Watching Trees Grow is a novella by British author Peter F. Hamilton, published in 2000 (101 pages). It is set in an alternate history universe. It is essentially a detective story about a murder investigator who attempt to solve an unusual murder that took place early in his career. The detective has all the time in the world to catch the culprit as the group of humanity that he belongs to has a very long lifespan to begin with and later on become essentially immortal as rejuvenation techniques are invented during the story. As with Misspent Youth, the novella could be interpreted as an experiment by Hamilton in which he explores the concept of rejuvenation and immortal humans in fiction.
Read more about Watching Trees Grow: Plot and Setting
Famous quotes containing the words watching, trees and/or grow:
“Flattery in courtship is the highest insolence, for whilst it pretends to bestow on you more than you deserve, it is watching an opportunity to take from you what you really have.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“Let us have a good many maples and hickories and scarlet oaks, then, I say. Blaze away! Shall that dirty roll of bunting in the gun-house be all the colors a village can display? A village is not complete, unless it have these trees to mark the season in it. They are important, like the town clock. A village that has them not will not be found to work well. It has a screw loose, an essential part is wanting.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Only the old are innocent. That is what the Victorians understood, and the Christians. Original sin is a property of the young. The old grow beyond corruption very quickly.”
—Malcolm Bradbury (b. 1932)