Die Zufallsmaschine

by Sam Leith

Wo immer Alex Smart auftaucht, häufen sich die merkwürdigsten Zufälle: Vögel flöten "Amazing Grace", vom Schicksal getrennte Geschwister begegnen einander in der Reinigung, und ein Fertiggericht mit Brokkoligeschmack ist in ganz Alabama ausverkauft. Alex selbst bekommt von all dem nichts mit. Er ist von London nach Amerika gereist, um seiner Angebeteten einen Heiratsantrag zu machen. Er ahnt nicht, dass der Ring in seiner Tasche womöglich eine Zufallsmaschine ist, die Unglaubliches bewirkt. Längst haben sich diverse Verfolger an seine Fersen geheftet, um den Ring an sich zu bringen. Doch das ist leichter gesagt als getan ...

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Philosophy, Travel

352 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2011

Reviews

[Arie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Reminded me of a cross between Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams, only with less of Adams' humour and Gaiman's wit and skill with words. However it was very entertaining, and I would happily read again to make sense of a few things I missed.

[Kyle Maas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A witty and deeply personal look at the different paths that life can take-whether by chance or by choosing. Bound within the context of a government spy thriller, this is a book that is at its best when asking the questions of what makes life meaningful and examining how our choices, good our bad, all make us into the people we are today.

I know that description sounds a tad cliched and a bit heavy on the philosophical pondering, but in many ways that’s a summary of what this book is: a tad cliched and a bit heavy on the philosophy. That doesn’t mean, however, that this is a bad book. Far from it, in fact. The cliches come in the story, and it’s one we’re all familiar with: a shadowy government agency fights against another shadowy government agency for a weapon that could change life as we know it. A simple story and one, like I said, that we’re familiar with. But Leith acknowledges the slight cliche in the story and it’s familiar boundaries and allows it to form a scaffolding on which he can build the rest of the book. As the book continues, the plot and action recede to the background, ready to be picked up whenever needed, and instead the characters and their lives and thoughts become what is really important. The weapon the agencies are chasing is one that heightens chance and probability, and Leith allows each of his characters ample time to reflect on what chance and choice have meant in their lives, how little happenstances became big turning points for each of them as time went on. Also tying in philosophy, physics, and radical mathematical theory, Leith crams a lot of density into his little 300 page spy novel, something that may turn some readers off. As someone who often thinks of his own life in such a manner, however, often reflecting on choices I’ve made and how and why they got me to where I am today, I found Leith’s novel resonating with me in a way that I found both surprising and refreshing, and I doubt that I will be the only reader to acknowledge this. If you’re looking for something a little bit different and deeper than your average off the shelf novel, pick up Leith’s “The Coincidence Engine” and see if that choice becomes the right one for you.

[David Willson · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story, as described on the cover notes, was intriguing, so I picked this one up to read. If I'd read the Author's Note inside the title page, I might have thought twice about it though. In it Sam Leith says, "I don't know any maths," and "People may also complain that I have taken liberties with both the laws of physics and the geography of the United States of America." Too bad these things were crucial to the story.

The best I can say for Leith's story is that he started with some really interesting ideas. His writing was unable to make any of them bear fruit, however. The characters seemed almost contrived to be boring. The plot is literally driven by a cross country interstate automobile trip, with stops only for bathroom breaks and overnight sleep in nameless motels. The catalyst, an eccentric genius physicist (is there any other kind) who supposedly invented a Coincidence Engine that is warping reality across the U.S. of A., is a digression that leads nowhere. In endless conversation, he spouts gobbledygook that is supposed to allude to multiverse string theory, but seems to have more in common with New Age philosophy. In the end (Ooh, is this a spoiler?) the whole story is explained away as a wild goose chase.

Oh, well thanks, Sam. Sorry I wasted my time on it. See if I ever do that again.

