack London novel, but not an irish setter in sight.
pg 766/948 - Hopefully we're done with this (wo)man vs nature crap. I was so grateful people got hurt to break up the monotony. Then there was a pretty cool scene in the Jupiter area... Less than 200 pages to go! Oh, excuse me, looks like someone is about to get knocked off.
pg 817/948 - It's about time! Lots of scifi stuff is happening. Revelations galore!! (said like Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride)
Only 131 pages left! *pant* *pant*
pg 836/948 - Omg she's...oops, time for a 20 page flashback. Watch the screen get all watery...
pg 881/948 - Actually that flashback was pretty good. Angela finally had the attitude I wanted her to have. A lot of the characters are really coming together now.
pg 916/948 - One hour to go. I have never read so many flashbacks in one novel. But there were a lot of mysteries to resolve. This is turning into Star Trek, although with higher quality action. What of the Zanth?
There's some other Scott Westerfeld writing tip, where he maps the emotion and amount of tension of each chapter. I'll have to try that as a reader sometime.
Here it is: http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/2009/... Scott calls it 'pace charts'. I wonder if Hamilton does it.
Wew! All done. It's very unusual for me to finish something this big. But I'm a Hamilton fan, and I know there'll be some good stuff in there. But this is a book badly in need of an editor. There's a lot of mundane police procedural detail, and fighting elements of weather on another planet. But if you're a regular Hamilton reader you'll probably read and enjoy it. If not, maybe just check out this last two chapters for a cool look at the far future.
With this book, I was also getting confused with all the North's with similar short names beginning with 'A'. If you read it, keep that straight. :)
Angela was an interesting character because of her . But sometimes I felt like she had 3 different personalities. I wanted the tough ex-jail girl, and I didn't get much of it.
Peter F. Hamilon on the Sword & Laser youtube show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxE8tr...
UPDATE:
whispersync deal: 5.99 kindle, then 4.49 audio
July 5, 2013
4.5 Stars
I am giving this truly massive read nearly perfect marks as I had so much fun reading this book for such a very long time. Like all Peter Hamilton books he writes, writes some more, and just for good measure, he writes even more. I have come to expect that from him. I appreciate his skill at maintaining such large stories. I even don’t really want his books to end. Could they benefit from editing? I am sure that they would. Would he have a larger audience if his books weren’t so intimidatingly huge???Probably! But in the end, I don’t ever want him to change a thing. Call me a fan boy.
This futuristic novel is one part police procedural done up in a straight forward fashion mixed with a survival horror movie such as John Carpenter’s The Thing. Angela is a formidable and believable heroine that I loved right from the start. Hamilton adds layers of coolness to her by making her a 1 in 10. By messing up her life so bad that she spends 20 years in jail. But he then makes her a tough as nails bitch that is equipped with all the latest tech gears and even some outlawed antiques as well. Her relations ship with Paresh and Saul made her much more human and likable.
The book is slow to start. I sped through a great deal of the beginnings of the Newcastle POV as not much really happens, and I am not a mystery reader. After the first 200 pages or so, Angela’s POV is brought to the front and center and the story takes on a whole new life. Hamilton does an amazing job at creating new worlds, new fauna, and new creatures. He also creates believable futuristic gadgets, weaponry, space ships, and technologies. His writing style slowly builds up tension and angst that makes for great survival stories.
I loved the planet of Libra. The cold snow bound north was truly chilling and so much reminded me of the classic movie The Thing. I loved how people slowly came to trust and believe Angela, while at the same time Peter Hamilton was trying to make everyone so untrustworthy.
As a science fiction nerd this book is made for me and I loved it, I had so much fun reading it, and I highly recommend it to genre fans.
Now for the not so good….
WARNING!!!! IMPLIED SPOILERS AHEAD…
At the 90% mark of the book the story lines all come together and unfortunately and all I could think about is:
YAY!!!!
Can you keep yourself from losing all of your stomach contents????
It reminded me of the ending of Avatar along with and even more closely resembling the alternate ending of The Abyss.
These are examples of movies that I loved and appreciated, and highly recommended, but the endings left me dry heaving..
I am giving this truly massive read nearly perfect marks as I had so much fun reading this book for such a very long time. Like all Peter Hamilton books he writes, writes some more, and just for good measure, he writes even more. I have come to expect that from him. I appreciate his skill at maintaining such large stories. I even don’t really want his books to end. Could they benefit from editing? I am sure that they would. Would he have a larger audience if his books weren’t so intimidatingly huge???Probably! But in the end, I don’t ever want him to change a thing. Call me a fan boy.
This futuristic novel is one part police procedural done up in a straight forward fashion mixed with a survival horror movie such as John Carpenter’s The Thing. Angela is a formidable and believable heroine that I loved right from the start. Hamilton adds layers of coolness to her by making her a 1 in 10. By messing up her life so bad that she spends 20 years in jail. But he then makes her a tough as nails bitch that is equipped with all the latest tech gears and even some outlawed antiques as well. Her relations ship with Paresh and Saul made her much more human and likable.
The book is slow to start. I sped through a great deal of the beginnings of the Newcastle POV as not much really happens, and I am not a mystery reader. After the first 200 pages or so, Angela’s POV is brought to the front and center and the story takes on a whole new life. Hamilton does an amazing job at creating new worlds, new fauna, and new creatures. He also creates believable futuristic gadgets, weaponry, space ships, and technologies. His writing style slowly builds up tension and angst that makes for great survival stories.
