Cover Image: The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man

The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man

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Member Reviews

My rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐

The town in this book reminded me of the TV show, Eureka in the sense that they're there for the local employer, who invests in the town (money, in this case rather than weird and wonderful inventions), and there's a secret.

I enjoyed the playing out of the story. I had an idea about some aspects, but there were lots of things I didn't see coming!

This is an entertaining sci-fi, with a good pace to the story, lots of aspects to think about, and some mysteries to solve along the way!

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Rebellion Publishing.

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Alex Dolan is hired by a multimillionaire to write a book about the Sioux Crossing Supercollider. A dream job for a man who has been struggling for work. When he gets there though, people aren’t as keen as he thinks they will be to divulge any information for him to write his book.

About 4/5 of this book is the build up to what actually happens. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed this larger part. It’s really funny and the character building is excellent. But it did leave me thinking what on Earth the title had to do with the book I was reading. I stuck with it though, and I’m glad I did.

I enjoyed the meandering scene setting, and it does pay off. The last 1/5L the real business of the book was equally as good. I just wish there had been more of it, and I wish that all the characters I’d learnt so much about hadn’t just disappeared. I mean, not literally disappeared. At least it don’t think so…

I really liked the narrative voice in this book, so I think I’m going to go and look for more of Hutchinson’s books. I hear The Fractured Earth series is supposed to be good…

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Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

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This was very disappointing and really seemed to lose its way.

I was expecting an exciting action hero story.

Unfortunately most of the story dragged on about how he became a super hero.

Even then it was unclear to what his super powers were and what he could do with them.

I would recommend you don't waste your time reading this.

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This book was both an entertaining thriller and an amusing tale. I look forwrad to more work from Dave Hutchinson.

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Really struggle with what to make of this book - the first 75% sets up an interesting premise that slowly goes nowhere, then there's an inciting incident that could have been the start of the book but instead also goes nowhere. A missed opportunity. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

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Have not had a chance to read this yet, but will keep it on my list for a rainy day! Appreciate being offered the reading copy!

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Starts off as a standard "mysterious billionaire techno-thriller", then takes some unexpected turns,, from mystery to science fiction.

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The blurb of The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man made the book sound like a typical superhero novel; a man goes to investigate a super collider and then there’s an accident which leaves him changed forever. To a certain extent this is true however the timeline of the book really surprised me. It’s at least 75% before the accident happens and a lot up to that point is just very slow build up. We learn a lot about the characters of Sioux Crossing, most of whom are never mentioned again after the accident happens. There’s also a weird ‘whodunnit’ kind of aspect to the story with a death, arson and a hacking a laptop to be investigated. When the perpetrator is finally climatically revealed though I just didn’t understand the reason behind their motivation and then it all became obsolete by the accident anyway.

The latter half of the book is a superhero story in a loose kind of sense. It’s very hard to understand what Alex can do now he’s been changed. There’s not a scene where he looks in the mirror or an explanation of his abilities. Occasionally people see him and scream, sometimes people have full on conversations with him and haven’t worked out he’s any different from the man he was before. He seems to be able to teleport places but then just stays put in the same city he lives in for years which makes little sense. The nemesis isn’t explored fully and the ending is just a massive damp squib.

I did enjoy the writing style though and Dave Hutchinson is certainly a very engaging and humorous write. I just spent the first ¾ of the book hoping it would hurry up and get to the superhero aspects and then the last ¼ just being disappointed and feeling like the earlier part of the book had been rendered obsolete. Also why is it ‘The Return of’ and at no point in the novel did he particularly ‘Explode’….

Overall, The Return of The Incredible Exploding Man was written well but ultimately massively confusing and disappointing. Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing – Solaris for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Thank You Netgalley for the book in exchange for an Honest Review

Book started out great. There were Punches, Promise and Plot. The End fell flat a little bit and faded, but it was an enjoyable read throughout. Great Book

3/5

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What a title, am I right? This book promises some crazy sci-fi shit. And it lays the groundwork for it – we’ve got a faded science writer, we’ve got a supercollider, we’ve got some shady billionaire business (whom I hope to see get his comeuppance but I’m also a dirty commie so that’s just me) – everything that makes you ready for some crazy good times.

And yet at 45% of the way through the book, I found myself fading. I was ready for the sci-fi and while the book was entertaining, it wasn’t delivering in the way that I desperately wanted. I’m super intrigued, and at some point I’m super down to finish it, but it’s not the cathartic escapism that I desperately require when a supermassive black hole is acting fucky at the center of the Milky Way.