[Chris Limb · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a certain self conscious humour to be to be found in a particular type of genre novel. Often the novel is apocalyptic, containing demons, angels and/or the afterlife and usually it contains up to the minute cultural references. You get the distinct impression that the author was so impressed by Gaiman and Pratchett's Good Omens that they were determined to write their own version. Sometimes they're clearly emulating Douglas Adams as well.

I thought I detected this tone when I started reading The Coincidence Engine, but it soon turned out I was wrong. It wasn't long before I was drawn into a unique story which dragged me relentlessly along in its wake not letting go of my collar until the last page. There is a lot of humour here, its true, not to mention numerous zeitgeisty cultural references, but the novel is far more than just another comedic genre pot-boiler. The humour is offset by a depth of detail, sometimes tragic, surrounding the central characters, people you end up really caring about.

Douglas Adams's influence is clear - the central premise being what happens when someone actually builds something not unlike the Infinite Improbability Drive but this conceit is surrounded by fascinating layers of mathematical and philosophical musings that raise this novel above a normal narrative.

There are some niggles - the intrusion into the narrative of a judgemental authorial voice (in the first person no less) I found extremely jarring. The switch to present tense for the flashback involving Holderness and Banarcharski likewise interrupts the flow of the story.

But on the whole I enjoyed this engaging and unputdownable debut. I am interested to see what the author comes up with next.

[Lucian Poll · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this novel is irresistible: the emergence of a device that twists probability (e.g. a hurricane assembles a jumbo jet using bits of scrap metal), and the chase across the US that ensues as rival entities hunt it down. And while all of this is taking place a student called Alex is travelling across the US to surprise his girlfriend.

I love novels that are big on ideas and you certainly get them here.

The novel gets off to a flying start as a shady M figure called Red Queen, of the Directorate of the Extremely Improbable, pulls every string possible to get results. The DEI have intercepted a message: "The Coincidence Engine exists, and it has started working", and away they go.

Throughout the novel Sam Leith masterfully pulls together a string of random, outlandish happenings, most of which had me nodding in appreciation, if not laughing out loud.

But then it all goes a bit pear-shaped about halfway through. The novel sags with pages of backstory about the could-be creator of the device, and the denouement of Alex's road trip was so flat that it seemed to have induced the most alarming episode of "intrusive author" I think I've seen. I found it particularly jarring and the novel never really recovered afterwards.

That said The Coincidence Engine is still a worthwhile read. It's short at well under 300 pages, so it doesn't really outstay its welcome, and the humour, the dialogue and the inspired coincidences and ideas that ping off the page really impress. I'd give it 3.5, but rounded up to 4 out of 5.

Give it a whirl.

[Beth Rosen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the oddest books I have read in quite a while, and yet I really enjoyed it. There was a moment, near the end of the book, when I realized that it was meeting none of my expectations about what books generally do. I felt a bit tricked - I expected it to be something, & without any warning it had become something really different. But after I had a while to think about it, I realized I liked that. I liked the deliberate fuzziness between the maths technobabble and the secret agent double dealing. If you like Douglas Adams (& I totally like DA) you will probably like this. It isn't as funny, & it has more emotional depth, but it has a similar vibe

[Peter K · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light enough and entertaining read but a somewhat disappointing one as it moved to its conclusion.

An interesting premise, the appearance of a fully formed airliner following the arrival of a hurricane in a scrap yard in the southern states of USA.

Shadowy agencies on the alert, the mysterious Red Queen co-ordinating unofficial agents to track down a young English student Alex who is travelling across America whilst other shadowy agents track them all and apparently at the heart of it all a hermit like maths professor thought to have lost his mind but who might just have made the most groundbreaking discovery of all.

This is all teed up as we move into the final third but the story seems to lose energy and conviction and whilst the story of Bree and Mr.Jones is well described the conclusion of the story fails to live up to the early promise.

