Oh dear... I'm a huge Ballard fan and his books take up a good proportion of my bookshelves, but this left me completely cold and I confess that I struggled to finish it.

Ballard makes no secret of the fact that "Kingdom Come" is very similar to "Cocaine Nights", "Super Cannes" and "Millennium People" (and, I suppose, "Running Wild" to some degree) and claims that he planned it as a trilogy. If this is the case it is most definitely the weakest of the three.

So what is wrong with it? For me, the main character was unappealing and I really couldn't warm to him at all. On top of this the idea of a shopping centre which was effectively lawless and had its own cultish devotees just struck me as silly. Add to this the staged violent outbursts and the usual mad psychologist and you're left with a frankly dull novel which is a pale imitation of the Ballard whose work I love so much.