Great North Road

By: Peter F. Hamilton

Narrated by: Toby Longworth

Length: 36 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

A century from now, thanks to a technology allowing instantaneous travel across light-years, humanity has solved its energy shortages, cleaned up the environment, and created far-flung colony worlds. The keys to this empire belong to the powerful North family - composed of successive generations of clones. Yet these clones are not identical. For one thing, genetic errors have crept in with each generation. For another, the original three clone "brothers" have gone their separate ways, and the branches of the family are now friendly rivals more than allies.

Or maybe not so friendly. At least that's what the murder of a North clone in the English city of Newcastle suggests to Detective Sidney Hurst. Sid is a solid investigator who'd like nothing better than to hand off this hot potato of a case. The way he figures it, whether he solves the crime or not, he'll make enough enemies to ruin his career. Yet Sid's case is about to take an unexpected turn: Because the circumstances of the murder bear an uncanny resemblance to a killing that took place years ago on the planet St. Libra, where a North clone and his entire household were slaughtered in cold blood.

The convicted slayer, Angela Tramelo, has always claimed her innocence. And now it seems she may have been right. Because only the St. Libra killer could have committed the Newcastle crime. Problem is, Angela also claims that the murderer was an alien monster.

Now Sid must navigate through a Byzantine minefield of competing interests within the police department and the world's political and economic elite...all the while hunting down a brutal killer poised to strike again. And on St. Libra, Angela, newly released from prison, joins a mission to hunt down the elusive alien, only to learn that the line between hunter and hunted is a thin one.

©2012 Peter F. Hamilton (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"It's a perfect introduction to his gifts for character design, dialogue, and sheer, big-idea-driven storytelling." ( Booklist)

Epic journey on planet

There was a great threading of story like a tapestry. However the large party evacuating the base required arduous number of repetitive encounters to kill everyone off. Same plot...monster show up, monster kill, nobody can hurt monster, monster leave, repeat AD INFINITUM, AD NAUSEUM. Streamline storyline by starting with fewer evacuees or killing off more folks. In spite of the tedium still a good scifi read

Quality Sci-fi

Superbly written and performed. Memorable, well developed characters. Toby Longworth is a top notch narrator giving each character their own distinct voice and accent. He flows from British to Cockney to American accents effortlessly. Well done, very well done!

Just get it! This one will stay with you!!

Pays off in the last stretch of SF pulpy goodness

A massive deliciously pulpy SF novel with plenty of threads, both personal and epic. Unfortunately the lengthy dead-end investigation and convoluted mystery drag on a bit much. The bulk of the middle deserves skimming. That said, the last 20% of the book does pay off, and the underlying narrative is smartly connected despite seeming otherwise at times. The flashbacks are worthwhile insights into character and setting, and I do like the complicated heroine and the dipping into clashing views on expansion and economy, religion and environment, etc. Do check the character list and timeline to help wade through the 36-hour listen.

overall good but kind of drags

It was a struggle to remain engaged aint engaged with the story when there were some confusing shifts back-and-forth in time. Overall it was good but some of these flashbacks really dragged and act and the internal monologs of characters if of characters went on for pages.

Interstellar mystrey

Hamilton is one of my favorite Sci Fi authors. Although most of his books deal with the same technology and similar plot lines, they are all good listens. This one is no different. It tells of humanities spread through the galaxy by gate technology. It is also something of a who done it. I recommend it

Trudging The Great North Road

Short and to the point - a pretty great story buried under ridiculous layers of tedious police procedural, a wild array of cartoonish characters, and long winded development of meaningless plot points and inconsequential players.

If you boiled out the real plot from this giant doorstop of a book, it is exciting and suspenseful. The story starts with the investigation of a murder that expands into a threat against all humanity from a powerful and mysterious alien presence. The sections that deal with the hunt for the alien are tightly plotted and full of delicious apprehension. Unfortunately, that is only a small part of the book and those sections suffer from frequent flashbacks and cuts to the extremely slow murder investigation.

In addition to the erratic pacing and lack of editing, this book suffers from a few other disagreeable faults:
1. The central female character, Angela Tramelo, is a total caricature of a woman. Seriously, the woman is beyond beautiful, super brilliant, athletic and tough, has powerful connections, and has been genetically altered to stay young for hundreds of years. So, of course, the only way she can resolve a challenge is to prostitute herself. Note to Peter: Selling one's body is really NOT the "go-to" solution for most women especially those who have as many other resources as Angela Tramelo. Some of the men are just a hokey, but at least police detective, Sidney Hurst, is portrayed as a "regular Joe" which does help the slower police sections of the book.
2. The ending is way too neat and tidy and after this VERY long trek on The Great North Road, it wraps up so fast that it feels rushed.
3. A really threatening and incomprehensible Alien suddenly becomes just "one of the guys" at the end and loses credibility and any power he once had to frighten.

Toby Longworth is not my favorite narrator, but he is not bad. He is rather dramatic in his delivery of the narrative sections of the book which I don't usually like, but it was good for this book that often wanders far "off the road".

With some severe editing (half of this book could go) and a little reworking of the character of Angela and the Alien, this could be a great book. As it is, I don't recommend it unless you are an avid Peter F. Hamilton fan.

I wish this was 2 different books

This very long audible book encompasses two novels. One is a well-written and well-plotted mystery that launches the book. (Great narration, too) The police detective characters are great and the way they solve the mystery is smartly written and plotted. The other part is basic horror story: Isolated team gets picked off one by one by knife wielding monster that stalks them. Cue scary music. And why do characters go out in a blizzard by themselves to get slaughtered again and again? Be warned: How the horror story resolves itself may make you scream: WTF! I can't help but wonder if the publisher was screaming at the author: "Finish the bloody thing already."

Despite all of this, I do love what Hamilton tries to accomplish in his novels. He imagines interesting new worlds with complex people. I also don't mind the back and forth of the narrative, as he jumps back into time to give the reader background stories on the various characters. In this case, it is partly to keep the reader guessing. He hides key clues by doling out details slowly.

And, yes, I'll probably listen to another Hamilton story.

Hamilton at his baroque best

This is a wonderful, great sprawling sci-fi mystery book, and a great way to remember what you liked about Hamilton if you've been suffering from series-fatigue after some of his recent efforts. The classical elements (setting, plot, character) all come together in a delightful tangle.

Setting and characters are greatly enhanced by the skillful narration of Toby Longworth, who gets to show off his range to superb effect. The array of UK accents is exactly what the author ordered, all internally consistent and consistent with the text. Even the American accents are at least credible--unusual in a British reader. Female characters sound female, male characters sound male. It's all precisely as it should be.

Not as good as his other works

Although the narration is fantastic, the story could have used some editing. Also I found the frequent flashbacks confusing and the final payoff was so-so in my opinion. I really enjoyed several of his other novels, though.

Hamilton'ed

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No I would not - Hamilton and his enzyme bonded concrete...jesus christ, is everything done on enzyme bonded fucking concrete?!!

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Not bad

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The North's are my kind of twisted family

Do you think Great North Road needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No, this book is about 3 books in one

Any additional comments?

No