[g · Rating 4 out of 5]

there were several times during this book that i laughed out loud at the absurdity (in a good way)! it seemed like at first it was more comedic, but then a couple times there were times where i could physically feel the despair that the characters were feeling. the idea of the coincidence machine was definitely an interesting one and i loved how leith tied together the characters’ stories. i found myself struggling a bit to get through a part in the middle but it was worth it to get through. i will be recommending this to others!

[Leanne Riegel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reminds me of The Adventures of the 101 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, but in a less interesting way. I enjoyed one of the characters, and the premise was genuinely intriguing, but the book fell apart as it went along. Almost like entropy took over with a funky beginning.

[Maaria Bhatii · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like I have to read the book again to fully understand it but it took me ages to read the first time because I was not very invested in the story. I did not really connect/like with any of the characters and the end was kind of a let down

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very strange indeed. Confused and confusing, it's a romp through parallel universes maybe, where maybe coincidences collide and conspire but maybe it's all in your (or their) imagination. Found on a CrimeBeat roundup of time travel mysteries.

[Jeroen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I marked it as read, but I couldn't get through the whole thing.

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really intriguing story but a bit of a disappointing ending. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book!

[Ray Daley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bloody weird. It started out well enough but drizzled out to a weak non-ending. It felt like someone's first novel, if I'm honest.

[Ioana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun novel that had the possibility to be great. I appreciate the self-awareness about its characters especially towards the end but it didn't quite make sense and come together in the end.

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Super interesting idea, not well executed. It had its moments but mostly I was confused the entire way through the book.

[Jean Sharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, picked it up, read about thirty pages and remembered that I have read it already.
Quirky book, plays with the idea of what is really happening.

[Joan Kerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is the mad mathematician Banacharski really building the weapon to end all weapons, a coincidence engine that would make impossible things possible? If so, Red Queen, who runs the Directory of the Extremely Improbable, wants it, and so do the ruthless operatives of the arms trading firm MIC Industrial Futures. And it’s bad luck for guileless young English mathematician Alex Smart, who’s just driving across America to propose to his American girlfriend, that they seem to think he has the device. So begins a chase along endless highways and through featureless motels and fast food outlets, Alex pursued by the thuggish Davidoff and Sherman of MIC, and by Red Queen’s team of the overweight ex-drunk Bree and the apsychotic Jones, who’s very good at his job because he can’t see the future and so doesn’t make any assumptions about anything.

That’s the scenario, but can we believe anything Red Queen says or anything the narrator says about him/her? The DEI, after all, is a Rumsfeldian organisation whose job is "to assess threats to national security that we don’t know exist, using methods that we don’t know work. This produces results we generally can’t recognise as results, and when we can recognise them as results, we don’t know how to interpret them." (31)

The DEI’s staff of "tea-leaf readers, distance seers, chaos magicians and tarot tellers, dicemen, catatonics, psychokinetics, psychic healers, lunatics, haruspices, illuminati, idiot savants, hypnotists, bearded ladies, oracles" (32) may not even know they’re working for DEI and some of them think they’re spying on it. As for MIC, all they know is that the device somehow affects probability and its effects can be seen particularly in iPods. So their operatives have to spend long hours listening to the likes of Neil Young, hoping to pick up – what exactly? Nobody, least of all Davidoff or Sherman, knows.

Clearly we’re all in the realm of extreme improbability. In keeping with that, the loose, fancy-free style of the narrative takes us along on a what-the-hell ride that has some very funny moments and some unexpected depths, particularly in the character of Bree and her relationship with Jones.

