‘The Great When’ by Alan Moore
This novel was given to me by my sister, who managed a dozen pages before abandoning. She didn’t like it at all.
As you can imagine, following my sister’s review, I didn’t delve into it at the first opportunity. It sat on the reading pile for quite some time.
The novel is the first of an intended five: The Long London Quintet. It’s a fantasy novel, not really my thing, but I do occasionally dip in, following a lad called Dennis as he tries to return a book to the Great When.
You could say it is a journey through the metafictional chaos of a shadow-London, where reality blurs with real-life, an occult underbelly, where sorcerers, murderers, gangsters, and mystical beings – some imaginary, some very real – stalk the streets.
Dennis says it better: ‘I was in the wrong London. It was horrible. I’d fallen in by accident, and it was all alive and trying to eat me’.
It was an interesting read. Pretty weird, but strangely enjoyable. Although, I won’t be reading any more of the series!
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