A Quantum Murder

Greg Mandel #2

by Peter F. Hamilton

Professor Edward Kitchener, a double Nobel laureate researching quantum cosmology for the powerful Event Horizon conglomerate has been savagely murdered. But was he the victim of industrial espionage, personal revenge, or a crime of passion by one of his handpicked team of live-wire students? Event Horizon needs to know and fast, so Greg Mandel, PSI-boosted veteran of the infamous Mindstar Battalion, must embark on an urgent investigation that ultimately leads him to an astounding confrontation with a past, which, according to the dead man's theories, might never have happened.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Cyberpunk, Mystery, Fantasy, Thriller

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

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

[Annise · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second book in Greg Mandel's trilogy sees him attempting to solve the murder of a famous scientist. It has advantages over the first book, primarily in that a murder investigation has stakes that are easier to relate to, and the investigation itself was intriguing.

However, the book also shares its prequel's flaws. The misogyny is ever so slightly less rampant, but still very much present. The world-building was a focus, but in such exotic(!) locations as Peterborough, flowery descriptions felt hollow, and often jarred. The politics remains dubious, and while it is gratifying to have the dangers of global warming so present, continual descriptions of the weather became dull. Crucially, the world didn't feel essential to the story, and so it slowed down the plot rather than adding to it.

The characterisation is, in places, heavy-handed, particularly with attempts to give the characters a unique voice that stand out like sore thumbs. Every “tell you”, “no messing” and “yah” irritated me further. Greg remains a cardboard cut-out, psychic abilities notwithstanding. Eleanor was flat. Julia is present almost as an afterthought; she has little to do with the main plot, beyond getting Greg involved. Instead, she has minor sub-plots that served no purpose other than to infuriate me.

The conclusion was unsatisfying, the plot resolution leading to a bolt-on action sequence. As such, the book ended up feeling like it was plugging a gap. I'm all for genre-bending, but the science-fiction and murder mystery aspects didn't gel in this instance. With a different lead character, and a lot of the extraneous content removed, this could have been an interesting murder mystery. As it was, it improved on the first book, but I remain unconvinced by the world and cast.

[Dean C. Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so much more of a marvel when you think that it was written twenty years ago. Near-future sci-fi goes obsolete, as a rule, faster than milk left out of the refrigerator. Not so with A Quantum Murder. This is not because the book is thin on science and technology. Both are about as heavily infused in the writing as they are in the author’s DNA. Any more and they would have bogged down the story; as it is, the techno is just sufficient to get hard sci-fi fans really excited playing out future probabilities in their heads, and trying to determine what will be near certainties down the road.

Among this book’s many choice delights is just how balanced and in the proper proportions everything is. The author displays a sixth sense for just how much character development he needs, how much scene painting, how much plot advancement, at any one time. Sci-fi writers as a whole are long on imagination, so much so that one often forgives the B-grade writing when encountered. No such forgiveness needed here. From story concept to execution, everything is A-grade.

Out of a desire to scribble some kind of objective and biased review that didn’t boil down to simple gushing, I jotted down a few nitpicks. But that’s all they are, minor complaints, which may have more to do with what side of the bed I woke up on this morning than with the author, per se. Among them: too many chapters started with a report of the weather; certain characters’ speaking quirks which helped identify who was speaking got to be a bit grating after a while, chief among them, “no messing,” as Greg was fond of saying, Greg being our lead in the story, the psychic investigator. A psychic investigator, how cool is that? Maybe I should have led with that point. Lastly, there was a section of the story when the police procedural format seemed to eclipse the sci-fi format, throwing the balance lauded above off by a smidgeon. This moment was ever so brief, and within a couple of chapters the story righted itself like a ship caught in the storm of the author’s prolific imaginings.

Okay, my duty as a reviewer done, back to the good stuff. Despite the nitpick about the weather above, the fact is, the way the weather permeates every scene in the story, until it becomes a character in and of itself, was laudable. The near-future world depicted is one where global warming has pretty much reduced England to a tropical non-paradise, that’s virtually unsurvivable outside of air-conditioners running constantly (Think Florida in Summer.) The weather, in fact, became one of my favorite characters in the story, helping with the full immersion I felt in every scene. Last but not least, Hamilton agrees with me on the multiple, virtually infinite parallel universes take on reality. And what he does with this idea is one of the dazzling things about the story I will leave for the reader to discover on his or her own. Suffice to say it has made the shortlist of my favorite sci-fi concepts of all time.

