I Hear a New World
by Alan Moore
I love Alan Moore. I love him so much that I still think about his comic books and “book” books on a regular basis. I even love interviews of him talking about his books or society in general. So, I wanted to love I Hear a New World. At the very least I wanted to like it. But, that was hard for me to do.
I didn’t exactly love The Great When and I think it’s because I’m just not a fantasy genre guy. But I found plenty to enjoy in it, and plenty to irk me. Unfortunately, it’s the irksome parts that you’re getting more of in this book. There are plenty of hits I felt I took reading this book, and the hardest one was the language. It’s clear that Moore wants to build a magical world a-la Harry Potter, but he’s chosen to do so in a very convoluted way. A lot of this book deals with the Great When, an alternate reality to the London we know, and his choice to use disorienting language to describe it is incredibly frustrating. The language is so purposely florid that I found it confusing. Also, when you CAN follow what’s happening, it’s kind of silly, and frankly, stupid. I’ve known Moore to be a funny and witty writer, and you can tell he’s trying to be daring and clever, but it’s all kind of shallow and unamusing. Even the new characters are ridiculous.
Then there’s our hero Dennis, who Moore seems to have contempt for. I don’t know if he’s going to grow and develop in future books but at this point he’s written as an insecure, cowardly, unintelligent, and dense individual. At least Moore describes him as such, even though his actions prove otherwise. And it’s clear that everyone, including his girlfriend Grace, is supposed to be better than him. Really, Grace should be the hero of this book.
Finally, I Hear a New World feels severely overwritten. Any actions or events are described using complicated and convoluted language, as if Moore is afraid to get to the point. That even happens in the story itself which stretches out over the course of years for no apparent reason. People are content just sitting around and waiting.
So yeah, I’m bummed. I think that’s it for me and the Long London books.
