This had potential and is definitely not the blurbed "new sci-fi masterpiece" in my opinion.
The first 3/4 are incredibly dull and boring and I don't care about Alex at all, because he had absolutely no drive and is floating in the wind like a tiny flag.
The supporting characters are flat.
The writing itself isn't bad, but there are issues with pacing and plot lines.

I'm quite disappointed. I really wanted to like this one.

Thanks Netgalley for providing me with an eARC.

This is sensational. I loved the voice, it amused me and was just properly enough cynical and humorous to lend credibility to this futuristic, surreal story of creating a gap in time and space that our traumatised man experiences like no other. A customised town and a giant scientific apparatus feature.
Characters lend grounding to the story too from the irascible old man to previous police officers, and a fresh young woman scientist, and a newspaper editor as he settles in. I'm definitely going to look for other books by this terrific writer.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it’s a great character piece, examining the workings of a down-on-his-luck journalist as he tries to write a book about an impossible project in the middle of nowhere. He forms a couple of interesting relationships and gains a few months of every day experiences.

Hutchinson adds a lot of humor to the book and creates a compelling protagonist. That being said, it felt like there was something big missing from the story. The book promises explosive events and extreme science fiction and it mostly reads as a character piece that happens to take place around a science facility. While the final 25% of the book is definitely full science fiction, I found myself confused by the events and the sudden jumps in time. There didn’t seem to be a major conflict or a solution to any major issue. I expected to see this alternate realm in depth or to see some kind of final ending to the big villain, but instead it just kind of ended. I enjoyed reading the book but the journey was drawn out and there wasn’t any kind of definitive ending to be satisfied with.

While I did enjoy parts of the book, I won’t be publishing a review to my blog. I do appreciate the chance to read it in advance.

The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man
By Dave Hutchinson

I gobbled this book up in just a couple of days!

Dave Hutchinson is the king of rising dread!

The story is building towards a big event, which happens 75% of the way into the novel, but Dave Hutchinson keeps his cards very close to his chest! He gives you just enough to hint at what's going on - but I wouldn't put any money on it if I were you!

The Protagonist: Alex Dolan the Scot, in Boston (Bawston), USA

Alex, a science journalist, has my kind of humour! I laughed quite a few times at his dry wit and irreverent sarcasm.

The Premise

The premise of the book is that Alex's life is efficiently and unashamedly hacked by the billionaire Stanislaw Clayton (because apparently the line between research and hacking is moot when you've got that kind of money), and he uses that information to make Alex an offer that he can't refuse.

Stanislaw commissions Alex to write a book about his latest science project, but to do that, Alex has to move to a new town:

Sioux Crossing in Iowa

Alex finds the whole 'newness' of the place so strange. Too good to be true.

And it's not just Sioux Crossing that feels off.

Right from the beginning of the story and Alex's very first encounter with Stanislaw, right to the end of the book, something never feels quite right.

Dave Hutchinson gives you plenty of clues, which don't offer any clarity, however, but rather add to the descending haze of mystery.

Character-Driven Story

My favourite characters are Alex's good friend Ralph, also a (former) writer, and Ralph's flatulent dog Homer. It's worth reading the book just for them!

Alex and Ralph (and Homer) also develop a great friendship with Wendy (a scientist working on Stanislaw Clayton's project), and the dynamic between them is brilliant!

Larry Day, the rockstar scientist, is a central (but very enigmatic) character. He's more of a presence on the page rather than a character we get to interact with long enough to figure him out.

We don't become aware of Larry until about a third of the way into the book, and even then we meet his bright red 1968 Ford Mustang GT before we meet him!

Larry's reputation precedes him, as is often the way with rockstars - or so I've heard.

Every page is ripe with potential for everything to kick-off, yet mostly not a great deal is happening; which is great for character-driven stories - especially when the characters are Alex, Ralph and Homer. I could read about them all day!

I'd say that the first 75% of the book is very character-driven, mysterious and suspenseful. The rest is a mixture of character, and SciFi-fuelled drama!

