'Kingdom Come is full of sharp insights into a world where people
live in 'an eternal retail present'.'

'Funny, chilling and prescient, this is certainly a novel whose
message no one can afford to ignore.'

'J.G. Ballard is the undisputed laureate of suburban psychosis...a
brilliant novel.'

'Entertaining...fragmented narratives...emerge as perfect,
threatening little Ballardian vignettes.'

'No-one writes with such enchanted clarity or strange power as
James Graham Ballard.'

'If anger is the rocket-fuel of satire, then J.G. Ballard is a
one-man danger zone...'

'...his latest novel, demonstrates that he is still in his eight
decade, as outre as ever...'

'Ballard retains the terrifying, satirical, self-possessedness
that makes him never less than worth reading.'

'unsettling, pacey, well-crafted...'

'a worthy addition to this great writer's oeuvre.'

2008-06-21 Powerful message undermined by a hopeless plot.

Whilst it probably wasn't the best to read this as my first introduction to Ballard I still felt extremely disappointed after hearing so many good things about him.

The "consumerism as a dystopia" is a grand and important theme and the first part contains many self-contained mini-essays delivered by the various characters on this subject that are well written and thought out. The deep problem is that it should have stayed as a non-fiction essay on where our consumerist lifestyles are leading to. To hang all the ideas onto a weak, stupid plot with minimal characterisation just spoils the message...(and I still don't understand Richard's motivations to move from hunting his father's killer to helping out the Metrocentre and his extremely slow understanding of the link to fascism that we the reader can spot in the early pages.)

Anyway so we have Richard the protagonist speaking to each minor player; a lot of philosophising from them; Richard's own reflections; and then a tiny bit of action to move the plot forward. Repeat several times. And then in the second part go into standard Hollywood-style dystopian madness which we've already seen in countless movies. Sorry...but this is seriously, seriously unoriginal stuff by the end.

So two stars for making a well-written and argued meditation on consumerism/fascism/madness etc...but really, don't bother with this one if you're new to Ballard like I was...try his earlier work first.