THE GREAT WHEN: A Long London Novel By Alan Moore Is 5-Stars
THE GREAT WHEN: A Long London Novel by Alan Moore is 5-Stars, or more, if you are so inclined, as the first book in the The Long London Quintet series marks the liftoff of a brilliant new nest of allies in the city we know of as Fantasy Fiction.
The use of prose and language in this book are wholly fresh and draw upon a uniquely impactful identity.
The only book I can think of to compare THE GREAT WHEN to, because of that innovative sense of self and ever-intriguing and nuanced dialect, is A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess. But Moore’s work here is a totally different being.
The following is a Spoiler-free Book Review of THE GREAT WHEN by Alan Moore.
It is the voices in this story that give it so much life!
The voice of the narrator is as surefooted as the 18-year-old protagonist Dennis’s is not.
It is the sputtering youth’s tone, just as it is the magician artist’s, or the ever-coughing chain-smoking bookshop owner Coffin Ada’s, or the crime boss Jack Spot’s as he discusses the methodical weighing of life and pain in his steady tones (as he will stop at nothing to attempt to break in to the Great When itself) that permeate the pages with sound and further a world that is so, so real.
If this London is what they call the Smoke, then that place is the Fire… – THE GREAT WHEN.
Hidden so that no one but those brought in by the fantastical backbone universe of The Great When’s London itself can see it, the magic, the terror, the alternate takes on 1949 London that occupy the same space as the normal blokes like Dennis reside in are greasy jewels clinking around in a vast labyrinthine digestive tract that runs that part of the world, known or not.
And if that description is too abstract for you, know that this tale starts with a book and its mysterious danger.
The book that does not exist in London or anywhere in Dennis’s world, but he mistakenly buys it for the bookstore he works at and is instructed to – before dire things befall him (and his very skin) – return it to another place that does not exist: The Great When.
I love biblio-mysteries that involve rare volumes, tomes of frightening implications, as is the case here.
The names, Ironfoot is so much fun, the speech, you will feel this London in your bones, my son, the stretching shadows that cover an otherwise thriving shop’s tables and chairs in burlap sacks in The Great When’s overlayed version continue to taunt your mind’s sense of reality and reason.
I have read nothing like Alan Moore’s THE GREAT WHEN, and I cannot wait for the next part of the series.
The Forgotten Fiction Grade: YEA (read it!)!
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“THE GREAT WHEN: A Long London Novel by Alan Moore is 5-Stars” Was Written By R.J. Huneke.
