Amazon.com
If you like challenging science fiction, then Jeff Noon is the author for you.

Pollen is the sequel toVurt (winner of the 1994 Arthur C. Clarke award), and both are concerned with a world in which dreams, drug-induced hallucination, and reality become completely intermingled. In this volume, the dream world unleashes a pollen that threatens to cause people in the real world to sneeze to death.

But no review can do Noon's writing justice: it's a phantasmagoric combination of the more imaginative science fiction masters, such as Phillip K. Dick, genres such as cyberpunk and pulp fiction, and drug culture.

If you would like a more accessible approach to Jeff Noon's richly imagined world, I recommend Automated Alice, a modern recasting of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.Book Description
The bestselling author of Vurt spins another audaciously inventive tales of reality gone soft and dreams become real. As an enormous cloud of pollen descends upon a city, people begin to literally sneeze themselves to death. When a cop, one of the few who is immune, sets out to find the source of the plague, what she discovers will forever alter the ancient relationship between people and the myths they create to make sense of the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Not my favorite book by Jeff Noon
This is the third Jeff Noon book I've read, the others Vurt and Nymphomation both taking place before this one. While I enjoyed the vivid writing style of the book and the expansion on the shadow theme from Vurt I was let down by the characters which didn't feel as fleshed out as in the prior books.The character of Boda, in particular, which is an enigmatic ball of love and hate, really showing the most emotion of any character in the book, never has the reasons behind her emotions revealed.The mystery behind her character was the main thread that grabbed my interest through the beginning of the book and the lack of resolution of that mystery left me dissatisfied. This isn't meant to discourage any potential readers as overall the story is well paced and immensely imaginative.I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed Vurt but urge anyone who hasn't read any of Jeff Noon's work to start with Vurt or Nymphomation first as a good deal of the background as well as some minor characters draw from these books and benefit from some prior exposure.

Good, but, it's a little long winded
First of all, I have to say that Jeff Noon is always worth reading.He writes with great style and displays a truly unique imagination.Pollen is definitely worth checking out, but, as other reviewers already stated, I feel it does drag on a bit long.One thing is for sure...this really isn't a Vurt part 2... and I applaud Noon for that.I like the fact that he writes from such a different perspective on the Vurt world.For those not familiar with Jeff Noon, I would recommend checking out Vurt first... not because you really need it for the plot of Pollen, but, because you might get a better introduction to some of the going ons with the feathers and all that.

Great read for the first 200 pages
This book was great in the first 200 pages, but it is a 300 some odd page book. It started out fast paced and addicting just like Vurt and kept that way for more then half the book, but for the end sequence it just didnt get me like vurt did. I really did enjoy this book i just wish Noon would have ended it sooner and didnt drag it on the way he did. Still a great book and i recomend it highly just because Noon is an amazing writer and it is worth reading just to see his words leap off the page and swim in your mind.

A Rational Vurt
This is absolutely one of my top 10 books, a much more thought out Vurt, but with the same vivid style. This all follows in the path of Giles Goat Boy and Gravity's Rainbow.

Pollen: Jeff Noon's Idea Farm
Jeff Noon's Pollen is an idea farm waiting for harvest. It begins with the energy and promise of Vurt, but never commits to the story it started. It progresses by layering every possible scenario up to the last minute, cramming ideas into the final third that are never explored to their potential. Jeff Noon writes his books on a continuum, each referencing the others and the author in a witty entanglement. Unfortunately, at times, Noon's style of weaving references convolutes and denies the story it's climax. Pollen is a fair read and full of interesting ideas each awaiting its own novel.For now, Noon's other books execute his ideas more aptly. Still, a wild, fun read and for Jeff Noon fans a necessary, sometimes tedious one. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Food for the brain: Creative systems poetry
First of all, I hope this gets back into print soon. Also, there are at least two different covers, the one not shown above being a nice illustration.

This is a book that has grown on me over time, and today I'm very glad I kept it around. It's the kind I often return to to read a short section, a single "poem", which leaves me sitting lost in thought for a while.

