Manhattan in Reverse - Peter F. Hamilton

This is a collection of short stories from the excellent science fiction author Peter F. Hamilton. There are 7 stories in this collection, 4 of which are stand alone stories with 3 set within the the Commonwealth Universe created by Hamilton in his previous books Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, and revisited in the excellent Void Trilogy.

The collection revisits many of the themes he explored in his previous works, one of which is how humanity copes and adapts to changing technology. The first story in the collection, Watching Trees Grow, is a detective story spanning several centuries of rapid technological progress in an alternative timeline to our own. Each chapter in the story jumps forward several decades yet still manages to give you a sense of how things have moved on and how society is adapting (in some cases better than others) while still telling an interesting story.

The last 2 stories in the collection (The Demon Trap and Manhattan in Reverse) are set in the Commonwealth Universe and feature one of the best characters from his previous works, Paula Myo. She is a detective with a genetically engineered obsession with seeing justice done. The character is so well developed in his previous works that its a welcome return for her.

While you do not need to be familiar with his previous works for the first 4 stories, unfortunately I believe that unfamiliarity with the Commonwealth Universe may leave readers confused over some of the references within the stories set there. This is a book that any fan of Hamilton's work should read but I'm not sure I can recommend it to anyone unfamiliar with his previous books.

Animal Farm - George Orwell

I first read this when I was at school. It was one of the books that was studied during my GCSE's. At the time I didn't really enjoy reading it as most of the time was spent picking apart and explaining the allegory within the book. Reading it again years later I found I appreciated and enjoyed it much more.

As is well known, the story is really an allegory about the communist revolution in Russia and the subsequent perversion of its ideals. The book is written almost as a children's story and it is thanks to Orwell's genius as a writer that it works so well. This book is a classic which I think everyone should make an effort to read at some point.

The Plot Against America - Phillip Roth

There's a sometimes fascinating branch of historical fiction which deals with alternate history. It asks a basic question - what if things had turned out differently? What would the world be like? The first novel I read that does this was Fatherland by Robert Harris. That looked at what life in Germany would have been like had they won World War 2. In The Plot Against America, the question asked is what would life in the United States have been like had Roosevelt lost the 1940 presidential election to a candidate sympathetic to Nazi Germany.

The story is told from the point of view of a young Jewish child whose peaceful family and neighbourhood is ripped apart by the rising tide of anti-semitism and hysteria that gradually builds. The book does a good job of describing this and you get a real sense of a change in atmosphere during the book. However, where I believe the book did fall short was in its conclusion.

Unfortunately, this may spoil the ending of the book for anyone who hasn't read it yet so don't read on if you don't want to read spoilers.

The ending essentially involves getting the historical timeline back on track to the true history we all know. This makes this novel more a historical detour instead of a true alternative history. The events in the novel should have had repercussions that rumbled on for years. These are not mentioned and the ending is too neat for my liking. For this reason I felt this was a good read with an unsatisfactory conclusion.