I Hear A New World

The Long London Quintet #2

by Alan Moore

A daringly inventive fantasy novel about murder, mayhem, and magic from New York Times bestselling author and legendary storyteller Alan Moore.

It's 1958 and Dennis Knuckleyard has decided to leave his adventures in the Great When in the past where they belong. For nine years, he's avoided so much as thinking about the magical version of London, until he rediscovers an unpleasant reminder of his last adventure-a key that he'd secretly brought into his own world from the other for safekeeping.

But while Dennis may believe he's done with the Great When, it's far from done with him. When Dennis gives the key to a friend, its magical properties reawaken, bringing creatures from the other world into Dennis's and sparking riots in Notting Hill. Even worse, Dennis's old crush Grace Shilling has been forced into the Great When to investigate strange happenings in both cities.

Desperate to keep Grace safe, Dennis follows her into Long London. But once inside the other city, it will not let him go away again so easily, and Dennis and Grace must fight to set things right in the Great When and their own world, or forever lose their lives-and each other.

Full of Moore's characteristically stunning world building and rollicking prose, I Hear a New World is the extraordinary second adventure in the Long London series.
Waterstones exclusive edition with exclusive edges, end papers and casefoil.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Novels, London, Mystery, Historical Fiction, Horror

339 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 2026

About the author

Alan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.

As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

Despite being by Alan Moore, about London arcana, and heavily referencing not just Arthur Machen but probably my favourite Machen story, The Great When didn't altogether do it for me, and at first I worried its sequel might be headed down the same path. We open on protagonist Dennis Knuckleyard doing a bit better, a little less of a hapless patsy than he was in the first book – as you'd expect, given he was a teenager then and a decade has now passed. Only for the narrative to immediately delight in having him fall flat on his face again and be dragged right back into the orbit of terrifying former landlady Coffin Ada. It feels like a reset button and gratuitous authorial meanness all at once, though I can't deny I was chuckling despite myself as, thinking he's finally about to get his end away in circumstances less dismal than the lovingly enumerated prior approximations, the luckless Knuckleyard instead gets cock-blocked by Joe Meek. Who, with that title, was always going to play a part here, and, as the sixties emerge uncertainly from their chrysalis, is joined by various other spirits of the age, from Francis Bacon and Norman at the Coach and Horses to the more alarming likes of Rachman, Litvinoff and Kray. Plus, of course, the other sorts of spirit, from the even stranger city hidden behind the streets we know. It's still not perfect; a historical novel leaning too hard on the easy irony of hindsight will often get my back up, and the pacing feels lumpy, with our heroes on a life or death quest to save both cities which nevertheless often grinds to a halt for weeks on end over a lack of leads, and one character who's supposedly on his deathbed when first seen, then takes so long about the dying that even an opera crowd would be starting to tap their watches. As for the prose...it's been ever so slightly dialled down, I think, which is for the best, or else I was just more prepared for it. Certainly, there's a sense at times that Moore is mostly here to see what he can get away with, especially when it comes to never referring to a speaker the same way twice, so that Meek is "the disheartened producer", "the hit-maker", "the excitable entrepreneur", "the well-dressed nervous breakdown" and more across the course of that memorable first appearance (though my favourite comes later, "the hesitant pop nonconformist"). Which, every so often, becomes more exhausting than fun – but is mostly fun. Which is the appeal here, as much as anything, Moore not having to worry about sharing the spotlight with an artist anymore, free to juggle with language and, if he occasionally ends up dropping some on the audience's heads, nevertheless keeping more of it in the air than most; I'm still grinning at "she'd contrived to touch his hand and then smiled knowingly, though what she thought that she was knowing, Dennis didn't know." And by the end of it the bearded mage even seems sufficiently enlivened by his own performance to let poor bloody Dennis catch a break too, experience some growth that isn't promptly weedkillered, and if the epilogue reminds us it won't last, well, on that sort of timeline, what does?

Also, I never knew Margot Fonteyn had been involved in a coup in Panama.

(Netgalley ARC)

[Paromita · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume in the Long London series continues to follow Dennis Knuckleyard through London and its more fantastical, disorienting counterpart a decade after the events of the first. We get to experience mystery, mayhem and meanderings Moore style as he incorporates his extensive knowledge of 1950s history and pop culture. The book is abuzz with historical figures, returning characters as well as unique new faces, mind-boggling descriptions of places real, and those constructed by Moore (the alternate London).

At times the reading experience felt exhausting. I don't think Moore deliberately set out to discombobulate the reader nonstop but he writes in a register which makes it almost inevitable! 😂I didn't feel that the work could be pared down or truncated (well maybe the sex scenes which felt needlessly gross in their graphic detail), its just that the profusion was overwhelming. However, despite moments of frustration, I did find the book entertaining be it the humour, the character interactions or the adventures of our protagonist. I came away with the feeling that I was reading from an author letting his creativity flow freely and having fun writing.

