![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() A Second Chance at Eden by Peter F Hamilton (Macmillan, £17.99, 431 pages, hardback; published 9 October 1998). Cover by Jim Burns.
Like Stephen Baxter's two recent collections, Traces
and Vacuum Diagrams, Peter Hamilton's first collection
At first glance, A Second Chance at Eden might appear to form a fourth volume in the quite literally monstrous Night's Dawn trilogy (the first two volumes of which are reviewed elsewhere on this site: The Reality Dysfunction and The Neutronium Alchemist). In truth, the collection presents a mix of early explorations of the Night's Dawn "affinity" biotechnology and stories written to plug the early gaps in the timeline a step back from the main storyline. Where necessary, the earlier stories have been adapted to slot more smoothly into the backdrop of what became the trilogy. So perhaps it's better to view this volume as related material, then, rather than an integral part of Night's Dawn. Or maybe you should just sit back and enjoy the ride...
![]() The heart of this book is the title story, "A Second Chance at Eden" indeed, this is a short novel in its own right, and one of two stories that really do plug the gaps in the Night's Dawn timeline. It opens with world-weary ex-cop Harvey Parfitt heading out to Jupiter orbit to take over the security of the young bitek habitat, Eden. This author's characters tend to be upbeat, or at least spunky and defiant, but the character variation works well here: Hamilton does jaded well. In his introduction, the author explains that "A Second Chance at Eden" was written as a straightforward act of revenge on all those critics who had dared to suggest that his earlier sf whodunnit A Quantum Murder might have been a touch predictable (covered briefly in another review, ahem, elsewhere on this site...). With this new short novel, Hamilton takes the classic closed room murder to new heights: in a living space habitat that can see and hear all that happens within its fleshly confines, how can a murder be apparently unsolvable? Hamilton backs away from the challenge just a little (the escape clause for the all-seeing all-hearing habitat is that it wipes apparently unnecessary information from its memory after a certain time, and therefore can't see far enough back to explain the mystery) but with this story he has quite clearly answered his critics: not only is "A Second Chance at Eden" an effective and satisfying mystery, it's also a pivotal piece of backfill in the Night's Dawn future history. A major achievement, and one extremely good reason to buy this volume.
![]() The rest of the collection is a little patchy. Other high spots include:
It is, perhaps, natural that the weaker stories should be the earlier ones:
Oddly, the weakest story of all, "New Days, Old Times" is the other original: an angry response to the way the atrocities of history seem inevitably to repeat themselves in a relentless, atrocious cycle. Admirable sentiments, but it's an overlong one idea story an over-fat vignette, rather than a complete short story that adds little to the collection.
![]() A Second Chance at Eden is an interesting artefact -- plotting, as it does, the first seven years of the career of one of this decade's great sf discoveries -- and it is one that is highly recommended by infinity plus for the heights it scales. But it does show where Hamilton's strengths lie: where his novels are two or three times the length of those by most other authors, so too is his short fiction, and it appears that he's more comfortable with novelettes and novellas than with genuine short stories.
![]()
![]()
Elsewhere in infinity
plus:
|
![]() |
![]() |
Let us know what you think of infinity plus - e-mail us at: sf@infinityplus.co.uk
support this site - buy books through these links: |
![]() |
top of page [ home page | fiction | non-fiction & reviews archive | other stuff | A to Z ] [ infinity plus bookshop | search infinity plus ] © Keith Brooke 14 November 1998 |
![]() |