The Science

The science and the weird and wonderful things that happen towards the end of the book are dealt with in such a matter-of-fact way (and in human speak), that when what's happening in the room is juxtaposed with the underwhelmed (almost bored) reactions of the characters present, it's actually quite comical.

The nearest comparison I could think of is the contrast between making a movie versus watching a movie.

This book takes you behind the scenes on the action. There are no clever camera angles, there's no dramatic music, and there are no lingering shots or heroic gestures. Dave Hutchinson very successfully keeps it real in a very surreal situation.

That said, visually it would be incredibly entertaining if this was made into a movie, but without the typical Hollywood sheen. With all this mad stuff happening on screen and it barely raising an eyebrow from the group of bored scientists, it might raise a chuckle or two.

'Sensawunda'!

There is so much I would love to say about this book, but I don't want to spoil it for you!

The ending is fantastic and absolutely makes it worth the wait.

There is also definite potential for a spin-off; but if Dave Hutchinson doesn't write one, I may just try my hand at a piece of fan fiction because this story has my imagination absolutely buzzing!

So grab hold of a copy when it's published by Rebellion on 3rd September 2019 and read it!

Side note: This book is listed on NetGalley as 'General Fiction (Adult), SciFi & Fantasy,' but I'd say it reads strongly like 'General Fiction (Adult), SciFi, Mystery, Suspense Drama.'

Thanks for reading!

D x

Loved this! Alex is an unassuming hero and the story of how he became a great deal more was a fascinating and fun journey. I enjoyed the dark humour, the twists, the setting - all of it. Will definitely be looking out for more from Dave Hutchinson as his writing is droll, well-paced and entertaining.

DNF'd @ 40%

The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man by Dave Hutchinson sounded like it had a lot of potential, but unfortunately didn't work for me. I kept thinking this would take off, but I never took interest in the story, the world, or the characters. Thanks anyway, NetGalley.

Whoa, this was really good. The most exciting weird stuff didn't happen til close to the end (and I would have liked to have had more of that) but the character development, plot, dialogue - all spot on! I would have liked the book to be longer, honestly, because I was enjoying it so much,.

I very much enjoyed this book.

It’s a slow burner which is a nice antidote to the fast paced thrillers that throw stuff at you on every page.

The language and timing makes this book stand out and you can enjoy the writing for what it is. I laughed out loud on a few occasions and identified with the main character as I’m sure others will too.

I enjoyed parts of this book, I kept on reading to the end. It was interesting and not normally my taste. The characters were great and the storyline did confuse me at times. Would still recommend.

Because of the name, I thought this was going to be a jokey book within a sf context but in fact it turned out to be a thriller in the mold of "The Hulk", or the "Invisible Man" where a random laboratory accident confers Super Powers on the leading character. The story of how this comes about and what happens next is mildly interesting but having got that sorted what happens next should have been fascinating. The problem is that er, nothing happens next. Our newly minted superhero decides to take on the aspect of a slightly overweight, middle aged and distinctively dull underachiever. With the power to manipulate reality and assume any appearance does he lead mankind in overcoming poverty, disease and war? Does he help to bring scientific knowledge to new and unimaginable heights? Does he lead mankind to the stars? No, he seems to do absolutely nothing but to occasional help to maintain the status quo. He reminds me of those people who win the pools and say," This wont change my life in any way", and who go on living in public housing and working at the sausage factory.
This book is well written and might have led to great visions but in the end it just disappeared up its own fundamental. Its hard to enjoy a book where the lead character is quite so disappointing.

I appreciate having had an opportunity to read this book in ARC form. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer to simply advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.

Reviewed by a YA fan of sci-fi and mystery genres:

"Overall, I did enjoy this book ( The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man) but there are some areas which are lacking or others where there is too much padding. For example, there was, in my opinion, too much build-up to the main event in this book. I understand that some things needed explaining but there was just too much of it. Another point is that the actual event happened very very quickly and after that, the story was very "jumpy" in the sense that time seemed irrelevant, barring the cases of a few mortalities. Lastly, the ending was very abrupt and slightly disappointing with no obvious place to pick up from if there were to be a second book, as I would feel the book would be incomplete without."