I loved the planet of Libra. The cold snow bound north was truly chilling and so much reminded me of the classic movie The Thing. I loved how people slowly came to trust and believe Angela, while at the same time Peter Hamilton was trying to make everyone so untrustworthy.
As a science fiction nerd this book is made for me and I loved it, I had so much fun reading it, and I highly recommend it to genre fans.
Now for the not so good….
WARNING!!!! IMPLIED SPOILERS AHEAD…
At the 90% mark of the book the story lines all come together and unfortunately and all I could think about is:
YAY!!!!
Can you keep yourself from losing all of your stomach contents????
It reminded me of the ending of Avatar along with and even more closely resembling the alternate ending of The Abyss.
These are examples of movies that I loved and appreciated, and highly recommended, but the endings left me dry heaving..
January 17, 2013
Peter F Hamilton’s books have a tendency to be long but that’s because he paints a broad but detailed picture of his characters and the surroundings they find themselves in. The pictures are sharp and the characters compelling and relatable which makes all his books a pleasure to read and enjoy.
In his latest offering we find the North family which through cloning themselves have managed to put themselves in a position of immense wealth and subsequently power. The only drawback to the cloning is that each time you clone a clone from a clone it creates flaws in the transfer. This is commonly referred to as inbreeding in humans and in clones it has a tendency to crank up the crazy each time you do it.
Building interstellar gates they have occupied St Libra and made it into a lucrative source of energy for Earth.
When a dead North is discovered in the river, having been disposed of there, with all attributes that could definitely identify them removed the hunt is on for which North it is, and more importantly who killed them.
Unfortunately for Detective Sidney Hurst, who has been assigned the case, a check of the extensive North family reveals they are all accounted for. Who is the mystery North that has been killed ? On top of that, the murder has been done in a manner similar to a murder twenty years ago and the suspect of that murder has been in jail for the past 20 years.
Money and power are soon added to the investigation, but progress is slow. They are obviously dealing with a professional group well connected and funded.
Meanwhile on the planet St Libra a group of scientific and military personnel are also trying to find the potential murderer. When another murder on Earth and one on St Libra occur close together it appears there may be two murderers.
Hamilton continues to taunt the reader with clues and ends the book with a great ending.
HIGHLY recommended book and author
In his latest offering we find the North family which through cloning themselves have managed to put themselves in a position of immense wealth and subsequently power. The only drawback to the cloning is that each time you clone a clone from a clone it creates flaws in the transfer. This is commonly referred to as inbreeding in humans and in clones it has a tendency to crank up the crazy each time you do it.
Building interstellar gates they have occupied St Libra and made it into a lucrative source of energy for Earth.
When a dead North is discovered in the river, having been disposed of there, with all attributes that could definitely identify them removed the hunt is on for which North it is, and more importantly who killed them.
Unfortunately for Detective Sidney Hurst, who has been assigned the case, a check of the extensive North family reveals they are all accounted for. Who is the mystery North that has been killed ? On top of that, the murder has been done in a manner similar to a murder twenty years ago and the suspect of that murder has been in jail for the past 20 years.
Money and power are soon added to the investigation, but progress is slow. They are obviously dealing with a professional group well connected and funded.
Meanwhile on the planet St Libra a group of scientific and military personnel are also trying to find the potential murderer. When another murder on Earth and one on St Libra occur close together it appears there may be two murderers.
Hamilton continues to taunt the reader with clues and ends the book with a great ending.
HIGHLY recommended book and author
March 12, 2015
This was fun! I think I like this Hamilton book better than Pandora's Star/ Judas Unchained mainly because of a more reasonable length (treating the two other books as one) and also the amount of characters that got introduced during the whole book was far more manageable and attaching than in the other.
A great murder-mystery meets science fiction with its best: smart cells, cloning and rejuvenation...just what I like.
It's complex and the characters are interesting. The only thing that makes me giving it 4.5 stars is the weird treating of women. As in the book before, the main heroine has to use sex to keep up with the money and business...not so bad in the end in this one but still, the outlining of female characters is something quite depressing.
Otherwise, a book that I read really quickly, though it was 1087 pages in the German ebook. Ah! And almost forgot to mention. The original title is Great North Road, which I think fits in many levels. For some reasons, the German publisher didn't just adapt this title. But came up with a new on: Der unsichtbare Killer. The invisible killer...everyone who read this book will know how terrible this choice is...and it diminishes the book in many levels.
A great murder-mystery meets science fiction with its best: smart cells, cloning and rejuvenation...just what I like.
It's complex and the characters are interesting. The only thing that makes me giving it 4.5 stars is the weird treating of women. As in the book before, the main heroine has to use sex to keep up with the money and business...not so bad in the end in this one but still, the outlining of female characters is something quite depressing.
Otherwise, a book that I read really quickly, though it was 1087 pages in the German ebook. Ah! And almost forgot to mention. The original title is Great North Road, which I think fits in many levels. For some reasons, the German publisher didn't just adapt this title. But came up with a new on: Der unsichtbare Killer. The invisible killer...everyone who read this book will know how terrible this choice is...and it diminishes the book in many levels.