Appropriate disclaimer: I have just about every book Peter F. Hamilton ever wrote on my shelf. Huge fan, but this is my favorite tale to date. I promise to get around to reporting on the others, as time allows.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was already put off by the macho bias of the first book of this Greg Mandel trilogy, Mindstar Rising, and felt that this sequel was actually worse. The plot is an unholy mess and the conclusion entirely unsatisfactory besides the bouncing tits and horny 20yo women that are apparently the only kinds of females in the world of Mandel. I won't be reading the final book in this series The Nano Flower. I knew it was a risk because his first trilogy written after this one, Night's Dawn, is also quite misogynistic. It is unfortunate, because there were some good ideas, just too much reliance on psy powers and obsession with sex at the expense of a good story.

[Koen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A Quantum Murder”, is written by Peter F. Hamilton and is the second Greg Mandel book of three. ISB number 978-0-330-33045-9, first published in 1994 by Pan.

The previous book was written around corporate espionage and sabotage and this book feels more like a detective combined with a SF book.

The story is focused on a number of students at Laude Abbey under the wings of Edward Kitchener. Edward Kitchener, a double Nobel Laureate who invites three promising students each year into his home for an intensive two-year session of lectures, research and intellectual meditation.
At one morning Edward Kitchener is found horribly murdered and the chase for his murderer starts.

The students seem to be to only suspects due to fact that the more than premier grade security system wasn’t activated at all. The research done by the students at Laude Abbey seems to somehow be connected to the murder and there is a possible lead to Event Horizon. This is where Greg Mandel steps in as private investigator.

What I really did like was the way in which Hamilton successfully incorporated quantum mechanics and time flow in an understandable way into the murder mystery.

However Hamilton doesn’t have the suppleness to create a credible female character with his writing style and I think he misses a chance there. This is a reoccurring subject in nearly all his books by the way. I just read “around” these parts.

Further more there are some minor points of course but if you keep in mind that the story was written more than 20 years ago….

Below an abstract of the personages and as you see, al lot of the characters of the first book returned:

Former Mindstar Battalion:
• Greg Mandel, former Mindstar battalion.
• Gabriel Thompson, former Mindstar battalion.
• Colling Mellov, former Mindstar battalion.

Laude Abbey:
• Edward Kitchener, researcher.
• Nicolas Beswick, student.
• Rosette Harding-Clarke, student with a degree in Quantum Mechanics from Oxford.
• Uri Pabari, student.
• Liz Foxton, student.
• Cecil Cameron, student.
• Mathew Slater, Rosette’s lawyer.
• Edwin Lancaster, Uri Parabi’s lawyer.
• Lisa Collier, Cecil’s lawyer.
• Mrs. Mayberry, cook.


Wilholm Manor, Evans’ Estate:
• Philip Evans, Owner of Event Horizon.
• Julia (Juliet) Evans, Granddaughter
• Caroline Rothman, Julia’s PA.
• Lucas, Julia’s butler.

Julia’s friends:
• Patrick Browing.

Julia’s bodyguards:
• Rachel Griffith.
• Ben Taylor.

Event Horizon,
• Morgan Walshaw, security Chief.
• Dr. Cormac Ranasfari, leading one of the research teams.

Police force working together with Greg Mandel:
• Detective Inspector Vernon Langley.
• Detective Sergeant Amanda Paterson.
• Detective (Sergant?) Jon Nevin.
• Forensic investigator Violette Huthcins.
• Forensic investigator Denzil Osborne, former Royal Engineer and worked with Mindstar
Lieutenant Roger Hales during the Turkey Campaign.
• Sergeant Keith Willet, retired policeman Oakham Station.

HMP Stoken Hall:
• Dr. James MacLennan, director.
• Dr. Stephamoe Rowe, psychiatrist and assistant to Dr. MacLennan.
• Liam Bursken, serial killer detained at Stoken Hall.

Current Government:
• David Marchant, Prime Minister.

Other Characters:
• Derek and Maria Beswick, Nicolas’ parents.
• Emma Beswcik, Nicolas’ sister.
• Maurice Knebel, Detective in charge during the PSP time.