The prose is absolutely stunning, and the nods to Midwestern culture are apt enough to keep me nodding - I live in Omaha, just across the river from Iowa, and we really do know how to pack a plate. (Them farming kids don't go hungry, I'll tell you what.) But so much of the book is in the. setup, and I feel like I'm waiting for the inciting incident to drop while I keep getting held off with the dramatic tension. I would've loved for the initial setup to be just a tad shorter, but that's just me.

I really did like what I read, but I just could muster the attention to keep going. So a good 4/5 stars for keeping me rolling, even if the momentum wasn't enough to get me to the end.

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I love stories like this. Characters were great and it made me laugh out loud on a few occasions. The end wasn't as good as the rest of the book, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I'll be looking out for more from this author in the future.

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Unfortunately I chose this book not realising it was a sci fi novel, not my typical read and although interesting with a strong story line I didn't make it to the end - apologies!

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David Hutchinson’s new book ,”The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man”, falls into the Stephen King syndrome, which is too wordy in some areas and not wordy enough for others. The book’s title relates to Hutchinson’s 2011 short story called “The Incredible Exploding Man". I’m not sure if this is a sequel or just the short story filled out with more words, but, this novel would have worked better as a novella. The first three quarters of the book is just soap opera writing with no point in the eventual plot. But let me say, that when the story finally gets going, and that is with the chapter called “The Racoon”, it feels like Martin Caidin’s science fiction novel, “Cyborg”, the basis of the television series “The Six Million Dollar Man”.

Alex Dolan, a Scottish, in-between-jobs journalist, gets a job in Sioux Crossing, Iowa, to write a book on an underground, scientific project called Super Collider. When the collider is turned on for the first time, a dimensional rift is opened and with that Alex Dolan becomes a “godlike, transdimensional superhero”. He finds that he has complete control of his powers, but there is another that doesn’t. And so it is Dolan’s job-in-life to stop that person.

Given that the character, Dolan, is Scottish, I’m glad that Hutchinson doesn’t resort to writing the character’s words in a fake brogue. But what I find disconcerting with the writing, is that with a turn of a page, months and sometimes years pass in the story. I thought that maybe that was a writing device because of the character being able to jump to different places in a blink of an eye, but eventually I thought, it was just poor writing.

Based on the ending, I smell a sequel to this novel in the works, and I hope that it may be better book than this.

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Dave Hutchinson's <I>The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man</i> is a rather strangely structured novel. Despite the pulp SF title, for the first three-quarters of the book it's a slow-build technothriller with shades of <i>Twin Peaks</i>. The hero, Alex Dolan, is a seriously underemployed freelance journalist whose life is turned upside down when he receives a letter from multibillionaire Stan Clayton, the fifth richest man in the world, offering him a job. Clayton has bought an entire county in northern Iowa and built a giant supercollider underneath the fields, and he wants Alex to write a book about it, something that will counteract the negative press the project has received to date. Despite some misgivings, Alex accepts the job and moves to Sioux Crossing, where he finds that however friendly and welcoming the locals are (with the exception of his deeply cantankerous next-door neighbour) he can't escape the sense that something strange is going on. And then, just as it starts to feel that Alex might finally be going to find some answers, Hutchinson flips everything on its head and the final 25% is a very different story, one that seems like a much better fit for the title. I found this a bit disconcerting, especially as the second part doesn't answer many of the questions posed in the first. (I gather that Hutchinson published a short story called 'The Incredible Exploding Man' a few years ago, and from the synoposis I think that may have been substantially similar to the final section of the novel, with the earlier part forming an origin story for the characters in the short story.)

Aside from the slightly odd structure, I really enjoyed this; it's generally lighter in tone than Hutchinson's Fractured Europe series, but shares its wryly humorous tone and is a similarly easy, plotty read with interesting and mostly likeable characters.

(Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC for review.)

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Science fiction tale which would be good for fans of the Martian as issues and technology are dealt with with a similar light touch which stops the text from feeling too heavy

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This is an enjoyable thriller, well written, easy to read. Moves along at a good pace, interesting characters. I would certainly read more from this author. The only reason I didn’t give the 5 stars is the ending which I can only describe as too impersonal and somehow disconnected, but that’s just my feeling and may not feel that way to others. Overall it was well worth taking the time to read.

