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Misspent Youth
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Series: Commonwealth Saga
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
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Summary
Set in the near future, over 300 years before Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, Peter F. Hamilton's Misspent Youth is a gripping introduction to the world of the Commonwealth Saga.
Jeff Baker is granted the gift of eternal youth. However, it's not all it seems....
It is 2040, and after decades of research we can finally rejuvenate a human being. At 78 years old, Jeff Baker - renowned inventor and philanthropist - has given the world much of his creative genius. He's therefore selected as first choice for this gift.
At first rejuvenation feels like a miracle, until the glow begins to fade. Personal relationships start to break down, and the world waits for more brilliant new work. Living the dream will come at a cost, but can Jeff pay the price?
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What listeners say about Misspent Youth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- nm wood
- 29-11-16
Plot of a soap opera
Struggled through tithe end in the hope of a plot because I'd paid good money to listen to this book. no better than a day time soap episode, just very poor.
8 people found this helpful
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- EMM
- 20-11-16
Sci-Fi
Not sure what percentage of a story needs to be sci-Fi in order for it to be listed as a Sc-iF book, but you won't find much in this. This was almost a Jeffrey Archer listen. Unfortunately it is a long winded and dull. I very much enjoyed this authors other books but think this book is a dud.
6 people found this helpful
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- Beenay25
- 05-01-17
Not Hamilton's usual standard.
Slow story. Not very enthralling as the only characters that I felt any empathy for were minor roles. Was more of a soap opera than sci-fi. (If you like stories where Bob is knobbing Dave's girlfriend and the resultant drama that occurs when Dave inevitably walks in at the worst possible moment... then this might be for you)
On the plus side, there were a couple of cameos from later books that were quite a treat.
Ending felt rather abrupt.
Audio performance wasn't great either. Very little range between characters.
4 people found this helpful
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- michael jones
- 11-12-16
Boring Soap opera
Unfortunately after reading and falling in love with Peter F hamiltons epic space opera stories, especially those set in the commonwealth, I decided to listen to this in hope of some back story to the development of the rejuvenation process. If your looking for an epic Sci fi story with an epic plot with all the twists and turns we've come to expect from Hamilton, or in fact any plot then don't listen to this, if your wanting a story about a father and son relationship and there feelings for each other than this is just that book.
Unfortunately I went into this book expecting way too much, which possibly could have ruined it for me but after listening to it, I wish I hadn't stuck it out to the end in hope of a big finale as there just wasn't anything worth waiting for!
Apologies to slate the book but it isn't sci-fi and is definitely not my kind of thing, it's more a romantic novel.
4 people found this helpful
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- Ørjan
- 20-10-17
A porn novel desquised as a sci fi book
This book is about a 78 year old who gets the body of a 25 year old and lives a playboy life that destroys the family.
It starts out interesting, but the author throws away the story in order to describe sex scenes with good looking teenagers.
If you just want sex, horny teenagers, parties shallow characters, and no story this is the book for you
3 people found this helpful
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- Grant
- 20-11-20
Terribly disappointing
The performance was like a teacher reading to a class of 3-year olds. While the story may have been good on its own, the narrator utterly destroyed it and I was unable to finish at all.
1 person found this helpful
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- Andrew
- 31-10-19
Peter Hamilton but with a difference...
Peter Hamilton is the master of exploring the impact deferent technologies would have on a world, looking at every aspect and facet from the functional to the social political and economical, it's one of the reasons his world building is so exceptional and creates such believable universes.
This book is a tighter focused work on the introduction of just one piece of technology (Rejuvenation) and its impact on individual people and the society as a whole. It does an excellent job of exploring the social difficulties this introduces and some of the moral dilemmas it causes.
This book feels like Peter Hamilton is exploring a slightly different writing style, and a different kind of story telling. With such a tight focus this book doesn't have the epic scale that you might be used to from a Peter Hamilton book or the widespread science fiction elements.
