Pollen: 30th Anniversary Edition

by Jeff Noon

The 30th anniversary reissue of the acclaimed sequel to Jeff Noon’s Vurt. A second key piece of the SF canon from an author who has found new readers with Gogmagog and Ludluda.

A nightmare trip into a Manchester overwhelmed by an alien hay fever...

"Flowers in the rain, indeed. Big jump in the grain count. I can hear them jumping. This old hippy is sneezing already. Ya Ya! The flowers are spurting pollen all over the Manchester map. Gumbo never seen such a giant, golden step before."

In a strange re-mixed future Manchester a cloud of Pollen descends – a new strain, each tiny grain a murderer. Within days the streets of the city are overgrown with vicious blooms as the fiercest hay fever epidemic of all time takes hold.

People are sneezing themselves to death and the pollen count is racing towards 2,000. But a small percentage of the population are immune to the fever. Two of them – shadow-cop Sibyl Jones and her wayward daughter Boda – are on separate path into the dark place from where the pollen originates. What they find there will change their lives together. Only they can save the city.

Bless you.

368 pages, Paperback

Published December 2, 2025

About the author

Jeff Noon is a novelist, short story writer and playwright whose works make extensive use of wordplay and fantasy.

He studied fine art and drama at Manchester University and was subsequently appointed writer in residence at the city's Royal Exchange theatre. But Noon did not stay too long in the theatrical world, possibly because the realism associated with the theatre was not conducive to the fantastical worlds he was itching to invent. While working behind the counter at the local Waterstone's bookshop, a colleague suggested he write a novel. The result of that suggestion,

Vurt, was the hippest sci-fi novel to be published in Britain since the days of Michael Moorcock in the late sixties.

Like Moorcock, Noon is not preoccupied with technology per se, but incorporates technological developments into a world of magic and fantasy.

As a teenager, Noon was addicted to American comic heroes, and still turns to them for inspiration. He has said that music is more of an influence on his writing than novelists: he 'usually writes to music', and his record collection ranges from classical to drum'n'bass.

Reviews

[Abbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visionary, imaginative, and deeply strange, Pollen is a modern classic of Weird fiction. Fans of Jeff VanderMeer or China Mieville who have not yet discovered Jeff Noon, you can't go wrong with any of his books; but Pollen is a great place to start. This story gives the reader a front-row seat to possibly the strangest fictional apocalypse ever, and it is an incredibly fun ride. I would recommend Pollen to fans of weird fiction, climate horror, and dystopian settings.

Thank you to NetGalley & Angry Robot for the arc! All thoughts & opinions in the review are my own.