[Kenzie LaMar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great series by a very good author. So far this is my favorite series from Peter F. Hamilton. I have his latest series yet to read.

A quantum Murder is as close as a contemporary book can get to cyberpunk but not really be cyberpunk. What I mean by that is that "cyberpunk" was mostly written in the 80s and 90s and has that feel and flavor. It got a lot of future predictions wrong and correcting those predictions kind of ruins the feel of what cyberpunk is. What I think The Greg Mandel series does is take the cyberpunk genre into the present. But the twist is that is also adds semi-magical elements. ESP mind abilities. But it tries to make them more grounded in science and not magic. For hard science fiction fans this will probably make you not like this series. But if you can get past that and accept it as part of a new science then this series is great!! I couldn't stop reading until I had finished reading the whole series.

The second book expands on the types of powers that people with ESP can do. It's a murder mystery. I liked the first book more than this sequel but it was still great and expanded the world making me want more.

[John Devlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this as a two book ebook years ago.

Hamilton writes the tech fine but the story’s dull with only the last few chapters amping up the tension.

Add to that the mystery bends around some pretty silly sci-fi and I would never have gone on to read the author’s Reality Dysfunction series, which would have been a real shame bc those books are fabulous.

[Noémie J. Crowley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edward Kitchener, prix Nobel de physique de génie et accessoirement travaillant en secret pour Évent Horizon, est retrouvé par ses étudiants mort, sauvagement assassiné dans la nuit. Greg Mandel, ancien Mindstar, et ayant gardé de bonnes relations avec Julia, héritière de Event Horizon, qui lui demande d’élucider au plus vite le mystère de la même soudaine et violente du vieux professeur.

Alors. Bon.
J’avais émis des réserves sur le premier tome de cette trilogie, notamment pour sa sexualisation excessive des femmes. Bon, ça a légèrement bougé, parce que maintenant les hommes aussi sont sexualisés, si c’est pas beau le progrès. Non, vraiment, j’ai du mal avec cette saga. L’écriture est basique, les personnages ont chacun une catchphrase énervante au possible (si je dois relire encore une fois un Yah de Julia je hurle), et cette sexualisation abusive des adolescents / jeunes adultes de la part d’un mec déjà dans sa trentaine à la sortie de ces livres est … perturbante.
En dehors de ça, l’enquête est intéressante, malgré une fin un peu bâclée et trop facile pour être crédible.
En définitive, j’attends de voir le troisième pour voir si amélioration il y a.

[Julian Onions · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting mystery/whodunnit book. I love Peter Hamiltons work, but this one although well written is a little bit deux a machina for me.

[Sammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Can't say this series is impressing me as much as his later ones. some great ideas, but the writing certainly isn't as good as it is in the likes of The Commonwealth Saga. Not terrible, mind you, but doesn't flow as nicely.
I'm also not so sure I like any of the characters so far, including Greg. I'll still read the final book in the trilogy, as I already have it, but I don't think my expectations will be very high.

[Hx · Rating 1 out of 5]

One hour into the book and the author decides to alienate all self-aware female readers by having a male character say in dialog to another male character (let's call him Bladibla):
"stop giggling, Bladibla. Only bloody women giggle."

Let's think about that sentence for a while, shall we. I'm sure the male part of Hamilton's fanbase doesn't have the faintest idea of what the problem here is. Let's substitute "women" with Jews, and giggling with something else.

"stop doing that, Bladibla. Only bloody Jews do it."

or with Africans

"stop doing that, Bladibla. Only bloody Africans do it."

or with Gypsies

"stop doing that, Bladibla. Only bloody Gypsies do it."


Does that sound ...I dunno, at the very least NEUTRAL?? Hell no.

Why would I continue to read this crap? Why is this crap popular? As a bloody woman myself, I can find an infinite amount of books written by authors who are not soiling their pants every time they meet a woman, and who consequently don't feel the need to be passive-aggressive to women in the fantasy worlds they build.

