I’ve read thousands of pages written by Peter Hamilton, many thousands, usually in the form of voluminous trilogies (Night’s Dawn, Void, Salvation) or other collections (Commonwealth Saga, Mandel Files) in addition to single volume works such as Great North Road and Fallen Dragon. Hamilton is a brilliant writer of hard science fiction.

This is the first collection of his short stories that I have read and consists of seven stories of varying length, three of which take place in the Commonwealth universe, two focusing on investigator Paula Myo.

If you like hard science fiction, you’ll enjoy this collection. If you like the style, there are many thousands pages of similar work available to you. ( )

The best material Hamilton has written has all been less than 400p long and some of the very best less than 100p. This volume continues to show this "quality is inversely proportional to length" phenomenon in his writing to be true, with a couple of his best ever tales showing up here.

It's unfortunate for me that both of my favourites in this volume were stories I had come across elsewhere. One is the kind of SF-detective genre mash-up that is both Hamilton's most uniquely distinctive writing trait and what generally plays up his strengths, the other is a very conventional time-travel story in one sense and also a long way from what most people would first think of when asked to describe typical Hamilton.

The other stories are variable in quality but none is bad. Two feature Paula Myo, who is, I would guess, Hamilton's most popular character.

I'd love to see many more of these short story collections. ( )

Peter F. Hamilton is not an author known for writing small stories. Most of his novels are big enough to make young maidens blush and old women cackle inappropriately. In fact, what are the dimensions of an average Hamilton book, Eddie?



Thanks, Eddie. Here are some interesting facts, interesting-fact fans. In 2009 Peter F. Hamilton's writing made up 10% of the books I read but almost 30% of the pages. For every ten books I read that year, one of them was written by Hamilton, but for every ten pages I read, three were his. In 2010 the he wrote 5% of the books I read but 17% of the pages. (By comparison 2011 was a Hamilton-light year: 6% of the books I read were his and a relatively paltry 10% of the pages. But then I did read some real whoppers last year.)

Suffice it to say, then, that the words “Peter F. Hamilton” and “short story” aren't ones seen together regularly. Indeed, Manhattan in Reverse is only his second short story collection and contains all the ones he's written since the last collection was published in 1998. All seven of them. Stephen King might write a thousand page novel while you're reading the part of this sentence before the semi-colon; and a half-dozen short stories while you're reading the part after the semi-colon. But Peter F. Hamilton hates semi-colons. By which I mean he seems to prefer writing enormous tomes. Obviously.

All this raises the question: can a writer who specialises in three thousand page trilogies pull off seven decent stories in less than three hundred pages? Why yes, yes he can.

If future scholars of literature were trying to date the stories contained in Manhattan in Reverse and Wikipedia was down then they would not be hard-pressed to place them in Hamilton's “Commonwealth era”. The six novels in the Commonwealth Universe ([b:Misspent Youth|45248|Misspent Youth|Peter F. Hamilton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170278148s/45248.jpg|44511], the Commonwealth Saga, and the Void trilogy) have formed the brunt of Hamilton's writing during the past decade, with another two novels due in the coming years. Three of the stories in this collection consider the impact on humanity of technological advancements also considered in the Commonwealth books, namely wormhole travel to other worlds invented and controlled by private individuals, and medical advancements granting humans longer life, or even immortality. Another three of the stories are set in the Commonwealth Universe itself, neatly plugging some of the gaps in the 300 years betwixt Misspent Youth and the Commonwealth Saga and the 1200 years between the Commonwealth Saga and the Void trilogy. The remaining tale is a time travel story pondering what would happen if one was able to travel back in time to one's youth yet retain all the memories of adulthood, a notion also given some not inconsiderable consideration in [b:The Evolutionary Void|10358292|The Evolutionary Void|Peter F. Hamilton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327106255s/10358292.jpg|9438856].

The stories not set in the Commonwealth Universe all take a slightly darker view of these issues than their Commonwealth counterparts. In Footvote, wormhole travel is invented by a Daily Mail reading Briton who uses it to set up a new Britain on a distant planet that seems to use editorials from right-leaning tabloids as its legal code. The contrast to the hippy-esque Nigel and Ozzie who brought wormholes to the Commonwealth is intense, as is the tightly personal nature of the story, in stark contrast to Hamilton's usual sweeping fare. How humanity deals with immortality coupled with technology that can provide us with anything whenever we want it is given some treatment in the murder mystery novella Watching Trees Grow, while the possibilities of eternal youth are given a more chilling twist in the flash fiction The Forever Kitten. The ability to reset one's life but retain one's memories, a major desideratum for many characters in the Void trilogy wishing to remedy past mistakes is again given a more nefarious twist in If at First… where the more immediate material possibilities of such an ability are looked at.

Two of the three Commonwealth stories herein are straight up interquels, providing origin stories for characters and groups appearing in the Void books. The third, the eponymous tale, is a short, sweet mystery story which could be subtitled Where Paula Myo went on holiday after [b:Judas Unchained|9045555|Judas Unchained (Commonwealth Saga, #2)|Peter F. Hamilton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1292273190s/9045555.jpg|44507], and what she found there. Although “Manhattan in Reverse” is probably snappier, which is why I'm not a professional subtitle writer.