"She dropped him off, took the car back, found her way into another of those rooms. It had low yellow light, like all the other motel rooms in America. There was a bedspread that made you feel sad, and the sort of mirror that turned even a young face into a landscape of pits and pocks and defeated skin. Bree could feel her DNA fraying, the cells ticking down and closing in. She looked at herself in the mirror and wondered what it was like to have fun, not to be scared…" (193)

Bree is in flight from her ruined past, and Jones has only the past. Bree constantly struggles to keep an apocalyptic imagination under control and Jones has no imagination. Our imagination is a ‘coincidence engine’ that throws us together with other people in ways whose outcomes we can’t predict. There are, the book concludes, any number of versions of each of us, and the solid version of reality we live in can be blown apart at any moment, unfamiliar light streaming into it as if through the walls and roof of a bombed building.

Alex’s sense of reality is suffering too as he drives across America. He’s being mugged, not so much by Davidoff and Sherman (they do their best, but let’s just say things don’t work out well) but by America itself, which is a character in the book as it’s been in any number of road-novels and movies. America with its highways, superstores and brown motels, its deserts and scrubs and car dealerships out in the middle of nowhere, its burgers and Pontiacs, its fake Elvises, its girls in bikinis and eyepatches and pirate hats. The scene in Las Vegas where Alex finally meets up with his girlfriend Carey is a tour-de-force. And if we needed evidence that the coincidence machine really does exist, look no further than the death-by-billiard-table that befalls one character.

Not my usual sort of read, but I’m always looking for good comedy and I found this in previous shortlists of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Comic Fiction Prize. This, Leith’s first novel, (he’s written some non-fiction that sounds intriguing) was shortlisted in 2011. Well worth your time.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A humorous Douglas Adams style story – easy and very enjoyable to read but also with occasional excellent descriptive paragraphs and also melancholic and meditative passages.

Unlike in e.g. a Kate Atkinson novel but like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the co-incidence is explicit in the story line – either due to the possible effects of the co-incidence engine (albeit over time we realise the engine may only exist in a parallel universe from where some of its effect spills into our world) or often the incompetence of the two agencies or their seeing patterns where none exist (albeit the fact that innocuous acts seem to mimic deliberate ones may be part of the co-incidences).

However unlike Adams the science itself is actually flawed or slightly missing the point at times (e.g. time we are told can’t be measured as it is a dimension) but is more of a way (Leith admits he is no mathematician) of introducing philosophical musings – particularly around the whole issue of parallel universes radiating out of decisions/forks taken: this is treated not purely as an excuse to test the boundaries of absurdity but more to consider the topics of regret, of mortality, of isolation and even where absurdity is introduced it is sometimes in a deeper way (Jones cries for his 20 years dead mother every night as he remembers her perfectly and misses her daily and has no concept of time diminishing grief; the mathematicians attempt to build the machine – if he ever did – is senses as being more about his attempt to bring back into being all past universes and to explore time backwards due to his regrets over the deaths of his family in the war and post war).

[Melysah Bunting · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Coincidence Engine by Sam Leith is a sci-fi fiction novel. The story revolves around secret agencies attempting to catch the thief of a probability machine. Things aren't what they seem, or are they?

Nicolas Banacharski is a brilliant mathematician who may have made a machine that alters probability. Who knows? He may just be mad.

Red Queen, who works for DEI, is trying to locate this machine before MIC does, so the players from each organization are in a chase to catch it. The DEI team consists of Bree, a lady who loves to eat, and Jones, a man with no imagination. On the MIC side, are two British men: Davidoff and Sherman.

From the UK, Alex is on a road trip making his way all through the US with a ring in his pocket. His destination is his girlfriend Carey. Will Carey say yes?

There are a some other characters, but that's the gist of it. For the most part, I liked the story. The cover is interesting. I am a fan of physics. I like the mystery and crime theme of trying to catch a thief. There were a few bits I found lagging, but I like the way the end wraps things up.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Coincidence Engine is a bit of an odd duck, a picaresque British novel set in the United States, amid rental cars and strip malls and cheap motels, yet still full of rightpondian uses—"trainers" instead of sneakers, "trolleys" for shopping carts... even though only one of the major characters, Alex Smart, is British, and he doesn't even show up until Chapter 5. Debut author Sam Leith's linguistic funhouse mirror adds a layer of skewness to the story, which may not be fully intentional but which did keep me off-balance (in a good way, mostly).

