Publication
Harpercollins Pub Ltd (2004), Edition: New Ed, 320 pages
Original publication date
2003
Collections
Subjects
Awards
Seiun Award (Nominee — 2012)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction — 2011)
The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML: The explosive J. G. Ballard renaissance, which began with the 2009 publication of The Complete Stories of J. G. Ballard, now continues with his first novel to be published in America in a full decade. Millennium People tells the story of David Markham, a psychologist who is searching for the truth behind a bomb that exploded on a Heathrow baggage carousel, killing his ex-wife. Infiltrating a shadowy protest group responsible for her death, David finds himself succumbing to the charismatic charms of the group's leader, who hopes to foment a violent rebellion against the government by his fanatical adherents, the spiritually and financially impoverished members of Britain's white middle class. It reveals a shockingly plausible and extremely unsettling vision of society in collapse..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member otterley
From reading the reviews below, perhaps this is a book for relative newcomers to Ballard (I've only read the Empire of the Sun and the Kindness of Women before). I thought this was provocative and compelling; a book that engages humorously and challengingly with modern anomie and our current post
Show More
Marxist, post Thatcher state of apathy. So few writers today really try to engage with the social world in which we live, that Ballard's fantastical take on it seems all the more refreshing and unsettling. Show Less
LibraryThing member stillbeing
I love J.G. Ballard, but I really hope he isn't losing his touch. Sure, Millennium People was compelling enough to keep reading, but the usual Ballard magic wasn't there. The characters are hard to relate to and seem poorly fleshed-out at times, the situations a little too unbelievable, and the
Sadly, this just felt like any other contemporary novel and lacked the disturbing, otherworldly impact that make Ballard's work so great.
Show More
similes came so thick and fast it actually detracted from the storyline. The "bonus features" at the end (interviews, analysis, etc) seemed to suggest a great deal of humour was meant to be present - sure, it was kinda absurd at times, but maybe I missed the point because I couldn't really see it.Sadly, this just felt like any other contemporary novel and lacked the disturbing, otherworldly impact that make Ballard's work so great.
Show Less
LibraryThing member uryjm
I've read the previous two novels Ballard wrote before this one, Cocaine Nights and Super-Cannes, and this continued to explore the themes of middle class rebellion against a society they have unwittingly created. The story is about a violent uprising championed by a small group of disillusioned
Show More
professionals including a doctor and parish minister. You can almost imagine it happening. The things the middle class aspire to - good housing, schooling, law enforcement, job security - have become beyond their reach or have been turned against them. Who in society will support or even listen to their grievances? The poor have their support structures, the rich buy theirs and the government needs the man in the middle to placidly support both. For what, asks Ballard? His characters set out to smash the system and increasingly find themselves enjoying the anarchy for its own sake. The book is full of challenging ideas, and manages to avoid the easy targets that your typical Daily Mail reader might settle upon to rebel against. If you haven't read anything by this author, he's more than worth a look. Show Less
LibraryThing member djalchemi
I read this in London a month after the July 2005 bombings by young English muslims, though Ballard is not interested in the kind of sociological and historical explanations that might account for those atrocities. His bombers are middle class professionals, and mostly white. Their anger is a kind
Show More
of existential disease of affluence - an extension of road rage, tantrums in supermarket queues or assault of parking attendants. As the disruptions come 'home' to London (after the continental European locations of Super Cannes and Cocaine Nights), this book has more echoes of The Atrocity Exhibition near the start of Ballard's career. Show Less
LibraryThing member eswnr
Pedestrian. Lacking the sheer believability of Super-Cannes or the crawling vividness of Empire of the Sun. Ballard's works often/ordinarily trade on their plausibility to build their sense of terror, but the Markham character's motivations were slapdash and muddy, while Dr. Gould's and Kay
Show More
Churchill's were nearly nonexistent. I'm willing to entertain the option that such is the point. Ballard is still a worthy modern philosopher, thus accounting for the paltry 2.5 stars, but this is one of his weakest. Show Less
LibraryThing member scroeser
A nifty idea, but it didn't really work for me.
LibraryThing member theboylatham
Five out of ten.
An interesting and fast paced start became a run of the mill adventure. No real affinity with the main characters and the twists that did arrive were uninspiring...
An interesting and fast paced start became a run of the mill adventure. No real affinity with the main characters and the twists that did arrive were uninspiring...
LibraryThing member baswood
As a snapshot of a society in revolt this novel succeeds very well. However I find that most of Ballards stories do not quite hang together and this is no exception despite a furious tieing up of loose ends at the end. The middle class revolt on a posh housing complex called Chelsea Marina in the
Show More
novel reminded me of Dolphin square on the embankment in London and so I could easily imagine the scenario where the events take place. Urban terrorists with a charasmatic leader in Dr Gould with a penchant for mindless violence gives this book an edgy feel. Show Less
LibraryThing member voz
Some very interesting ideas about the so-called middle class but overall, this reads like it is crying for someone to make into a tacky Hollywood film with cardboard cut-out characters and lots of explosions. I kept with it to the end in a hope the might be some solid observations about life in
Show More
London and angry urban professionals but no, that was too much to ask. Show Less
LibraryThing member Steve38
A good example of the author's work. A lightly imagined other world peopled by thinnishly sketched characters. But the key thing is the underlying idea. Ballard was great at putting forward challenging ideas place in a world that was almost familiar. Here the revolt of the middle classes. The idea
Show More
of revolutionary politics in an setting that is not just unlikely but inconceivable, except in the mind of a clever writer. Show Less
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
Quickly bored with this one. Seems dry both as societal commentary and as a thriller. The middle-class rises up and causes terror? This seems to be almost like a dreary daydream that weedy teenagers fantasize about. How edgy!
Recommended for Palahniuk fans.
Recommended for Palahniuk fans.
Media reviews
C'est du Ballard très politique, psychiquement moins dérangeant que Crash ou La Foire aux atrocités, facile d'accès, presque trop.
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0006551610 / 9780006551614
Physical description
320 p.; 7.8 inches
Pages
320