All seven of the tales are interesting to read and suit their length—these aren't Hamilton-sized stories crudely cut down to fit in a short story collection. The writing itself is sometimes a little clumsy, the most jarring example to my eyes being an adverb-laden patch of The Demon Trap which includes the line “‘There he is,’ Paula exclaimed contentedly”. I tried to replicate the effect of a content exclamation to no avail. But for the most part the work is snappy and readable, Hamilton doing his usual good job at establishing enough about the technology and social structures in his settings through casual dialogue, without having Captain Exposition walk out and give long incongruous speeches about this, that, or indeed the other. He's also avoided the major fault I found in the Commonwealth Saga: that of dropping the plot every few pages so his characters could drop their trousers. Trousers in this collection were pretty much like my opinions of it: riding high for most of the time. ( )

Peter F. Hamilton is not an author known for writing small stories. Most of his novels are big enough to make young maidens blush and old women cackle inappropriately. In fact, what are the dimensions of an average Hamilton book, Eddie?



Thanks, Eddie. Here are some interesting facts, interesting-fact fans. In 2009 Peter F. Hamilton's writing made up 10% of the books I read but almost 30% of the pages. For every ten books I read that year, one of them was written by Hamilton, but for every ten pages I read, three were his. In 2010 the he wrote 5% of the books I read but 17% of the pages. (By comparison 2011 was a Hamilton-light year: 6% of the books I read were his and a relatively paltry 10% of the pages. But then I did read some real whoppers last year.)

Suffice it to say, then, that the words “Peter F. Hamilton” and “short story” aren't ones seen together regularly. Indeed, Manhattan in Reverse is only his second short story collection and contains all the ones he's written since the last collection was published in 1998. All seven of them. Stephen King might write a thousand page novel while you're reading the part of this sentence before the semi-colon; and a half-dozen short stories while you're reading the part after the semi-colon. But Peter F. Hamilton hates semi-colons. By which I mean he seems to prefer writing enormous tomes. Obviously.

All this raises the question: can a writer who specialises in three thousand page trilogies pull off seven decent stories in less than three hundred pages? Why yes, yes he can.

If future scholars of literature were trying to date the stories contained in Manhattan in Reverse and Wikipedia was down then they would not be hard-pressed to place them in Hamilton's “Commonwealth era”. The six novels in the Commonwealth Universe ([b:Misspent Youth|45248|Misspent Youth|Peter F. Hamilton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170278148s/45248.jpg|44511], the Commonwealth Saga, and the Void trilogy) have formed the brunt of Hamilton's writing during the past decade, with another two novels due in the coming years. Three of the stories in this collection consider the impact on humanity of technological advancements also considered in the Commonwealth books, namely wormhole travel to other worlds invented and controlled by private individuals, and medical advancements granting humans longer life, or even immortality. Another three of the stories are set in the Commonwealth Universe itself, neatly plugging some of the gaps in the 300 years betwixt Misspent Youth and the Commonwealth Saga and the 1200 years between the Commonwealth Saga and the Void trilogy. The remaining tale is a time travel story pondering what would happen if one was able to travel back in time to one's youth yet retain all the memories of adulthood, a notion also given some not inconsiderable consideration in [b:The Evolutionary Void|10358292|The Evolutionary Void|Peter F. Hamilton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327106255s/10358292.jpg|9438856].

The stories not set in the Commonwealth Universe all take a slightly darker view of these issues than their Commonwealth counterparts. In Footvote, wormhole travel is invented by a Daily Mail reading Briton who uses it to set up a new Britain on a distant planet that seems to use editorials from right-leaning tabloids as its legal code. The contrast to the hippy-esque Nigel and Ozzie who brought wormholes to the Commonwealth is intense, as is the tightly personal nature of the story, in stark contrast to Hamilton's usual sweeping fare. How humanity deals with immortality coupled with technology that can provide us with anything whenever we want it is given some treatment in the murder mystery novella Watching Trees Grow, while the possibilities of eternal youth are given a more chilling twist in the flash fiction The Forever Kitten. The ability to reset one's life but retain one's memories, a major desideratum for many characters in the Void trilogy wishing to remedy past mistakes is again given a more nefarious twist in If at First… where the more immediate material possibilities of such an ability are looked at.

Two of the three Commonwealth stories herein are straight up interquels, providing origin stories for characters and groups appearing in the Void books. The third, the eponymous tale, is a short, sweet mystery story which could be subtitled Where Paula Myo went on holiday after [b:Judas Unchained|9045555|Judas Unchained (Commonwealth Saga, #2)|Peter F. Hamilton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1292273190s/9045555.jpg|44507], and what she found there. Although “Manhattan in Reverse” is probably snappier, which is why I'm not a professional subtitle writer.

All seven of the tales are interesting to read and suit their length—these aren't Hamilton-sized stories crudely cut down to fit in a short story collection. The writing itself is sometimes a little clumsy, the most jarring example to my eyes being an adverb-laden patch of The Demon Trap which includes the line “‘There he is,’ Paula exclaimed contentedly”. I tried to replicate the effect of a content exclamation to no avail. But for the most part the work is snappy and readable, Hamilton doing his usual good job at establishing enough about the technology and social structures in his settings through casual dialogue, without having Captain Exposition walk out and give long incongruous speeches about this, that, or indeed the other. He's also avoided the major fault I found in the Commonwealth Saga: that of dropping the plot every few pages so his characters could drop their trousers. Trousers in this collection were pretty much like my opinions of it: riding high for most of the time. ( )

Excellent collection of short stories by the SF master. ( )