Of course this is a FICTION book and the characters can be whatever and express whatever sentiments. They can be murderers, white supremacy proponents, evil scientists, child molesters,,, - truly whatever. However, just like I couldn't be expected to enjoy the plot twists or the superb world-building in a fiction book about a bunch of white supremacists, or child molesters, similarly I cannot be expected to forgive, or excuse, or otherwise ignore the casual, and from what I read completely unmotivated, putdown of women in this book. And because it was unmotivated that gives the entire thing the air of it being a given, of it being natural, as if it's no big deal, as if it's obvious that that should be the sentiment of every normal person. In other words, since no explanation of that character's problem with women ever followed, this sentence becomes simply a factual statement about that fantasy world. I don't know if I'm explaining this very well. Anyway, it's just not what floats my boat. If it floats your boat I would seriously examine any lingering mommy issues if I were you.

I read a previous Hamilton book, Pandora's star, or box or something, and it was like 45 hours long and I thought it was thoroughly boring (but certainly not sexist). So I decided to give him another chance with Quantum Murder, cause you know, he's bound to come up with a better, less boring book at some point in his career. But now I see that even if he does, the guy's personal "philosophy" is obviously going to get on my nerves.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A Quantum Murder" is the second in the Greg Mandel series by Peter Hamilton. It is science fiction of a sort, in that it's a gruesome murder mystery that takes place in the future with all kinds of super neat gadgets but they can't seem to pave a road across the countryside to a college building and the police get stuck in the mud. This suggests a problem with industry so... how did they make and deliver those gadgets in the first place?

It's a small inconsistency but it bugs me.

(Note: Upon a second reading I realized that this question was answered in the first novel, "Mindstar Rising". In essence, gadgets were delivered en masse to black marketeers via air drop, and then sold by street vendors with the police looking the other way. So... they weren't "delivered" individually per se. Later, the sale of such gadgets became legal, the roads were improving. It was still a hassle to get stuff. It simply wasn't as big a hassle.)

The story goes like this... a group of college students and their professor are staying at a college annex... a retreat for exceptional students. There is a terrible storm that prevents anyone from leaving or coming in. The next morning the professor is found dead in a gruesome fashion, the way a serial killer had done 20 years before, but the killer is locked up in a mental institution not far away and there is no indication that the killer left the premises. This is a tough case for Greg Mandel and his psychic talent. But no one believes that the students murdered the professor... which is a little different from saying they didn't do it. :-)

It has a good ending. The novel is violent and sexual though not explicitly so. Certainly it is more tame that the first novel in the Mandel series. Nevertheless, it's not for kids. None of Peter F. Hamilton's stuff is for kids but in general it's good writing.

I liked this novel better than his first.... "Mindstar Rising" and I might read it again.

[Hippocleides · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slightly but not considerably better than Mindstar Rising. The murder mystery is okay, and makes for a more cohesive story than its predecessor, but Peter F. Hamilton yet again brings dei ex machina where they aren't needed in this sci fi world. Apparently it's not enough that Greg is a empath--he has to be able to call up a buddy every book who happens to have a totally different magic power, and he has to randomly encounter magical "neurohormones" which allow people to travel back in time. The best sci fi is the kind which clearly establishes the rules which make it differ from our own present, and then explores that concept, but Hamilton in these novels seems a bit too restless with regard to what sci fi wizardry is canon. And boy oh boy, did Julia have nothing to do during this book, or what?

It's interesting how Hamilton has essentially created an anti-cyberpunk series. Instead of human existence getting worse in a densely-packed city where evil corporations lord over everything, this series features a world where it already was awful, but now is getting better, thanks to a corporation's elites (who are a hunky-dory family by this point), which engages in adventures in some of the most milquetoast parts of rural England. I wonder how deliberate this is--it's not by any means the biggest problem with the series, but it is odd.

[Rene' Feuerlein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another awesome detective/sci-fi thriller in the Greg Mandel trilogy. 4.5 stars!

Update May 2022. Like another of Peter F. Hamilton's books "Great North Road", this grew on me, now 5 stars, when I read it again about two years after the first time, and is now part of my top 10 sci-fi books, which I each read repeatedly about every two years, and are all Peter F. Hamilton books in the following order; Great North Road, Pandora's Star, Juda's Unchained, The Dreaming Void, The Temporal Void, The Evolutionary Void, Fallen Dragon, Mindstar Rising, A Quantum Murder, and The Nano Flower. I've also read the following Peter F. Hamilton books; The Night's Dawn Trilogy (4 stars), The Chronicle of the Fallers (4.5 stars), Salvation Sequence.

I would really like to read more of Greg Mandel's adventures, as I see a possibility with plenty of time passed (aging), between book #2 and #3 in this series.