These are unusual poems that can be seen in their various stages of life, each equally presented as a final piece. Like a computer program or a DJ processing a sample of sound, a text snippet is passed through various filters and processes that re-arrange, sometimes wildly, the content to create various stages of the poems evolution. These are not just the output of some computer randomizer however, the processes are to my mind much more creative and human than could be achieved by software. Some do things like mix up all the words which is fairly easy, but others do things like "Find A Story" from a jumble of words, which obviously involves a lot more decision making and creativity from the author.

Just as in modern music samples, the source material covers a huge range, from serious literature such as Shakespeare, to pedestrain things like "things that happened to Jeff Noon today". The results are always amazing and inspiring, both for the actual content, creativity and beauty in the text, as well as the concepts used for types of manipulation.

This is one of the most creatively inspiring books i own, from someone very interested in poetry, systems processing, modern art, modern music, deconstruction, etc.

The process behind the products
Jeff Noon is a wonderful writer. Shades of Haruki Murakami by way of early Jonathan Lethem (and others), his sharply pointed science fiction-like stories and novels are deliciously active idea demons and concept farmers. In Cobralingus, Noon introduces those familiar with his work -- it is not the best introduction to Noon by any means -- to a game that writers can use to recombine disparate texts, apply a set of rules, and develop outlet texts that read like some of the most imaginative skiffy out there -- even if they're mutations of pre-existing texts.

After explaining the game's process and offering a key to the rules, what Noon terms "filter gates," the writer serves up 10 example stories, starting with the original, or inlet, text -- and stepping through the process until the resulting outlet text arrives. It's a fascinating, albeit occasionally confusing and mind-bending process, but the end results are wonderful. At the end, Noon divulges his source texts, which range from a 1591 madrigal to a BBC shipping forecast transmitted in 1999.

This is a book for readers, but it is also a book for writers. The text -- and the game -- made me want to write. And should I develop writers block, I now have a new game-like process I can use to get back on the horse and ride.

Words Like Music
This is an experiment...Cobralingus shows you behind the secret door where Noon recreates the modern novel. It is an instruction manual, a poetry book, an art book, a short story collection, and more all in one sleek designer package.

Remember, reading Jeff Noon makes you happy.

remixing for text
"Cobralingus" was my introduction to Noon's work...the processes he used to remix/process text are a bit "fuzzy" compared to the well documented algorithms used by the Oulipo writers...but his techniques yield some very nice pieces and have enticed me to check out his other work...

Words like music
Best for fans on Noon's who like him not only for Vurt, but for the way he likes to play with language and music.A bit pretentious at first, it may take a while to appreciate it's beauty.He challenges conventional notions of literture, but who hasn't?Luckily, he starts with an idea that is still original which seems to be based on his own desire to explore the bounds of language. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (20)

excellent book
Noon's Vurt is one of my all time favorite books.Nymphomation is a prequel of sorts to Vurt, which explains what led to the dreamdrug-world obsessed universe of Vurt.

PLAY TO WIN!
After reading Vurt I wanted to know more about the world of dystopian Manchester. Many things are not explicitily explained in Vurt such as Vaz, and the origin of the Vurt feathers.Nymphomation steps in and answers these mysteries (sort of). What I liked about Vurt and Nympho was that Jeff Noon explains the basic properties of some of these items while still leaving enough to the readers imagination and their own interpreation.

On to Nymphomation.While this book is not as good as Vurt (a hard act to follow) Nympho is good in its own right.Interesting characters, imaginitively written, you really can't go wrong with this book. I think Nympho actually borderlines Bizarro fiction rather than Cyberpunk/Sci-fi. But if you like hard cypberpunk and Sci-Fi you should still check this one out. If Amazon allowed half-star ratings this would be easily a 4 1/2 , with Vurt being a full 5. Read Vurt first though!

On a side note, I actually learned quite a bit about basic Chaos Theory from reading this book, while not explicitily spelled out as such. The ideas are there if you look for them (and sometimes when you don't).

