Peter F. Hamilton

Peter F. Hamilton (born March 2 , 1960, Rutland, England), is a British science fiction author. He is best known for writing space opera.

Biography

Peter F. Hamilton was born in Rutland, England on March 2, 1960. After he started writing in 1987 he sold his first short story to Fear magazine in 1988. His first novel, Mindstar Rising, was published in 1993, followed by A Quantum Murder and The Nano Flower. After this he wrote a massive space opera trilogy, called the The Night's Dawn Trilogy. His latest work is the Commonwealth Saga, a space opera in two parts. His next books are announced to be the Void Trilogy. As of 2006 he still lives in Rutland with his wife Kate and daughter Sophie.

Writing style

Peter F. Hamilton generally uses a clean, prosaic style. His space opera is characterised by the way it switches between several characters - often there are three or more main characters, whose paths begin separated but eventually cross. Common themes in his books are politics, religion, and armed conflict.

Prominent books

Greg Mandel trilogy (1993-1995)

Hamilton first came to prominence in the mid-1990s with three novels featuring the psychic detective Greg Mandel. Set in a near-future Britain which has been run into the ground by a communist government, the books describe a society beginning to rebuild itself through the production of advanced technology. The books are a blend of lively scientific, political and social speculation mixed with elements of detective fiction. The books, and Hamilton himself, took some amount of criticism in British science fiction literary circles for his less than positive portrayal of an authoritarian left-wing British government.

Hamilton stated in SFX Magazine that he chose this route for his books in order to make people think and challenge their preconceptions, stating that it would be too easy to make the bad ex-government a fascist one.

The Night's Dawn Trilogy (1996-1999)

After the Greg Mandel novels, Hamilton wrote a trilogy of space operas, known collectively as The Night's Dawn Trilogy. The three novels are each well over a thousand pages long. It was followed by a companion to the series, The confederation handbook, an informational book containing data about the universe of the Night’s Dawn trilogy. Hamilton re-set several earlier short stories in the Confederation timeline, published as the collection A Second Chance at Eden, including the newly written title novella.

Fallen Dragon (2001)

His next full length novel, Fallen Dragon, is in many ways a condensation of the ideas and styles (and even characters) of the Night's Dawn trilogy, if rather darker in tone. The stand-alone book describes a bleak ultra-capitalist society dominated by five mega-corporations which wield almost unlimited power. It describes the troubled military campaign by one of these companies to pacify a rival minor colony, through the eyes of a veteran mercenary. One of the more interesting aspects of the book was its unconventional description of a spacefaring society which had not been able to develop an affordable method of interstellar travel, and where mankind does not easily adjust to zero gravity/free-fall conditions.

Misspent Youth (2002)

Misspent Youth is much shorter than either the Night's Dawn novels or Fallen Dragon, and again depicts a near-future version of Britain (but different from that in the Greg Mandel trilogy). It combines a rejuvenation theme with a growing preoccupation with the phenomenon of European integration from the Eurosceptic point of view. This was his least well received book critically, perhaps because it was Hamilton's first attempt at an in-depth character study or perhaps because much of the book was taken up with descriptions of sex which did not allow many of the characters (particularly the females) to be developed. In addition, most of the protagonists had severe character flaws which added a more uncomfortable tone to the novel than much of his other work. The book is due for US release in 2006 after substantial revision.

Perhaps the most important theme established in Misspent Youth is the concept of ultra-high density storage media at virtually no cost to the consumer. This leads to massive media piracy and the collapse of all "professional" entertainment production. It also allows the storage of human memories/personalities for posthumous cloning and resurrection.

Misspent Youth is placed in the same universe as the Commonwealth Saga, though it is not integral to the storyline of those novels. Much of the technology used in those novels (rejuvination and low cost/high capacity memory storage) is established within this book.

Commonwealth Saga (2002-2005)

His most recent work, the lengthy Commonwealth Saga, is published in two halves, Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. Set approximately 300 years later in the same universe as Misspent Youth, it explores the social effects of the almost complete elimination of the experience of death following widespread use of the rejuvenation technique described in Misspent Youth. In somewhat similar style to Night's Dawn, Hamilton also outlines, in detail, a universe with a small number of distinct alien species interacting essentially peacefully and who suddenly become faced with an increasingly ominous external threat.

Bibliography

The Greg Mandel trilogy

Mindstar Rising (1993), ISBN 0330323768
A Quantum Murder (1994), ISBN 0330330454
The Nano Flower (1995), ISBN 0330330446

The Night's Dawn Trilogy

The Reality Dysfunction (1996, published in two volumes in the US, Emergence and Expansion), ISBN 0330340328
The Neutronium Alchemist (1997, published in two volumes in the US, Consolidation and Conflict), ISBN 0330351435
The Naked God (1999, published in two volumes in paperback in the US, Flight and Faith; the US hardback was one volume), ISBN 0330351451

The Commonwealth Saga

Pandora's Star (2004), ISBN 0330493310
Judas Unchained (2005), ISBN 0330493531

The Void Trilogy

(unreleased, announced August 2005)

Other novels

Lightstorm (1998, young adult novel, part of "The Web 2027" series), ISBN 1858815509
Fallen Dragon (2001), ISBN 0330480065
Misspent Youth (2002), ISBN 0330480227

Short fiction

Falling Stones (1992)
Spare Capacity (1993)
Adam's Gene (1993)
Starlight Dreamer (1994)
Eat Reecebread with Graham Joyce (1994, published in Interzone)
The White Stuff with Graham Joyce (1997)
Escape Route (1997, published in Interzone. Reprinted in A Second Chance At Eden)
A Second Chance at Eden (1998, collection of short stories set in the Night's Dawn universe), ISBN 0330351826
Watching Trees Grow (2000, novella originally published as a limited signed edition by PS Publishing; later anthologised in Futures; then published in a mass market paperback edition), ISBN 0575073055
The Suspect Genome (2000, novella featuring Mandel published in Interzone)

Miscellaneous

The Confederation Handbook (2000, a guide in non-fiction style to the universe of the Night's Dawn trilogy), ISBN 0330396145

Interviews

1995 "From Rutland to the Universe"
1996 "ConFuse 96 Guest of Honour Interview"
1997 "Big is Beautiful"
2004 "Interview with a dystopian"

External links

1960 births | Living people | English science fiction writers

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