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)

Good book

Good book. Nice idea that was well executed. The voice reader could have used a brush up on American accents. But honestly I found them entertaining enough I didn't mind

Good story! Too much language & raunchy material!

I would love to listen to this story again - a lot of details - but don't want to hear all the vulgar language & pointless raunchy sexual behaviors.

Requires quite an investment of time before it gets interesting.

This took at least 10 hours of listening before it became interesting. There are so many characters introduced but you’re only half listening that you don’t play close attention to who they are. When they come up you wonder, “who is that again”, but there is no way you’re going back to find out. In the end I like the story but could have was given up on it.

Very slow start

From a personal interest. The inciting incident happened at like 66% through the book. Everything after the murder was so slow I can’t count it as the real inciting incident. There are so many characters that it takes forever to build up all their background.

Sprawling Multi-Planet Soap Opera (in a good way)

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The scope of the story is massive; the character list alone is hard to keep track of. And while everything ties together a little too neatly at the end, there are a couple really compelling story lines (and characters). Also, a very fine performance by Longworth makes listening to this quite enjoyable.

Another solid Hamilton

Would you listen to Great North Road again? Why?

I have read many of Hamilton's books and am familiar with his slow start-up and build into the story approach he takes. Unfortunately the Great North Road "buries the lead" right near the end of the book. In a word, I got bored.

If you are already a fan of Hamilton, go ahead and give this a listen - there are some very interesting ideas being played with here. If you are new to Hamilton try starting with Fallen Dragon or Pandora's Star.

Great read... er... listen.

A little dry and hard to get into the plot from chapter 1, but oh so worth it. Such an amazing story.

Loved it

Great book. One of the better stories and one of books that didn’t get irritating due to its unending length

One of the best!

I listened to this at least half a dozen times. Love it.

Well developed characters. Broad landscape of locations. Very believable.

Enjoyed every minute of it.

Great read, story picks up throughout

Slowly builds the character lines to start, then it gets rolling. Great twists and turns which pick up as the story moves along.