Science (?) Fiction
Nymphomation takes place in a dystopic futureversion of Manchester, England, where the populace is in thrall to strange new lottery based on dominos. It's a bleak place where anything and everything is corporate-sponsored, including the schools and the cops, and the air is filled with bio-mechanical advert bugs called blurbflies. A group of renegade mathematicians and hackers thinks there's something fishy about the whole domino system and especially the so-called jealousy killings of lottery winners, so they decide to try to break the system. Sounds like a good idea, no? But...

I have really mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it has a really great premise, some cool characters, a interesting and well developed backdrop and a writing style which is very modern, flashy, playful and fun to read, but (and this is a very big 'but') it's just not believable. Noon's trying to write science fiction, and he gets the fiction part really down pat, but he totally fumbles on the science, which makes it almost painful to read at times.

There are all kinds of things that are just inexplicable, (or maybe just badly explained), the main one being the blurbflies and their weird reproductive abilities, but all of the computer and hacking stuff seems like it was written by someone who doesn't have clue about computers and sounds almost magical rather than technological.

So I guess I'd have to give it a C. The writing really is quite fun, but the fakey-ness of all the science bits is just too much.

jeff noon is always worthwhile
Noon has the best writing style I've come across in this whole 'cyberpunk' genre (or whatever people are calling it these days).His plots and environments are always very imaginative and he breathes a good deal of culture and life into his novels.Instead of focusing on overly-wordy descriptions of computer hardware and jacking-into-the-virtual-cyber-realm-via-the-com-link type thing that too many other authors fall victim to; Noon instead comes up with very different and surreal means of involving future technology and culture.Nymphomation wasn't as good as Vurt in my opinon, but, it was still an excellent read.Noon's writing has frequently inspired me to get up and do something creative.

never read this
This is possibly the WORST book that I have ever read! This phenominally badly written book is packed with obviously out of touch attempts to key into areas of youth culture. Cliched and naive imagery and dialogue somehow detract from a simplistic and uninventive narrative. It is predictable, boring and entirely uninteresting. Never read this book. ... Read more

Book Description
"in the first shop they bought a pack of dogseed, because Doreen had always wanted to grow her own dog..."

Pixel Juice is the collected outpourings of an overactive mind. A selection of fifty stories from Jeff Noon's head, each one strange, telling, disturbing, or sometimes just plain weird.

For the breakdown zones of the mediasphere and the margins of dance culture, Jeff Noon samples the image mix. Product recalls, adverts for mad gadgets, dub cut prose remixes, urban fairytales, instructions for lost machines, almost true tales, dreary onepagers, word-dizzy roller coasters. With new stories from the Vurt cycle and other revelations, including the discovery of an 'off' switch for the human body and what robots use for body-piercing, and those difficult-to-find, how-to-play-and-win rules for Pimp! - The Boardgame.

Call it Slipstream, call it Avant Pulp, call it Transfiction, Kaleidopunk, Techno-Whimsy or Genre Melt. Call it what you will, but be quick. Ideas-per-page tating: dangerously close to the legal limit. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Probably the best.... *thing* Noon has ever written
Pixel Juice is a collection of 50 short stories, all pulled screaming from the swirling psychadelicatessen that is Jeff Noon's brain. Actually, "stories" isn't right; certainly, some of them are straight narrative tales, but then there's the instruction booklet to "PIMP! - The Boardgame", (social satire disguised as a family game) or the memo titled "Product Recall: Marylin Monroe" (which combines futuristic sex toys with strange viruses). Noon uses just about every narrative construct under the sun: stream-of-conciousness, first-second-and-third person perspectives; poetry, prose, letters, journals - all are used by Noon to transcribe the apparently endless flood of ideas which collect in his brain.

