Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

To be entirely honest, I cannot truly describe this book. What themes it has is threaded so deftly and lost so deep in a massive mound of history and characterizations and the only thing that I can point at is the similarity of PLACE.

Northampton. Of course, I have to wonder about that, too when it came to the Crusades period, but it could very well have been there, too, considering.

So. Six thousand years of Northampton, perhaps. Short stories that are firmly placed not only in time and place but in VOICE. The cave boy's survival, discovery, and love are shocking not for the basic idea, but for the depth and complexity and the downright interesting diction. Moving forward through time, Moore shows just how much research he had put into all this, writing very careful historical fiction with all the feel, ugliness, and passion of the periods. Hundreds of years' hop every time, finding messages of deep magic, disillusionment, and terror, Moore is at his best.

Fun to note: Jerusalem shares almost every aspect of this novel. Amazing writing, nearly confounding, so RICH that it would take years to plumb its depths kind of writing. Voice of the Fire is slightly more accessible and really presages his later work.

But overall, there's only one word that describes either: Brilliant. (Even if I feel like I have no idea what I just read. ;) The journey through so many people is the thing.


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