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If At First . . . (Short Story) (2000)

by Peter F. Hamilton(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 3

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review 1: Hamilton does a fine job here of balancing the detective procedural with that of a futurist time travel tale, and while I have not yet read his Mandel series (Mindstar Rising etc.), I have read Great North Road, and this has the feel of that sub-genre of Sf. David Lanson is chief detective of the Richmond Metropolitan Police Department when he gets involved in a peculiar case involving Toby Jenson, who is being held for the break- in of media /computer mogul Marcus Orthew's research center, "Orthanics". Jenson has finally caught on to Orthew's genius methods of time travel, and thus draws himself and Lanson into a quite regrettable situation. Crazy ending! To say more would ruin it. The e-book download shows this story to be a much longer tale than it is (in fact, most of... more the download is an excerpt for Mindstar Rising). However, it is a free e-story, and Hamilton writes a pretty decent one here, if way too short, and has me interested in reading his other similar novels in the Sf/detective vein.
review 2: An interesting take on time travel. I personally enjoyed how the traveller was able to accomplish what he did. The writing style seemed as short and clipped as the story itself. I very much would like to know more about the characters, and the predicament the main character finds himself in at the end. 4 stars with understanding of not including the disclaimer that this story is dwarfed by the first two chapters of another novel Del Rey is trying to promote. less

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