I wonder if the effect of the excessive verbiage was to make us feel the disorientation Dennis feels with the alternate London. I liked the portrayal of how he continuously grapples with the desire to avoid the place and yet cannot quite stay away. I also liked the friendships and relationships he developed in this book. The epilogue delivered an interesting reveal which left me curious about the series trajectory.

I'm surprised by how much of an engaging ride this book was, albeit a topsy-turvy one. I will continue the series and look forward to seeing what else Moore thinks he can get away with in the next volume!

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disturbing. Playful. Poetic. Genius.

[Mark Redman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Moore’s I Hear A New World is a striking, haunting, and fully immersive dark fantasy set in late 1950s London. As the second novel in the Long London series, it follows Dennis Knuckleyard, who has spent years attempting to escape the supernatural parallel city known as the “Great When.” After giving away a mysterious iron key linked to that hidden world, Dennis inadvertently unleashes dangerous magic when the key falls into the hands of an unsuspecting man, unleashing occult creatures and chaos across London.

When Dennis discovers that his former love, Grace Shilling, has returned to the Great When to investigate the disturbances, he is compelled to re-enter the surreal world he had tried to leave behind. Moore masterfully combines layered storytelling, dreamlike imagery, mythic beings, and political unrest to create a haunting narrative where the boundaries between fantasy and reality are constantly shifting.

The novel’s characters are vivid and deeply human, providing emotional depth to the surreal and hypnotic story. Moore’s bold writing style and rich world-building make I Hear A New World a compelling and rewarding read.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Group for providing an e-arc and the opportunity to share an honest opinion.

[Rob McMinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a review of an ARC from publisher Bloomsbury and Netgalley. Publication date is 21 May 2026. I previously reviewed The Great When here.
Are you ready for more Long London? It’s ten years later, and Dennis Knuckleyard, now 28 and trying to make a career as a professional writer, tries not to think about the Great When. He mostly thinks about shagging, morning noon and night, but is mostly failing to score. He writes saucy stories for trashy magazines but often gets facts wrong.
He’s left behind his horrible landlady and is living downstairs in a divided house. He’s not exactly thriving, but at least he has got rid of his souvenir from Long London, the iron key that some otherworldly creature gave him. And he has a date, and, well, it might be on tonight. But who’s this knocking at the door?
The most obvious comparison to Alan Moore’s Long London for me would be the work of Tim Powers. Like Powers, Moore writes about the incursion into the real world of supernatural entities. His hapless hero has to negotiate these intrusions with only the shakiest understanding of what’s going on. And, just like Powers, Moore likes to include real characters and real historical events which send you, the reader, into rabbit holes.
This is all slightly uncanny for me because Moore and I appear to be on parallel research tracks. The Great When was set in 1949, as was my novel Codename Hirondelle. I Hear a New World comes along with a late 1950s setting, and my next novel, Hard Rain, is set in 1957 and 1958.
But Moore, of course, is going deep into the weird. A couple of the rabbit holes he sent me down this time:

David Litvinoff, aka David Levy, denizen of London’s Soho, associate of the Kray Twins, acquainted with Lucien Freud, well known around the jazz clubs, and organised crime adviser on the film Performance.

Iron Foot Jack, another Soho character, club owner, mystic, wannabe Crowley, itinerant, and a man with one leg shorter than the other, which he compensated for with an iron extension.

Joe Meek, record producer, space pop pioneer, and composer of the song from which this novel takes its name.

It’s easy to get distracted by all this fascinating background and lose track of the story, but I don’t think the story is the point. The point is to immerse yourself in Moore’s freewheeling invention and possibly drown in modifiers.
I said of The Great When that it was overwritten at times, and the same is true here. But as I suggested above, I think too much is the whole point. The reader is overwhelmed by adjectives just as Dennis is overwhelmed by Long London. And while the overwriting can sometimes grate, you have to admire Moore’s ingenuity and his ability to riff.
For example, here is a list of just some of the “second mentions” for record producer Joe Meek:

the producer
the skiffle-vending lunatic
the recording industry phenomenon
the memory distraught producer
the frenzied pop promoter
the vinyl virtuoso
the music man
the hitmaker
the excitable entrepreneur
the well-dressed nervous breakdown
the chemically bewildered sound magician

It’s a wild ride.

[Kyle Pollock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ten years after the events of the first book, Dennis Knuckleyard is a struggling writer in Aldgate, having spent a decade trying to forget his teenage brush with the Great When—the hidden, symbolic version of London he survived by accidentally getting a serial killer eaten by a sentient street. As a parting “gift,” the luminous horsewoman Slenderhorse gave him an iron key, which he eventually fobbed off on the unstable record producer Joe Meek. Big mistake: the key turns out to be a breach object, and Meek starts experiencing genuine supernatural phenomena—a séance that predicts Buddy Holly’s death, and a vision of the same six-armed entity that was seen during the Notting Hill riots.