February 18, 2013
This 1000-page plus novel is quite svelte compared to Hamilton's usual trilogies. However, I think the book's greatest strength is what will also probably drive a lot of readers bat-shit insane, and that is simply the author's penchant for explanation.
Expansively conversationalist, Hamilton is quite happy to delve into every little detail of what makes his future lived-in universe tick -- from traffic management to urban planning, fashion and, of course, technology. Lots and lots of fancy schmancy technology. From cars to police equipment to police vehicles, architecture and real estate, traffic planning and urban management, scientific equipment and military hardware, cloning and longevity treatments and such intriguing concepts as body meshes and smart matter. And even the new model personal transnet cell Apple i-3800.
And let's not forget that this, being a bona fide Peter F. Hamilton blockbuster, also has its requisite quotient of nubile babes and galaxy-bursting sex scenes ... although Great North Road is remarkably restrained in the boudoir department compared to Fallen Dragon, for example, also a standalone novel. Instead Hamilton juggles several families along with his central characters, and writes with surprising humour and insight about that most alien of species, the human teenager.
By now you may have gathered that I have a huge amount of affection for Hamilton, who I think is often unfairly derided for his door-stopper space-operatic melodramas. Great North Road could be his best novel to date, a sustained -- and remarkably succinct -- exercise in universe-building, welded onto a dual police procedural and first-contact plotline, that is truly thrilling to read.
As is usual, the pacing is excellent, building up nicely to an absolutely stunning last-gasp 100 pages, literally leaving me breathless before the climax (the ending is, I would say, yearningly open, and I for one would not mind at all if Hamilton decides to return to this particular universe).
Of course, the writing is rather pedestrian, and the characterisation serviceable at best in the greater interests of Story. And what a kick-ass story it is.
Expansively conversationalist, Hamilton is quite happy to delve into every little detail of what makes his future lived-in universe tick -- from traffic management to urban planning, fashion and, of course, technology. Lots and lots of fancy schmancy technology. From cars to police equipment to police vehicles, architecture and real estate, traffic planning and urban management, scientific equipment and military hardware, cloning and longevity treatments and such intriguing concepts as body meshes and smart matter. And even the new model personal transnet cell Apple i-3800.
And let's not forget that this, being a bona fide Peter F. Hamilton blockbuster, also has its requisite quotient of nubile babes and galaxy-bursting sex scenes ... although Great North Road is remarkably restrained in the boudoir department compared to Fallen Dragon, for example, also a standalone novel. Instead Hamilton juggles several families along with his central characters, and writes with surprising humour and insight about that most alien of species, the human teenager.
By now you may have gathered that I have a huge amount of affection for Hamilton, who I think is often unfairly derided for his door-stopper space-operatic melodramas. Great North Road could be his best novel to date, a sustained -- and remarkably succinct -- exercise in universe-building, welded onto a dual police procedural and first-contact plotline, that is truly thrilling to read.
As is usual, the pacing is excellent, building up nicely to an absolutely stunning last-gasp 100 pages, literally leaving me breathless before the climax (the ending is, I would say, yearningly open, and I for one would not mind at all if Hamilton decides to return to this particular universe).
Of course, the writing is rather pedestrian, and the characterisation serviceable at best in the greater interests of Story. And what a kick-ass story it is.
October 16, 2012
I like my scifi optimistic not dystopic and Hamilton's work always fits the bill. This isn't one of his absolute bests in my opinion: the setting is too close to today for my taste, and the tech a little too similar to the Commonwealth Universe but without the flair of Ozzie and Nigel. Having said that it is still an excellent read and I enjoyed the detective story wrapping the more traditional sci-fi elements, but then I never object to having too many pages in a novel ( I wouldn't recommend the hardback for commuting).
There's still a lot of Hamilton's male gaze but less of the boy fantasy sex in this novel. Perhaps it is the impact of having a young family himself but this book is more aware of the traditional gender roles he often writes (male billionaires with young female harems) than previous work. The women that we do see are all very competent, even kick-ass, and they enjoy Bechdel test passing friendships. The male leads are less interested in playing the field and more in committed relationships. Some may not like that, but I do.
I'm less convinced about the Newcastle accents (pet, crap on it etc) but at the end of the day, why not? At least it isn't dialect a la Wuthering Heights school of incomprehensibility. I let it wash over me and pictured Jimmy Nail as Sid (Jerome being taken by Game of Thrones now and Robson, well ...). And a final gripe. It's set in the future and Sid and Jacinta don't have an en-suite?
There's still a lot of Hamilton's male gaze but less of the boy fantasy sex in this novel. Perhaps it is the impact of having a young family himself but this book is more aware of the traditional gender roles he often writes (male billionaires with young female harems) than previous work. The women that we do see are all very competent, even kick-ass, and they enjoy Bechdel test passing friendships. The male leads are less interested in playing the field and more in committed relationships. Some may not like that, but I do.
I'm less convinced about the Newcastle accents (pet, crap on it etc) but at the end of the day, why not? At least it isn't dialect a la Wuthering Heights school of incomprehensibility. I let it wash over me and pictured Jimmy Nail as Sid (Jerome being taken by Game of Thrones now and Robson, well ...). And a final gripe. It's set in the future and Sid and Jacinta don't have an en-suite?
January 31, 2014
Peter F. Hamilton irritates me and annoys me in many ways, but he has some damn good ideas and puts together some mighty fine stories.
