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Hamilton first came to prominence in the mid 1990s with his trilogy of novels featuring the psychic detective Greg Mandel. Set in a near-future Britain which has been run into the ground by a communist government it describes a society beginning to rebuild itself through the production of advanced technology. The books are a blend of lively scientific, political and social speculation mixed with elements of detective fiction.

For his next major project Hamilton changed of tack by writing an ambitious set of space operas, known collectively as The Night's Dawn Trilogy. What began in the author's mind as a normal space opera expanded to massive proportions - three novels, each of well over a thousand pages long. Due to the size of the books each was split into two volumes in the US and for the Italian market the trilogy was released in 12 parts. Some saw his extremely detailed exposition of the civilisation, planets, technology and cultures as a great achievement, helping to create a fully realised universe, while others complained that this was unnecessary padding which made the books overlong.

After writing a companion to the series (The Confederation Handbook, an informational book in the manner of the appendices to The Lord of the Rings), a novel for young adults ( Lightstorm ) and a novella for the PS Publishing series of limited editions ( Watching Trees Grow ), he published his next full length novel, Fallen Dragon. In many ways this is a condensation of the ideas and styles (and even characters) of the Night's Dawn trilogy, if rather darker in tone. The stand-alone book described a bleak ultra- capitalist society dominated by five mega-corporations which wielded almost unlimited power. One of the more interesting aspects of the book was its unconventional description of a spacefaring society which had not been able to develop an affordable method of interplanetary travel.

Misspent Youth is much shorter than either the Night's Dawn books or Fallen Dragon, and depicts a near-future version of Britain different from that in the Greg Mandel trilogy. It combines a rejuvenation theme with a growing preoccupation with the phenomenon of European integration from the Eurosceptic point of view. This was his least well received book critically, perhaps because it was Hamilton's first attempt at an in depth character study or perhaps because much of the book was taken up with descriptions of sex which didn't allow many of the characters (particularly the females) to be developed. In addition, most of the protagonists had severe characer flaws which added a darker tone to the novel than much of his other work.

His most recent work, Pandora's StarPandora's Star is a science fiction novel by Peter F. Hamilton, first chapter in The Commonwealth Saga. It was published in 2004. Plot It is AD 2380, and humanity has colonized over six hundred planets, all linked by wormholes. With Earth at its centre, t, is set approximately 300 years later in the same universe as Misspent Youth. It explores the social effects of the almost complete elimination of the experience of death following widespread use of the rejuvination technique described in Misspent Youth. In somewhat similar style to Night's Dawn, Hamilton also outlines, in detail, a universe with a small number of distinct alien species interacting essentially peacefully and who suddently become faced with an increasingly ominous external threat.

Hamilton persistently tackles ambitious themes, particularly in Night's Dawn. In the trilogy he deals extensively with politics, comparing and contrasting a loose alliance of independent worlds with vastly different systems of political and social organisation. He also tackles religionReligion sometimes used interchangeably with faith, is commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the practices and institutions associated with such belief. Borobudur, a Buddhist stupa built between 750 and 850 Adriaen and metaphysicsMetaphysics is a branch of philosophy, and related to the natural sciences, like physics, psychology and the biology of the brain; and also to mysticism, religion, and other spiritual subjects. It is notoriously difficult to define, but for purposes of br. Other common themes include the problems and opportunities of technological innovation, and the phenomenon (often employed in science fiction) of technological imbalance between two societies.

He generally uses a clean, prosaic style, though he can be more adventurous in his short stories (for example, Candy Buds in A Second Chance at Eden). In Night's Dawn the style has a positive benefit in keeping the many different storylines progressing and allowing the reader to keep them all in mind, but in shorter works - particularly Misspent Youth - it can work to his disadvantage. His writing is characterised by the way it switches between several characters - often there are 3 or 4 main characters, whose paths are separate but eventually cross in the latter half of his books. This style was firmly laid down in Night's Dawn and continued in Pandora's Star.