[Lars Dradrach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hamilton second instalment in the Mindstar series is far more polished and balanced than the first (or I’m simply more in the mood for action sci-fi).

More or less directly following the first novel with the now securely established characters, Greg is involved in the solving of a Murdercase, but as expected the solution is not a simple one.

We also see a development in Greg’s family life and gains more insight into the post climacolapse and post communist UK.

Seeing the direct continuation from novel 1 I’m starting directly on the last novel, while I have this fresh in memory.

[Doranna Durgin]

Recommended! Slow to start, but turned complex and fascinating, and inside a wonderfully complete imagination of a world after Warming.

[Kathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

9/10
A science fiction mystery with enough surprises and twists to satisfy this reader.

[Damon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great detective story. It was a bit slow at the beginning.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Set in the future, Greg has a gland in his head that allows him to tell when someone is lying, and he's used this skill for various private investigations. He's called in to investigate the murder of Edward Kitchener, a genius whose work focused on quantum physics who's found murdered. Only six people could have been killer, but when Greg rules them all out as suspects, he begins focusing on Kitchener's research and how quantum physics might be the key to solving this case.

This is the second book in this series. I found the first one fairly average, but I'm glad I read on because this installment was great! That's not to say it was without flaws - it had them, for sure - but it was quite entertaining and kept me reading on! The mystery was intriguing. I thought for sure I knew how it'd wrap up, thanks to some hints dropped early on. I kept waiting for the characters to catch up to what I'd already figured out (clearly the process getting to this point kept me entertained, since I kept wanting to read more despite "knowing" how it'd end)... but I was wrong! The story resolved in a completely different way, also with some previously dropped hints but ones I'd missed - and all so clever!

The first book of this series suffered from a bit of misogynistic writing, as well as an overly complicated/confusing plot. While there were a few parts in this book that fell victim to these issues, it was a huge improvement on both ends. I enjoyed the female characters in here a lot more than in the first book, as they seemed to do more than just think about men all the time (although they still did that; they were just ALSO multifaceted!). The plot occasionally got a bit complex, but it was also understandable throughout and I had no problem following everything going on. The mystery was much stronger in this book than in the previous one, and the journey to get to the end was also much more interesting.

I loved the way quantum physics was threaded throughout this book. It's such a fascinating and complex topic, and the author did a great job breaking it down into very understandable items. There was discussion about how someone with a psychic gland designed to see into the future can't just see a single future but sees multiple ones, the threads becoming more and more numerous the further into the future one looks; on the other hand, looking into the past with such a gland would only show you the one past because that's what did happen to get to the point in time where you're at now. Fascinating stuff and ripe for discussion.

Those who've read later books by this author (specifically Pandora's Star) might enjoy a lot of moments in this book that seem to be pacing the way for Pandora - for example, there's a brief mention of a song called "Angel High" and there's talk about wormholes. Very interesting to read this (earlier) book having already read (and enjoyed) a later book and see these items that clearly play into his later, more detail (and way more massive!) works!

Apparently this is part of a trilogy featuring the same main character; I didn't realize there was a third book, but since this one was so great, I'm going to have to pick up the last book to finish this off! Hopefully that one's just as good. This book was only loosely related to the previous one, so I think it could be enjoyed on its own without problem, but reading the first would definitely give a better background for the world building (my least favorite part of this series, I think, since it was explained but not developed enough for my liking).

I thoroughly enjoyed this overall - the mystery, the resolution, and the journey getting from here to there. The mix of mystery and science fiction was perfect, although it doesn't feel right to call this "sci-fi" as it only has elements of sci-fi but is more simply "futuristic" than anything else... Not sure how else to describe it. If you're looking for sci-fi, this is probably not for you. And judging from other reviews of this book, not everyone enjoyed this as much as I did. But I found it fascinating! It's amazing to think that this was written over 20 years ago and yet so much of it still feels very fresh.

[Danielle Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ REALLY REALLY GOOD, BUT NOT THE BEST THING I'VE EVER READ -- Generally I hand out this rating to books that I thoroughly enjoy/find extremely interesting/have a lot of fun reading. I save 5 star ratings for only the best of the best, so a 4 star rating is usually indicative of a high quality book. A book could be knocked down to 4 stars because there were some parts that I wasn't entirely fond of, some parts that could be improved upon, or maybe I just didn't like the ending. Still, I would likely recommend this book to most people, with the proviso that I enjoyed it but it wasn't the best ever.

