Voice of the Fire - Alan Moore

Fantastic, not his best.

I'm a Northampton resident and Alan Moore is, in fact, an old friend of my dad's, so I speak from knowledge when I say that only Alan could have dmade Northampton this interesting. It's engrossing and intellegent and nicely wierd.
That said, the language is sometimes a little dense and he does let the wierd run away with him sometimes. It's not his best and I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't read at least one of his more accessable books to get his style, but it is an excellent book.

the best book ever written

a work of brilliance. this book is a formalists dream ...it's an engrossing and terribly beautiful book, each chapter more tragic than the last. somebody, tell me how awesome a story is that has people having dreams of what people actually experienced hundreads of years before. alan moore, in my opinion, not only has perhaps has the widest range of any writer living, but maybe even of all time. a fifteen second blurb of praise can't possibly do this book an iota of justice. so get this book, an bekome emersed in a frightingly cryptic tale that spans the ages and is nothing short of a masterpiece.

A bit too clever, a bit too intransigent

I am wrting this as a dyed-in-the-wool Alan Moore fan, so I was really looking forward to enjoying this book, but I'm afraid that I didn't. He is writing about the same "magical" area of Northampton, in about 10 or 12 different short stories - some just fragments of story - each set scores of years to several centuries apart, about "famous" characters from the area's history. Presumably.

Unfortunately that's where it all falls down - you see, I live but 20-30 miles from Northampton, and I've never heard of any of the people or places or landmarks. Sorry, Alan, but the point of most of the characters and tales were completely lost on me, and on everyone else too I suspect.

Yes, the magical Alan Moore masterful writing style and characterisation was there, but there wasn't enough story to keep me enthralled, and not enough sympathy/understanding of the background characters and events to keep me intellectually interested.

Also, the first part also was 56 pages of extremely stilted "early English" spoken first person by an early caveman-type character, very difficult to read and understand, which will probably put most casual readers off. Alan should have put this part last or lost it in the middle, if indeed he felt he could not leave it out altogether, it added nothing not covered better in other chapters, and was overlong. I struggled through it - and the rest of the book - because I'm a fan and thought I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. I suspect others will not.

In summary, don't bother with this one unless you really fancy a hard slog of a read (admittedly with a well-crafted writing style with perfect capture of the characters involved) but with no real point to it, and full of detail about a place you've never heard of.

Buy Alan's Swamp Thing comic books instead and have a blast, but avoid this one.

A Must Have

Well i've just finished this truly weird first novel by Alan Moore and im speachless. Engrossing and infuriating in equal parts this certainly makes the reader flex the brain. Already a fan of Moore's Graphic novels I picked this up excitedly,took me three days to read the first story. The language does get easier though and Moore's writting shines through as always.Like his other work the depth is astounding and you will read it again.Moore's own call from the fire a book which will echo in you're mind for ages. He just does'nt let you go does he?

interesting experiment, a bit confusing. real "clever fun"

I have to admit - Alan Moore is one of my favorite writers. In Voice of the Fire, it seems to me that he's off to prove, that he is as a "serious" writer.

Well, after "From Hell" even the most hard-nosed square intellectuals won't object to his status! Anyway, the Voice of the Fire is a truly masterful piece of work, but as a third novel it'll work much better. As a first, it's far too warped an introduction to Moore's prose.

Voice of the Fire begins in language that is devilishly clever - maybe even too clever. As it progresses, and we move through time a bit, the writing becomes clearer and the reader can appreciate some of Moore's great poetic language.

The story's great, but one has to dig a bit to find it in a fine, sometimes too fine prose.