OVERALL 4/5
I did enjoy this book as a metaphor-littered philosophical thriller(?), and it beats the hell out of reading an academic essay on the same topic, but I was a little disappointed in the lack of focus on individual characters/personality.

Plot/Themes 4/5
This was an assigned book in my class on Consumerism, so I read this mainly as a social commentary on the dangers of Consumerism turning into Fascism. However biased it might sound, I regard this book as more focused on the themes it explores than the characters that become entangled within it. The fictional suburb of Brooklands can be seen as a metaphor for any other motorway town/suburb dependent upon a shopping center for its economy and social structure.
We get glimpses of the town's slow deterioration into madness as Pearson, the narrator, explores the suburb to try and find answers to his father's murder. The smaller mystery of Pearson's father's death is a consequence of a greater disaster waiting to happen. As Pearson talks to various characters, we get liberally inserted social commentary on the effects of a mall-culture from the perspective of an ad man (Pearson) and the civilians who have to live under its influence. These long conversations on ideologies almost completely make up the "personalities" of the minor characters, either making it a very interesting read (if you like social commentary) or tedious (if you're looking for character development).
The entire story is both surreal and terrifyingly prophetic in a way, like watching a trainwreck heading straight for your neighbour's house, you are not in immediate danger (it is slightly exaggerated), but it is too close a call (it is based on the modern models of Consumerist society).
The "mystery" isn't really that thrilling. The revealing was anti-climatic in my opinion since it was made clear pretty early on who the main players were. In other words, this isn't to be read as a mystery novel, more so a psychological debate with consequences in death.

Characters 3/5
The main character/narrator, Richard Pearson, is a recently-fired ad man who uses the many ideas and marketing strategies going through his head to manipulate and experiment on the mass psychology of the town of Brooklands. Sometimes he seems a little too passive, letting the story carry him instead of the other way around, like he is an observer watching events unfold rather than an active participant. He also has a bad habit of denying his responsibility to anything, making narrative observations that are unreliable at best. This becomes apparent to the reader pretty early on, and might frustrate some people, though I believe it is a fundamental part of his embodiment of the Consumerist ideology - hiding the truth behind shiny lies.
Many of the minor characters (the ones not clumped in with mobs) are paranoid, crazy, and disgusted with their state of being. They are all emotionally distant, even when they're shouting or crying, kind of like they are muffled behind the oppressive atmosphere of the plot. This makes it hard to sympathize with any of them, and perhaps that is Ballard's intention: to make us focus on the larger themes at work rather than the individual agents.

Writing 4/5
Ballard's writing is very poetic and romanticized, often using metaphors with monsters and apocalyptic imagery. Like the plot, it is slightly surreal in this sense, but not to the extent of Shakespearean poetry. In terms of dialogue, most of it is made up of Ballard's social commentary by proxy of the characters, or plot-driving exposition, so there is not much personality, but at least it's intellectual. ( )

Ballard's affectless style is used to good effect in this story of a man investigating the disturbing death of his father in a west London shopping mall. His search uncovers an emerging sub-culture of consumerism and atavistic violence combining to generate a new mode of English cultural identity far from the civility we would ordinarily like to profess. In many ways this follows on from the morality tales of the seventies - "Concrete Island", "Crash" and "High Rise". It does not add much more to the dystopian vision of these books but in its curious mixture of detective fiction, anthropology and aphoristic meditation on contemporary mores "Kingdom Come" does provide timely satire and forms a sad farewell from a modern master. ( )

Consumerist dystopia. Pesimistic, bold and fightening. In the same line as Cocaine Nights and Millenium People, although not as good as the first one. ( )

Scarily realistic, but at times repetitive and in some ways quite flat and dull. But I feel this was very much intentional. The life that was drawn here would feel this way is what Ballard is implying and I think he is right. The novel actually made me feel deeply sad because for some people this shopping mall dystopia is probably already part of the lives they lead. Commercialism rules. ‘Things’ are gods. What you can buy is all that matters – sound familiar? Also the violence that evolves out of sporting events. The tribality of the group or gang, and how easily it might be to harness that as a road to power. It wouldn’t be the first time. ( )

Pure Ballard. At this stage I pretty know what to expect from Ballard and this didn't disprove the theory for both good and bad. There is know doubt that Ballard can create a world so close to our own but with a undercurrent of menace always bubbling to the surface. His argument is (from the very interesting author's notes at the end of the book) that people are not inherently good. This argument seems sound enough when one looks at the acts of war but strains credibility for me at least that it will arise from middle class boredom which is the premise of the book. He could well be right however. Again the word 'dystopian' applies and nobody does it better. It's not in any way a pleasant book to read and therein lies its strength however leaving me dismissive but ever so slightly unsettled. ( )