I enjoyed quite a lot of The Return Of The Incredible Exploding Man, but I had some pretty severe reservations about it.

The first thing to say is that Dave Hutchinson writes very well. I’m not normally much of a sci-fi fan, but he developed such a good sense of slow menace and a lot of very good, complex characters that I was very drawn in to the quite slow-paced first two-thirds of the book in which the protagonist, a struggling science writer, is brought in to write about a huge, privately funded supercollider. There are some quite shrewd, well balanced observations about the way in which the super-rich behave toward the rest of us and Hutchinson creates a group of people with whom I became quite involved.

The trouble is, there is a massive event about two-thirds of the way through which changes everything, including the tone and pace of the book, and all those people are quite quickly left behind as the story moves on at a time-skimming pace. It’s reasonably interesting from a sci-fi point of view, but not very well developed and ultimately a disappointment.

Hutchinson seems to be setting us up for a series (or a sequel at least). Despite my enjoyment of the first section, I don’t think I’ll be bothering with any more because I thought the later parts were much weaker. Others may fell differently, but overall I can’t really recommend this.

(My thanks to Solaris for an ARC via NetGalley.)

I found this a captivating read, but not in the way I was expecting.

The story centers around an out of work science journalist, Alex Dolan, who gets offered an opportunity from one of the world's richest men, Stanislaw Clayton to write a book about the Sioux Crossing privately funded supercollider coming on line. It's one of those opportunities you can't really say no to.

He moves from Boston to Sioux Crossing and the story follows his progress in the new community and the writing of his book.

In many ways, neither the book nor the supercollider are the focus of the story. For me it's more about how Alex develops relationships and finds living in a small town where everybody knows your business. It's an intriguing situation, normally in a small town everybody knows everything about everybody else but this is different, people seem to know a bit too much for it to be just gossip and strangely this seems to be accepted as part of everyday life.

The writing is excellent, there are some really perceptive observations and a range of cynical, mysterious and flamboyant characters that develop through the story so you gradually learn more about them, there's an excellent human element.

I say the supercollider isn't the focus of the story, that's because the first 80% or so of the story focuses on the town and exploring the facility. The last 20% does involve the facility, some extreme quantum weirdness and subtle links back to events earlier in the story.

The ending does feel a bit sudden after the build up though, that said it resists the temptation to drag the story out or develop too complex or farcical plot lines so overall it still works really well, even though I'd have liked it to have lasted a bit longer.

The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man by Dave Hutchinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Welcome to Pulp-Land! In more ways than one!

1. 3/4 of the novel is about a slow-simmering failed science-writer landing a cush job to write a book for a tech millionaire who bought a town. Add a bit of espionage and some funny interpersonal experiences with his new home and neighbors, and I still had a fun time wondering HOW THE HELL THE TITLE FIT IN. This is old-school SF technique, btw. Total pulp. :)

2. The last part is TOTAL freaky quantum superhero stuff with time travel, teleportation, and pretty awesome callbacks to the events in the first 3/4. I had a total blast with this particular pulp.

3. Pulpy! Like, literally. An explosion of biomass! PULP-LAND!


I had a good time. I didn't expect it to be like the Fractured Europe Sequence and I came into it expecting a light-hearted SF, and this is what I got. :)

Kinda like orange juice. Freshly squeezed.

Dave Hutchinson's Fractured Europe books are one of the highlights of SF in the last decade, and so I had high hopes for this. It's told with his usual sardonic wit, and easy to read, but never facile, prose. Line by line, and chapter by chapter it's a great read, but somehow I found it a little unsatisfying. There seems to be something fundamentally wrong with the structure - difficult to elucidate without spoilers, but we spend 75% of the book getting to a thing which it's clear is going to happen from very early on, and then the last section feels rushed, with no real resolution. It's quite possible this is the start of a series, in which case I'd be inclined a bit more generous to this issue, but even so, it's not a long book and a bit more fleshing out of the ending wouldn't have hurt. It's also possible, perhaps likely, that Hutchinson isn't interested in the mechanics of his plot so much as he is in examining what happens to a middle aged bloke who's stuck in a rut when he suddenly receives [SPOILER], and how that changes his life and relationship with humanity. That's fertile ground, but again there's not really time to get stuck into it.