The Good: Great SF ideas, great SF settings, and characters I grow to love.
The Bad: Way too long, and some really unnecessary explicit sex scenes.
The Ugly: As in his other books, the women are always really hot, look 17 even when they're not, and are very horny. I don't think a fat, middle-aged woman has ever made an appearance in any Hamilton book I've read. Without the sexism, I would have given this book five stars. There is one really terrific female character in this book, but the first half it always brings up how hot she is because she has only aged one year for every decade since she was 17. Fortunately, she spends the last 1/3 of the book
Fortunately, the positives outweigh the negatives. I spent the first 18 hours of this 36+ hour audiobook thinking I would never read another Peter F. Hamilton novel again. I finished anticipating his next release. However, can he please get a feminist editor to slap him into shape?
The Good: Great SF ideas, great SF settings, and characters I grow to love.
The Bad: Way too long, and some really unnecessary explicit sex scenes.
The Ugly: As in his other books, the women are always really hot, look 17 even when they're not, and are very horny. I don't think a fat, middle-aged woman has ever made an appearance in any Hamilton book I've read. Without the sexism, I would have given this book five stars. There is one really terrific female character in this book, but the first half it always brings up how hot she is because she has only aged one year for every decade since she was 17. Fortunately, she spends the last 1/3 of the book
Fortunately, the positives outweigh the negatives. I spent the first 18 hours of this 36+ hour audiobook thinking I would never read another Peter F. Hamilton novel again. I finished anticipating his next release. However, can he please get a feminist editor to slap him into shape?
March 29, 2016
I had a delightful journey down the Great North Road. Most reviewers complained that it was way too long – well, most of his works are the same. If you are a fan of his opera, you can’t expect anything else, I think. And taken into consideration that the universe in which the events are taking place is relatively small this time, I must say that the police investigation was perfectly balanced with the alien hunting, Angela’s story and Norths’ placement. Not to mention that I loved the outcome in St. Libra’s case and the message it carries.
And so it goes the last brick by Hamilton - I read them all. I still have some left to read but they are just normal size…
And so it goes the last brick by Hamilton - I read them all. I still have some left to read but they are just normal size…
June 27, 2016
A bit of a departure for Hamilton this being a stand-alone work. I found the story to be quite engaging, best described as science-fiction noir with a dash of alien mystery for good measure. Terrific read as always, I am almost never disappointed with anything that Hamilton produces. This book is no different.
April 20, 2013
Book Info: Genre: Speculative Fiction/Crime Thriller/Murder Mystery/Science Fiction
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of Peter F. Hamilton, those who enjoy an epic story, science fiction/speculative fiction
Trigger Warnings: murder, torture (mostly by drugs, but some physical)
Animal Abuse: people flee and leave behind their cats to fend for themselves, leading to the cats freezing to death
This is a fairly long review, but then again, it's a really long book. The important stuff is in “My Thoughts”; you can skip the rest if you want.
My Thoughts: Call me a hopeless optimist. I've read a number of Peter Hamilton's trilogies, and even a few of his rare stand-alone books (like this one), and been blown away by them up until about the last quarter of the final book (or the very end, as the case may be), where he inevitably pulls out a deus ex machina after painting himself into a corner. However, the stories are always so awesome up to that point that I just keep picking the books up and keep hoping that this time... this time he'll do it right. And, to my delight, he did! While the very last chapter is a bit puzzling, and makes me wonder if we'll ever learn what happened during those 225 years, this story had a great ending.
Am I the only one for whom political correctness is a real pain? I don't mean the idea behind it—after all speaking mindfully is a good thing—but the excesses that some people insist upon? For instance: Charmonique Passam, who declared the term “Human Resources” offensive and should be changed to the “Office for Personkind Enablement”. “Human” is fairly easy to understand—after all, it does include “man”—but her reasoning behind the offensiveness of “Resources” is that it makes one think of something one digs from the ground, and since so many minerals and such are rare... Seriously? I'm also thinking of the moment where Sid first sees Vance Elston and describes him internally as Afro-American. Well, the reader knows this is true, that Vance is from Texas, but how does Sid know? Sid is, after all, in England, leading an English crew and expecting someone in from Brussels, not the US. So why Afro-American? That seems to me to be an author desperately wanting to ingratiate himself with a certain demographic. He also tends to carefully point out the race of his characters, which I find troublesome. I've noticed that elsewhere lately there is a trend to avoid the sorts of descriptions that would pinpoint a race; I've read books where I've been almost to the end before reading a specific character is of African or Indian or Asian descent, and I think that sort of “color blindness” is a better way to work things than to so carefully let people know, because honestly? Their race isn't important; their character is. But that's just me. Anyway, for a good example of that sort of non-description, see London Falling by Paul Cornell (review linked here where formatting allowed). While I found the extreme lack of physical description occasionally disorienting, I did appreciate that the author didn't constantly mention the races of his characters.
I noticed that some weird things have changed by 2143, 130 years in the future. For instance, the word cafetière is now spelled cafeteer instead of French press. The waters of the Tyne manage to avoid freezing despite a long stretch of sub-zero temperatures (although the waterfall on the North property does freeze). But people apparently still use the term “WTF”. Fascinating.
