Spanning forty years of work and featuring never-before-published pieces from a contemporary legend, this collection of eight stories, full of wonder and strangeness, includes “A Hypothetical Lizard,” in which two concubines in a brothel for sorcerers fall in love, with tragic ramifications. 150,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)
"In his first-ever short story collection, which spans forty years of work, Alan Moore presents a series of wildly different and equally unforgettable characters who discover--and in some cases even make and unmake--the various uncharted parts of existence"-- - (Baker & Taylor)
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE
From New York Times bestselling author Alan Moore—one of the most influential writers in the history of comics—"a wonderful collection, brilliant and often moving" (Neil Gaiman) which takes us to the fantastical underside of reality.
- (
McMillan Palgrave)
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE
From New York Times bestselling author Alan Moore-one of the most influential writers in the history of comics-"a wonderful collection, brilliant and often moving" (Neil Gaiman) which takes us to the fantastical underside of reality.
In his first-ever short story collection, which spans forty years of work, Alan Moore presents a series of wildly different and equally unforgettable characters who discover--and in some cases even make and unmake--the various uncharted parts of existence.
In "A Hypothetical Lizard," two concubines in a brothel of fantastical specialists fall in love with tragic ramifications. In "Not Even Legend," a paranormal study group is infiltrated by one of the otherworldly beings they seek to investigate. In "Illuminations," a nostalgic older man decides to visit a seaside resort from his youth and finds the past all too close at hand. And in the monumental novella "What We Can Know About Thunderman," which charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry's major players over the last seventy-five years, Moore reveals the dark, beating heart of the superhero business.
From ghosts and otherworldly creatures to theoretical Boltzmann brains fashioning the universe at the big bang, Illuminations is exactly that--a series of bright, startling tales from a contemporary legend that reveal the full power of imagination and magic.
- (
McMillan Palgrave)
Alan Moore is an English writer widely regarded as the best and most influential writer in the history of comics. His seminal works include From Hell, Lost Girls and The League of Extraordinary Gentleman. He is also the author of the bestselling Jerusalem. He was born in Northampton, and has lived there ever since. - (McMillan Palgrave)
Booklist Reviews
Famed author Moore, known for comics like Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and Batman: The Killing Joke, the novel Jerusalem (2016), and much more, is out now with a collection of short fiction, much of it recent and previously unpublished. In "Not Even Legend," a dark, time-traveling creature infiltrates a group of amateur paranormal enthusiasts. In the intensely charming "Location, Location, Location," a realtor named Angie—who happens to be the last person on Earth after the Rapture hit and Apocalypse began—shows a house to Jesus, who likes Killing Eve and encourages her to call him Jez. Readers might be surprised to stumble on a 240-page novella in a collection of short fiction, but the good news is that "What We Can Know about Thunderman" is an epic, darkly humorous spin on the history of comics, full of secrets, riveting feuds, reluctant friendships, and exploitative contracts, portrayed through interviews, chat rooms, recordings, and more. Moore's dark humor and expert twists are on full display in these fictions. Fans of dark fantasy and dark humor will enjoy this collection from one of fantasy's greats. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.
Library Journal Reviews
For the first time in his four-decade career, the Hugo Award-winning Moore (Watchmen) publishes a short story collection. The characters range from the four horsemen of the apocalypse to theoretical Boltzmann brains dreaming up the universe at the big bang, and a big novella covers the twisty history of the comics industry. With a 150,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2022 Library Journal.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Legendary graphic novelist Moore (Watchmen) further burnishes his reputation in his first prose collection, which features nine career-spanning tales. The stand-out short novel, "What We Can Know About Thunderman," is a scathing take on the American comic book industry and its impact on popular culture and politics, and will undoubtedly attract the most attention, given Moore's history with the genre. In it, Moore imagines a reality in which thinly disguised versions of characters like Superman have grown so grim that "everybody had decided that comics weren't just for kids, then that they weren't for kids at all"—and now their audience is on the verge of dying off. It gets so bad that comics writer Dan Wheems decides that unless he escapes the industry, he will be reduced to "a quickly understood cartoon, the way it did with everything and everybody." Moore's subversive talent is equally on display in the shorter tales: "Not Even Legend" follows a group of paranormal investigators who eschew ghost hunting to instead study "things that nobody had ever said existed in the first place," while the cynical psychic protagonist of "Cold Reading" justifies his work as a "spiritual sugar pill." The superhero genre's loss is fantastic fiction's gain. (Oct.)
Copyright 2022 Publishers Weekly.