- 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: 2.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 213,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Kingdom Come
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Review
‘Dystopias are Ballard’s stock-in-trade and, when on song, he animates them better than anyone else…it takes a master novelist to pick out the small details…fascinating.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘It is his ability to summon a deteriorated but recognisable modern world into being that makes him among the finest dystopians at work.’ Sunday Times
‘We’re in Ballard-land, his old archetypes at war in a familiar-yet-strange terrain, and that should be compelling enough for any reader…Ballard, paradoxically, with all his characters gripped by obsession and necessity, is one of the great novelists of freedom.’ Financial Times
‘“Kingdom Come” looks like a report on the state of modern Britain, but it’s really a report on the state of J.G. Ballard’s head, and the good news is that it’s as fertile as ever…“Kingdom Come” is impressively packed with brilliant apercus.’ Observer
‘The Magus of Shepperton is on tip-top form. No-one else writes with such enchanted clarity or strange power as James Graham Ballard.’Evening Standard
‘Ballard's nightmare of consumerism-turned-fascism has enough truth among the fantasy to turn outings to B&Q and IKEA into decidedly sinister operations.’ Dazed & Confused
‘If anger is the rocket-fuel of satire, then J.G. Ballard is a one-man danger zone…exhilarating…important, challenging, (a) justly furious novel.’ The Independent
‘“Kingdom Come”, his latest novel, demonstrates that he is still in his eight decade, as outre as ever, and still as keen to understand the national psyche…Ballard still retains a clear-sighted, almost vatic quality, which makes him telepathically linked to the subconscious mind of Middle England.’ The Spectator
'Ballard retains the terrifying, satirical, self-possessedness that makes him never less than worth reading.' Independent on Sunday
'Funny, chilling and prescient, this is certainly a novel whose message no one can afford to ignore.' The Times
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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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
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
Format: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
Format: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.
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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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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one dimensional characters, predictable dialogue uvarying from one character to another, heavy handed symbolism and a deeply silly plot - typical of the most overrated british... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. M. Young
all over the shop(s)
Bad Ballard is better than good [insert name of any 2nd rate modern dystopian novelist], but the fact remains that this is a bad Ballard novel. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2009 by L. Williams
The Uses Of Boredom
Interviewed at the end of the book author Ballard says people reared in the comfortable suburbs of Western Europe think human beings are thoughtful and humane - governed at heart... Read more
Published on 7 Oct 2009 by K.N. Hatton
Suburban shopping hell
If you liked Cocaine Nights, Super Cannes, Millenium People and other of Ballards dystyopias, you will appreciate this tale of consumerism.
Published on 3 Jun 2009 by Birgit Luxhoj
Laying it on with a trowel
I did finish the book in spite of myself, just to find out what end Ballard would spin to it this time. But I read it in a very irritated mood. Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2009 by Mrs. A. M. J. Wigmore
Maybe not the best Ballard, yet...
Weren't those reviewers a bit stingy? I can understand that this is not Crash, or Empire of the Sun, or The Kindness of Women, or the Drowned World... Read more
Published on 27 Nov 2008 by Vittorio Caffè
A good idea that doesn't work
Kingdom Come by J. G. Ballard is not a successful book. Richard Brown is an advertising executive who has been estranged from his father for some time. Read more
Published on 27 April 2008 by Philip Spires
A seriously bad book!
To say that this is disappointing would be a massive understatement!
You realize that something's wrong early on, when the first-person narrator, an advertising executive, has... Read more
You realize that something's wrong early on, when the first-person narrator, an advertising executive, has... Read more
Published on 6 Dec 2007 by N. Housley
a complete collapse
As another reviewer noted, the first hundred (well actually more like 70) pages appear to build some strong concepts. Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2007 by P. Jones
Missing the Point
This novel is a huge let down. As another reviewer points out, the prose is of excellent quality, and so too the setting. Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2007 by Matthew Walker
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