Product Description

A former member of the Mindstar Battalion, Greg Mandel turns freelance operative and uses his powerful telepathic powers to search for the truth in a high-tech, dangerous futuristic world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #746229 in Books
• Published on: 1996-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 383 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Critically acclaimed in his native England for four novels, all SF, Hamilton makes his stateside debut with the novel that launched his writing career and that begins his Greg Mandel trilogy. Set in a 21st-century England recovering from massive global warming, the story reads like a collaboration between William Gibson and Ian Fleming. Freelance operative Mandel is a veteran of the Mindstar Battalion, whose men received telepathic powers via implanted glands. Now he is the ally of the teenage heiress of a high-tech industrial empire, Julia Evans, in a desperate battle against Kendric di Girolamo, a ruthless and obsessed financier, and Leopold Armstrong, former leftist dictator of England, who is trying to regain power. Plenty of action, exotic hardware (particularly computers), urban grunge, double handfuls of eccentric, decadent or criminal characters and enough willing women to raise the eyebrows of the politically correct hallmark this fast-moving tale. SF fans may particularly enjoy, as a change of pace, experiencing a vision of the future that coheres but that takes its clues from British, rather than American, society and history.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Published in England in 1993, this first book in the Greg Mandel trilogy introduces us to an England suffering from the environmental and political effects of global warming, an energy crisis, and a credit crash. Mandel, an assassin, is hired to protect a teenage corporate heiress. As Mandel goes through his paces, Hamilton fully describes the devastated countryside and political machinations in a country struggling to cope in a bleak future. Recommended for sf collections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
British author Hamilton's debut is the first of a cyberthriller trilogy set in a near-future England where global warming has wrought vast changes in the geographic, environmental, political, and economic landscape. Greg Mandel, a veteran of the Mindstar Battalion, now survives happily on various small commissions. His particular advantage is a gland whose secretions give him the psi powers of empathy, truthsense, hunch. Greg's latest job involves the company Event Horizon, owned and operated by dying industrialist Philip Evans and his cyber-enhanced young granddaughter, Julia: Someone is sabotaging its orbital factories in an attempt to bankrupt the company and seize its secret new invention, a room-temperature superconductor. Greg's investigation points toward evil financier Kendric di Girolamo. Soon, Philip dies, after having had his personality stored in a computer; but then a computer virus nearly zaps him for real. And Kendric, or someone, sabotages the superconductor tests. So Greg calls in a psi-powered colleague, Gabriel, who can predict the future. Another virus attack takes Philip and Julia off-line, while Greg and Gabriel strike at Kendric--only to fall into a trap. Turns out that Kendric has acquired a very powerful ally indeed: the communist ex- President, Leopold Armstrong, whose hated minions nearly destroyed the country, and against whom Philip and Greg have been fighting for years. Believable characters and a solid plot set against a carefully worked-out backdrop: an assured, effective debut from a writer to watch. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Excellent entry into a tough field of writing!
Near-future SF seems to be almost as hard to do well as fantasy. Too often, authors of both kinds of material rely on tired cliches or an assumption that a reader will fill in the blanks rather than taking the time to create and then ground their story in a fully realized world.

Thankfully, Peter F. Hamilton took the time in 'Mindstar Rising' to fully introduce the reader to the 21st century world of Greg Mandel (a veteran soldier turned trouble-shooter for hire) before launching his characters into a thrilling mystery plot.

The end result is a futuristic detective story that has heavy techno-thriller aspects and touches of the fantastic, by the way of psionics and precognative abilities. Nonetheless, it all makes perfect sense... and at no time does the reader feel like an alien in the setting. This makes his already well-drawn characters even more believable.

If more writers were willing to spend the time that Hamilton spends on world-development, we might see non-media tie-ins reclaim some of the shelfspace in the bookstores. We certainly need more writers of Hamilton's calibre working in the science fiction and fantasy genres!

Good ideas and a good read: Rising Author
Despite disliking the title of this book - as it is way to close to Brin's "Startide Rising" - and thinking that the opening was weak (especially the "sharp scintillations slashing" triple enumerated alliteration in the first line), I found that I enjoyed it. After a shaky start, Hamilton manages to spin an interesting story. Set in the near future, the world his protagonist, Greg Mandel, lives in is one afflicted by climate change and political warfare. Hamliton manages to pump out numerous dry and wet tech ideas as well as including some sociological ones.

Some of the characterization is a little weak and, in my opinion, the balance between filling in too little detail on the "universe" the story is set in and too much is off a few times. (I found myself skipping parts of paragraphs here and there which, to be fair, was probably as much to get back to the gripping action as to skip tedious excessive descriptions of the countryside.) That said, this action-detective story is worth reading as it still manages to entertain and stimulate the imagination.

This was Hamilton's debut novel. In his later works, especially in "The Reality Dysfunction" Hamilton improves on his characterization without loosing the ability keep the action and ideas flowing...starting with his first book will only whet your appetite for Hamilton's writing.

Clearly a 'first' book - not as good as his later works.
I picked up this trilogy after reading, and loving, The Reality Dysfunction and The Neutronium Alchemist. Mindstar Rising is entertaining and moves along well, but comes nowhere near the scope, grandeur, and excellence of his later works. It is clearly a 'first' novel - it became rather tedious to receive a description of hair and clothing every time a character appeared in a scene. Hamilton does demonstrate, however, his knack for creating a rich and detailed world - one of the elements that makes The Neutronium Alchemist such an astounding work. The book is easy reading, and has plenty to keep the reader's interest, but I'd steer towards the latter series if you haven't already read them.