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My ranking criteria (✅= Yes, ❌= No, ➖= Kind of/a little bit):

*Bonus points if I can't put the book down, it makes me feel strong emotion, or genuinely surprises me in some way.
*Penalty points for editing errors (spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.), for children who act too mature or too young for their age (this is a bugbear of mine), or if there is something in the book that just really pisses me off for any reason.

1. I was sucked into the story from the beginning ✅
2. The story had a proper beginning, middle, and end ✅
3. The writing evoked a feeling of suspense ✅
4. I was engaged the whole way through/didn't get bored ✅
5. The characters were interesting ➖
6. There was some form of character development ➖
7. The book wasn't predictable in terms of relying on tired tropes, clichés, themes, stereotypes, etc. ➖
8. I cared about the outcome of the story ✅
9. I didn't work out the ending/the ending surprised me ➖
10. The ending was satisfying ✅

🌟 Bonus points: None.
☠️ Penalty points: None.

🏅 OVERALL RANKING: 8/10 (4/5 stars)

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Thoughts, Conclusion, and Recommendation:
In A Quantum Murder (book 2 of the Greg Mandel series), Greg is called in by Julia Evans again to help with solving the murder of a renowned scientist, Dr Kitchener.

I should preface this review by saying that I really enjoy Peter F. Hamilton's writing. There is something about it that just sucks me in; he could be writing about the life cycle of a space slug, and I'd be hooked 🤷🏼‍♀️ I think it's the combination of likeable, realistic characters, the science fiction aspect (of course!), and the frequent action sequences that do it. Plus, his books often have some kind of mystery at the centre of the story (even the ones that aren't specifically about a guy using psi skills to solve mysteries 😆). It doesn't take much to make me happy!

In A Quantum Murder specifically, Dr Kitchener is murdered in his own home, and when the students who also live and study there are questioned by Greg, they all appear to be innocent. Right from the start, Greg's insight is telling him that something else happened on the same property years ago, but he can't quite put his finger on what it is. The murder of Kitchener is also very similar to the MO of an incredibly violent serial killer; a man who is locked up in a prison cell that he could never hope to escape. So what exactly is going on here? I don't want to say too much else because I don't want to ruin any of the twists and turns, but this one is a good one!

I really liked how Eleanor had a bigger part in this book, she was actively involved in helping to research information and interview people. While I do have some reservations about how Greg used his psi abilities to pick up Eleanor in the first place, as well as how much younger than him she is, and how naive she was coming from the kibbutz, she does seem better able to stand up for herself and be her own person in this book.

A Quantum Murder also a few fun action scenes - it's incredibly enjoyable to watch Greg kick some ass. Much the same as book 1, I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes science fiction. There is something here for all science fiction lovers. I'm just disappointed that there is only one book left in the series! 4 stars.

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Series ratings:
1. Mindstar Rising - 4 stars
2. A Quantum Murder - 4 stars

[Adam Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 / 5 for ‘A Quantum Murder’ by Peter F Hamilton

This book, A Quantum Murder, is a definite improvement over its predecessor, Mindstar Rising, which I scored a solid 3 out of 5.

In this second Greg Mandel book, Event Horizon's young owner, Julia, once again asks Greg for help with a corporate mystery - this time she asks him to use his psi powers to investigate the shocking murder of an ageing research scientist, which leads to a cracking cover-up and an excellent twisty murder method.

This book is slightly slimmer than its predecessor and definitely feels more engrossing for the smaller page count. Hamilton spends much less time in this book focussing on the social lives of the mega-rich, capitalist bigwigs. There’s still a little too much pointless twaddle about Julia’s boyfriends and wardrobe, which feels really weird when you consider that it's written by a late-30s Englishman. There’s slightly less over-descriptiveness which is a good thing, but I did still find myself skimming paragraphs occasionally when an unimportant field, or some such, is described excessively. The political climate is focused on somewhat less too, at least in terms of glorifying how wonderful the rich, right-wing Conservative party are (*bleeuuurrgghh*).

There is less about the mega-rich in this book, but instead, we focus on a group of posh upper-class Oxbridge brainiac students. What is it about Hamilton that his books must be filled with posh / rich / upper-class people? It really is a turn off to a normal working-class bloke like myself. Where are the normals?