Pixel Juice also rewards those who re-read the book; there are word games which ring a big smug smile to the face when they're figured out (see how quickly you decipher "Metaphorazine" or "Alphabox"). There are references between stories; the young lad in "Junior Pimp" mentions that pimping is just like a game - tying in to "PIMP! - The Boardgame". That story makes reference to "Fetish Booth #7" and the lead character of FB #7 is mentioned in several of the other tales. Things like this keep the reader darting back through the book and smiling every time they spot a connection. Heck, there's even a poem towards the end of the book which sums up the stories so far and takes the mick out of the author! Everywhere you turn, there's a surprise an a twist, from the almost conventional horror story to the dreamlike beginning and end tales.

And contrary to what some have said, prior knowledge of Noon's other work isn't entirely neccessary. Although there are some stories which are set firmly in the Vurt universe, it's pretty easy for the reader to catch up with what's happening.

more if i could
This book just blew me away. I think it is the most astounding piece of writing it has ever been my privilege to read. To be honest, I think that it probably benefits from reading a bit of Noon's stuff previously, as itgives you some background information on characters that you have metalready, which is always nice. But it does so much more than that. The waythat at the end of a story, he might tell the whole thing again, but inhaiku, is just an example of his wordplay, with a word used as much forit's rhythm and feel as for it's actual definition.

I hate short stories.Can't abide them, even by my favourite authors. They are normally souninvolving, only trying to shock you, because it's the easiest emotion toinspire. Not so with this. I can't extol the virtues of this book enough.Read this book or die.

wide.

Fantastic
This book is a collection of fifty short stories.And what stories.Never has such an unstoppable flow of imagine been unleashed within in a simgle book.Every story is a gem to be slowly relished.

The bookreminded me of the Roald Dahl, "Kiss", etc. books from mychildhood.Quirky, memorable stories.

Please, please, please can we havesome more.

more if I could
This book just blew me away.I think it is the most astounding piece of writing it has ever been my privilege to read.

To be honest, I think that it probably benefits from reading a bit of Noon's stuff previously, as itgives you some background information on characters that you have metalready, which is always nice.But it does so much more than that.Theway that at the end of a story, he might tell the whole thing again, but inhaiku, is just an example of his wordplay, with a word used as much forit's rhythm and feel as for it's actual definition.

I hate short stories. Can't abide them, even by my favourite authors.They are normally souninvolving, only trying to shock you, because it's the easiest emotion toinspire.Not so with this. I can't extol the virtues of this book enough. Read this book or die.

wide.

Always interesting - probably best for Noon fans
I love what Noon does with words - dub haiku remixes and all that. This book is an really interesting view into his world - you can see the ideas germinating on every page.

If you haven't read any of Noon's work try his novel's first to see if you like his style - it's brilliantly unique. ... Read more

Amazon.com
If you like challenging science fiction, then Jeff Noon is the author for you. Vurt, winner of the 1994 Arthur C. Clarke award, is a cyberpunk novel with a difference, a rollicking, dark, yet humorous examination of a future in which the boundaries between reality and virtual reality are as tenuous as the brush of a feather.

But no review can do Noon's writing justice: it's a phantasmagoric combination of the more imaginative science fiction masters, such as Phillip K. Dick, genres such as cyberpunk and pulp fiction, and drug culture.

If this tickles your fancy, you should definitely consider the sequel to Vurt, Pollen, or Noon's lighter and more accessible Automated Alice, a modern recasting of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.Book Description
"As hip and breathless as William Gibson, but spiced with dark humor and the horrible realisation that Noon knows of what he writes....Vurt is passionate, distinctive, demanding and enthralling--first-time novelist Noon has started with a bang."--The London Times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (103)

Not Free SF Reader
Vurt is just not very good. When you look at what William Gibson, Pat Cadigan, Walter Jon Williams and others have done with this sort of thing, or even going back further, this is very disappointing.

Alternate reality via drugs and all is perhaps missing the point at little, at this point. Plenty of other cyberpunk tales to read before you need to waste your time with this one.

Life is too short for bad books.
If you really love bad sci fi, you might be able to get through this.It is definitely not as rewarding as Gibson or Stephenson.So why bother?Well, if you're fifteen and this kind of book is what you love to read, maybe.The rest of us should just put it down and move on.

