The downside is that altogether too much of 'Misspent Youth' is about sex. We're treated at length to Jeff's pursuit of his fantasies along with his teenage son's tribulations. Hamilton makes a go of exploring the father-son relationship, but too many of his women get scant attention beyond their names and the size of their boobs.
The author, nevertheless, pulls off some richly comic turns while driving a few points home about the potential impact of scientific "advances". In a far cry from the sweeping social and technological changes some writers envisage within a mere 50 years, Hamilton gives us insidiously plausible progress, with winks back to the transient pop culture heroes of the past half-century.

Some characters are even likeable. Tim's gin-swilling Aunt Alison and her disreputable chum Graham are writers deprived of their former living by the datasphere. This invention has also turned today's bids to outwit technology by the record company majors into a desperate last stand.
Bits of this could conceivably happen, along with the political shifts, high satire or not, but Hamilton falls far short of his best on the ideas front. If you were swept up by the massive 'Night's Dawn' trilogy and some of the vast cast of characters of that inter-galactic epic have lingered long in your mind, don't expect the same here.
It's really only the semi-explored rejuvenation premise that marginally qualifies 'Misspent Youth' as science fiction, rather than readable mainstream entertainment. Because Hamilton knows to spin a yarn, most readers will keep turning the pages. But because it's Hamilton, many who've admired his previous work may be in for a disappointment.

Note: though first published less than a year ago, Amazon.com seems to be altogether out of this apart from a handful of over-priced hardbacks. This isn't so at Amazon UK (Tor paperback, July 2003), for anybody after more Hamilton ahead of what looks set to be his return to a very different vein. 'Pandora's Star' is announced for next March.