Manhattan Transfer/YMMV

• Designated Hero: He's not a jerkass, but Matt's the hero. Everyone listens to and does everything he says - even aliens! They have the entire puplation of Manhattan to pick from, but because Matt's there, he's put in charge.
• Harsher in Hindsight: It didn't seem so odd when the book came out in 1993, but the way the city handles the crisis like it's a normal day at the office seems downright silly after we've actually seen New York City in a real, dire crisis twice in The New Tens (9/11/2001 and the Great Northeast Blackout of 2003.)
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: We never find out about how they get home or how New York (and the rest of the Earth) reacted to the sudden loss of Manhattan to aliens.