There is still a lot of focus on the effects of global warming and how it has impacted the Norfolk area, as well as the rest of the world at large, and all of these elements - the insane atmospheric / weather conditions and the science behind them - are all handled wonderfully. You can almost feel the humidity yucking off the pages at you.

One enjoyable element of this book was the fact that Hamilton used Greg and his wife Eleanor as a team for almost the whole story, and their camaraderie and softer moments gave the story some extra emotional depth, and also makes Greg slightly more interesting, as in book 1 he was a little bland.

The actual mystery and how the quantum murder itself was performed (and by who), was an absolute masterstroke - pure science-fiction genius, so I won’t get into spoilers because the revelation itself is excellently handled, and is completely believable; a true highlight of the book. The police procedural elements of the book also meshed quite nicely, given the story's mystery-solving aspect.

On the whole, this was a thrilling, fast-paced sci-fi novel, with lots of action, imaginative tech, excellent world-building, some cracking gory violence, and an excellent sci-fi mystery with plausible and well-explained science.

Yeah, Hamilton still over describes everything unnecessarily and his love / sex / flirting scenes are still 100% Alan Partridge, and 100% awful, but this book is a definite improvement over book one.

4 / 5

[Cliff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second (and shortest) of the Greg Mandel series. As I said in my review of the first book I don't think the title character is well drawn. I still have no mental picture of what Greg Mandel looks like. I get that he is haunted by his experiences in Turkey and that he really wants nothing more than a quiet life on his orange farm with Eleanor, but beyond that very little. He's drawn into investigating a murder of a prominent scientist by the all too good Julia. I'm not sure I can really accept her character in any way as being realistic. What we effectively have in the book is a private eye versus police investigation but with some sci fi. The very ending is really a bit yucky. I was going to comment on some of the vehicles- by Dornier, Westland and Hawker. Apart from the last which so far as aircraft are concerned was subsumed into BAE back in the late 1960s, the other two were still active at the time the book was written. Computers have developed in far different ways to those portrayed in the book with green type(!), apparently no joined up Internet nor internal storage - everyone seems to travel around with umpteen crystal cubes. The author did forsee direction finding via satellite, but couldn't be expected to know we'd call it sat nav rather than Guido. The flooded British Isles suffer from monsoons apparently. Very unlikely even with global warming, as monsoon weather requires a complete seasonal change of wind direction. Whilst we do get winds other than from the prevailing south west direction, this does not happen seasonally or at any particular time as happens in countries which have regular monsoon seasons. Incidentally, my copy of Mindstar Rising had a number of short stories at the end which postdate the events of this book as characters appear in them which are introduced in this.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greg Mandel was a star empath in the infamous Mindstar group during the wars of the draconian PSP government, England’s brief but tragic flirtation with autocratic socialism. Now the country is slowly recovering economically if not psychologically, and Mandel has become a farmer of sorts. When the renowned Nobel laureate physicist Edward Kitchener is found brutally murdered (more like autopsied) in his bed at Launde Abbey, Mandel is persuaded to help the investigation. Kitchener, known for sexual liaisons with his fermale students, ran an intelllectual hothouse at the Abbey, and suspicion naturally falls on one of the students there. No motive is apparent though, and Mandel detects no hint of guilt when he interviews them. A synthodrug for transferring memories was found in the search and a walk back in time using a different drug seems to doom young student Nicholas Beswick. But doubts niggled at Mandel and a visit to an imprisoned serial killer led him to a decade-old death at the lake near the Abbey, the discovery of a huge cover-up of it, and a way for the murder to have been committed without him knowing it. Peter F. Hamilton has crafted a nice little whodunnit, with not too many rabbits and hats, although I found the ending a tad hard to swallow. I suggest you read it and enjoy it. Second of a set of Mandel books but eminently standalone.

[Craig Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a poor mystery that telegraphs it’s revelations with so little subtlety that there are no surprises to be found.

Hamilton is clearly a paid up conservative and his politics invade his characterisations to the point of stripping them of any depth or nuance. There is no self-knowing to be found in these party loyalists; just a pure self righteousness that could be a prophecy of today’s divisive climate - if there were any evidence of it being intended to be so.