Dennis tries to ignore all this until he’s ambushed in his flat and wakes up taped to a chair, captive of his monstrous old landlady Coffin Ada Benson and her silent, terrifying enforcer Commotion Venables. Ada explains the real problem: the Great When’s City Heads went looking for Dennis to serve as their human agent again, and when they couldn’t find him, Grace Shilling—the Soho dancer who helped Dennis survive his first ordeal, and whom he’s never stopped caring about—volunteered to go in his place. Guilt-stricken, Dennis goes after her immediately, re-entering the Great When through a portal at Bride Lane.

He’s intercepted by Slenderhorse, who gives him a map of the other city and demands her key back before riding off. Dennis catches up to Grace, who’s being escorted by Maurice Calendar (a shapeshifting being currently manifesting as a beatnik) and protected by a gauzy guardian-Arcanum called Her Train. Their reunion is awkward—Dennis panics and attacks Her Train, electrocuting himself—but the tension breaks and they’re genuinely glad to see each other again.

Together they’re brought before the City Heads, who reveal the actual crisis: Button Dainty, a homicidal dwarf who serves as one of the Great When’s two enforcers, has been missing since the 1930s, and his unsupervised presence in real London threatens to destroy both worlds by the century’s end. Dennis and Grace are tasked with finding him. The investigation takes them through increasingly bizarre territory—a slime-mould Parliament made of squabbling Prime Ministers, skull-faced property developers plotting an expedition into real London, and a supernatural smog that conceals that expedition. In the real world, they get nowhere chasing leads through gangland (Rachman, the slippery fixer Litvinoff), but their shared trauma over what they’re seeing finally pushes Dennis and Grace into bed together.

The investigation stalls for months. Dennis eventually descends into the Great When’s version of Hell, where he learns that Prince Monolulu originally smuggled the breached book that started everything, under Slenderhorse’s orders—and that she later intercepted Dainty and recruited him into her own scheme. Realizing Slenderhorse has been manipulating events all along, Dennis finally returns her key (bringing along Joe Meek, who gets some private, ominous “reward” from her in exchange). Soon after, a tip from Litvinoff leads Dennis and Grace to a gangster’s billiard hall, where they finally find Dainty—a horrifying creature whose face is impossible to look at directly.

Dainty chases them through East London as a destructive whirlwind, cornering them at the ruined Cripplegate. Just as he’s about to kill them, his former partner—the sadistic talking cat Charming Peter—reappears and kills Dainty by turning him inside out. Meanwhile, the dying Ironfoot Jack has one last act of heroism: he has himself carried into the Great When to deliver a furious deathbed speech that talks the City Heads out of a civil war, then dies. In the aftermath, Dennis finally watches Grace’s striptease act, and the two of them go home and consummate things properly, with Dennis telling her he loves her. He accepts that he’s now permanently tied to the Great When. A coda set in the late 1990s shows an elderly Dennis being recognized—by name—by a strange figure on a London street, suggesting his past isn’t done with him yet.

Honestly, this one felt like a step down from the first book for me. Part of that might just be distance—I read the original back in 2024 and went into this one having forgotten most of the specifics, so I spent a fair amount of time trying to reorient myself rather than just enjoying the ride. But even accounting for that, the plotting felt looser than I remembered the first book being. There’s a lot of running between set pieces—Worstminster, the Barebones, the Crown & Dolphin, Hell—that are individually inventive but don’t always feel like they’re accumulating toward something. The Dainty hunt sometimes seems like a structure for touring the Great When rather than a mystery with real momentum, and I lost the thread a couple of times trying to track who knew what and why.

That said, the book has real strengths. The Slenderhorse reveal—that the entire Dainty crisis was a smokescreen for her actual long game involving Joe Meek—is a good payoff, and recontextualizes a lot of what came before in a way that’s satisfying even if the journey there meandered. The 1959 setting is also doing a lot of quiet work; the constant hum of “the sixties are coming” gives the book a melancholy, end-of-an-era texture that I liked. And the Dennis/Grace relationship is the emotional spine that actually holds together—their reconnection felt earned in a way the plot mechanics sometimes didn’t.

It’s a “good but not great” entry for me—competent, occasionally inspired, but a bit shapeless in the middle. Given how the coda sets up a much more personal, reckoning-focused third book, though, I’m still in. The pieces are there for something stronger; this one just felt like table-setting that ran a bit long.

