Reviews

Millennium People by J.G. Ballard

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breadandmushrooms's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

beth_d's review against another edition

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2.0

It's not as bad as I was expecting. The writing style was kinda old white man but I got used to it. I liked the character arc of David I think it was subtle. Wouldn't read it for leisure again.

misanthrope's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I enjoyed the writing. Interesting ideas. Characters were a little thin but overall a satisfying read. I will read and re-read more by this author.

paulcowdell's review against another edition

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4.0

Another 3.5, I think, as the later Ballard doesn't quite do it for me in the same way as that magnificent, crystalline early stuff. But this is something of a surprise even for that later oeuvre. At times it is almost (unBallardian concept in some ways) playful.

Satire's a complicated genre. It can be all too easy for the satirised to identify with their representation to such an extent that the author ends up bending and adapting to them. This being Ballard, of course, no such mimsy conciliation happens, you'll be satisfied to know, but he does seem to be responding to a readership that might not quite have got what was going on more generally. (The book had some rave reviews from possibly unlikely quarters, like the Telegraph stable of papers, for example). It feels like this was the trigger for some of the uncustomarily knockabout one-liners.

But because it still /is/ Ballard, the result feels somewhat uneven. He's still prying away at the latent violence, the alienation, the apocalyptic concrete vistas of Heathrow, after all, and the writing here is no less beautiful or stunning than before. Some moments just pull you up short with their incision. London, for example, is described as 'a vast and stationary carousel, forever boarded by millions of would-be passengers who took their seats, waited and then dismounted.'

Even here, Ballard is unflinching, probing away at bleakness and humanity without sentiment or flippancy. Even when it doesn't quite come off, Ballard is still your best companion in a an empty and violent world.

palliem's review

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1.0

I don't know if I should consider this "read" since I gave up on the novel, but for lack of a better term, that's where it's going. It's been a long time since I gave up on a novel, but this was extremely slow moving and-after 130 pages (half the book!)--I realized I didn't care if all the characters died on the next page, I still wasn't going to want to read this. So back to the library this goes.

quigonchuy's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

An interesting read. A London where middle class "normal" people become guerrilla fighters to change things up, so to speak. I don't recall exactly the why, and I'm not so sure that's clear in the book. I've really liked some of his other novels, this one wasn't bad, I just didn't connect with it as much.