by Alan Moore

Bloomsbury Publishing, out now

The first ever short story collection from the unparalleled imagination of Alan Moore.

As someone who used to thrill to Alan Moore’s Future Shocks in 2000AD in the early 1980s, which always had a fantastic twist at the end of a few pages, I was surprised to read that Northampton’s finest writer had never before released a book of short stories.

This book has been a long time coming, comprising stories that span 40 years, from 1987’s ‘Hypothetical Lizard’, which the author describes as his first serious attempt at a short story, right through to four new stories written specifically for this collection.

And what a range we have here over the nine entries, which run from the economic 11-page ‘And, at the Last, Just to Be Done with Silence’ through to the novel-length ‘What We Can Know About Thunderman’ an acerbic look at the history of the comics industry over the past 75 years. Fans of Moore will already know his opinion on the industry following his personal experience, and he describes it as the ‘Tiger-headed elephant in the room’. It certainly pulls no punches in its thinly-veiled allegory and satire. ‘Cold Reading’ is a smart tale about a bogus psychic, and ‘Illuminations’ is a witty story about a man who discovers you should never return home again, in this case a seaside resort.

Verdict: This is Moore playing to his strengths – witty, clever, barbed and a little bit bonkers. A welcome read. 9/10

Nick Joy

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