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The Coincidence Engine Paperback – 4 Apr 2011

by
Sam Leith (Author)
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Sam Leith (Author)
3.1 out of 5 stars 9 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (4 April 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1408802341
  • ISBN-13: 978-1408802342
  • Product Dimensions: 15.4 x 23.4 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,052,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'A tremendous novel - droll, savvy, original. An invigorating blast of fiction' (William Boyd)

'I couldn't stop reading Sam Leith's comic, paranoid romp across America. It's Philip K. Dick meets Evelyn Waugh in a fast-paced satire ... I loved its twists and turns and its final, wonderful revelation. If, that is, it was a final revelation...' (Michael Moorcock)

'He is a humorist, but, much more than that, a realist; a philosopher, but much more a brilliant reporter. His prose reminds me of the non-experimental James Joyce' (Bevis Hillier, Spectator)

***** Wildly imaginative, this book rips along (The Lady)

Book Description

Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2011

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsA bit of a puzzler
By D. Harris TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on 25 May 2011
Format: Paperback
For once, I'm really not sure what I think of this. It's certainly a promising first novel, a bold, intriguing premise - the hunt for a purported "coincidence engine", a device that can mess with probability, making vastly unlikely things happen. As if that wasn't enough, it's being tracked by the DEI, the Department of the Extremely Improbably, an organisation that makes Mulder and Scully's X-files look prosaic.

As the coincidence engine is borne unwittingly across the United States by a Alex Smart, student from Cambridge University, who is just trying to reach his girlfriend, a series of unlikely (well, they would be!) characters are on his trail. There is Bree, ex alcoholic, and her partner Jones, who has no imagination. They are agents of the DEI. There is a pair of ex Paras. There are various tramps and down-and-outs who seem to be significant (though I'm not sure why). We also hear the story of Banarchavsky, the mathematician who dreamed up the Engine. Through this cast of characters, Leith discusses theories of many worlds - NOT parallel worlds, as Banarchavsky irately points out: these are worlds where everything touches everything else, time does not flow and nothing is ever lost (see The End Of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe for a discussion of what that might mean).

So this is a meaty book, with interesting ideas and lots to think about. It's also well told, for the most part.

I do have reservations, though. The tone is uneven. At the start I read this as comic-serious, or serious-comic, not as zany as, say, Douglas Adams, but still light in tone.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsOriginal and very entertaining
By T. GOOLEY on 15 April 2011
Format: Paperback
Sam Leith's book has an entertaining plot, it is fast-paced and amusing - attributes which are rare enough in a novel - but its originality comes because at its heart it is a book that tackles some profound concepts.

I see this book as a philosophical novel that has been very well disguised as a good holiday read. The book does wrestle some challenging ideas, but don't be put off by mentions of maths or physics as it is more about crazily big ideas than formulas. In fact the book could be thought of as a fun mud-wrestle between an intelligent writer and a very big idea, but with a plot. Nope that analogy is not going to come off. It is a hard book to review, but easy one to read.

It will not be loved by all, but few will be able to deny that it is intelligent and original fiction. How refreshing to find a novel that is both deeply philosophical and very entertaining!
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4.0 out of 5 starsMathematical Mayhem
By Leyla Sanai on 8 April 2011
Format: Paperback
The Coincidence Engine by Sam Leith
Bloomsbury £][
Reviewed by Leyla Sanai

Arriving with preview praise from William Boyd and Michael Moorcock, Leith's
debut novel is an ingenious if highly wacky adventure crammed with laughs. And, perhaps incongruously, beneath
the labyrinthine plot and sardonic Wodehouse with claws humour, there's
a seam of tender human observation.

As a non-fan of science fiction, the outlandish premise on the back
cover blurb - that a plane has assembled itself out of scrap during a storm -
initially raised serious doubts in this reader, sounding more of a
basis for a blockbuster kids' movie than a novel. But I underestimated
Leith: the mad-cap nonsense has a sketchy but passable safety net of maths to save it from haphazard nonsense . The events are still whimsical, but once you get past the first few pages it becomes apparent that they're not 100% raving fantasy since they're based,
albeit outrageously, within the possibilities of hypothetical physics.

An eccentric maths professor has been working in secret for years,
conjuring up a machine that can affect the natural order of
probability. Academic opinion is split on whether he's still the genius
he once was or if he's mad. Two opposing teams are determined to
ensnare this machine: the Directorate of the Extremely Improbable
(DEI), a government department concerned with national security, and an
arms company (MIC).

Into this mix is thrown a hapless geek studying maths at Cambridge.
Alex has decided to propose to his girlfriend in the US, and travels
out there to act on this whim. A maelstrom of events tails him, enacted
by a cast of beautifully idiosyncratic characters.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsPleasantly daft,thought provoking first novel
By TGriff on 19 May 2014
Format: Paperback
Beyond the skilfully contrived rather whimsical plot there is some serious thinking on a number of areas , parallell universes , the power of numbers etc. it is unusual for an author to portray a rather unattractive protagonist and to use co-incidence as the basis of the plot rather than a contrivance to make a poor plot work occasionally the numbers theory bacame a little tedious bur this is an entertaining read and the happyish ending for the most appealing character Bree was a welcome surprise
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2.0 out of 5 starsLuckless
By reader 451 on 5 July 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Dogs dogs dog dog dogs. Or: Dogs [that other] dogs dog [i.e. bother] dog [in turn, other] dogs. This is the book's highlight. It is the reason it is getting two stars rather than the one-star rating it would otherwise deserve, with special mention for a particularly weak ending.

Yet empty, clever phrasing is also what The Coincidence Engine stands for, what it can be summed up as. Now we know what a novel looks like that is entirely driven by a cute idea, with no grasp on reality. The book's premise is gratuitous. Its characters are instrumental, ciphers with names like Red Queen. Indeed, I struggled to differentiate one from the other until the book's last third. Not that this was an impediment to following what was a surprisingly linear plot, admittedly. A mathematician has invented a machine that makes the improbable happen, and both the secret services and a big, evil corporation (they're always big and evil in fiction, aren't they?) are after it. But it may all be a hoax - we are kept guessing. And we might even care if it were not for the in-your-face second meaning, the not-so-literary twist, actually, that this is also about coincidence in literature, about the writer as craftsman of coincidence. Yawn. My advice is to avoid - enjoying this can only come as a fluke.
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