Peter F. Hamilton

Peter F. Hamilton (born 1960, Rutland, England), is a British science fiction author.

Hamilton first came to prominence in the mid 1990s with his trilogy of 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.

For his next major project Hamilton changed tack by writing an ambitious set of space operas, known collectively as The Night's Dawn Trilogy. What began in the author's mind as a normal space opera expanded to massive proportions - three novels, each well over a thousand pages long. (Due to the size of the books, for U.S. paperback publication each was split into two volumes, and for the Italian market the trilogy was released in 12 parts.) Some saw his extremely detailed exposition of the civilisation, planets, technology and cultures as a great achievement, helping to create a fully realised universe, while others complained that this was unnecessary padding which made the books overlong.

After writing a companion to the series (The Confederation Handbook, an informational book in the manner of the appendices to The Lord of the Rings), a novel for young adults (Lightstorm) and a novella for the PS Publishing series of limited editions (Watching Trees Grow), he also published another set of novellas, entitled A Second Chance At Eden. He then published his next full length novel, Fallen Dragon. In many ways this is 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 described a bleak ultra-capitalist society dominated by five mega-corporations which wielded almost unlimited power. It describes the troubled military campaign by one of these mega corparations to pacify a rival 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 interplanetary travel, and mankind does not easily adjust to zero gravity/free-fall conditions.

Misspent Youth is much shorter than either the Night's Dawn books or Fallen Dragon, and depicts a near-future version of Britain 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 didn't allow many of the characters (particularly the females) to be developed. In addition, most of the protagonists had severe character flaws which added a darker tone to the novel than much of his other work. Perhaps the most important theme established by this book was the concept of the invention 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 post-death cloning and resurrection.

His most recent work, Pandora's Star, is 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 rejuvination 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 suddently become faced with an increasingly ominous external threat.

Hamilton persistently tackles ambitious themes, particularly in Night's Dawn. In the trilogy he deals extensively with politics, comparing and contrasting a loose alliance of independent worlds with vastly different systems of political and social organisation. He also tackles religion and metaphysics. Other common themes include the problems and opportunities of technological innovation, and the phenomenon (often employed in science fiction) of technological imbalance between two societies.

He generally uses a clean, prosaic style, though he can be more adventurous in his short stories (for example, Candy Buds in A Second Chance at Eden). In Night's Dawn the style has a positive benefit in keeping the many different storylines progressing and allowing the reader to keep them all in mind, but in shorter works - particularly Misspent Youth - it can work to his disadvantage. His writing is characterised by the way it switches between several characters - often there are 3 or 4 main characters, whose paths are separate but eventually cross in the latter half of his books. This style was firmly laid down in Night's Dawn and continued in Pandora's Star.

Bibliography

The Greg Mandel Trilogy

Mindstar Rising (1993)
A Quantum Murder (1994)
The Nano Flower (1995)

The Night's Dawn Trilogy

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

The Commonwealth Saga

Pandora's Star (2004)
Judas Unchained (2005)

The Void Trilogy

(unreleased, announced August 2005)

Other novels

Lightstorm (1998, young adult novel, part of "The Web" series)
Fallen Dragon (2001)
Misspent Youth (2002, prequel of sorts to the Commonwealth Saga)

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)
Watching Trees Grow (2000, novella originally published as a limited signed edition by PS Publishing. Later anthologised in Futures, and published in a mass market paperback edition)
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)

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