[Ross Byrne · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Audible intermittently above the hiss and spatter of the cloudburst, an unearthly soundtrack seems to swirl about the dancing spectacle, an untuned radio that squeals and slides across the wave bands of a dozen unfamiliar eras"

Roaring into bookshops this sweltering May comes I Hear A New World, book two in the incandescent Long London series from Alan Moore. Slowly adjusting to adult life and his new profession is our by now slightly less hapless protagonist Dennis Knuckleyard, who has become a writer of sorts, churning out hilariously blunt and tropey erotic reader's letters for a London magazine, QT, and doing his level best to avoid all thought of his upending misadventures in The Great When, nearly ten years gone. Forces, criminal and supernatural, are beginning to arise again in his vicinity, and when he too eagerly passes on an eerie key to the iconic pop producer Joe Meek, a series of startling events are set in their irreversible motion.
The author has really managed to work his talents into a broiling fantasy stew of a unique style and character, blending urban and occult history, humour, literary and cinematic reference (Dennis is now an enthusiastic Gormenghast fanboy) and a sexually and racially diverse cast full of the many vivid denizens of the '50s British metropolis, (Joe Meek, David Litvinoff and Ron Kray especially) into its mesmeric narrative. Whether it's outbreaks of intense violence or a long anticipated sex scene for two of the characters being at last resolved, all are particularly charming, with their lovemaking interspersed with admiring glances of her well chosen book collection, well-paced and used to punctuate their frenetic excursions into the multiphasic fantastic Other World that underlies ours. Narnia or Fantastica this ain't. A new creature introduced in this book, the gelatinous Prime Monster, leaves a lingering impression.
Even more effective in its plethora of aims than the first book, readers of Long London and Alan M.'s work in general will find much to enthral and scramble their minds in this momentous hymn to the imagination that is shaping up to be something very special. Archly apocalyptic, hugely affecting, rollicking and wry, don't delay and go check it out, whether by library, book store or e-reader as soon as you can! And watch out for Charming Peter.

[Christian Holub · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alan Moore is the GOAT comic book writer, but his novels are pretty good too! I wrote a piece for Publishers Weekly about why fans of his old work should follow his pivot: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...

[Sandra Ruttan · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was offered a review copy of I Hear A New World, I wasn’t sure what I was in for. I’d never read Alan Moore, though I was familiar with adaptations of his works, such as Watchman and From Hell, which I thought were excellent. I like to vary my reading so that I don’t get tired of any genre, and I was intrigued by the premise.

I Hear A New World is part of a series, and it is the second book, so when I accepted the ARC, I bought a copy of book 1, The Great When. I suppose you could try reading I Hear A New World without reading The Great When, but I know I wouldn’t have fully appreciated all the events occurring in the second book without the awareness of what happened in the first. Plus, knowing the history with the characters adds to the emotional moments in I Hear A New World.

Moore has a distinctive writing style that’s immersive and dense. When it came to the scenes occurring in Long London (the other realm, also referred to as The Great When), I had to let them wash over me. It was hard to feel anchored at some times because of the level of sensory detail and the way the setting and events are described, but it’s appropriate that those scenes would have an upside-down otherworldly feel to them, because they’re occurring in a different realm where things don’t exactly work the way they do in our world. The result is that these scenes took me more time to fully digest, but made me relate to Dennis because I could imagine how overwhelming, shocking, and confusing everything was. Moore delivered Dennis’s experience in an experiential way that made an impact on me.

Since Moore is an established, successful comics writer with multiple film adaptations, a lot of the “rules” that may apply to debut/newer authors do not apply to him. The early scenes in the books do not focus on the protagonist, but they’ll have relevance later. In that respect, I started off reading these books with clues in hand, and was wondering how they’d intersect with the core story. The answer? In ways I couldn’t always foresee or even guess at. I found these elements tantalizing, because my mind is always trying to form connections. They drew me in.

Dennis is an intriguing character, in part because he’s often treated as barely average. He’s not presented as being too smart or motivated. However, his journey reveals his values and qualities, and I found him to be quite endearing. He’s realistic. He isn’t like a superhero who seems to feel no fear - he’s terrified and I could relate to those moments with him because I’d be scared of what he was facing, too. In a way, perhaps he’s a hopeful symbol, too. If Dennis can survive what he faces, perhaps I could also somehow make it through the unthinkable. I was rooting for him all the way.

I was also rooting for Grace. Both Dennis and Grace have had hard lives. Neither moans about how unfair it is; they both get on with making the best of their situations. Despite how hard life has been, Grace is generous and considerate, intelligent and brave.

While the extended cast is filled with characters who are not always readily likeable (Coffin Adam for example), these characters are colorful and intriguing and unpredictable, which kept me on my toes as a reader and added to the story because their actions turned the story in different directions.

