This is a moderately fast paced urban SF thriller. Around the world a series of strange events has been happening, all driven by a device call the Coincidence Engine.

These events come to the attention of the Directorate of the Extremely Improbably, headed by a strange figure called the Red Queen. They, and other organisations are trying to track a guy called Alex who is thought to be carrying the device. As the net closes in on Alex the people tracking him start to bump into each other; and bump each other off. Meanwhile Alex is unaware that he is being tracked, as having delivered his package, he is trying to meet up with his girlfriend to propose to her. As the story reaches its conclusion, more coincidences happen, before the deflated ending drops into place.

Mostly I enjoyed this, it didn’t understand the sub plot with the creator of the Coincidence Engine, didn’t really fit with anything else going on with the story. Whilst the book was well written, it didn’t seem to add up, for example why Alex drove across the states, to meet up with this American girl. I felt that it could have had more complexity and more coincidences to fit with the title. I like the spy / agency part, but Charles Stross has done this better in the Laundry Files series.
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****Please note I won this as a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway****

If I had to describe this in one word it would be quirky. I'm not sure quite what to make of this so I'm going to sit on my thoughts for a bit and I'll add a more extended review later. ( )

Was searching for Leith's new book on rhetoric [b:You Talkin' To Me?|12652892|You Talkin' To Me?|Sam Leith|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|17766620] in the Overdrive catalog, and came across this instead. A zippy read, lots of fun, sort of about probability and quantum stuff but really about some strange characters wandering around the US. An Englishman's view of driving in America. Watch out for the Elvis impersonators!

It's true that it suffers a bit from a "hey I bet I can write like [ai:Neil Gaiman|1221698|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg]" syndrome, but, well, he comes pretty close. ( )

The book begins by discussing a plane that apparently assembled itself during a hurricane, seemingly from random nearby items, and then crash-landed and disappeared. A secret government agency is looking into the appear- & disappearance of this aircraft that should never have existed. Add in a clueless British dude named Alex, some goons of low intelligence capable of murder, and some members of a top-secret government organization so obscure its' own members aren't even sure of what they're investigating, all on a road trip across the landscape of America -- it sounds fun & zany, right?

Well... not exactly.

This book is not as humorous as I was expecting -- it was, instead, more philosophical. It had a lot of mathematical discussion, and also brought in some physics, some ethical conundrums, etc. It was far, far more serious than I was expecting, yet well written so that I, as someone who mainly avoided math & physics classes when at all humanly possible, could still comprehend it. My brain was not straining to comprehend the subject matter to a degree that took my focus away from the story, either.

Overall, I would say that this story is worth reading, provided that you know what you're getting before delving into its' pages.

This book was extremely interesting. It begins with a fully assembled plan created by a hurricane. It then moves onto the investigators looking for what they call a coincidence engine, an engine or machine created that changes probability, rumored to have been created by a mad mathematician, who may or may not have been building a weapon.
A colleague and professor, Hands, is questioned about this mathematician and his plans. Hands then explains probability and the possibility of a machine. I particular enjoyed his interview because he talked about the universe and what probability and chance really is.
There were many characters, all of which intertwined in the plot to find this machine. The investigators follow Alex, who randomly decides to fly into the US, drive across the country, and meet up with his girlfriend in Vegas to propose to her.
Weird things happen throughout this entire book, coincidences such as an entire highway of cars resembling Alex's rental, making it difficult for the investigators to continue tracking him.
Parts of this book were a bit complicated, though I enjoyed the questions of what if. Such as Alex's musing: "You were almost never more than a strange decision or an accident, or a movement of a few feet, from extinction." Ideas like this have always interested me.
The reason I only gave this book 3 stars is because it was sort of confusing and all over the place. The plot didn't come together as I had hoped and sort of just ended without tying together some pieces I felt should have been tied together and expanded upon.
I think this book is worth a second read. Perhaps more of it will make sense to me.
I will be on the lookout for more novels by Leith, as I think he has real talent and I found this plot refreshing and different. Most of the time, you have to read nonfiction to really get into questions about the universe, like probability and outcomes, so it was wonderful to have these ideas presented in fiction.

http://meganm922.blogspot.com/2012/03/coincidence-engine-review.html ( )