Vurtual feathers
Vurt is an odd beast. I found it hard to start with, but soon the world had sucked me in. In futuristic Manchester those looking for hallucinogenic experiences suck on feathers to enter virtual worlds, Vurts. Stash Riders, a bunch of miscellaneous losers, hunt for interesting feathers and try to find Desdemona, who got stuck in a bad Vurt.

Noon has cooked up a futuristic and surrealistic world. The language is colourful and takes some getting used to. The world isn't explained thoroughly; some readers will certainly find Vurt too strange a feather to swallow. However, if you can accept that the world doesn't always make sense, the story moves on with a good pace and the plot is interesting.

Vurt isn't the easiest and most accessible book, but it's worth the effort. If you like it, there's more: Noon has written several books set in the same vurtual world.

Vurt is it?
The book jacket for Jeff Noon's Vurt is full of hyperboles.

Vurt is sui generis in form but filled with the shadows of classics--from the Orpheus and Faust myths to A Clockwork Orange and Blade Runner. With relentless pacing, exuberant originality, and prodigious wit, Jeff Noon has created a language, a world, and a love story destined to take its place among the classics.

I beg to differ.

What is (the) Vurt? Nobody knows. And one of the problems with Vurt is that Noon never bothers to explain what the Vurt is. The closest to an explanation that I found is that the Vurt is collective dreaming, some sort of disembodied virtual-reality consciousness that can be accessed by stroking a feather in one's mouth. Different colored feathers give access to different parts of the Vurt. The most powerful color is yellow; while a user can jerk out of most Vurts, yellow feathers open the door to Vurts that you can't escape, unless you survive. Desdemona, the sister of Vurt protagonist Scribble, took one such yellow feather. And now Scribble is trying to get her back.

The Vurt is a fascinating idea. Too bad Noon didn't feel the need to explain it more fully--or, indeed, at all. Instead, the Vurt ends up being a vague nothing in the plot, an area where no rules apply and therefore very little of excitement can actually happen.

But that shouldn't be fatal to the book: after all, plenty of science fiction novels introduce bizarre ideas with very little explanation. (Cf. Michael Marshall Smith.) Sadly, Noon lacks the werewithal to pull off his audacious creation with panache. Throughout Vurt, he attempts to maintain a writing style that oozes hip and cool; the only problem is that he's trying too hard, and it shows. The resulting jerky sentences and fast-spun slang sound forced and, ultimately, annoying; rather than jazz, it's the voice of a bad rapper trying to fit in with the gang. Even worse, the plot of Vurt is as limp and dull as the language. Scribble scatters thither and yon in search of his sister, hooking up with various characters whose lives hardly matter to the reader, only to succeed (or fail?) in his quest in a bizarre conclusion that saps whatever life was left of the novel in the last few pages.

Vurt is only partially redeemed by the fact that Noon does have quite an imagination, and his ideas, taken by themselves, are interesting. Too bad you have to sit through the rest of the book to capture all of the noteworthy nuggets from his mind.

A wad of neural bubblegum; tough to swallow



Take away the superficial stylistic jazziness and this is a very conventional story about a guy on a hazardous journey to bring his lover back from Virtual Hell. You know, like Orpheus. Here, though, Noon sets the archetypal drama in a world where drugs come in the form of feathers that open onto a kaleidoscopic variety of different realities...

Well, this whole feather-drug connection is just one of the many largely unnecessary complications Noon employs to make an old story seem fresh and original. At best, *Vurt* can be seen as William S. Burroughs for pre-teens. Maybe I would have found something like *Vurt* profound when I was twelve. But it's hard for me to believe that even a relatively sophisticated adult reader would get much out of this novel but a few hours of mindless entertainment. Cardboard characters, emotional clichés, a plotline driven largely by coincidence, chance, and the seemingly arbitrary switch of allegiances wherever convenient, *Vurt* has a lot in common with your basic Hollywood sci-fi thriller--a sequence of action scenes and `surprise' twists that come at you so rapidly you don't have time to realize that none of it really adds up. Except that in a novel you *do* have the time--and in *Vurt* the plot is laid down like a guy running away from a fire.

