Manhattan in Reverse

Peter F. Hamilton

25 July 2019
9781509868711
272 pages

Synopsis

In this collection of short stories, Peter F. Hamilton draws you into an array of captivating tales. These exciting glimpses into his worlds are not to be missed – and as Ken Follett says, ‘each short story has enough ideas for a whole novel’.

Manhattan in Reverse features the author’s popular detective Paula Myo, from his bestselling Commonwealth books. Other stories include Watching Trees Grow – a murder mystery set in an alternative 1800s Oxford – and The Forever Kitten. This questions eternal youth and the sacrifices required to pursue it. With all his usual brilliantly conceived storytelling, Peter F. Hamilton’s talents are on full display.

A rare collection from one of sci-fi’s more engaging storytellers
Hamilton is often associated with space operas unusual even in that genre for both scale and mass; one of the best stories here, “Watching Trees Grow”, depicts the human race’s expansion out from its home world as the background to an immortal Javert’s inexorable solution to a whodunit. He also usefully reminds us that it is possible for people of somewhat conservative views to be humane; the title story is an effective puzzle concluding in a moral point that does not only apply to alien planets
The collection’s highpoint is the excelled novella “Watching Tress Grow”, set in an alternate reality in which Rome never fell and most citizens are immortal

Books by Peter F. Hamilton