Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Sci-fi reviews with Mat Coward: October 2024
From the conundrums of a parallel London to a rewilding project in rural Ireland via a disturbing post-plagues world mystery thrives

I’M NOT sure the Guild of Literary Critics include it in their list of approved descriptions, but really, “gorgeous” is the only word that makes sense of Alan Moore’s The Great When (Bloomsbury, £20).

It’s one of those lavish cakes of a book which is so full of plums — hilarious and horrific, touching and obscene, surreal and familiar — that you can’t help gorging yourself on it.

It belongs to the small but much-loved subgenre of “hidden London” fantasies, in which another version of the city overlaps or intersects with the one we know.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
(L to R) Wong Boks and a Chinese cabbage and tofu soup  Pics (L to R): Bayartai/CC and NeoBatfreak/CC
Features / 19 July 2025
19 July 2025

MAT COWARD presents a peculiar cabbage that will only do its bodybuilding once the summer dies down

CRIME
Crime fiction / 8 July 2025
8 July 2025

A heatwave, a crimewave, and weird bollocks in Aberdeen, Indiana horror, and the end of the American Dream

crime
Book Reviews / 10 June 2025
10 June 2025

A corrupted chemist, a Hampstead homosexual and finely observed class-conflict at The Bohemia

Organic beetroot / Pic: Evan-Amos/CC
Gardening / 7 June 2025
7 June 2025

Beet likes warmth, who doesn’t, so attention to detail is required if you’re to succeed, writes MAT COWARD

Similar stories
SCIFI
Books / 22 May 2025
22 May 2025

Generous helpings of Hawaiian pidgin, rather good jokes, and dodging the impostors

Crime fiction / 1 April 2025
1 April 2025
High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall
Crime fiction / 11 March 2025
11 March 2025
A no-nonsense ex-Garda female cop, Scandi-noir’s newest flawed hero, the lure of Aussie gold, and unexpected decency in Silicon valley
Books / 26 August 2024
26 August 2024
As good a crime wave as any from southern England to Manhattan, New Orleans and then south London