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.

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!!

I love the title. I love the cover. I wanted to love the content, but I can't. It has poor pacing, repetitive vocabulary, and an unexciting plot. A shame, really. I think it could be 30-40 % shorter without hurting the book, and it would probably make it stronger.

Hutchinson follows on from his painfully prescient Fractured Europe series with another, possibly even nearer future story; aside from the references to 7G, and the MAGA caps being faded, it could pretty much be today. Stan Clayton, a Musk/Bezos-style zillionaire, has bought up an Iowa county pretty much wholesale, and is installing a larger than Large Hadron Collider there. Protagonist Alex, a broke Scottish tech journalist, is Stan's choice to spread the good word about the project, and evoke the requisite 'sensawunda'. There's a faintly creepy air about the whole set-up, but is that just standard late stage capitalism creepy, or something stranger going on? At first, it feels like a technothriller, albeit a fairly sedate and slow-building one. There's even a touch of Stephen King in the detailed depiction of the small-town setting and Alex's developing bonds with its inhabitants. But there's too slow a parcelling out of the spooky stuff, and it doesn't help that anyone who's read a comic* should be able to work out most of the solution to the mysterious happenings almost immediately. And then in the final quarter of the book, things speed up considerably, and we power through three or four genres in next to no time - but an awful lot of the story still involves sitting around and waiting for things. Which was an element in Fractured Europe too, and is a big part of life, and maybe part of what interests Hutchinson as a writer is precisely to reflect that in genre fiction. But it still makes for a certain grind in the experience of reading this.

*By which I mean one specific comic, but also that, if you've read any American-style comics at all, you've more than likely read this one.

(Netgalley ARC)

(This review will post Sept 4, 2019, at https://wp.me/p7sUl-th)


The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man by Dave Hutchinson (Solaris) - Alex Dolan is a down on his luck journalist is hired by a billionaire to help with a pet project.  It's the largest supercollider project ever, holding the promise of high energy physics breakthroughs.  Once he arrives in rural Iowa, Dolan discovers that there are a lot of secrets waiting for him.  Then an accident changes everything, including Dolan himself.


I have to admit, the title sounded like a '50s B-movie sci-fi flick.  But I like '50s B-movie sci-fi flicks, so I thought what the heck?  What I got was a well written, nicely thought out story science fiction story.   The story of a media pro out of work for an extended period time may have also struck a personal chord in this reader as well, lol.


There is a certain "Spiderman" aspect to the story.  Alex Dolan develops supernatural powers following an accident during a science experiment.  Unlike every superhero story, Dolan isn't sure he wants any part of it all.  Being changed at a fundamental level is, and should be, scary.  When your powers take you places that no one understands, and your control of them is shaky, it's the only possible sane response.  Hutchinson does a nice job weaving us through the series of events, and personalities that bring Dolan to that point in his life.  The story offers a few well-placed twists and turns to keep you guessing.


Hutchinson has never shown up on my reading radar before but has an established reputation as a solid science fiction writer.  His novel "Europe in Autumn", described as a "speculative espionage thriller" set in a near-future Europe.  It's received nominations for awards from the British Science Fiction Association, plus the John W. Campbell and Arthur C. Clarke awards.  I'll be moving him onto my "Authors to Explore" list.


The end of the book doesn't offer a resolution to all the plot lines, so I'm assuming there's a sequel to come.  How an author handles that moment has a huge influence on whether I want to read the next book or not.  For me, the first question is this: does it feel like this has concluded the action of the book I've just read?  Or am I left hanging (which I HATE).  When Dolan collapses into a chair on the last page, it felt like a reasonable place for the book to end.  So it cleared the first hurdle.  The second question has to do with my reaction to the end arriving.  I was sorry the book was over.  I want more about this character, his story and the people that surround him.  So the book was a resounding success for me.


The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man hit the shelves yesterday!


Rating - **** Recommended


This review was done from an Advanced Reader Copy, and is consistent with our state review policy.

I grew up in a city and in a time without bookstores. There were plenty of booksellers, though, selling the stuff people most wanted to read - the Stephen Kings, the Danielle Steele's. There were only a few who stocked less popular books, wrapped in clear plastic to ward off fingerprints and dust. When I had finally exhausted the local inventory, I went to these shops to discover new authors and new stories, and I had no way to judge the books other than by their covers, since the sellers would not remove the plastic unless you bought the books. And that is how I have discovered some of my favorites authors - for example The Sacred Art of Stealing took me down a very enjoyable Christopher Brookmyre rabbit hole, and I have happily read most of his stories. Sometimes, such a practice of judging a book by its cover has not failed me, but it isn't always foolproof as the adage says. But it is an unconscious practice honed by experience.

And with this book, it paid off. I had heard of the author in passing, particularly because of his sci fi awards, and so thought I would give this book a shot when I saw it on Netgalley, since it seemed like a standalone book and the cover seemed intriguing. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this before publication.

I really really enjoyed this book - in fact, if I had to pick one word to describe the experience, I would say it was a very enjoyable read. This is despite the many contradictions that it left behind.

First of all, the main character Alex. I very much liked how relatable he was - the sense of constant befuddlement that he felt at his situation throughout the book was superbly written, but at the same time made me want to scream at him internally on various occasions - I haven't felt so much for a book character in a while.

Second, I loved that the author didn't try to spend a lot of time trying to explain everything - quite a few things were left unresolved, which is perfectly fine. I don't need a detailed explanation for all of the science behind the science fiction to enjoy the book. Plus I enjoyed how there was no super-scientist who figured it all out which would ruin the story. But some readers might be a bit turned off by how the author sometimes throws in a few scientific terms - gravitons, gravity shear - as possible explanations, only for none of the ideas to take root. Frankly, readers need to suspend their need for an explanation and let the story itself overtake you - which I find the book really does well.

Finally, I loved the ending. There is no resolution or pay-off at the very end, and I quite liked that. Readers who prefer everything wrapped up and tied with a bow - and I admit there is a part of me that wants similar endings - might be a bit disappointed, but I thought the story that it tries to tell rather deserves the ending, and that it is difficult to try and end it neatly. Unlike other similar books, I liked that it felt like the ending was planned all along - it didn't feel like the author had run out of ideas and was struggling to end the book. Plus I am excited by the potential for the story and the universe to continue in future books - I wouldn't mind returning to another journey into this world in the future.

The only thing that was a negative to me about the book - and it is a very minor point - was that it felt to me that the author has a tremendous sense of humor that he was intentionally trying to limit. There were significant moments of levity - but I couldn't help feel like the author had much more in store that was left out that would have been amazing to have. It is a bit hard to explain - I don't want a laugh-out-loud book because I am not sure how it would contrast with the rest of the story, but I couldn't help feel the author was holding back on the jokes.

I'm really happy I got the chance to read this book, and many thanks again to Netgalley and the publisher. Now, if you excuse me, I think I see a Dave Hutchinson-shaped rabbit hole of books that I need to go jump down.