Alex doesn't even know about the Coincidence Engine. He's come to the U.S. to meet up with his girlfriend Carey in San Francisco, is all—which makes the fact that he's missed his connecting flight and has been stranded in Atlanta, Georgia, something of a distressing situation. Resourcefully enough, Alex rents a car and heads West... unaware that he's being trailed by intelligence operatives from two countries, agents who must perforce deal with the Engine in their own ways. Unaware that he is himself the locus, the veritable engine, of coincidence...


This book formed for me an impromptu duo with Thomas Mullen's The Revisionists, which I ran across quite by coincidence on the same shopping trip, and read during the same short spring break. This one also has a high concept, a neat conceit to play around with—it starts when a jet plane assembles itself from scrap metal around a man who is in no way a pilot, an event which is soon and easily enough seen to be an early effect of the titular Engine.

However—again as with The Revisionists—I thought that Leith didn't do quite enough with his high concept, choosing instead to give in to the chase, and to tell us more about his characters and their relationships than to delve into the consequences of a device (or a condition, or a state of mind) that makes the improbable likely. And, as with many books that attempt to be zany or surreal, The Coincidence Engine all too often misses the mark—veering into violence that is just not that funny, even if it is fictional. There's a fine line between cartoonish and lurid, after all.

But it may still be worth a gamble. The conceit is there, and it's played out fairly well; the characters are often interesting, even if they aren't always used wisely. I can't guarantee you'll like this book even as much as I did, but... stranger things have happened.

[franzi_heartbooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Das Cover:
Das Cover ist recht farbig. Der Hintergrund ist weiß, doch der Titel des Buches ist in Orange, Rosa und Grün geschrieben. Außerdem sind ein Flugzeug, zwei Donuts sowie ein Oldtimerauto zu sehen. Ich finde, dass das Cover passend zur Geschichte gestaltet wurde.

Die Geschichte:
Ein Flugzeug der Marke Boeing 737 taucht urplötzlich am Himmel auf und stürzt ab. Der Pilot wird verletzt gefunden, doch er kann sich an nichts erinnern. Bree wurde auf den Fall angsetzt. Sie arbeitet bei einer geheimen Behörde, dem MIC. Ihr Vorgesetzter, Red Queen (Rote Königin, bekannt aus ‘Alice im Wunderland’), ist schon länger an einem Fall dran, der mit dem mysteriösen Fluchzeugauftauchen und -absturz zu tun hat. Doch von all den merkwürdigen Ereignissen merkt Alex Smart nichts. Er ist von England nach Amerika geflogen, um seine Freundin Cary zu besuchen. In seinem Gepäck trägt er einen Ring mit, mit dem er Cary einen Heiratsantrag machen möchte. Doch er ist nicht allein auf seiner Reise, denn er wird, ohne es zu wissen, von zwei merkwürdigen Typen namens Davidoff und Sherman verfolgt. Bree und ihr neuer Kollege Jones sowie Davidoff und Sherman sind nun hinter Alex her, der angeblich eine Zufallsmaschine hat. Doch gibt es diese Maschine wirklich? Und wenn ja, was tut sie und wie? Das gilt es, herauszufinden.