“Ada stopped what she was doing and rotated slowly to appraise him with the kind of look one might give dog shit.” - The Great When

“Like nearly everyone he knew, he much preferred to play his life as a light comedy, and didn’t think that he could take a shift of genre.” - The Great When

I like to avoid spoilers, so I don’t want to delve more into the details. If you’re looking for something unique, with its own social commentary on the history of post-war Britain, with characters who aren’t your typical heroes who find themselves in unfathomable situations, then you’ll love this series. It’s both entertaining and thought-provoking with the added bonus of distinct and immersive writing that makes it feel fresh and unique. The complexities of the plot don’t overshadow the character development that’s woven into the story’s fabric. For me, the strongest recommendation involves my own commitment to the series, and I will be back for more Dennis Knuckleyard and another return to Long London. Even if it terrifies me.


Notes For The Audience:

This story is ideal for fans of portal fantasies, those who enjoy history, and those who want unique and distinct fantasy realms that are not warm and cozy. This series is also perfect for anyone who wants a complex narrative with a distinct voice and excellent writing.

Source:

I received an ARC and a finished copy of I Hear A New World from Bloomsbury Publishing. This review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.

[Amie Derricott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I Hear A New World takes us back to Long London, or The Great When. Book one introduced us to Long London, a secret other London that exists alongside the real one. In a post war Britain, Dennis Knuckleyard, an awkward young bookseller’s assistant, accidentally comes into possession of a dangerous occult book that should not exist and things very quickly spiral out of control. What begins as a relatively simple errand ends up with run ins with gangsters, mystics, writers, and bizarre supernatural entities as Dennis is pulled into the chaotic hidden world beneath London’s surface.
I Hear a New World sees us returning to Long London and takes place almost a decade later in 1958. Now an adult, Dennis has spent years trying to avoid anything connected to the magical other version of London, and wants to put the traumatic events of his teens behind. However, he discovers that a mysterious key he secretly kept from Long London has resurfaced and is creating chaos. The key creates a series of magical disturbances in ordinary London, bringing with it strange creatures and occult forces. Attempting to hide from it all, Dennis is forced back into Long London to save Grace Shilling, his former love interest, and the pair are forced together in an attempt to stop both Londons from collapsing into one another.
While I do fully appreciate both books,and did enjoy them a lot, they just never quite fully what I was hoping for. Alan Moore’s imagination is genuinely incredible, and the sheer ambition of the Long London series is impossible not to respect. The worldbuilding is dense, strange, vivid, and unlike almost anything else I’ve ever read. Both books absolutely overflow with atmosphere, weirdness, occult mythology, and incredibly detailed descriptions of both Londons and their inhabitants make everything really come alive.
I did find the book incredibly hard work at times, particularly the scenes set in Long London where it reads as a stream of consciousness. I also found that in I Hear A New World, scenes that were fairly simple got way over described, almost as if Alan Moore had too many ideas and had to get them all out. Dennis is an incredibly passive protagonist for the majority of the book with things constantly happening to him rather than because of him, and I sometimes struggled to stay emotionally invested. I guess he is like this by design, as he really doesn’t want to be involved in anything to do with Long London, but I just feel like he could have been just...more?
One major gripe I had with this was the sex scenes. Yep you read that right. There are sex scenes. They were WAY over described and too full of metaphor, which ended up making it feel a little bit gross and awkward. It kinda felt like these bits were shoehorned in to maybe appeal to a whole other market of readers, but it actually just didn’t work and was wholly unappealing.
I really did enjoy most of both books, especially the setting and sheer originality, but they also felt overly long, messy, and occasionally inaccessible. There were huge chunks where I kind of just glazed over a bit, and most likely skim read, but actually didn’t miss out on anything important. The series is definitely one for readers who are looking for something incredibly unique, ambitious and undeniably epic, but for me it just wasn't quite what I was looking for.

[Ryan Burnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

“First, and most ominously, he recalled that he was Dennis Knuckleyard, which surely wasn’t a good sign…”

“I read this book – but should you read it too?” Yeah, it’s not that bad…

I Hear A New World has us returning to ‘Short London’, reuniting with your favourite sack of uselessness, Dennis Knuckleyard, along with other favourites from the first book. Having now delved into ‘Long London’, you’re taken on a mystery tour of such, as Dennis and company are thrusted head first into….well, you’ll find out! Although still heavily overwritten, it’s an overall improvement from the first book, so give it another chance if you previously wrote this series off.

Plot: 8/10
Always tricky to improve on a plot, where so much to be discovered has now been discovered. However, I’d say the storyline this time around was actually better than the first book! It’s more of a historical fiction mixed with a little mystery, which was fine – added to the adventure. For me, the plot is what kept me hooked.

Characters: 7/10
Still a strong point throughout the book, but a little less depth than before. Even though you meet a bunch of new characters, there doesn’t seem to be too much detail around them. Whether this is intentional or not, I’m not sure, but I feel it differed from the first book where we got a lot more detail on everyone.