I had a difficult time engaging with this book initially. I was almost a third of the way through it before it really grabbed my attention, and that took me three days. There was no specific fault that caused this, I just kept finding my mind drifting away, finding myself re-reading sections over and over again to try to make them stick. The typical Hamilton approach of throwing huge casts at the reader certainly doesn't help, as it makes it difficult to really connect to any specific person right away. However, the advantage to the length of the book is that even with this method, eventually all the characters are introduced and developed and the reader can begin to understand them.
That said, once it caught me, it really caught me, and as I mentioned above, this story probably had the best-done ending of any Peter F. Hamilton book I've read thus far (and I've read a number of them). If you, like me, enjoy his writing style but are continually frustrated by the ending, you'll be pleasantly surprised by this one. I would like to know the meaning and history behind the happenings in the final chapter, but life isn't always tied up in a neat bow, and even the best-told story will leave questions if done properly. Overall I can recommend the story. If you're interested, check it out.
Disclosure: I received a paperback ARC from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: A century from now, thanks to a technology allowing instantaneous travel across light-years, humanity has solved its energy shortages, cleaned up the environment, and created far-flung colony worlds. The keys to this empire belong to the powerful North family—composed of successive generations of clones. Yet these clones are not identical. For one thing, genetic errors have crept in with each generation. For another, the original three clone “brothers” have gone their separate ways, and the branches of the family are now friendly rivals more than allies.
Or maybe not so friendly. At least that’s what the murder of a North clone in the English city of Newcastle suggests to Detective Sidney Hurst. Sid is a solid investigator who’d like nothing better than to hand off this hot potato of a case. The way he figures it, whether he solves the crime or not, he’ll make enough enemies to ruin his career.
Yet Sid’s case is about to take an unexpected turn: because the circumstances of the murder bear an uncanny resemblance to a killing that took place years ago on the planet St. Libra, where a North clone and his entire household were slaughtered in cold blood. The convicted slayer, Angela Tramelo, has always claimed her innocence. And now it seems she may have been right. Because only the St. Libra killer could have committed the Newcastle crime.
Problem is, Angela also claims that the murderer was an alien monster.
Now Sid must navigate through a Byzantine minefield of competing interests within the police department and the world’s political and economic elite . . . all the while hunting down a brutal killer poised to strike again. And on St. Libra, Angela, newly released from prison, joins a mission to hunt down the elusive alien, only to learn that the line between hunter and hunted is a thin one.
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of Peter F. Hamilton, those who enjoy an epic story, science fiction/speculative fiction
Trigger Warnings: murder, torture (mostly by drugs, but some physical)
Animal Abuse: people flee and leave behind their cats to fend for themselves, leading to the cats freezing to death
This is a fairly long review, but then again, it's a really long book. The important stuff is in “My Thoughts”; you can skip the rest if you want.
My Thoughts: Call me a hopeless optimist. I've read a number of Peter Hamilton's trilogies, and even a few of his rare stand-alone books (like this one), and been blown away by them up until about the last quarter of the final book (or the very end, as the case may be), where he inevitably pulls out a deus ex machina after painting himself into a corner. However, the stories are always so awesome up to that point that I just keep picking the books up and keep hoping that this time... this time he'll do it right. And, to my delight, he did! While the very last chapter is a bit puzzling, and makes me wonder if we'll ever learn what happened during those 225 years, this story had a great ending.
Am I the only one for whom political correctness is a real pain? I don't mean the idea behind it—after all speaking mindfully is a good thing—but the excesses that some people insist upon? For instance: Charmonique Passam, who declared the term “Human Resources” offensive and should be changed to the “Office for Personkind Enablement”. “Human” is fairly easy to understand—after all, it does include “man”—but her reasoning behind the offensiveness of “Resources” is that it makes one think of something one digs from the ground, and since so many minerals and such are rare... Seriously? I'm also thinking of the moment where Sid first sees Vance Elston and describes him internally as Afro-American. Well, the reader knows this is true, that Vance is from Texas, but how does Sid know? Sid is, after all, in England, leading an English crew and expecting someone in from Brussels, not the US. So why Afro-American? That seems to me to be an author desperately wanting to ingratiate himself with a certain demographic. He also tends to carefully point out the race of his characters, which I find troublesome. I've noticed that elsewhere lately there is a trend to avoid the sorts of descriptions that would pinpoint a race; I've read books where I've been almost to the end before reading a specific character is of African or Indian or Asian descent, and I think that sort of “color blindness” is a better way to work things than to so carefully let people know, because honestly? Their race isn't important; their character is. But that's just me. Anyway, for a good example of that sort of non-description, see London Falling by Paul Cornell (review linked here where formatting allowed). While I found the extreme lack of physical description occasionally disorienting, I did appreciate that the author didn't constantly mention the races of his characters.
I noticed that some weird things have changed by 2143, 130 years in the future. For instance, the word cafetière is now spelled cafeteer instead of French press. The waters of the Tyne manage to avoid freezing despite a long stretch of sub-zero temperatures (although the waterfall on the North property does freeze). But people apparently still use the term “WTF”. Fascinating.
I had a difficult time engaging with this book initially. I was almost a third of the way through it before it really grabbed my attention, and that took me three days. There was no specific fault that caused this, I just kept finding my mind drifting away, finding myself re-reading sections over and over again to try to make them stick. The typical Hamilton approach of throwing huge casts at the reader certainly doesn't help, as it makes it difficult to really connect to any specific person right away. However, the advantage to the length of the book is that even with this method, eventually all the characters are introduced and developed and the reader can begin to understand them.
