Things We Didn't See Coming
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Review
Gleefully apocalyptic novel...as ever with this kind of dystopian fiction, there is a satisfying tingle in imagining an Armageddon just round the corner. --Financial Times
What makes Things We Didn't See Coming such an impressive novel - and very impressive debut - is the playfulness of the writing contrasted to the grimness of the subject matter. In Amsterdam's hands the apocalypse sounds like it might be fun. --Sunday Times
Rarely has the darkness of life been looked at with such buoyant irony, imaginative grace and disarming ardour. --Irish Times
Should please reader who enjoys Margaret Atwood's dystopias. --Herald
Here's that rare thing - a post-apocalypse novel that's more than doom and gloom. A treat to read - playful, intelligent and intriguing
--Daily Mail
, `To enter the tradition of dystopian fiction, and with a first novel at that, requires a deal of chutzpah. Fortunately, Steven Amsterdam has plenty. Even in the blackest scenes Amsterdam's gift for mordant humour keeps the reader entertained and depression at bay, just about. What makes Things We Didn't See Coming such an impressive novel - and impressive debut - is the playfulness of the writing contrasted to the grimness of the subject matter. In Amsterdam's hands, the apocalypse sounds like it might be fun' --Sunday Times, Culture
'impressive debut novel...Amsterdam writes with tremendous assurance and his narrative teems with ideas, repeatedly twisting in unexpected directions. His disturbing but beguiling novel introduces a writer with a striking, original voice.' --Mail On Sunday
What makes Things We Didn't See Coming such an impressive novel - and very impressive debut - is the playfulness of the writing contrasted to the grimness of the subject matter. In Amsterdam's hands the apocalypse sounds like it might be fun. --Sunday Times
Rarely has the darkness of life been looked at with such buoyant irony, imaginative grace and disarming ardour. --Irish Times
Should please reader who enjoys Margaret Atwood's dystopias. --Herald
Here's that rare thing - a post-apocalypse novel that's more than doom and gloom. A treat to read - playful, intelligent and intriguing
--Daily Mail
, `To enter the tradition of dystopian fiction, and with a first novel at that, requires a deal of chutzpah. Fortunately, Steven Amsterdam has plenty. Even in the blackest scenes Amsterdam's gift for mordant humour keeps the reader entertained and depression at bay, just about. What makes Things We Didn't See Coming such an impressive novel - and impressive debut - is the playfulness of the writing contrasted to the grimness of the subject matter. In Amsterdam's hands, the apocalypse sounds like it might be fun' --Sunday Times, Culture
'impressive debut novel...Amsterdam writes with tremendous assurance and his narrative teems with ideas, repeatedly twisting in unexpected directions. His disturbing but beguiling novel introduces a writer with a striking, original voice.' --Mail On Sunday
Book Description
A mesmerising debut set in a not-too-distant future, in a landscape at once utterly fantastic and strangely familiar.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A stonking read,
By
This review is from: Things We Didn't See Coming (Hardcover)
Things We Didn't See Coming is a delightful, quirky and unsettling read. It presents a series of sequential short stories, each following the same unnamed protagonist, moving on from the evening of the Millennium Bug into a dystopian future of catastrophic climate; disease; disintegration of society and more.I had the privilege of hearing Steven Amsterdam read from the book and answer questions. My question was, given that nothing dates faster than the future, did Steven Amsterdam think this was a book about the future or a book about our present fears and anxieties. Without hesitation, he replied that it was about the present day. In starting out with the Millennium Bug - the disaster that never happened - we are shown our own fallability in predicting the future. Later on, our hero watches Robocop and laughs at how badly wrong the predictions of the future turned out to be. This is no attempt at prediction; it's no warning about what might happen if we don't tackle climate change. No, it's a story very much about our thirst for doom, our neuroses of all that might go wrong in our own lifetimes. The narration is not always easy. Steven Amsterdam writes in a spare, haunting style. He presents images rather than fine phrases. Our hero is a man of few words. A latterday cowboy, drifting from one job to another, pretty ambivalent to issues of right and wrong. He's neither good nor bad, he just is - in a world where those with more polar personalities fall by the wayside. Our hero is a survivor without ever truly understanding how it is he who survives. The visions of Hell are interesting - especially the segregation of urban and rural people. As shortages start to bite, it's interesting to see the food producers in the countryside start to eclipse their starving urban neighbours; but by the end we see the urbanites draw strength again from their tighter social structures. It's interesting, as the antithesis to so many post-Apocalyptic novels, to see currency continue to be useful - rather more so than the hi-tech goods it once purchased. Perhaps a reflection of our present wish to make ever more money despite our lack of faith in the longevity of so much that we buy. There are some delightful cameo characters. Our hero's survivalist father; Margo, his partner. Most intriguing, though, is Jeph - a rich child in a commune. His private wealth means that even though he is the youngest member of the commune, ostensibly looked after by all the other members, he really calls all the shots. The child who finds he has adults at his beck and call is a dangerous creature indeed. For all the bleakness, though, there's a really black sense of humour running through the stories too. And more than a sense that the joke's directly between the author and the reader with the story just used to illustrate the joke. Really, this is a stonking read. I don't want to spoil all the fun - just read it. It's superbly written, has playful ideas a-plenty and is a million miles away from preaching. It'll also be completely misunderstood by every environmentalist in the land.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Starkly Beautiful,
By Kat from The Aussie Zombie (Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Things We Didn't See Coming (Kindle Edition)
Things We Didn't See Coming is the story of one young boy, 9 years old on the eve of the millennium, and his subsequent journey through a world irrevocably changed by Y2K. As the world falls slowly apart and suffers through drought, flood, fire and disease, he teeters on the fence of petty crime and respectable government employment and experiences all facets of the evolution of human civilization.The writing is beautifully stark, poetic and chilling, and the story twists and turns along with his fortunes and falls. This is not a book for the faint-hearted; there are few redeeming moments and little happiness in his journey through his teenage years and adulthood. The characters are flawed, but fit completely in the story - alliances are easily broken and every person is focused on their own and their families survival. I enjoyed Things We Didn't See Coming immensely - Mr. Amsterdam's writing reminded me of Tim Winton or Ian McEwan and I was more than surprised to learn Things We Didn't See Coming is his debut novel. I look forward to reading more of his work in the very near future.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Debut,
By
This review is from: Things We Didn't See Coming (Paperback)
I loved this book. It's a real page-turner for a start. Not quite a novel, and not quite a collection of short stories either - each chapter covers an episode in the life of the main character as he quietly goes about his business in a world beset by one catastrophe after another. The catastrophes, social structures and dilemmas of the world are often merely hinted at - the narrator talks to you as if you were around at the time and just know about the situation. I liked this, as it lets your imagination get to work.It's nothing like Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" by the way - far less driven by narrative, and less emotionally affecting but still deeply enjoyable. The best comparison I can make is with Martin Amis' "Einstein's Monsters"; another collection of (unrelated) stories with a central theme of apocalypse. Strongly recommended.
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