Meine Meinung:
Es war schwer, eine Zusammenfassung zu diesem Buch zu schreiben. Es passiert irgendwie viel und irgendwie auch nicht. Als erstes erfahren wir, dass ein Flugzeug, dass es eigentlich gar nicht gibt, am Himmel aufgetaucht und abgestürzt ist. Der Pilot, der im Krankenhaus liegt, kann nicht mehr ordentlich sprechen, jedoch ist dieses Gestammel recht witzig zu lesen. Interessant war es, die Geschichte von Bree zu lesen. Wie sie ihre Tochter bekommen und sich von ihrem Mann getrennt hat. Auch Jones ‘Krankheit’ war für mich interessant. Dass es Menschen ohne Fantasie und Zukunftserwartungen wirklich gibt, ist kaum vorstellbar. Und dann ist da ja noch, neben Bree, der smarte Alex (Achtung, Wortspiel), der aus einer Idee heraus seiner Freundin einen Heiratsantrag machen will. Doch in Amerika kommen ihm dann Zweifel und er tourt lieber etwas in der Gegend umher. Als er sie dann anruft, hatte ich da schon einen Verdacht. Ob ich wirklich richtig lag, wird nicht enthüllt. Nun ja, insgesamt war das Buch teilweise recht unterhaltsam, aber aufgrund meiner Unkenntnis und Unverständichkeit der Thematik gegenüber las sich das Buch ziemlich zäh und schleppend. Doch wer sich mit Physik und Mathematik gut auskennt, für den wird das Buch sicher unterhaltsam und spannend sein. Ich hatte mir unter der Beschreibung etwas anderes, spannenderes vorgestellt.

Meine Bewertung:
Leider hatte ich eine andere Vorstellung von der Geschichte. Für mich zu viel Mathematik und zu komplex. Für ‘Die Zufallsmaschine’ vergebe ich leider nur zwei Sterne.

[Thetravellinglemon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of many books with an intriguing concept that just doesn't quite deliver.

The story centres around "the coincidence engine", a machine which as the name would suggest, creates coincidence around it. When I picked up the book I thought that this concept would be used to create a clever, complex story line. Instead, however, the machine is merely used as an excuse for lazy storytelling. There is no need for Leith to spend a long time showing how characters find each other, for example, because he can have them coincidentally meet in a bar or a hospital, after years of separation. Equally, if he needs to get rid of a character, he can just have him killed by an object that happens to fall on his head. The author can then blame the coincidence engine device for what is really a lack of imagination. This books features a lot of made-up science and mathematics, and while I understand that made-up science is necessary for a story like this and, not being a scientist, I have no issue with it in general, it has to at least sound like it could be real science and make some kind of sense, which is not the case in this book. I won't spoil the ending (although there isn't much to spoil) but suffice to say that while he doesn't quite go for the "it was all a dream" ending, he produces very much the same effect. It was so confusingly put together that I had to read it a few times before I slowly realised that it wasn't just me, it really didn't make much sense. There was also a sense, right through the book, that he was trying to make some grand point about humanity, but kept forgetting what it was. The story felt like Leith had come up with a proper ending, but decided he couldn't be bothered to write it down. It was clichéd and confusing.

Leith does make a commendable effort to develop his characters, especially towards the end when he fills in their back stories. However these stories, which could have provided a great source of character development, didn't really seem to affect the characters in the story and I started to wonder why they were there at all. There was also one character, with, as far as I could tell, a fictitious mental disorder, or, if not fictitious, then badly explained. It was odd and unnecessary, seeming to play on all the stereotypes about the mentally ill. The book's characters seemed entirely unchanged by the end, and I feel like that shows more clearly than anything that they were under-developed.

The book's nicely written, I will give it that. There's a touch of Pratchett (although it's not as well crafted) about the style and that was enough to hold the book together until about the last two chapters. The good writing made the poor plot all the more disappointing.

I toyed with giving this book two stars, but I decided on three because of the writing and because I didn't actively dislike it. It's entertaining, in a bland kind of way. It's a decent enough light read - just don't go in with too high expectations.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as part of goodreads.com's First Reads Program.