As a prequel book to the Commonwealth Saga it unfortunately falls short of it's potential to give us an interesting insight into what the main character from the original books were doing at this early point in the Commonwealths history. Some of the characters do appear but this book for the most part feels like a standalone story that could just as easily not be set in the Commonwealth universe.
1 person found this helpful
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- steven
- 24-07-19
Loved it
Bit slow to get into but after that. Your it is a good listen 😊
1 person found this helpful
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- Khalid S.
- 13-01-19
Not a sci fi
Really disappointed. no contribution towards the brilliant Common wealth saga. no real plot or direction.
1 person found this helpful
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- Christine
- 13-07-17
Dreadful plot no sci-fi narrated like Jackanory
I love Peter Hamilton books but this was dreadful and the narrator sounded like he was reading to children. The worst book ever
1 person found this helpful
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- Jered
- 22-03-18
Waste of a credit
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
Actually making this a sci-fi novel rather than a pre-teen wannabe erotica.
What do you think your next listen will be?
Anything but this.
What three words best describe Steven Crossley’s voice?
Slooooooooooooooow, had to listen to the entire novel at 2x speed
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
boredom
Any additional comments?
I have listened to all of Peter F. Hamilton's other books, and they are brilliant, this one is crap beyond belief. It doesn't answer any questions about rejuvenation that you may have from his other books, and the entire story is centered around teen angst. Frankly, there weren't any characters in the book that I actually liked either. Save yourself the credit and get something else, seriously.
5 people found this helpful
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- Otto
- 28-11-16
A bit of a slim story.
Compared to the previous 4 books from Peter this was a bit slim in depth an focused too much on lust. Only my opinion. I prefer the depth of the commonwealth series. My review typed on my phone in a hurry.
1 person found this helpful
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- Greg
- 10-04-22
What the heck was that?
I've read every other Hamilton book and loved them. But this one was... dull.
Its based on a mildly interesting sci-fi premise that could go in interesting ways but then, nothing. It's hours and hours (and hours) of cringy sex scenes and family drama. Sprinkle in some pointless pseudo-intellectual pan-European unrest backstory and you've just wasted 15 hours of your life. And all that for an uninteresting and ubrupt ending.
If you enjoy Hamilton books this is not for you!
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- Ben Mackney
- 08-06-21
Hamilton's gratuitous "intimacy" as a whole book
Science fiction is about exploring the impacts of futuristic technologies and settings on mankind. This book specifically explores the invention of early "rejuvenation" technology (a process that restores the body to it's youthful state) and how being the same age as your son gives you a shot at stealing your son's extremely hot girlfriend and banging her a lot. Like, a lot.
Also a bit about how he doesn't relate to his old friends because he's young now, but he doesn't relate to young people because they're so much less experienced with life, except the young women he's banging who are of course very experienced.
I kept waiting for the SciFi elements to come back but then the book just sorta ended with a "twist" that was only hinted at maybe fifteen minutes prior. I remember one of my high-school English teachers telling me about enjoying the short story I wrote for an assignment and turning the page over to discover that I appeared to have suddenly become very bored of writing it. I know exactly what he meant now.
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- David S.
- 13-08-20
Sings: I'm my own Grandpa
In the end I finally had skipped more chapters then I listened to. This seemed more like a rerun of a messy family Drama then the Prequel to the epic SF Series I was expecting.
I suppose some might find Exploring the family drama that occurs when a old man experiences the first rejuv and is suddenly the same physical age as his sons teenage girlfriend and his best friends grand-daughter. The hormons gone wild story-line was definetely underwelming. If your actually looking for a roots of the commonwealth story less then 10% of the 12.5 hours actually seems to cover that.
I've listened to many of Peter's other books and just ended up here because I wanted to "start at the begining and listen to them all". Didnt even read the reviews just expected an Epic SF Drama. If your here just to "Start from the begining". Skip this one.