Alice Again
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It's sounds bizarre... and it is. Alice Liddle of Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass is back. Whether you choose to believe Lewis Carroll was a reputedly paedophilic pervert or not, you can't deny that his literature for children is original, vivid, some may say unsurpassed. Or is it? Jeff Noon's giving him a run for his money, that much I know. Only this time Alice finds herself in a world of automated horses and whacky technology.
It's the future, 1996 to be precise*, and Alice finds herself trapped in a termite mound after chasing a parrot into a grandfather clock. Sounding familiar? She soon finds herself in a psychedelic Manchester that isn't quite like the one she left behind. She has until two o'clock to get back to 18-- for her writing lesson; but first she must catch Aunt Ermintrude's pesky parrot and find all of her missing jigsaw pieces, which isn't easy when she's the prime suspect in a string of grizzly murders that seem to crop up wherever she goes. On top of which there are speeding horseless carriages stampeding along every road, she hasn't done her homework and she has no idea which direction Dewsbury is in. Luckily her doll, Celia, is on hand to give her a leg up.
Noon effortlessly captures Carroll's style in this quirky trequal to the original classics. Unlike Carroll, however, Noon takes a slightly more menacing approach to recreating Alice's tale of adventure: the encounter with a doped-up snail can easily be associated with the caterpillar in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; however unlike the hookah smoking caterpillar this snail invites Alice to pop a "wurm", which takes her on a trip she'll certainly never forget. It is a tongue-in-cheek, absurdist romp, sometimes slipping from wry wit to sheer silliness in the form of completely pointless and juvenile toilet humour, which knocked it right down in my estimations. These lapses diminished the poignancy of the more satirical moments, of which there are plenty, and devalue the sheer aptitude of the puns, riddles and rhymes.
That said, it's an easy, fun read, intelligently devised and with authentic pictures in true Alice in Wonderland stylee, often with discreet references to Noon's other books tucked away in the milieu. A worth while venture for Carroll and Noon fans alike.
* OK, it's the future for a Victorian character
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A fantastic `trequel'
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`Automated Alice' is simultaneously a `trequel' [sic] to Lewis Carroll's two `Alice' books and Jeff Noons earlier `Vurt' novels, following the adventures of Alice as she climbs through a clock's workings and gets transported into fantastic adventures in modern day Manchester. Taken purely as an adult sequel to `Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and `Through The Looking-Glass' this is a fantastic achievement, with Noon brilliantly aping Lewis Carroll's style and sharing a love of puns, wordplay and nonsense with Harry Trumbore's internal illustrations matching the style of Tenniel's original pictures. Noon has great fun introducing Alice to such modern day concepts as computers and quantum mechanics while skewing things in typically nonsensical fashion (so civil servants become Civil Serpents while the Cheshire Cat is transformed into a chameleonic Quark) while the device of Alice hunting down missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle drives the story in much the same way as the chess game drives `Through the Looking-Glass'.
When read as a sequel to Noon's earlier shared-world novels `Vurt' and `Pollen' however the book takes on an additional resonance, with Alice's earlier appearance in `Pollen' given additional background while the plotline takes in the `disease' responsible for the merging of humans and animals in the Noon's future world, with plenty of sly winks towards the feather-accessed Vurt.
Read either way this is a fantastic novel, filled with bizarre imagery, wordplay and metafiction, but to really get the most from it you should read both Noon and Carroll's earlier works first.
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If you don't expect it, it becomes an unepxected plesure
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This is a great book, I think it fairer to say the use of language is in the style of "alice" books rather than the plot, characters etc. The plot itself is as the style of early Noon books, by which I meen it's disjointed. You have to have a cirtain type of mind to read this book, if you like drugs, hate the establishment or your friends think you're a little odd then read this, you must it's for you. Otherwise don't bother beacuse you'll end up confused, angry & dissapointed. The characters are well defined within Noons own Vurtesque world but those new to the author must be open minded and may wish to read Vurt or Pollen first to help them get the feel of this. As I said I love this, but It's not to everyones taste, I think its worth the effort - if you like a book that requires effort.
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Seriously bland, no story, literary boredom...
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This book is about 200 pages, with black and white illustrations. The story is very boring, Alice in a future where most animals are humanoids. Characters are one dimensional and stupid. The author uses dumb play on words with animal themes throughout to try and create a mood, which doesn't work. I didn't finish the book, as I can think of better ways to waste my time. Its like the author didn't even try with this book. Complete waste of money. I have no idea at all why this is called cyberpunk on the cover, it is nothing like the books of SF authors I have read, such as Gibson, Hamilton and Dick. SF fans, avoid this. I was recommended to this by a SF fan friend, why, I have no idea, though I am sure he meant well. Alice in Wonderland fans may also be disappointed with the terrible story and complete lack of any depth to the proceedings.
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"Alice" fans - don't bother.
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I feel enormously cheated by this book. It promises an adventure in the style of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books, but Noon's Alice is superficial and unsympathetic; her adventures incoherent and inconsequential. The depth and wit of the original Alice books is nowhere to be found. If you love Jeff Noon then you may well enjoy this book (as other reviewers will attest); but "Alice" fans are likely to be bitterly disappointed, and I can only urge them to save their money.
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