|
| Voice Of The Fire | 
 enlarge | Author: Alan Moore
Creators: Chip Kidd, Jose Villarrubia, Neil Gaiman
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $16.65
You Save: $10.30 (38%)
New (9) Used (6) Collectible (2) from $11.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 38109
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 1891830449
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781891830440
ASIN: 1891830449
Publication Date: January 7, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Novel concept June 30, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Alan Moore's first prose novel, which combusted onto the scene some ten years ago now, still has yet to receive much attention. This occurrence is strange, but understandable. The book, to give a brief overview, is a collection of twelve short stories taking place in twelve different time periods (stretching from 4,000BC to AD1995), all sharing the same setting of the central area of England that eventually becomes Northampton.
Moore, who is so famous I can trust to odds that you know the top three or four works he's most famous for, as revolutionized the comics industry in terms of storytelling, style, and tone time and again. And yet Voice of the Fire remains low on Amazon.com's list of books sold, its decade in the 84,450s list include the English Teacher's Book of Instant Word Games and a certainly captivating Dictionary of Financial Terms.
This, inasmuch as concerns what the public is fed through the New York Times Best Seller List, is unsurprising. Moore's book begins with a 40+ paged chapter about a Neolithic cave-boy's exile from his hunter-gatherer tribe. An emotional and moving story to be sure...if you can make it to the end. The story is told in the first person, using what Moore estimates to be less than five hundred words--his creative attempt at mimicking Neolithic speech and thought.
If you're wondering what to expect from the story: expect fire. And blood. Horror. Nightmares. And more fire besides. Be it ancient, Roman, Norman, or modern, Northampton has never been a very safe place to live, an issue Moore addresses personally as the protagonist in the final chapter, written in a stream-of-consciousness style.
Expect a smorgasbord of writing styles. Moore takes the driver's seat with his characters, and with a Dickens-esque talent to create new personalities the reader sees this single geographical area from such varied points of view as a murderess who plots to get rich quick, a Roman agent come to find a local money counterfeiter, and even a disembodied head upon a gate. Many of the novel's characters are based off of actual historical figures, giving the whole work a cryptic echo that weaves in an out of the story. This echo, this voice of the fire, is the most captivating part of the book, and for which reason I obnoxiously give this book its 5-star rating. Learning history is fun. Learning history within the context of history--even if it is fiction--is perhaps one of the most thought-provoking experiences one can have with a book.
I recommend this book to any reader who has an interest in history or anthropology. For writers, read this if you want to study up on character development or telling first-person stories in a myriad of ways. Moore fans, just read this; he's done it again.
 A journey through time and magic, but not space August 13, 1999
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
Alan Moore has provided us with an excellent novel filled with magic theory and bloody history. Any lover of fantasy who prefers magic to be kept on the mysterious and unknowable side will appreciate this novel.
a disturbing, stunning, even heartrending meditation February 25, 2004
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
These reviews I found would express what I think better than I can. "Part mythic cycle, part fictional history of Moore's hometown, part collection of fireside ghost stories, Voice of the Fire is as clever and well-crafted as Moore's other genre experiments, and by taking his dialogue out of word-balloons and panel arrangements, it gives his limitless literary ambition room to stretch out into new and fascinating forms." -- Tasha Robinson, The Onion "[Voice of the Fire] blends witchcraft, savagery, subjectivity, and the darkness that lies within each of us. The resulting narrative is a meditation on the twisting annals of history, the supernatural world between life and death, and the oft-thin line between fantasy and reality." -- Lloyd Babbit, MetroPulse.com By summoning up the voices of the dead and burned, Moore stakes his claim as a grand magician and, unlike his colleague in Oz, he invites us to look at him behind his curtain of fire. Now singing, now screaming, he signals his message through the flames." -- Adam White, Indyworld.com
Alan Moore best work ever. February 21, 2004
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Here he lets loose with all the skill he has and the result is a tour de force. It reminds you Iain Sinclair or Peter Ackroyd in his relentless exploration of deep time.
The usual thing to say is that this one is not for the kids but it has the wise eyes that real children hold to life, wide open both to the horrible and the wonderful.
So maybe this one is not for the kins, but surely is for the ages.
This book blew my mind January 24, 2000
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
If you like would like to see some of the most devilish things that the historic residents of Northampton have got up to over the years read this book. The last chapter will really turn the screw.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