That said, once it caught me, it really caught me, and as I mentioned above, this story probably had the best-done ending of any Peter F. Hamilton book I've read thus far (and I've read a number of them). If you, like me, enjoy his writing style but are continually frustrated by the ending, you'll be pleasantly surprised by this one. I would like to know the meaning and history behind the happenings in the final chapter, but life isn't always tied up in a neat bow, and even the best-told story will leave questions if done properly. Overall I can recommend the story. If you're interested, check it out.
Disclosure: I received a paperback ARC from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: A century from now, thanks to a technology allowing instantaneous travel across light-years, humanity has solved its energy shortages, cleaned up the environment, and created far-flung colony worlds. The keys to this empire belong to the powerful North family—composed of successive generations of clones. Yet these clones are not identical. For one thing, genetic errors have crept in with each generation. For another, the original three clone “brothers” have gone their separate ways, and the branches of the family are now friendly rivals more than allies.
Or maybe not so friendly. At least that’s what the murder of a North clone in the English city of Newcastle suggests to Detective Sidney Hurst. Sid is a solid investigator who’d like nothing better than to hand off this hot potato of a case. The way he figures it, whether he solves the crime or not, he’ll make enough enemies to ruin his career.
Yet Sid’s case is about to take an unexpected turn: because the circumstances of the murder bear an uncanny resemblance to a killing that took place years ago on the planet St. Libra, where a North clone and his entire household were slaughtered in cold blood. The convicted slayer, Angela Tramelo, has always claimed her innocence. And now it seems she may have been right. Because only the St. Libra killer could have committed the Newcastle crime.
Problem is, Angela also claims that the murderer was an alien monster.
Now Sid must navigate through a Byzantine minefield of competing interests within the police department and the world’s political and economic elite . . . all the while hunting down a brutal killer poised to strike again. And on St. Libra, Angela, newly released from prison, joins a mission to hunt down the elusive alien, only to learn that the line between hunter and hunted is a thin one.
January 9, 2013
In reading Peter F. Hamilton's Great North Road I certainly stepped out of my reading 'box', but then I've been doing that a lot over the past few years. This massive tome--nearly 1,000 pages--is a rock-solid and riveting example of the sub-genre of science fiction known as 'space opera', and I have to say that I enjoyed every moment reading this book. I had never read anything by Hamilton before, but I am quite sure that I'll be looking at some of his other fiction in the near future.
Simply put, Great North Road is a tale that takes place approximately 150 years in the future, and is a wonderful combination of a police-procedural murder mystery and the story of a military expedition and exploration on the new and strange world of St. Libra, an Earth-like planet, orbiting the Sirius star system (about 8 light years from our own Solar System). St. Libra is a planet that is mostly covered with water, but with several large land masses that contain a dense and virtually impenetrable jungle. St. Libra also happens to be the location of a large "bioil" facility that manufactures petroleum products created from algae that is 'farmed' in large paddies. This oil is then transported through a "trans-spacial connection", or gateway, back to Earth where it is used by European countries in what is now known as "Grande Europe" (a nod to the current European Union, I'm guessing).
Much of the police procedural elements of the novel are centered on the city of Newcastle in England, where there is a corresponding 'gateway' that allows instantaneous travel and transportation of people and equipment from Earth to St. Libra. Many countries around the world have also established gateways to other worlds and have either created quasi-Utopian settlements, or have engaged in economic- or ethnic-cleansing and have transported their undesirables to these new worlds (i.e., much like the English used to transport criminals, and others, to penal colonies in Australia in the late-18th and early-19th centuries). Additionally, there is the added tension throughout much of the novel of the risk of invasion and attack by a truly horrific alien life-form, the "Zanthswarm", which has attacked and destroyed several of the human settlements on other worlds with millions of human casualties. The Human Defense Alliance (HDA) exists to protect all humans (and the gateways) from alien threats, and kind of reminded me of our NATO alliance today, or even the U.S. Homeland Security Department.
Hamilton's world-building and his information-dumps are well handled through the use of a timeline that hops back and forth over a span of a century or more, and seen through multiple points-of-view of the various characters in the novel. There are also some really well thought out notions associated with human cloning, and gene modification (if you have the money) that slows and even reverses the effects of aging, some seriously cool and advanced medical procedures. I also really found fascinating Hamilton's vision of how artificial intelligence (AI) and information technology is used in this novel. People are essentially hard-wired into the 'world-wide-web' and can pull up and utilize their own personal 'net' to communicate and access and process all kinds of information and technology--pretty much all 'virtual reality'. Obviously, this technology allows the police to accomplish some pretty amazing things when it comes to trying to solve crimes, and the soldiers on St. Libra to coordinate and stay linked together as they search for a dangerous alien entity that may, or may not, be involved in the murder that occurred back on Earth.
While some readers may balk a bit at the slightly ponderous pace of the first third of the novel--mostly involving the murder mystery and the Newcastle police--I encourage readers to stay with it as the pace picks up dramatically as characters and plot-lines begin to converge, and then one finds oneself fully engaged as the book roars to its very satisfying conclusion. I have to say that I was mightily impressed at the overall tone and tenor of the novel and its subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, moral messages that invite the reader to periodically stop and reflect upon a whole of host of issues, including things like population and emigration/immigration control, medical and bio-ethics, control and use of nuclear and biological weapons, and environmental stewardship and the harvesting and utilization of natural resources. Without being 'preachy' in the novel, I think Hamilton wants his reader to think about these issues and the moral and ethical responsibilities that humans--as an intelligent species--have, and that as we move forward in exploring our Solar System that we do so in a thoughtful, deliberate, and responsible fashion.
