I’ve enjoyed some of Peter Hamilton’s books over the year, but, since he’s a writer that turns out yearly 700+ books, it’s hard to keep up with his output. So, when I saw that he had written a free short story for the Kindle, I decided to to check it out. If at First… is a cute little story that touches on topics brought up in Hot Tub Time Machine of all places. So, let’s check out the little time travel(ish) story.

Marcus Orthew is arguably the richest and most brilliant technology titan of all time. And, like all public figures, he has a stalker. This stalker finally crosses the line is and is brought in and interviewed by Detective David Lanson. Lanson doesn’t take the stalker’s story of time travel seriously until he views an old videotape of Orthew. Lanson realizes that the stalker might be onto something. The claim is that Orthew created a time machine that can send his mind back in time to his younger self’s body. Then Orthew introduces technology earlier than it normally appeared, which earns him a ton of money. The earlier technology then creates new offshoots and then Orthew does it again introducing this new technology earlier as well. Lanson starts being convinced and decides to investigate (rather than just throw the stalker into the looney bin)

:Lanson manages to secure a warrant to look and it’s all true. But Orthew is going to do it again and Lanson finds himself caught in the wave and ends up in his 11 year old body. Not having the technology background, Lanson falls back on some other things to make money and becomes the biggest recording artist in the world, but releasing songs he remembers from the future. But, what happens when Orthew is ready to time travel again.

Overall, it’s a cute story that is well told and a fun ride to go along with. Hamilton pulls off the most difficult feat of convincing the reader that the police detective would take the ramblings of a lunatic seriously. Once that hurdle is overcome, the rest just falls into place. Recommended.