Worldbuilding: 7/10
I think having already covered what ‘Long London’ looks like, there was certainly a feel of ‘less importance’ when it came to the worldbuilding this time around. Sure, you’re taken to new areas of London, and this is what earned the decent rating – otherwise I got the sense that you were just supposed to remember what a certain place looked and felt like, which might not be enjoyable for everyone.

Writing Style: 5/10
Slightly improved from book one – although still be prepared for numerous ramblings and pages of irrelevant history lessons. It’s honestly a little frustrating that this sort of thing is a feature of this series, as I feel more time could’ve been spent on finer details (descriptions of surroundings, character development, etc.), but instead I feel like I was back in school for page after page. Oh, and the endless descriptions and focus on certain characters ‘private life’ was just pointless, that could’ve all been removed and nothing would’ve changed in the story.

Summary
I Hear A New World is an improvement from the trawling-feel of The Great When, although still be prepared for random ramblings and history lessons. I’m starting to wonder if this whole series is just an experiment for Alan Moore to share his vast knowledge and see how far he can push metaphors and analogies – which in some ways was enjoyable. However, in others, it was just difficult. Overall, it was still quite a slow read and was frustrating in parts, but better than book one.

Overall rating: 7/10

[Ben Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Moore continues to stun with his absolutely delirious exploration of London throughout history and throughout whatever corporeal realms his madness has us traversing. This book and series is not for the faint hearted. This is choc-a-block with literary, political, and general pop-culture references of the 1950s ranging from Arthur Machen, to Enoch Powell, to Mervyn Peake all creating layered imagery and commentary to form the development of London and our protagonist, Dennis Knuckleyard.

There is a reason I can only rate this 4.25, and why the first book has such an astoundingly low rating. Dennis Knuckleyard's journey to save London by entering the surreal parallel Long World of the Great When is difficult. His prose is testing, the imagery surreal, and the thematic explorations dense. His switch of tense from past in our London, to the present tense of The Great When will throw people out of their comfort zone. That's the point! Embrace a master exploring form! I encourage everyone to give this series a go if you're looking for that challenge. This is Alan Moore, a living legend; someone for a time that I never thought we would ever get art from again. This is like David Lynch coming back for Twin Peaks: The Return, and I think we should all be appreciative of having his voice in the world.

Even elements that feel like something pulled from a few decades ago - like the amount of sex scenes or our protagonist as a struggling writer with a woman who is a dancer - all resolve beautifully at the end to explore the shifting dynamics of London post-war, creating a rumination on art and who decides what makes art worthwhile. For such an incredibly funny and zany book, it is filled to the brim with brilliant ideas to delve into.

[Brian Stabler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Moore’s I Hear a New World is a dizzying, delirious journey through London—both real and fantastical—seen through the eyes of Dennis Knuckleyard, now ten years older but no less hapless. Moore’s prose is dense, playful, and often overwhelming, packed with literary, political, and pop-cultural references that layer the city with history, myth, and surreal invention. From Arthur Machen to Joe Meek, from the Kray twins to obscure Soho mystics, Moore pulls real and imagined figures into a tangled, intoxicating tapestry.

Fans of The Great When—which I described as “part surreal dream and part overly verbose nightmare… many will love, just as many hate”—will recognise Moore’s signature style: tense shifts, sprawling digressions, and a love of modifiers that keeps readers on their toes. Humour, sex, and zaniness punctuate the narrative, balancing its intellectual and surreal density. Dennis’s growth is slow and often comically thwarted, making him a relatable anchor amidst the chaos.

At times, the pacing feels uneven, and Moore’s verbosity can feel relentless, yet his ingenuity, wit, and ability to riff on language are mesmerising. Fans of literary and fantastical fiction who relish historical and pop-cultural rabbit holes will delight in the novel’s rich, unpredictable world. I Hear a New World is a testament to Moore’s mastery, a book to be savoured, marvelled at, and occasionally got lost in—exactly as it should be.

Thanks to NetGalley, Bloomsbury Publishing and the author for an advance copy.

[Stefan Nordin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in return for an honest review.

I wish I could have a walk around London with Alan Moore. Just stroll in that wonderful metropolis and hear him talk all the weird and obscure history and characters he seems to have gathered while writing this series. I wouldn’t say a single word about Watchmen or V. London would be more than enough.
I want to hear him talk about all the weird and wonderful characters that inhabit this book like the king of bohemians Ironfoot Jack, Prince Monolulu, genius music producer Jack Meeks and of course all the gangsters; David Litvinoff who taught Edward Fox to act like a criminal, slumlord Peter rachman (whose biography I have in my TBR) and of course the Krays.
Moores books about London keep sending me down wikipedia rabbit holes.

