The Demon Trap

by Peter F. Hamilton

When a Siddley-Lockheed CP-450 carrying a group of privileged pleasure-seeking Dynasty members is blown up over Nova Zealand, Senior Investigator Paula Myo of the Serious Crimes Directorate is called in to solve the terrible crime. A group called the Free Merioneth Forces have claimed responsibility but there had to be an individual at the end of that missile launcher and Paula is determined to find out who it was.

This short story is taken from Manhattan in Reverse, the first short story collection in thirteen years from the master of space opera. Peter F. Hamilton takes us on a journey from a murder mystery in an alternative Oxford in the 1800s to a brand new story featuring Paula Mayo, Deputy Director of the Intersolar Commonwealth's Serious Crimes Directorate. Dealing with intricate themes and topical subjects this top ten bestselling author is at the top of his game.

The cover image for The Demon Trap was designed by Andrew Parkes as part of a competition run by Pan Macmillan in association with SFX magazine.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Space Opera

72 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2008

About the author

Peter F. Hamilton is a British science fiction author. He is best known for writing space opera. As of the publication of his tenth novel in 2004, his works had sold over two million copies worldwide, making him Britain's biggest-selling science fiction author.

Reviews

[Berengaria · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star, DNF at circa 60%

Sorry to be a party pooper for anybody who enjoys Peter F. Hamilton's work. I've never read any of his novels- they could be brilliant- but his short stories are abominable.

Apologies, but they are.

"The Demon Trap" is a collection of 6 mostly longish stories with simple plots, oatmeal points, foreseeable twists, huge and unnecessary info dumps, light misogyny and excruciatingly bad dialogue misused for passing worldbuilding facts to the reader.

You know the kind I mean, relating facts to another character who would clearly already know them, like...

"As you know, Police High Commissioner, the government banned Z-rays five years ago but there are still illegal firearms dealers in the city who are responsible for 27% of the deaths of citizens every year. General Hong issued us a report on the subject last week at our monthly training seminar at Hotel Skylark which you always lead."
"Thank you, grunt Desk Sergeant. I'd utterly forgotten those very important and pertinent facts ! Now we will finally be able to solve the crime!"


These stories are so full of basic writing errors, it isn't funny... and it doesn't look as if they are going to get better, so DNF.

Some writers just don't have the mojo for short stories. Hamilton seems to be one of them.

Avoid.

[Ela B · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a collection of short stories and how it goes with most of those, I liked some of the stories, especially the Commonwealth (Pandora's Star) tie ins about Investigator Paula Myo but I found some of the other stories boring or confusing. One even seemed like the beginning of a novel that was never finished.

Overall 3 stars however.

[Luke John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever detective tale with a heap of future tech thrown in.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's not much I can say that's not been said about Peter Hamilton and his writing. I love everything he writes, the only reason I don't read him more often is I like to read X number of books a year and his 1200 page tomes can take their toll on my goals! :)

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

a short (ish) story from the Commonwealth Saga. i quite liked the way you get the different points of view of the main characters.

[Reuben Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant, as always.

[Glenn тнєgєєкунιρριє™ · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Paula Myo's cases from the Commonwealth Saga universe.