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Player One [Paperback]

Douglas Coupland
2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Book Description

1 Sep 2011

A real-time five-hour story set in an airport cocktail lounge during a global disaster. Five disparate people are trapped inside: Karen, a single mother waiting for her online date; Rick, the down-on-his-luck airport lounge bartender; Luke, a pastor on the run; Rachel, a cool Hitchcock blonde incapable of true human contact; and finally a mysterious voice known as Player One. Slowly, each reveals the truth about themselves while the world as they know it comes to an end.

In the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and J.G. Ballard, Coupland explores the modern crises of time, human identity, society, religion and the afterlife. The book asks as many questions as it answers and readers will leave the story with no doubt that we are in a new phase of existence as a species - and that there is no turning back.


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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Windmill Books (1 Sep 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0099538180
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099538189
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.6 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 34,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

A work of genius (Independent on Sunday )

A tense, utterly compelling story (The Times )

Enjoyable . . .The way Coupland moulds his fiction from the throwaway debris of North American popular culture is quite brilliant . . . Coupland has always been a highly compassionate writer, concerned mainly with the ways in which affluent people's lives are cheapened by popular culture (Scarlett Thomas Guardian )

The pulse quickens as his principal characters hunker down for some besieged truth-telling...Dynamic engagement is the real meat of this slim but provocative novel (Independent )

As always with Coupland, the ideas come thick and fast, they're quirky, often funny and frequently profound (Daily Mail )

Book Description

From the bestselling author of Jpod, Generation X and Generation A comes a dystopian Breakfast Club for the twenty-first century.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Contrived, though the intentions are good 16 Feb 2011
Format:Hardcover
Douglas Copeland is a clever chap, and a fluent writer with a definite feel for the pulse of the times. But this is disappointing, especially the "Player One" contrivance which gives the novel it's name. I have no doubt that some of the narrative twists will rather soon seem like historical facts rather than speculative fiction but, well: so what, really. A shame because he is defintely a writer who's very worth reading usually.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bought this for a plane trip and it just about did it's job through enforced captivity.
I've enjoyed Coupland's work before, but not this book.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing 4 Sep 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've enjoyed all Coupland's novels before this one, which felt like no more than his early concept notes before fleshing out. Or a single chapter of a more substantial work pre-edit.

I didn't even notice I had finished it - there is an appendix of 20 pages or so that I expected to be more story.

A less well known writer would likely not have found a publisher for this one........
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Oops, he did it again. 21 Oct 2010
By Lola
Format:Hardcover
First of all, I love Douglas Coupland.
Well, I have finished "Player One" a few days ago and I was sad to admit to myself that it was not his best book. I mean, it's all repetitive: end of the world, is there God who still cares about us, we are all going to die anyway - his usual stuff sprinkled with the irony - and that's what I love about him, but come on! I read one review that said that he is finally at his best, at his "Generation X" best, and maybe that was my problem - I read "Generation X" and straight away I read "Player One" - maybe that's why it all felt like one long moan about consumerism and over-culture of the world we all live in, fateless creatures. And while it was something unheard of in the early nineties, well, now it's just kinda boring...
Once again, I love Mr Coupland and cannot wait for him to astonish me with his new books, like he did so many times before.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Here we are in the years 27 Jan 2012
By Jeremy Walton TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm invariably first in line for the latest Douglas Coupland, and bought this just before a trip last year to Chicago and New York - which, by a blinding coincidence, are the two cities featured on the departure board shown on its cover. However, this tale is more about the disorientating effects of travel than any specific places: five unconnected people are passing through an airport bar when they find themselves stranded by events that might presage the end of the world - or, at the very least, a cataclysmic change in the way it works.

As the action progresses, the point of view shifts between the characters, giving us plenty of time in their heads as they muse on time, religion, the afterlife and the pursuit of happiness (the book's subtitle is "What is to become of us"). This isn't the first time Coupland's considered these themes, and you feel like you already partially know these flawed, suffering characters (which include the runaway priest, the beautiful autistic, the recovering alcoholic and the lonely middle-aged woman) from his previous books. Indeed, some of the things they say have been explicitly recycled from elsewhere (e.g. "What if God exists, but doesn't like people very much?", which comes from Eleanor Rigby). It doesn't really matter though, since these are clearly big ideas that need revisiting (if not re-expressing), and there are a few aspects of this tale that are decidedly original.

One of these is the use of the eponymous character Player One, who appears to exist as a disembodied voice that describes the past and future experiences of the other characters in a way that's reminiscent of an author, or the player of a video game.
... Read more ›
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Repetitive - What a diappointment. 16 Oct 2011
By Mlssa
Format:Hardcover
After reading only 8 pages of this book it began to become very obvious to me (as I assume it will to any Coupland fan) that there is a lot of content in this book which has been recycled from his previous novels.
For example: The 'rapture on a plane' section is paraphrased from The Gum Thief, and the yawning bird point is mentioned in that book too; Many, many ideas which were already used (more skilfully) in Eleanor Rigby (eg, Black stars during daylight, reaction to shopping for books about lonlieness, why money makes us feel good ... and so on). There are too many similarities to his previous novels, not only in terms of overarching themes (which is fair enough) but in smaller almost 'filler' sentences.

I really struggled trying to read this book without exclaiming in annoyance each time a recycled idea/sentence came round.

His previous novels thrown into a blender = a substantial amount of content from 'Player One'.

On a positive note the introduction of a character on the autistic spectrum was interesting, perhaps she is portrayed as too robotic though which didn't gel with the level of insight she seems to have about herself and others.

Overall, sadly not one of his best novels.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I can't believe Coupland had the nerve to release this as a new book, let alone charge money for it. It is absolutely riddled with passages lifted unchanged from about 7 of his previous novels, and not nearly enough new content or ideas to justify a story. Ending is too abrupt and a cop-out. This is the sound of a barrel being scraped dry.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible
Excerpt from my review:

"I get it. I get what he wants to do. He wants to talk about how in the 20th century we are so aware of the threats to our comfortable existence... Read more
Published 6 days ago by S. Fagence
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Coupland
As ever, thought-provoking, destabilising, wicked prose and great characters. He never disappoints. Just a shame Amazon hand out rules about how many words you are required to... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Gustave Flaubert
4.0 out of 5 stars Classic Coupland
If enjoy Coupland's recurring themes of social awkwardness, isolation and dysfunction, then you'll love this. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Richard Hayter
3.0 out of 5 stars More like a tv script rather than an Oscar winning movie script
I was just about to purchase the book in a "A new Douglas Coupland book!" moment with excitement...only to realise that I have actually downloaded it on my kindle a couple of... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Izen
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Buy!!
I'm a big Douglas Coupland and I buy his books at Amazon.co.uk for some time now. This in particular was a great buy. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Paulo Corceiro
1.0 out of 5 stars The last book I will read from this once brilliant author
After my disappointing experiences with 'Generation A' I decided to give Douglas Coupland another chance. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Dirk Verburg
5.0 out of 5 stars Not at his best but still better than most others
I'm giving this 5 stars to compensate for some of the more negative reviews here. Sure, this is lightweight Coupland and certainly not his finest but it is still a pleasure to... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Rolo
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing from a brilliant author
I sometimes wonder if the press reviews come from people unfamiliar with Coupland's back catalogue. He is without doubt my favourite author, but the spark and sparkle of earlier... Read more
Published 22 months ago by lottie
4.0 out of 5 stars Very Now
Player One (2010), has five of Coupland's typical characters stuck in an airport lounge while a major event unfolds outside, threatening the end of the world. Read more
Published on 9 April 2011 by St
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