This book was extremely interesting. It begins with a fully assembled plan created by a hurricane. It then moves onto the investigators looking for what they call a coincidence engine, an engine or machine created that changes probability, rumored to have been created by a mad mathematician, who may or may not have been building a weapon.
A colleague and professor, Hands, is questioned about this mathematician and his plans. Hands then explains probability and the possibility of a machine. I particular enjoyed his interview because he talked about the universe and what probability and chance really is.
There were many characters, all of which intertwined in the plot to find this machine. The investigators follow Alex, who randomly decides to fly into the US, drive across the country, and meet up with his girlfriend in Vegas to propose to her.
Weird things happen throughout this entire book, coincidences such as an entire highway of cars resembling Alex's rental, making it difficult for the investigators to continue tracking him.
Parts of this book were a bit complicated, though I enjoyed the questions of what if. Such as Alex's musing: "You were almost never more than a strange decision or an accident, or a movement of a few feet, from extinction." Ideas like this have always interested me.
The reason I only gave this book 3 stars is because it was sort of confusing and all over the place. The plot didn't come together as I had hoped and sort of just ended without tying together some pieces I felt should have been tied together and expanded upon.
I think this book is worth a second read. Perhaps more of it will make sense to me.
I will be on the lookout for more novels by Leith, as I think he has real talent and I found this plot refreshing and different. Most of the time, you have to read nonfiction to really get into questions about the universe, like probability and outcomes, so it was wonderful to have these ideas presented in fiction.

http://meganm922.blogspot.com/2012/03...

[Anfenwick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some really cool ideas, but meh...

For a start, there is no Douglas Adams connection here, apart from the presence of a coincidence engine that somewhat resembles the infinite improbability drive. Oh yeah, and the author is British. Once people start making comparisons like that, you might expect humour? Well, it isn't that kind of book.

Now we've got that out of the way, what is there here?
1. A very complicated, interconnected cast of characters and institutions, all in pursuit of said coincidence engine which is basically a bit of a mcguffin. Various forms of violence, scheming and subterfuge ensue though the point of most of them was never very clear to me. There are also a few coincidences, but no more than in your average novel and a bit of philosophy. Leith basically throws all this up in the air and tries to juggle with it, but instead of forming a nice arc, it comes out as random flying objects. One of the symptoms is the very rapid shifts of point of view, including a few where he suddenly turns round and starts addressing the reader. I can actually understand why he thought we might need a bit of stage direction.
2. A few interesting characters. I actually got the feeling that the author is a bit challenged when it comes to all that touchy-feely stuff of human subjectivity and relationships. His very best characters, the one I developed most empathy for was the one who was distinctly out of the ordinary in the way he processed human experiences. There were also some character based subplots which might well have proved interesting but for most of the book they seemed irrelevant, only manifesting as pointless coincidences right at the end.

All in all, it's a book that certainly had its fascinating moments, but it didn't quite gel.

[Andrea Mullarkey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my…this was a juicy, nerdy, contemporary fiction read. Mathematicians, graduate students, operatives from the Directorate of the Extremely Improbable populate this fun, funny book about what happens when ordinary people get caught in the middle of very strange things happening. Why are all the cars on the freeway white? Why does the iPod play the same song over and over, even though it is set on random? Why do you end up in the same motel as the person you are trying to find, only you don’t learn this until the next day? Are these things truly coincidental, or is there some mechanism driving the probabilities? And if there is, what is it, who created it, and what is its purpose? Two fictional (or are they?) government agencies are trying to answer these questions as they chase a young Brit across the southern United States on his quest to reach his girlfriend in San Francisco where he plans to propose marriage. I know it sounds zany…and that’s because it is. I knew a book that started with a vintage airplane that seemed to create itself out of tin cans in the middle of Alabama and then promptly exploded leaving behind a stripper dressed as a pilot was going to be good. But I didn’t bank on it being filled with dry British wit and characters so quirky I wanted to meet them at a cocktail party.

[Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A hurricane sweeps off the Gulf of Mexico and, in the back-country of Alabama, assembles a passenger jet out of old bean-cans and junkyard waste."