The Great North Road is an excellent novel on many levels, and I unhesitatingly recommend reading it. If you like scifi you'll probably love the book; and even if you don't, the plot and science elements in Great North Road are still close enough to our time frame such that it makes sense and isn't too abstract. For me, Great North Road is a solid four out of five stars. A good read indeed!
Simply put, Great North Road is a tale that takes place approximately 150 years in the future, and is a wonderful combination of a police-procedural murder mystery and the story of a military expedition and exploration on the new and strange world of St. Libra, an Earth-like planet, orbiting the Sirius star system (about 8 light years from our own Solar System). St. Libra is a planet that is mostly covered with water, but with several large land masses that contain a dense and virtually impenetrable jungle. St. Libra also happens to be the location of a large "bioil" facility that manufactures petroleum products created from algae that is 'farmed' in large paddies. This oil is then transported through a "trans-spacial connection", or gateway, back to Earth where it is used by European countries in what is now known as "Grande Europe" (a nod to the current European Union, I'm guessing).
Much of the police procedural elements of the novel are centered on the city of Newcastle in England, where there is a corresponding 'gateway' that allows instantaneous travel and transportation of people and equipment from Earth to St. Libra. Many countries around the world have also established gateways to other worlds and have either created quasi-Utopian settlements, or have engaged in economic- or ethnic-cleansing and have transported their undesirables to these new worlds (i.e., much like the English used to transport criminals, and others, to penal colonies in Australia in the late-18th and early-19th centuries). Additionally, there is the added tension throughout much of the novel of the risk of invasion and attack by a truly horrific alien life-form, the "Zanthswarm", which has attacked and destroyed several of the human settlements on other worlds with millions of human casualties. The Human Defense Alliance (HDA) exists to protect all humans (and the gateways) from alien threats, and kind of reminded me of our NATO alliance today, or even the U.S. Homeland Security Department.
Hamilton's world-building and his information-dumps are well handled through the use of a timeline that hops back and forth over a span of a century or more, and seen through multiple points-of-view of the various characters in the novel. There are also some really well thought out notions associated with human cloning, and gene modification (if you have the money) that slows and even reverses the effects of aging, some seriously cool and advanced medical procedures. I also really found fascinating Hamilton's vision of how artificial intelligence (AI) and information technology is used in this novel. People are essentially hard-wired into the 'world-wide-web' and can pull up and utilize their own personal 'net' to communicate and access and process all kinds of information and technology--pretty much all 'virtual reality'. Obviously, this technology allows the police to accomplish some pretty amazing things when it comes to trying to solve crimes, and the soldiers on St. Libra to coordinate and stay linked together as they search for a dangerous alien entity that may, or may not, be involved in the murder that occurred back on Earth.
While some readers may balk a bit at the slightly ponderous pace of the first third of the novel--mostly involving the murder mystery and the Newcastle police--I encourage readers to stay with it as the pace picks up dramatically as characters and plot-lines begin to converge, and then one finds oneself fully engaged as the book roars to its very satisfying conclusion. I have to say that I was mightily impressed at the overall tone and tenor of the novel and its subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, moral messages that invite the reader to periodically stop and reflect upon a whole of host of issues, including things like population and emigration/immigration control, medical and bio-ethics, control and use of nuclear and biological weapons, and environmental stewardship and the harvesting and utilization of natural resources. Without being 'preachy' in the novel, I think Hamilton wants his reader to think about these issues and the moral and ethical responsibilities that humans--as an intelligent species--have, and that as we move forward in exploring our Solar System that we do so in a thoughtful, deliberate, and responsible fashion.
The Great North Road is an excellent novel on many levels, and I unhesitatingly recommend reading it. If you like scifi you'll probably love the book; and even if you don't, the plot and science elements in Great North Road are still close enough to our time frame such that it makes sense and isn't too abstract. For me, Great North Road is a solid four out of five stars. A good read indeed!
March 5, 2021
Sci-fi, Hamilton, huge book fan so take my rating appropriately. Lots of threads woven together, no particularly brilliant insights into the human condition and a not subtle jab at humans=polluters.
Still, it was a fairly interesting mystery/police procedural and lets me dream about faster than light travel and other worlds plus living for a very long time.
Still, it was a fairly interesting mystery/police procedural and lets me dream about faster than light travel and other worlds plus living for a very long time.
April 2, 2018
4.5
Unglaublich, was Peter F. Hamilton alles in diese Roman gepackt hat: Krimi, Space Opera, Survival, Thriller, etc.
Ich hatte das Gefühl, als hätte der Verlag zum Autor gesagt: mach doch mal keinen Zyklus, sondern einen Einzelroman! Vom Umfang her sind es aber zwei Bücher geworden :-)
Heraus kam eine Mischung zwischen Commonwealth-Reboot und Mindstar: das Buch ist für mich eine Essenz aller Stärken von Peter F. Hamilton: über eine sehr lange Zeit schrittweise immer mehr Puzzleteile zu einer unglaublichen Storyline beizugeben, mit tollen Charakterzeichnungen, unerwarteten Querverbindungen und Spannung bis zum Schluss.
