Illuminations: Stories

"Burn[s] with Moore's soaring intelligence and riotous humanity . . . Illuminations, Moore's first collection of short fiction, finds the writer working on a smaller scale but still swinging for the firmament . . . the book showcases all of Moore's strengths as a fantasist . . . Moore has written both a dynamite story collection and a dynamite monster manual . . . Moore's failures are few, his radiances many . . . Remarkable." --Junot Diaz, The New York Times Book Review

Mr. Moore's writing is as brilliant as ever--from dizzying wordplay in scene-setting detail to cuttingly succinct summaries . . . As for the stories themselves, there is no shortage of wild invention . . . Fans of Mr. Moore in all his incarnations will love this collection. - Wall Street Journal

"Illuminations is a wonderful collection, brilliant and moving . . . Both mind-expanding and cosmic while utterly rooted in our urban reality, written in language that coruscates, concatenates and glitters . . . [It] refuses to leave your head after you've read it." --Neil Gaiman, author of AMERICAN GODS and NORSE MYTHOLOGY

"One of the most significant fiction writers in English . . . Moore's influence can be felt everywhere-in our literature, on our screens, in our politics." --Guardian

"His bighearted passion for his people . . . and the whole monstrous endeavor of the human condition is infectious. I'm not sure there's a God, but I thank Her for Alan Moore." --Entertainment Weekly

Hilarious . . . [Moore] deconstructs the industry that sells superheroes by using its own myths against it . . . The collection is really good. - Slate

"Illuminations is a fascinating book . . . from the mind of one of the most celebrated comic book writers in the English language . . . you're in for a wild ride, from start to finish. - Alex Kingsley, Ancillary Review of Books

"Legendary graphic novelist Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and many others) burnishes his reputation in his first prose collection, which features nine career-spanning tales. The standout short novel "What We Can Know About Thunderman" is a scathing take on the American comic book industry and its impact on popular culture and politics, and his subversive talent is equally on display in shorter tales. This brilliant volume dazzles at every turn" --Publishers Weekly

"Moore's dark humor and expert twists are on full display in these fictions. Fans of dark fantasy and dark humor will enjoy this collection from one of fantasy's greats." --Booklist

"Clever and vivid." --Kirkus Reviews

"The Shakespeare of the comic book . . . His prose fiction thrums with the zest of somebody who feels newly untrammelled . . . conveying the exhilarating sense of words rushing to catch up with the author's never-ending stream of ingenious ideas." --The Daily Telegraph

"Moore makes the parochial universal, the mundane sublime and the temporal never-ending." --Financial Times

"One of the great fiction minds of his generation." --Rolling Stone

"The question of whether he's a fountain of imagination or just bats has never arisen: He's both, and his ability to see familiar ideas from an alien perspective is one of his best tricks." --Slate

"Moore's prose is rich and complicated . . . Once you slip into the rhythm of it, it is also poetic, insightful, and beautiful." --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette