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I`ll keep this brief as there are plenty of erudite reviews already here.

I consider this book to be one of the best, if not THE best, book , ever written. Not only is its style brilliant, compelling, addictive, and its hero (?anti-hero?) one of the most fascinating, dynamic in the history of the genre, but the premise on which it is based, if followed by the reader, is quite simply, life changing. If I throw a 1, I shall leave work and emigrate to New Zealand tomorrow, a 2 will see me give up my lifetime devotion to West Ham United and start supporting their arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur instead, a 3 and I shall trade in my 14 year old Honda Civic for a brand new moped, a four and I shall watch only ITV3 for the next year, a 5 and I shall phone every `phone in programme` on the radio and extol the virtues of a `prune only` diet, and a 6 means I shall give up my staple reading diet of the likes of Rhinehart, Childs, Grisham, Baldacci and Kurnick, and instead read only Catherine Cookson books, and Fanny and Jonny Craddock cookbooks. if all this sound totally outrageous, Luke plays out scenarios FAR WORSE AND FAR MORE FAR FETCHED.

As I`ve said, if followed to the letter, this book will be truly LIFE CHANGING - both for yourselves and the thousands of other lives your random actions will impact upon................

This book, from the reviews posted here and the fact that it is a favourite of Mike Figgis the film director whose comments in a magazine article led me to buy it, clearly enjoys a cult status. However after page 174 I fear that I just gave up and could not face struggling through the remaining nearly 400 pages. The continual US psycho babble spouted by the lead character Luke Rhinehart was by then really grating with me especially given its endless self centred angle and while the trick of living one's whole life based on decisions made by the roll of dice starts off interestingly, it was already beginning to pale by that point.

The whole story line of what US psychiatrists get up to and their mindset when dealing with their patients, their colleagues and relatives just never really seemed to spark I fear and have me either laughing or stimulated by the scenarios developed in the book.

The most interesting aspect of this book is the concept - rolling a die to make life decisions. Makings of a fantastic page-turner you'd think? Unfortunately no. Dice Man reads like the autobiography of a family man having his fantasy mid-life crisis.

It is borderline misogynist in tone and really has no real message, ethos or values beyond the blindingly obvious - i.e. one life, make the most of it, take risks, etc, etc. I can only assume that people giving this book 5 star reviews are unhappy with their own lives and see this tosh as a self-help manual.

Most damningly, I found the plot dull, the prose repetitive and the cod philosophising patronising in the extreme. It did not excite, shock or enthrall. It certainly does not deserve comparisons to genuine classics like Catch 22. Avoid.

It's incredible boring to read, not funny and a waste of money. The idea is good enough but it all falls to the ground. I was bored in the beginning, midway and couldn't be bothered to read on. That happens rarely for me. The Dice Man is just a very boring book, that's it.

Very much a book of its time (the seventies, man!), in style and morality and the obsession with sex and the sheer heartlessness and brutality.

Rhinehart makes a good job of picking apart the Dice-Man's philosophy, showing it for what it really is (a breakdown). It's very much a period-piece and appears to have been written as an allegory of its Times, in fact, I'd say reading it as such is the only way to truly `get it'.

It's interesting, best in the beginning and the end (the middle, it has to be said, flags badly). It's quite graphic, not for the faint-hearted.