Wie immer bei Hamilton braucht man meines Erachtens Durchhaltevermögen :-)
Einen halben Stern Abzug von meiner Seite gibt es, weil der Autor es meines Erachtens nach zu sehr auf die Spitze getrieben hat, anfangs bewusst Informationen wegzulassen, die er dann nach und nach eingestreut hat: eigentlich ein Lehrstück für Spannungsaufbau, aber für mich einfach ein Stück too much.
Insgesamt ein idealer Einstieg ins Hamiltonsche Schreibuniversum für diejenigen, welchen die mehrbändigen Zyklen zu lang sind.
Unglaublich, was Peter F. Hamilton alles in diese Roman gepackt hat: Krimi, Space Opera, Survival, Thriller, etc.
Ich hatte das Gefühl, als hätte der Verlag zum Autor gesagt: mach doch mal keinen Zyklus, sondern einen Einzelroman! Vom Umfang her sind es aber zwei Bücher geworden :-)
Heraus kam eine Mischung zwischen Commonwealth-Reboot und Mindstar: das Buch ist für mich eine Essenz aller Stärken von Peter F. Hamilton: über eine sehr lange Zeit schrittweise immer mehr Puzzleteile zu einer unglaublichen Storyline beizugeben, mit tollen Charakterzeichnungen, unerwarteten Querverbindungen und Spannung bis zum Schluss.
Wie immer bei Hamilton braucht man meines Erachtens Durchhaltevermögen :-)
Einen halben Stern Abzug von meiner Seite gibt es, weil der Autor es meines Erachtens nach zu sehr auf die Spitze getrieben hat, anfangs bewusst Informationen wegzulassen, die er dann nach und nach eingestreut hat: eigentlich ein Lehrstück für Spannungsaufbau, aber für mich einfach ein Stück too much.
Insgesamt ein idealer Einstieg ins Hamiltonsche Schreibuniversum für diejenigen, welchen die mehrbändigen Zyklen zu lang sind.
March 12, 2017
Aside from the fact that I cannot work out why this book needed to be over 1000 pages (500-600 would have sufficed, to be honest), this was actually a pretty enjoyable read. There's a little bit of belief suspension required (150 year in the future and everything feels just a little too close to home to seem plausible) but the actual plot-line worked out pretty nicely.
Read
July 11, 2016Well, I gave it 250 pages.
And this book is by no means bad....
But, given the fact that I'm currently awash in great literature (Fantasy, Comics, and otherwise), this is sadly going to the DNF pile, at least for now..
And this book is by no means bad....
But, given the fact that I'm currently awash in great literature (Fantasy, Comics, and otherwise), this is sadly going to the DNF pile, at least for now..
January 7, 2013
Full review on my podcast, SFBRP episode #178.
January 27, 2024
I nearly gave up on this 914 page book because it took 350 pages for anything even remotely interesting to happen. In 2143 a body is found in the River Tyne in the book's strange main setting, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Hundreds of pages are spent with detectives trying to figure out where the body went into the water, tracking down the taxi that carried it there, and who it is. We know it's a clone of the wealthy North family which rules parts of Earth and the universe; several hundred men in the family are clones of the patriarch, whose testicles were blown off by an IED in Iraq in 2003. We just don't know which clone is the dead body. Two other North clones are detectives working on the investigation, which seems like a conflict, but no one ever suggests they recuse themselves. The body was seemingly killed by a hand with long knife-fingers, similar to a mass murder 20 years earlier on the planet St. Libra. A woman named Angela has been serving a sentence for that murder, but it turns out she didn't do it. She claimed at trial that she saw an alien with knife extensions and smelled a minty odor at the crime scene.
St. Libra in the Sirius star system is the other main setting. A large team of investigators and support staff, including Angela (who has been freed from prison), and for some reason a few evangelical Christians, is dispatched to a remote and inhospitable part of the planet to find the alien. It begins killing them off, one by one. Then the planet's climate changes. Sunspots rage across the universe, followed by endless amounts of snow and a deep freeze. The team is trapped and struggles to survive. They ask to be exfiltrated, but their commanders on Earth refuse. So they set out in vehicles for the closest human habitation, thousands of miles away, the serial killer alien/monster following.
Amid all of this are flashbacks showing Angela's previous life and everything that has led her to this point.
The author has many tiresome tics: everyone calls everyone else "pet" and when exasperated says "crap on it." These things are said hundreds of times. Newcastle features a lot of gritty characters and gang activity, which is the opposite of what I want in science fiction. I need the Future to be sterile and antiseptic and without dialects.
The single weirdest thing was that in 2119, when Angela was living in New Florida, her baby got very sick and they rushed her to the Dan Marino Center attached to the Cleveland Clinic Hospital (in the middle of a Zanthswarm, or alien attack). [This is a real facility.] Are things still going to be named after Dan Marino 95 years from now?
This is now the fourth of Hamilton's books I've read (although I couldn't finish the Salvation trilogy and aborted the third book) and there's no need to read any more. There are intriguing tidbits of technology and science in them (such as St. Libra containing no indigenous fauna, only flora, and all of its flora has stopped evolving), but not nearly enough to sustain interest in 500-plus page books.
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