The coincidence engine of the title is a machine, or a device, or maybe just an idea, that affects probability to create the most extraordinary coincidences and accidents. At the centre of a string of such bizarre occurrences is Alex Smart, driving across America to meet his girlfriend. He has no idea what’s going on. In pursuit are two mercenaries working for a global arms manufacturer, and two agents working for the Directorate of the Extremely Improbable. At least, they think that’s who they work for. It’s a wonderfully convoluted and confusing trip, full of outrageous coincidences delivered with a dry humour and incidents narrated as ironic commentary on American culture.
Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.
The
coincidence engine of the title is a machine, or a device, or maybe just an
idea, that affects probability to create the most extraordinary coincidences
and accidents. At the centre of a string of such bizarre occurrences is Alex
Smart, driving across America to meet his girlfriend. He has no idea what’s
going on. In pursuit are two mercenaries working for a global arms
manufacturer, and two agents working for the Directorate of the Extremely
Improbable. At least, they think that’s who they work for. It’s a wonderfully
convoluted and confusing trip, full of outrageous coincidences delivered with a
dry humour and incidents narrated as ironic commentary on American culture.
The story
wanders as it goes, changing tense and point-of–view in a way that I first
found jarring but eventually accepted as part of the style. The occasional
omnipotent point of view, or comments by the narrator give the impression that
someone, somewhere has a clue what the ultimate outcome will be. We find out
lots of back story about some of the characters, notably Alex and Bree, one of
the government agents. Throughout the book I wondered about the relevance of
many of these anecdotes, and of various other minor characters who pop in and
out of the narrative. There’s a crazy mathematician who came up with the
concept of the coincidence engine, another mathematician who treks through
France looking for him, a professor who wrote about it, and at the heart of the
Directorate is Red Queen, who may or may not have any idea what is really
happening.
Part of the
fun of the book is seeing the coincidences, the back stories and side stories,
wondering where and how they will cross and what the outcome will be. In some
ways it doesn’t matter, which is just as well. Many of the loose ends remain
relatively loose, but there is still an overall concept that ties them all
together. There are plenty of different elements that combine in this novel:
humour, conspiracies, secret government agencies, personal tales of alcoholism
and broken families, esoteric maths and philosophy, and crosswords. It’s almost
as though Sam Leith collected together a couple of dozen random ideas and then
set about to fit them somehow together. He’s done a remarkably good job of it.
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