Subject: Review: "Mindstar Rising" by Peter F. Hamilton

From: "John Shiali" <[email-masked]>
Date: 10 Aug 1997 12:33:56 GMT

"Mindstar Rising" by Peter F. Hamilton
	Review Copyright 1997 John Shiali

[contains spoilers for this book and the predecessor, Mindstar Brigade --AW]

Peter F.  Hamilton's first book in the Greg Mandel series is pleasingly
and convincingly set in an England ravaged by ten years of far-left-wing
Socialist government and the increasing effects of global warming.  Mandel
is an ex-soldier turned Private Detective.  Product of a short military
experiment in psychic powers (The Mindstar Brigade), he can read minds to
a limited degree and has some better than average intuition, thanks to a
biological implant.  A veteran of Gulf War II, Greg Mandel smartly fits
the action hero mould along with the ability to actually think his way out
of problems.

After secretly working with and nurturing the rebels that eventually
overthrow the Socialist government, Mandel find himself finally having to
live up to his cover identity of Private Dick.  He is called in to help
Philip Evans.  Evans is an aging industrialist who suspects a spoiling
operation against some of his Orbital production factories, at a crucial
time when he is moving his company, Event Horizon, back from its offshore
havens and factory ships in order to benefit from the New Conservative
government back in England.  Event Horizon is on the verge of a new era of
superconductor based power storage, and Philip Evan's dream is to have
England become an primary economic power again by being in the vanguard of
this new technology.  As usual (unless you like your books very short and
boring), nothing is as it seems, and soon Mandel finds himself drawn into
more than just a little checking on how honest some of Event Horizon's
Orbital Engineers are, and into a full scale corporate war, where the
dirtiest player wins.

Peter F.  Hamilton manages to write both story and characters well, and
the reader soon warms to the clever psychic soldier Mandel, flighty Julia
Evans, a broken Royan, a young and determined Eleanor, streetwise punk
soldier Suzi, etc., and all the other characters to whom we are introduced.

The story is not purely action driven, but also has a puzzle element which
the reader is drawn into as Mandel tries to figure out the circles within
circles that are part of conglomerate and political life in the 21st
century.  Mandel's psychic abilities are just enough to give him an edge,
but not enough to make things easy for him and they certainly give an
interesting side to his character

Ultimately, where Hamilton scores most highly is his ability to create a
convincing and believable new version of England, where global warming has
taken hold, big corporations battle each other, both economically and
through the use of clandestine tekmercs deals.  The people are trying to
pull themselves out of a decade of rotten government, and hackers have
broken into every phone exchange so that you can hire them to do your
dirty work.

If you like your action with a bit of thinking, and your storyline with
believable characters, then this book is a must read.

%A	Hamilton, Peter F.
%T	Mindstar Rising
%G	ISBN 0-330-32376-8
%D	1993
%I	Pan Books Ltd.
%C	London, UK
%O	paperback 4.99 UKP
%P	438 pp

 John - 
Reyrolle Protection is under investigation after sales of sub-standard
crocodiles were reported.