The Mandel Files, Volume 1: Mindstar Rising & A Quantum Murder [Paperback]

What a ride! Peter Hamilton succeeds in bringing together two distinct genres of popular literature. He blends futuristic technology and thought with the baser instincts of humanity, which never seems to lose its fringe lunacy. Hamilton's characters are simultaneously heroic and flawed, just like the rest of us. I love this series.

Peter F. Hamilton's "The Mandel Files, Volume 1" is a compendium of the first two books in his "Mandel Files" trilogy. Because I've rated these two books before, I'll start with copying in my reviews for those books here. I'll add a bit afterward:

The three books in Peter F. Hamilton's Greg Mandel series were written before his "Night's Dawn" series. I'm not certain of this, but they seem to occur in the same universe as that series, just at a MUCH earlier time. Regardless, this series is excellent. What's especially nice, is that, for the most part, each of these books stands alone. You still need to read them in order, but none of them ends in a cliff-hanger requiring your reading of the next. Unfortunately, each of these books has a few fairly explicit sexual situations described in them. The amount of sex increases as you move from book to book. If it weren't for that, I'd recommend these books for everyone.

"Mindstar Rising" is the first book in the series. It's a very good, fast-paced sci-fi action thriller. The book introduces all the important characters and the "universe" used throughout the series. For the most part, the character development is good. I have a few qualms about a character or two suddenly being more capable than they are during the majority of the book, but that's mostly inconsequential. The plot, too, is very good. However, the transition between the first, introductory, situation in the book and the primary situation could have been worked better: it seems contrived. But, I might be seeing that solely because I've read the book four times now.

"A Quantum Murder" is the second book in the series. This book takes place about three years after "Mindstar Rising." Instead of being the science-fiction action thriller that the first book is, it's more of a science fiction mystery. It's a close call, but I think this book is slightly better than "Mindstar Rising." Once again, there's good character development, but this time, the plot is somewhat more tightly put together. I've only got a couple of quibbles: first, in one scene, Mandel's psi powers inexplicably include actual telepathy instead of just the empathy described in "Mindstar Rising." And, second, after the characters find out who the murderer is, instead of sending the police out immediately, they close up shop for the night and say they'll do it in the morning. Other than that, this is an excellent book which shows the origins of a lot of the technology in the "Night's Dawn" series.

Now my updated comments: After my re-reading of these books in this compendium, I stand by most of the above. However, I think I'd now rate "A Quantum Murder" at slightly below "Mindstar Rising." The problem is that AQM includes a lot more extraneous (and somewhat juvenile) material regarding Julia's sex life and fashion issues. Still, I'm rating this compendium at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5. It's just that I'm rounding up the average of a 4 star and 3 star rating instead of taking the average of two 4 stars.

PF Hamilton is the man. Consistently good stories - I like the tighter focus in his earlier works. Bring us another series closer to home, Mr. H!