As far as Sci-Fi the book lacks the imagination and prescience of the genres masters and so it is dating horribly. To be fair, it is an easy trap for near-futurologists to fall victim of.

So why 4 stars, when it can scarce be worthy of 2? Well it’s distracting and, in a period piece way, charming. As someone who spent time in Cambridge and the South West at the end of the millennium it captures a sense of place that drives me to nostalgia. Sadly that makes my recommendation far from universal.

[Dima · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent thriller, set in a not-so-distant future. As per usual, the author doesn't shy away from mixing up different genres, and exploring concepts of time-travel, souls, speculative science, etc. The action is captivating, and the story is incredibly well written. In many ways, I liked this book much more than the previous instalment. Naturally, it lacks the philosophical depth and complexity present in much of the author's space opera body of work..
My main peeve with this book (and the previous one) is the tendency to oversexualise the female protagonists, regardless of how smart, capable, violent, and independent they are. There is also the cliches of chasing boys, being worried about what people think about her wardrobe, etc most apparent in Julia's character (who also happens to be amazing capable at running the UK's largest techno-industrial conglomerate in her early 20s). Not necessary, in my view.

[Costin Manda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Quantum Murder comes to continue the story of Greg Mandel, psychic detective. Does it sound tacky? I agree that the subject is not the best possible choice, but the writing is good, Hamilton style: scifi social speculation, action, a detective story that makes the reader wonder what will happen next and whodunit!

I personally did enjoy the book, but it wasn't even close to the latest and more hard scifi writings of Peter Hamilton's. Maybe it's just me, but mental detectives in a post apocalyptic corporate world just doesn't do it for me. Maybe that's why The Nano Flower's first chapter starts with Suzi doing tekmerk stuff ;)

Again, the second volume of the three Mindstar books is stand-alone, making it easy to read even if you didn't read the first book. It is basically a scifi policier.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strong sequel to Hamilton's first Greg Mandel novel Mindstar Rising.

Stylistically it's a seamless continuation from the first entry. And again, the mystery/detective elements are well laid out and fair for the would-be sleuth readers to try and piece together.

There were less divergent sub plots and less world-building than it's predecessor but it was enjoyable to pick back up with his cast of characters and travel along for their next adventure.

One slight misgiving I had is that in each novel the turning point related to a super-science McGuffin... and so I'm wondering what other sci-fi trope he'll unveil in the third and final book in the season.

But again, a good story... probably worth 7/10.

[Sean Sexton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book if Hamilton's Greg Mandel series reunites us with psychic Greg Mandel, his wife Eleanor, and their billionaire friend, Julia. This time, Julia asks Greg to look into the murder of a scientist who was doing some work for Julia's company. Inexplicably, Greg interviews all of the possible suspects and finds them all innocent. This appears to be a sure thing, given Greg's ability to determine when someone is lying.

This launches a traditional whodunit, with Mandel and friends at the center of things. The mystery works well, as we try to figure out what's going on along with Greg.

Well worth a read, as a standalone mystery and even better if you're already acquainted with the characters.

[Aron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am realizing that alot of Hamilton's work involves highly trained military professionals who are *good dependable men*, women who CRAVE sex, and benevolent billionaires that are actually the solution to earth's many woes.

I am admittedly not a fan of mystery novels, and the sci-fi is not good enough in this series to overcome my dislike of the mystery genre.

The story was fine, but the gimmick behind why the main character can do what he can do still seems too magic-y to me. I'm mostly just going to finish the series because Hamilton wrote some of my absolute favorite sci-fi books and I want to read through his other works.

If I had a dime for every time the main character says "no messing" I'd be rich.

[Sebastian Hetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story begs for more character development to realize its full potential. The world created by Peter F. H. is rich, filled with ideas, has this amazing lived-in feel to it, and is populated with a kick-ass cast of characters. But for some reason all characters begin and finish the story in the same mental state. When you get down to it nothing really changes.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a pretty good read, but I feel like the potential of this world and cast of characters wasn't fully realized.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another brilliant story in the Mindstar series.
A continuation of the previous story complete with resplendent details of a so very much changed UK and in particular a different Lincolnshire.
I enjoyed all of the characters, but in a world filled with drama for the sake of drama a normal marriage, a partnership in the world of investigations and corporate intrigues was something unique.
A great read for any science fiction lover.
I have the next book in the series and will be cracking on with it soon.