Barnes & NobleIlluminations: Stories by Alan Moore

Unusual Collection of Short Stories

Thanks to Goodreads Giveaways and Bloomsbury Publishing for getting this copy into my hand. Comics are never my genre. I don't even like reading along with my early school age grandchildren in their graphic novels, but I do like exploring and learning about new things, so I determined to partake of this unusual short story collection by comic writer Alan Moore. I actually enjoyed almost all of the stories though some were out of my comfort zone. For example, 'Location, Location, Location' tells of an intimate apocalyptic experience and 'Hypothetical Lizard' narrates the experience of two prostitutes who fall in love. 'The Improbably Complex High Energy State' introduced me to the concept of the Boltzmann Brain in an entertaining way and once I understood that Moore wrote and then analyzed his poem 'American Light', I somewhat enjoyed that story. My favorites were probably the cornerstone of the collection, 'What We Can Know About Thunderman' and the last story, 'And, At The Last, Just To Be Done With Silence'. 'What we Can Know About Thunderman' told the story of a group of fictional comic writers using a variety of formats for the story. I found myself believing these were real people and comic stories. By the end, I thoroughly bought into drama of the story. Finishing the collection with 'And, At The Last, Just To Be Done With Silence, I was left wondering just who the two characters in the story were. I am giving this collection of stories a rating of '3' stars because while they were not my thing and I had to work to understand much of the content, I will remember this collection and I came away with my horizons expanded.