Let me start somewhere. I am a massive advocate of Science fiction, to the point where I will tell just about anyone how much I god damn love it. In no other genre do you get such huge scope apart from fantasy - and even with that you will be hard pressed to find anything comparative.
But I will say, this book blew me away. I cannot fathom how I had managed not to read any Hamilton, I kept telling myself "Yeah I'll get round to it." but I was just lazy! Something I am regretting a lot right now.
This book literally has everything I look for in a good read. Involving characters, substantial plot development and a hugely realized universe to boot. My mind was literally blown by the huge ideas and sheer scope of Hamiltons future Earth universe.
It all starts with our main character, Lawrence Newton, the son of the aristocracy on Amethi (a future Human colony). His life is charmed and with it he is expected to uphold and lead in his fathers footsteps towards a lead role on the families estate and shares. The start of the book progresses evenly, a smattering of Lawrence Newtons upbringing and rebellion as well as some other mysterious ramblings of a nursery teacher on Thallspring (another Human colony). From here we start to get into the thick of it.
The narrative of Lawrence Newtons first love pulls the reader unabashedly in, exploring all the grit of a teenage romance in vivid detail. Along with all the angst and self obsessed misery trailing behind. In parallel we follow Newton as an officer embarking to Thallspring on an "asset realization" mission on behalf of Zantiu-Braun, the readers shade of grey bad guys.
Interestingly I found I was on the fence for a lot of this book. This really makes you think about the scope of evil - everyone in this had a reason for what they did, whether for following orders or having a cause that was humane but wasn't in line with the typical.
The action and thrill of this book really pick up half way through, vast arrays of technology and "cool as fuck" weaponry bring all the elements into focus. From optronic interfaces and dwritten bodies(dna writing I guess) - to the "Prime" program which is held in mystery for most of the book - a semi sentient program for hacking the shit out of anything.
I honestly can't bring all the details in - not for fear of spoiling this book for anyone who reads, just for the fact that the scope of this standalone novel spans everything - I couldn't begin to explain the plot to the any decent extent so take my word for it when I say this book puts so many to shame.
I envy Peter F. Hamilton for writing this.
