A thrilling, tense and mind-bending yarn that is full to the brim with witty British-isms and cockney slang and bizarre turns of phrase that, even as a native to this 'ere land, I found a little cough cough cough overbearing at times. Set against a post WWII backdrop, we see a bleak but decidedly homey slice of London - we run down the bombed-out streets and we smell the grimey little pubs... We also spend a great deal of time in the dingy little bookshop our main character, Dennis Knuckleyard, works in - run by the utterly cantankerous and show-stealing Coffin Ada; an older woman who will sooner tear her own books to shreds rather than haggle on price. The plot kicks off when Dennis is found in possession of a book that shouldn't exist. It has come from another part of London, a part of London very few know exists, and even fewer know how to access. This book being in Dennis' possession not only endangers him, but it also endangers the entire city and the fabric of reality as he's always known it. While I thoroughly enjoyed the plot and the characters were superb, the prose is where I got somewhat caught up. This here really felt like Moore had something to prove, at least from a literary perspective, and while often impressive and clever, and regularly very amusing, I found - particularly early on - that the writing itself got in the way of the story somewhat. The layers of obscure and bizarre metaphor and surrealist similes, spread so thickly over the already strange and peculiar happenings regularly dolloped onto the page made it quite a challenge at times to even follow what was happening. This probably won't bother some folks, but it felt a little clunky and jarring to me, and this is coming from someone who is aware of and can comfortably follow rhyming slang and twentieth-century English jargon. Your mileage may vary though, just a heads-up. All round though, I found The Great When to be very enjoyable. I'm surprised to learn it will be a five book series, because it can certainly be read as a standalone for those who don't like to commit.

I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this one, I've liked most of Alan Moore's work but there have been some of his stories that I've not liked at all. The Great When, once you get past the very flowery prose of the prologue 'The Music at the Beginning', is a funny and weird fantasy. We follow a hapless, but very endearing, main character Dennis Knuckleyard as he stumbles his way to returning a "not real" book to 'The Great When' with the help of some magical beings and a shabby wizard, whilst trying to evade the real London's criminal elite (term elite used very loosely). The Great When (the other London) is more of a psychedelic fever dream than a magical carbon copy so don't expect it to be a place any humans can live, it's more like somewhere you visit briefly with the hope of not going mad or being killed whilst you're there. The scenes in The Great When is where Alan Moore's writing really sings, the lyrical descriptions of vividly imagined beings and the snippets of a past, present, and future London merging together into a cacophony of sound and landscape are excellent. This will be great for fans of 'Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell' and 'Neverwhere', it has a subtle Pratchett feel with the character of Awstin Spare and some of the social critique. A brilliantly humorous array of characters, there were some laugh out loud moments surprisingly. Despite being the start of a series this can be read as a standalone story as it wraps up nicely at the end. Big thanks to the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing for a review copy. The premise of this book was irresistible, a hapless 18 year old with a lethal magical book on the streets of not one but two versions of London – what’s not to like? And I didn’t like it, I loved it. The prose is so lyrical that it seems to automatically become a graphic novel in the imagination. There are plenty of similes and metaphors here which perfectly fit the scene that the author is describing and which help to create a vivid impression of the world. I am no fan of present tense prose but the change from normal past tense story telling to italicised present tense script when Dennis, our lead character, moves from normal or ‘Short’ London to the other ‘Long’ London really helps cement the transition into the text and triggers a shift in imagery from the dull post war streets to the surreal and brightly coloured environs of ‘The Great When’. Dennis is brilliantly drawn as the totally hapless boy on a mission he neither wants nor understands and the supporting cast is fantastic too. Although there are comparatively few major characters in the novel it somehow feels like a feature film, but one where we get to know the players well. The story is wrapped up nicely but there are plenty of hooks for the series to continue and I certainly look forward to seeing how things pan out and what the motley cast of misfits get up to next. My only criticism is that the lengthy prologue, which is about the same length as a chapter of the book, felt quite hard to get into. Even re-reading it after finishing the novel I felt that there were sections which I didn’t understand and can only assume that these are preliminary forays into the later books of the series. If the first few pages feel totally incomprehensible don’t give up, the main story is well worth waiting for. Just as a note of caution - this is definitely a story for adults in language, tone and content.

A thrilling, tense and mind-bending yarn that is full to the brim with witty British-isms and cockney slang and bizarre turns of phrase that, even as a native to this 'ere land, I found a little cough cough cough overbearing at times. Set against a post WWII backdrop, we see a bleak but decidedly homey slice of London - we run down the bombed-out streets and we smell the grimey little pubs... We also spend a great deal of time in the dingy little bookshop our main character, Dennis Knuckleyard, works in - run by the utterly cantankerous and show-stealing Coffin Ada; an older woman who will sooner tear her own books to shreds rather than haggle on price. The plot kicks off when Dennis is found in possession of a book that shouldn't exist. It has come from another part of London, a part of London very few know exists, and even fewer know how to access. This book being in Dennis' possession not only endangers him, but it also endangers the entire city and the fabric of reality as he's always known it. While I thoroughly enjoyed the relatively faced-paced plot and the characters were superb through and through, the prose is where I got somewhat caught up. This here really felt like Moore had something to prove, at least from a literary perspective, and while often impressive and clever, and regularly very amusing, I found - particularly early on - that the writing itself got in the way of the story somewhat. The layers of obscure and bizarre metaphor and surrealist similes, spread so thickly over the already strange and peculiar happenings regularly dolloped onto the page made it quite a challenge at times to even follow what was happening. This probably won't bother some folks, but it felt a little clunky and jarring to me, and this is coming from someone who is aware of and can comfortably follow rhyming slang and twentieth-century English jargon. Your mileage may vary though, just a heads-up. All round though, I found The Great When to be very enjoyable. I'm surprised to learn it will be a five book series, because it can certainly be read as a standalone for those who don't like to commit.

For those who lean toward immense world-building ingenuity in a sci-fiesque novel, The Great When may be precisely what you've been looking for. In it we track Dennis Knuckleyard (fab name!) as he finds himself in a spot of bother brought on by a book he should not possess. This troublesome book takes him to places our mildly dim anti-hero is not meant to tred putting himself, and others, in danger as he does so. Along the way he meets more than a few colourful characters who help, and hinder, him on the way. Think of it as The Odyssey in deepest, darkest historical London. I found the setting in post WWII London a rich, inspired novel to sink my teeth in. I love this period and especially enjoyed the unique dialects and lingo particular to London born people. The deprivation of this time and difficulties our orphaned Dennis face felt authentic and plausible...to a certain extent. The otherworldly aspects of The Great When are entirely fanciful and awe inspiring. A magical world the reader enjoys stumbling upon with the hapless Dennis as he navigates this previously unknown world. As said before this felt like The Odyssey but mashed up with magical Harry Potter in a bomb debris depression era world. Ingenious, rich with fascination in a place new and unlike anything I've read before, I cannot see how this the start of a quintet but find unbelievability to be a magic potion in this new, undiscovered world. Great fun!