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In THE RISE OF THE INCREDIBLE EXPLODING MAN, by Dave Hutchinson, Alex Dolan is a struggling freelance journalist who is given the fortuitous opportunity to be handsomely sponsored to write a book about a new Supercollider is being built. As Alex begins to settle into Sioux Crossing, the town where the Supercollider is located, mysteries seem to start bubbling to the surface, like what is the real purpose of the Supercollider, what is the truth about stories of static electricity and blue sparks around town, and great lengths been taken to make everything look as normal and uninteresting as possible to hide what? Alex's search for all the truths that no one wants him to know is moving along when a horrible accident happens and Alex's survival becomes the key to figuring out what to do with the aftermath of such a cataclysmic event.
While set close to (or maybe little past) the present, Hutchinson creates a world that feels pleasantly retro futuristic, with simple people with simple needs and where technology only seems to invade their lives at work or when it is essential to live. While Alex Dolan is fascinating himself, Hutchinson creates a wonderful cast of characters that feel real and are easy for the reader to connect with. The search for answers takes Alex on a rollercoaster of discoveries and dead ends and that unpredictable ride is what make the book so much fun. You could call the ending a little abrupt and unfulfilling, but I think the journey to get there is so much fun it doesn't really matter.
After reading THE RETURN OF THE INCREDIBLE EXPLODING MAN, I feel inspired to read other works by Dave Hutchinson in hopes that they are as fun and entertaining as this one.

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I ended up stopping about halfway through the book. Thus far, the main character had been sent to a Whispering Pines sort of suburban uptopia set up to support a tech mogul genius's new idea. The main character is a writer who's in a dry creative period and he's got a sort of dry Scottish humor that kept me engaged and reading longer than I might have otherwise. I was also interested to see the sort of Faustian bargain made- the writer (Alex Dolan) knows he's getting into a fishy situation, but he is just about out of money and even if the deal seems too good to be true, he can't help but take the bait.

Then the book sort of peters out for a while. A lot of time is spent describing travel back and forth between the town and Dolan's new place, there's a snowstorm, and Dolan is mostly stonewalled when he tries to really dig for information for the book he's been hired to write. There's a love interest too with a verrrrryyy slow burn.

After chugging along for about half the book waiting for something to happen, I got bored and skipped through to the end. Other reviewers have mentioned that the last third or so of the book is extremely different than the first part, and I wonder why the first part was tagged on in the first place if not as filler- this could have been a novella without sacrificing any plot. Short version- Dolan is essentially Dr. Manhattaned (Watchmen comics for your reference) and has to stop another person who didn't take to his transformation nearly as well. At this point, the book turns into more of an examination of the trope of powered-up characters and what their motivations might actually be. But most of the book is chucked aside, including most of the relationships that the author had taken so long to describe.

I've read a bit of Hutchinson's Fractured Europe series and enjoyed his concepts but had trouble getting into his writing. After this book, I wonder if he's just not for me.

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Something isn’t right here…nothing’s happening…that would do it

Alex Dolan is a failing journalist, let go from his job at the globe he is out of work, out of money and as the bills add up, out of luck. Until the worlds 5th wealthiest man offers Alex a job reporting on the worlds largest supercollider. Little does Alex know that this small town will change his life? Dave Hutchinson does a brilliant job of building the picture of a sleepy town in Iowa where nothing happens, but something is wrong with the place. The book follows Alex as he accepts the job and tries to settle into this sleepy town where everyone knows everyone, the book covers a period of time similar to a year but I personally found it strangely disorientating were jumped in time into barely marked by any major events. The characters are nicely written if very 2d dimensional along with the town however this cleverly seems to add to the tension as the story unfolds. When a series of unfortunate events begin to plague Alex’s life he suspects the collider to have some influence, however, the book only begins to pick up pace and become exciting and engaging close to the end (my kindle read 80%) this leaves the book finishing with the distinct feeling that the story is only half told and what was presented is a rushed and messy period of time with the last few pages spanning years between paragraphs!

This story really feels like its been let down in its presentation. Either a prequel before the collider story was needed as a serrate book, or the end few pages needed moving to their own sequel. This would have done the story Dave has written proper justice, as it is I can’t recommend a book where nothing happens for most of it and where the focus of the book happens so late it is not even fully explored.

Alex

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

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