Reviews

"A truly networked work of fiction ... In the corner of the literary landscape in which a few of us sit, hunting for ways to work ever exciting and dynamic thinking from the sciences into the contemporary novel, The Weight of Numbers is extremely good news. It's a dynamic, innovative, and compelling book that brings into focus some of the most interesting trends in contemporary fiction." -- James Flint

"A Scheherazade of a novel, executed with scope, daring, and humor. The Weight of Numbers is unerringly well written, and engrossing to the last page." -- Lionel Shriver

"Dazzling, admirable narrative nerve ... Ings stalks his targets with the relentlessness of a bounty hunter, until he arrives at a new heart of darkness.... As the story cuts through time its lineage emerges: from the colonial excursions of Conrad and Celine to the anthropological objectivity of J. G. Ballard; to Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon; to the askance mix of fact and fiction in DeLillo.... It is unlikely there will be a finer-written fiction this year." -- Chris Pettit

"Ings weaves an ingenious, shimmering web of contiguity and chance.... A feat of meticulous plotting ... Ings's project is not dissimilar from David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, with which it has been compared." -- Alistair Sooke

"Like Don DeLillo's Underworld, Simon Ings's remarkable new work delivers nothing less than a secret key, a counterhistory, of the last sixty years. Ings's fiction is vivid and swift, a thing of scenes and people, smugglers and astronauts, spies and revolutionaries. But beyond the topical excitements lies something even grander--a vision of our culture a death ship. The Weight of Numbers is amazing." -- Mark Costello

"One of the most exciting--and relevant--books of the last year. Booker material, for sure."