The review for this one is pretty easy. If you liked the first book you’ll like this one too. If you felt that Moore’s prose got a bit too flowery and purple in the first one you might actually like this one a bit more. He still sounds like a mashup of Eliot, Ginsberg and Lord Dunsany when the characters enter the long London but I got the feeling that he has dialed it back a bit.
His fantasy version of London is still seriously weird and it’s truly fantastical fantasy.

Moore drops a few hints about where this series is heading and even though I didn’t like this one as much as the first (it’s still a great novel) I get the feeling he’s moving his pieces on the board for the next one and I’m looking forward to read the next installment.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, gosh. I liked #1, but I remember it being a bit of a slog at times.

This one sparkles and coruscates with Moore's amazing writing - the vocabulary, the ear for rhythm and sounds, the descriptions, sometimes cruel, sometimes hilarious, sometimes both (it's the British way).

Great start, except for [cough cough] Coffin Ada which [cough cough cough] was approaching Jar-Jar Binks [cough cough] territory in the first book and [cough hack hork ptooey gasp] and here is just "Oh, Alan, this is beneath you. Please stop!"

But poor old Dennis, golly, how can he make it to book 5? He's a schlub, he knows he is, and he's doing his best not to be - with some success. I was never much with only-he/she/they-can save the world plots, and that applies here.

And Long London, whee, what was Moore smoking. I like the idea that everything is happening, will happen and has happened all at once. Especially the idea [Cromwell] that one can somehow [Chamberlain] navigate this, or be [Beowulf] navigated by it, to get to where one needs to be.

The prose, brilliant as it is, gets heavy at times, like the winter duvet one hasn't got around to taking off the bed just yet. And each time we slip into Long London [hideous monsters with superb manners] it gets a little heavier.

I have given up halfway through book two. It's like eating six pieces of cheesecake; it's good but I just can't have any more.

Also, I found that I didn't much care what happened to anyone. Dennis is in a world where even if he is successful I don't want to read about.

[Mark Stackpole · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always for a novel such as this being published in installments, I can't really give on opinion about how successful this book is (besides the trite "So far, so good") until I've read the entire narrative. Here at least two characters are introduced whose stories will likely become significant with future volumes.

Now, Alan Moore is a writer who is much better understood and appreciated though the entirety of his output, rather than just limiting to his famous comic books (V for Vendetta, Watchmen) - which at this point were published over 40 years ago.

Seeds for "Long London" are in the text sections - which the comics fans most likely skipped - of Moore's magnum opus "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", the overlapping Northampton through time and space in the novel "Voice of the Fire" and his recent Kabbalistic confessional "The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic". For instance, the dance sequence near the end is based on the Dutch Dolls companions/lovers of Galley-Wag from League.

Moore is very playful with language, throwing in pastiches and parodies left and right, including the alliterative Stan Lee type introductions whenever real-life record producer Joe Meak makes an appearance.

Rating subject to change after I read the final page of Book Five.

[Periplus Bookshop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Semesta fantasi kelam khas Alan Moor kali ini mengambil latar tahun 1958 di tengah era awal musik rock and roll dan pergolakan sosial. Sembilan tahun setelah peristiwa di seri pertama Long Londhon, Dennis Knuckleyard berusaha keras melupakan petualangan magisnya di The Great When atau versi mistisnya London, hingga ia mendadak menemukan kembali sebuah kunci besi pusaka yang pernah ia bawa pulang. Ketika Dennis menyerahkan kunci tersebut kepada seorang teman, kekuatan gaib di dalamnya terbangun kembali, melepaskan makhluk-makhluk mitologi ke dunia nyata dan memicu kerusuhan besar di wilayah Notting Hill. Keadaan semakin mendesak saat cinta pertamanya, Grace Shilling, terpaksa masuk kembali ke dunia bayangan tersebut untuk menyelidiki anomali yang mengancam kedua dimensi. Demi melindungi Grace dan mengembalikan stabilitas kota London, Dennis harus melangkah kembali ke dalam labirin The Great When, tempat berbahaya yang kini menjebaknya dan enggan melepaskannya keluar dengan mudah. https://blog.periplus.com/2026/05/25/...

[Sal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow start and the story doesn't feel very advanced at the end, but I can forgive a great deal for the pleasure of Alan Moore's beautiful and evocative descriptions of time and place.
In a recent online talk, Moore said that Dennis was a reluctant hero that had to be dragged back into the story. That reluctance translates into a very slow start that did get a little wearing, particularly a long chapter of Ada's endless coughing.
When Grace re-enters the fray things finally start to move along and there are some genuinely scary and horrific moments. Turning someone inside out has never been described so vividly!
Moore's descriptions are often dazzling. He describes a trip to the cinema and I could hear the Pearl & Dean trailer and taste the melting choc ice. There are so many wonderful turns of phrase, many of which made me laugh out loud. His descriptions of the other London conjure wonders and terrors and feel all too real.
I'm not too sure where this series is going but I'm along for the ride.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the previous book it felt like a slog at times. Maybe even more so once it gets to the mid section.