A great deal of this novel simply reads like a confused mess through which Noon affected an escape wherever necessary by making the language and plot even more messy and confusing. It's the sort of novel where whenever the author runs himself into an impasse he simply has the main character jump to a different drug/feather induced `reality' or reveal a character's `secret' identity or change of allegiance. Problem solved, right? Not really. You have to be extremely deft to play as fast and loose with story the way Noon is trying to do in *Vurt,* you have to really have something to say, and *Vurt* is filled with nothing more than pseudo profundities.

There are a few well-done passages here and there, some isolated images that momentarily arrest one's attention, and even times when you think there's going to be something to *Vurt,* after all--but, for me, this was a largely empty and disappointing read, very much over-hyped and over-rated, and pretty well forgettable, just like yesterday's bubblegum. Not total dreck, but only one star away from it.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A True Cyberpunk Novel
This is the first book by Jeff Noon I've read; I now consider myself a fan.

This is a book that I would classify as one of the 'truer' cyberpunk books out there. What I mean by that is the setting in Noon's book plays a central role in the story itself. Make no mistake this isn't some romance, western or sleuth story thrown in a cyberpunk setting. This story could not be told in any other world but the one Noon created. What I like so much about this story is that Noon explores the implications of his hybrid technological/drugged-up setting through the viewpoints of not only his characters but the society in which they reside and through the story itself. Indeed all three of these elements are symbiotically linked to the weird and unique world Noon has created. It's great to read a cyberpunk book where the cyberpunk elements actually ENHANCE the story being told.

Another wonderful thing that Noon considers in his story is the concept of balance. In particular, characters with unhuman strengths also have great frailties. Genuine fragilities. Noon puts his characters into situations where their 'strengths' become completely benign or detrimental, while their 'weaknesses' become strengths. Noon understands when you merge a dream world with reality, rules and balance are needed to maintain the literary strength of your story. Without rules, powers go unchecked and the characters have no real conflicts. Noon does an excellent job of making his setting TRULY interesting because he respects the rules he lays out for his story and thus maintains an idea of consistency in his plot and characters.

Lastly, I love the prose and punctuation Noon uses in this book. It is rare that an author can pull off a first-person perspective that actually enhances the story. I believe Noon did this very well indeed. Even though the perspective bounces around a bit--and some of the transitions are a bit rough--Noon does a noteworthy job of handling his first-person perspectives. Noon's artistically rhythmic use of punctuation fits in perfectly with the tone of the book; and his use of simple but VERY effective vocabulary make even the most stream-of-conscience sequences easily readable. Despite the extreme setting and ideas present in this book, Noon's mastery of the English language makes this work much more timeless than less-risque works in science fiction.

Normally, I am a very harsh critic of science fiction; but Noon's work I believe to be truly exceptional. Not only are his ideas really unique and interesting, he fully explores the implications of his ideas. Also, Noon is a wordsmith. No, he doesn't rip out the fifteen letter words for even the most benign conversations. Noon is a master of simple and effective language that is riddled with subtlety. I really enjoyed reading this book, and I can't wait to get my hands on Noon's other works.

excellent futuristic book
Pollen is the sequel to Noon's most known book Vurt.The madness of the Vurt drug is spreading and our dreams and becoming alive and are ready to take over the world.
Noon's book oozes sex, heroism and psychedelia and won't disappoint.I really love Noon's work.

novel
i gave this book as a gift to my teenage brother and he really enjoyed it! ... Read more

Amazon.com
Jeff Noon's previous novels, Vurt andPollen, have attracted a cult following with their psychedelic science fiction creation of the realm of "Vurt"--a region defined by illusion, dream and drug-induced fantasy. Noon has now decided to link up with an imaginative precursor by introducing Lewis Carroll's Alice as the protagonist in a new adventure that draws on Carroll's through-the-looking-glass inversions of reality, and adds a Jeff Noon menace and edginess absent from Carroll's Wonderland. Alice finds herself in 1998 Manchester when she enters an old grandfather clock, and soon becomes the prime suspect in the puzzling "Jigsaw Murders." Noon emulates Carroll's crazy wordplay throughout, and even adds his own illustrations inspired by those of John Tenniel, the famous interpreter of Alice.Book Description