I picked this book up for the blurb. Well - technically I picked up the book for the interesting title and awesome cover, but I bought the book for the blurb (...and the cover and the interesting title). The idea that a "Coincidence Engine" may or may not exist wasn't necessarily the thing that grabbed my attention. It was the possibility of a lack of one that got me thinking (and very, very amused) - so you've got all these big shot agencies chasing after a thing just because it MIGHT exist and it just so happens that a LOT of coincidences have happened around it ...what if they're actually chasing nothing? It could just be a bit of people seeing what they want to see. This book has the kind of ridiculous paranoia that really keeps me entertained.

And, I'm delighted to say, I rather enjoyed this novel. It was a little bit (or a lot?) crazy, funny, a little bit sad and it was jolly good fun. I'd give it 3.5 stars, because I didn't just like it, but I also wouldn't quite put it up in the 4-star range. It's definitely worth reading, however, if you're in the mood for a bit of a crazy adventure based on crazy coincidences that may or may not be caused by the mysterious "Coincidence Engine"...

[Sheri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just dumb. It was entertainingly dumb, but there was no real redeeming features. It was full of moments in which Leith tried to be clever ( with statements like): "'So you're saying,...that a document describing an imaginary coincidence engine, arriving just after something that might be a real coincidence engine takes effect, is proof that the real coincidence engine actually exists?' 'We work with what we've got.'"

Yep, just pure silliness. There were a few plot points that really didn't make sense (but given the title and premise I can't make my usual complaint that things were too convenient). Ultimately it was just a road trip from Atlanta to Vegas with some randomness included.

My biggest complaint (and I might have been reading the British version) was with the language. This is a book about some Brits and some Americans set in America and yet (because the author is British), the slang was wrong. Social workers were "care workers"; the grocery carts were "trolleys". This would have been okay when the British characters were thinking, but Bree is an American in America and yet she talked about the boot of the car. Not a huge deal, but it was annoying.

Overall it would be good for a waiting room or an airplane, but I wouldn't really recommend it.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a moderately fast paced urban SF thriller. Around the world a series of strange events has been happening, all driven by a device call the Coincidence Engine.

These events come to the attention of the Directorate of the Extremely Improbably, headed by a strange figure called the Red Queen. They, and other organisations are trying to track a guy called Alex who is thought to be carrying the device. As the net closes in on Alex the people tracking him start to bump into each other; and bump each other off. Meanwhile Alex is unaware that he is being tracked, as having delivered his package, he is trying to meet up with his girlfriend to propose to her. As the story reaches its conclusion, more coincidences happen, before the deflated ending drops into place.

Mostly I enjoyed this, it didn’t understand the sub plot with the creator of the Coincidence Engine, didn’t really fit with anything else going on with the story. Whilst the book was well written, it didn’t seem to add up, for example why Alex drove across the states, to meet up with this American girl. I felt that it could have had more complexity and more coincidences to fit with the title. I like the spy / agency part, but Charles Stross has done this better in the Laundry Files series.

[James Targett · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd book. In parts it was a two star novel and in others a four star novel. I found the maths unsatisfying (by background, I am a mathematician and this book, supposedly about maths - especially multi-universe theory, chaos theory, and infinity - just didn't have enough depth). Secondly, towards the end of the book, the author breaks the fourth wall to rant about his protagonist, particularly how annoying and wet and closeted and self-centred he is; I hadn't thought those things and found the intervention irritating. Lastly the end of the novel was just unsatisfying, things were resolved rather neatly, in a slightly humdrum manner.

I did in parts, find myself sucked in and following the plot eagerly. Like I said, four star moments, but overall it fell flat.

Maybe this is because it's a novel that touches in SF Concepts, but without any sensawunda. It's not quite a thriler, not quite a Chuck Palahniuk zeitgeist cooler-than-thou reality-fuck; not a William Gibson; not a cyberpunk. It could be any of those things, or none of them. There is a great idea here, just not executed well enough for my satisfaction.