Automated Alice

List Price: $4.99

Availability:

Lenny's description:

Amazon.com Review:
Jeff Noon's previous novels, Vurt and Pollen, 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.

Seller's description:
On a dull and rainy afternoon, in 19th-century Manchester, desperate to avoid the question of ellipses (on which her strict great-aunt Ermintrude is sure to test her this afternoon), Alice works on a jigsaw puzzle, only to find (frustratingly) that 12 pieces are missing from the picture of the London Zoo. Lamenting aloud, Alice is answered by her great-aunt's very talkative parrot, Whippoorwill. Prompted by Whippoorwill's increasingly intriguing riddles, Alice frees the him from his cage. Suddenly, in pursuit of the elusive bird, Alice falls into the workings of a grandfather clock and emerges in the Manchester of 1998-a world of automated wonders and inspired nonsense with a distinctly 19th-century flavor.Whippoorwill leads Alice along with a series of enigmatic riddles, and Alice soon encounters a part-man, part-badger named Captain Ramshackle, Professor of Randomology, and the logical side of her own self in the person of an automated garden statue name Celia. While word of Alice's arrival spreads and she becomes the prime suspect in a series of Jigsaw murders, Alice discovers, in the unlikeliest of places, in the curiousest of future worlds, one after another of her missing Jigsaw pieces. Not until she finds all 12 will she get to the radishes of time that will allow her to elude the Civil Serpents and return to her own time.

Product details:

Item number (ASIN): 0517280469
Author: Jeff Noon
ISBN: 0517280469
Manufacturer: Random House Value Publishing
Number Of Items: 1
Package Dimensions: Array
Publication Date: November 17, 1998
Publisher: Random House Value Publishing
Release Date: November 17, 1998
Binding: Hardcover

Reviews from Lenny's visitors:

There are no visitor reviews available at this time.

Add your own review!

Amazon.com customer reviews:

Average Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Good Idea but Poor Delivery
Alice, of Wonderland fame, is visiting her Great Aunt Ermintrude and very unwisely lets her parrot, Whippoorwill, out of his cage. Whippoorwill flies into the grandfather clock, and Alice (dragging her doll Celia with her) climbs in after him but ends up in the future--1998 to be exact. The future is populated by people that are mixed breeds of animal and human, and is ruled by the frightening Civil Serpents. To return to her own time, Alice (and her now automated doll, Celia), must find Whippoorwill, her missing jigsaw puzzle pieces, solve the Jigsaw Murder of which she's been falsely accused and hopefully, discover the proper usage of the ellipses. While Automated Alice promises much in it's early chapters, Noon is unable to deliver more than the occasional clever wordplay. The plot is unfulfilling, almost contrived at points. He tries hard to create the same bizarre feel that Carroll's books have, but is unsuccessful; instead Automated Alice feels frantic and unintelligible. The idea was great, but the delivery was poor.

Rating:

- 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.

Rating:

- 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.

Rating:

- 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!

Rating:

- 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.