Customer Reviews (28)

good idea, poorly executed
Automated Alice as a sequel to the Lewis Carroll Alice books is an excellent idea, but unfortunately a poorly executed one.The plot is overly simplistic and the alternate world Noon describes is flat and never truly came to life.Noon does conceive of many strange creatures and landscapes, yet his descriptions are facile and never succeed in drawing the reader in to the world he is striving to create.

Noon tries very hard to make the his descriptions incongruous and intriguing, very hard to make Alice and her dialogue quirky and funny - so hard in fact that the reader can spot the joke (so called) from a mile away and is left trudging through page after page of obvious and uninteresting tedium.The word play, while somewhat clever, is excessively used, and really comes across as repetitive self indulgence on the part of the author as though he were saying "Ho ho, look at me, I'm so clever" to a group of 6 year olds.An author shouldn't have to tell us he is clever - show us!

I wanted to like this book.I loved the concepts.That's the problem - Noon's ideas are good in theory, but as the execution plays out it is extremely disappointing.

What an amusing book!
Jeff Noon has done a decent job of writing what could easily be consided a third "Alice" book.

Instead of having Alice travel to Wonderland, Noon places her in a very bizarre "modern day" Manchester. Now, having never been to Manchester, I can't say for sure that it is not like what Alice encounters, but let's just say that I'm pretty sure it's not.

Regardless, the whole book was oodles of fun, and I was quite sorry to see it end.

The Trequel
Jeff Noon wrote this amazingly entertaining and imaginative book as a trequel to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Alice suddenly finds herself transported to 1998 Manchester and becomes the prime suspect in the Jigsaw Murders, as she tries to gather the pieces and find her way back home to her own time and reality. As she is escorted on her journey by Celia, an automated version of herself, she makes the acquaintance of many strange creatures, all suffering from Newmonia (not to be mistaken for pneumonia). In true Carroll fashion, Noon uses crazy wordplay throughout often confusing not only the fictitious characters, but the unsuspecting reader as well. I found this book very delightful!

A Sweet Treacle...I Mean...Trequel...erm
If you've read any other Jeff Noon, you'll realise there are a ton of 'Alice' references in his writing.Being a BIG fan of Carroll's stories I enjoy picking up on these, and when I saw Noon had written a follow-up to Carroll's Alice stories, I was admittedly wary, but intrigued.
Clearly the reviewer who wrote a wonderfully detailed review three sentences long has no idea who Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson was, or any concept of use of nonsensical verse, and probably not much appreciation for any sort of wordplay.Honey, you're missing out.
'Automated Alice' is a lovely tied-in sidetrack to the worlds of 'Vurt' and Noon's other novels.If you like either Noon or Carroll (or even better and highly probable - BOTH), chances are you'll like this.It's playful, very funny, and means only well.Don't overanalyze it, or take it too seriously - it's a fun read, and particularly good if you want to kill an hour but not with anything heavy-hitting that requires a high degree of cranial chewing.That's not to say there's nothing to analyze, but you don't have to to enjoy it.After all, that's what fiction's for.
I'm sure if Carroll was alive, he'd have a chuckle at this one.

Just avoid this book
You can tell the author is very intelligent, but enough with the made up words. He should have worked harder on making up a plot for this book. I couldn't even make myself finish this boring book. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Jeff Noon, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 1022 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on March 22, 2002. The length of the article is 952 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Jeff Noon. Cobralingus.(Brief Article)
Author: David Ian Paddy
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2002
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 22Issue: 1Page: 146(1)

Article Type: Book Review, Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Ringpull produced two printings of this book. The first states "First published by Ringpull Press in 1993"; the second, "First published by Ringpull Press in 1993, 1994". ... Read more