All in all, a solid enjoyable read, but also a frustrating one.

I got this book as I absolutely loved the “Fractured Europe” series, although given the prospect of Brexit it scared the living daylights out of me. This is rather different, although equally scary.

Alex Dolan is a down on his luck former science journalist, who is offered a dream job, writing a book about the Sioux Crossing Supercollider (think Large Hadron Collider, but well, larger). He moves to Sioux Crossing, a town mostly owned by Stan Clayton, the Elon Musk type figure who is bankrolling the project, and then things start to get weird.

The first three quarters of the book show Alex settling into the town, starting work on the book, getting to know his neighbours, and the reader starts to wonder when something is going to happen. In the final quarter, it does. At that point the book started to feel rushed.

The strength of the book is in the characters, Alex’s neighbour, scientists working at the SCS, and the editor of the local newspaper. Alex feels very much like an observer, rather than a participant, which is why the ending is such a shock.

I enjoyed the book, but I didn’t love it.

Alex Dolan is a Scottish ex-pat living in Boston. An unemployed science journalist, he spends his days floating article ideas to magazines and avoiding his landlord on the stairs. So, when he receives a job offer from Sebastian Clayton, 5th richest man in the world, he's not really in a position to refuse.

Having accepted the job, to write a book chronicling work to bring the Sioux Crossing Supercollider online, Alex finds himself transported to to Sioux Crossing itself, a county almost entirely owned and rebuilt by Stan Clayton and populated by a mix of the original residents and scientists and personnel from the SCS facility. And things start to get strange almost mediately. How does everyone he meets seem to know who he is and where he lives? Is his house bugged? Why did the former occupants leave all their stuff behind? And what should he make of all the sightings around town of an “angel”?

OK, first off, let me clarify that The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man is NOT a sequel. So, don't waste any rime trying to find “The Incredible Exploding Man” at your local book store or library. Not that you would, you're way smarter than that.

I am a fan of Dave Hutchinson. His Fractured Europe Sequence was brilliant and TROFIEM (as we shall henceforth refer to it) is just as enjoyable, the writing style even more so as the prose is a lot simpler and easier to enjoy. There are many characters that you'll meet and like. The cynical local newspaper reporter, the scientist that Alex befriends and the grouchy neighbour and his farting dog. And the mystery of what is happening in Sioux Crossing and whether Alex is really being surveilled is intriguing and it's all presented in a funny, entertaining way.

BUT

This book ultimately feels unfinished. The first three quarters set the premise and the tone, they lay the groundwork for a deeper mystery behind the town and the SCS, they hint at sinister machinations and histories behind the actions of various characters.....and then nothing. The final quarter just comes at you like a rush and you feel a little bit cheated by everything that came before because, ultimately, none of it was especially necessary.

And that is why, as much as I enjoyed reading The Return Of The Incredible Exploding Man, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone simply because I wouldn't like to set them up for the same disappointment.

(Caveat: if it turns out that this is only the first book in a new series and everything in the first part

Down on his luck Alex is tasked with writing about the a new Large Hadron Collider, however when something goes terribly wrong the real danger begins. This novel is the best kind of technothriller - the focus is less on the actual fallout than the creepy endstage-of-capitalism/god-complex experienced by Alex's secretive benefactor. The novel starts out slow and focuses mainly on interpersonal relationships Alex creates with the people living in the town the LHC is in, but the last quarter of the book is a thrill ride to a conclusion that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

A special thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

A promising novel from a talented author with an odd ending. It seemed a bit experimental. I liked some of the characters very much, and the skill in which the story is told is what saved it. Overall, he's written much better.

I really appreciate the advanced copy for review!!