- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate; First Edition edition (4 Sep 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007232462
- ISBN-13: 978-0007232468
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 456,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Kingdom Come
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Product Description
Review
'"Kingdom Come" is important, germaine, timely and creepy, a tidal wrack of ideas washed up on the artificial beach of our resort culture.' Will Self '"Kingom Come" is a worthy addition to an extraordinary body of work. It is impossible to read one of JG Ballard's books and not to marvel at his style and ability to capture the times in which we live. His writing has been a source of excitement and inspiration to me since I was reading library books under the covers by the light of a battery torch.' Louise Welsh Praise for 'Millennium People': 'Much of the fun of "Millennium People" -- and it is one of the most amusing novels I've read in a long time --various
Financial Times
'Ballard, paradoxically, with all his characters gripped by
obsession and necessity, is one of the great novelists of freedom.'
obsession and necessity, is one of the great novelists of freedom.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful message undermined by a hopeless plot.,
By Hanglemez Pallaccini (Quito, Ecuador) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Kingdom Come (Paperback)
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.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Hard work to finish,
By Gazza (Glasgow) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Kingdom Come (Paperback)
I love Ballard but found this to be one of his weakest efforts yet. Beautifully written, naturally, but I struggled to finish the book over a period of several weeks. I think possibly the problem is the weakness of Ballard's targets here - after all, a suburban shopping mall hardly inspires real extremes of feeling - these things are so ten-a-penny now that, even in a town like Brooklands, the concept can hardly be a novelty. This is the first Ballard book where I can honestly say, with reluctance and disappointment, that I found the notes and interviews section at the end more entertaining than the novel itself. Hopefully the next one will be a return to form.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
No exaggeration,
By
This review is from: Kingdom Come (Paperback)
Ballard's Kingdom Come might be viewed as an exaggerated take on 21st century UK, but consumerism as a sort of deity, isolationsism, xenophobia, hooliganism, violence, the cult of celebrity, and a generally dumbed down public are familiar phenomena in dear old Blightie. So the book is relevant.
Unfortunately, this is a short story dragged out to the length of a novel, the characters are mainly unbleievable, and the narrative is rather dull - the prose, of course, is excellent.
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