I get that Moore is very clever and has a real feel for rhythmic prose and at times a wonderful way with words.

However it’s also the thing that can work against the book the most.
For me it started to get tiresome and long winded (The Long Winded London quintet).

It’s a real mixed bag of a book and not a great choice for a holiday read. Perhaps better spread out.

Sections of the book are great of course and it’s very funny in places.
However, huge sections are borderline boring.
It’s strengths lie in the wonderful characters where there’s dialogue exchanges the book zips along nicely - but they are quite few and far between, in the gaps of huge chunks of descriptive prose.

Even having enjoyed a lot of it, I’m not sure I would have stuck with it for any other author than Moore.

This all said, I will continue to read further volumes.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a novel that contains several extraordinarily gruesome demises and not a little blind terror, this is a very joyful book. Alan Moore is clearly having a huge amount of fun writing here, peeling off marvellous sentences and asides seeming at will (I mean, it might be that he spent the writing cursing in his garret, painfully pulling each syllable out of his subconscious like a particularly tenacious nostril hair, but it doesn’t seem that way). Being the further adventures of Dennis Knuckleyard, last seen in The Great When, it is a combination of carefully researched late 50s / early 60s London with several historical characters in the cast, and an occult phantasmagoria of another London that lies behind the quotidian one. Another hugely entertaining book from one of the greats.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Warning: if you have not done one of the following, remedy the situation before reading this book…
1 - understand this is book two of a trilogy. I was completely lost the first third of the book and felt like that kid that gets nothing throughout. I think this is because you should read this trilogy in order.
2 - If you have never dropped acid, you may not get this at all. I say this for two reasons…the only other book I’ve ever felt this confused through was Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” and I had the same feeling throughout this one. I would say that’s an invalid assumption EXCEPT, the author himself mentions this book no fewer than ten times.

SO, my whole-hearted review…read book one first or drop a lot of acid. It might make this book a four or five.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this as much as the first in the series. It really seemed to meander and not really be about much. Besides our earnstwhile hero having really terribly described sex! It didn't feel as firmly in place as the first volume. So much that could be written about the 50s in London and it felt like a lot was ignored. I felt like Grace was very much a Moffat girl in this one. Her sudden desire to sleep with Denis made NO sense. And she really did nothing else. Bit of mystery as to why she felt at home in the great when, but nothing with any agency for her really. Which was quite disappointing.
Hoping it will pick up a bit for the 3rd book. Alan Moore is one of my all time favourite writers. So I have faith that it is all leading somewhere.

[Molly Lazer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alan Moore is a phenomenal writer. He has a real way with words and descriptions, and his writing is never boring. That said, I found the plot of this volume of the Long London series to be lacking. The previous volume covered three different conflicts in the same amount of time it took this one to cover one, so the plot felt like it dragged a lot in the middle. I do like how so many of the characters are real people who lived in London in the eras in which this series takes place, so it prompts a good amount of research for a reader who isn't familiar with modern British history. But I'm hoping that the next volume will pick up the pace a little in terms of plotting.

[Enron84 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine. It felt like it took more effort than it should have to stay engaged. I enjoyed the first book well enough, but even then questioned whether a sequel was warranted.

Sadly, my trepidation was validated. Although this dove deeper into the alternate London and the twisted, timelessness of that world, it felt like more of the same.

At times the writing got so poetic that it drifted into self indulgent territory for me. Overall, I think this just confirms that I struggle with Moore's prose. Perhaps the things he wants to write and tell stories about are just not in my particular realm of interest.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back we go to the sexually frustrated aspiring writer Dennis Knuckleyard and his coming-of-age adventures in the nightmarish Long London and things are much the same as in the previous novel in this series. The magical “all at once London” is terrifying but allows Moore to revel in the social and cultural history of London and England. The best character from the first book returns and her new sidekick is the second best character. There’s magic and magic in the power of writing and books. There’s that game of endless two word descriptions for characters. You could argue that Joe Meek is a little underused but the conceit of what the higher world does to him is a splendid flourish.

[Carly Krewitsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dennis gave a key to record producer Joe Meek. The key was given to him by Slenderhorse, a creature from the Great When. Dennis has been to the Great When a few times and doesn't want to return there. Slenderhorse wants her key back. Joe Meek blames Dennis for the death of Buddy Holly. There have been race riots in London. Austin Spare has died. Prince Momolulu has become a recluse. Maurice Calendar is eating chocolate boys and becoming fat; Maurice Calendar is a talking caterpillar who likes fashion. This book is very strange. I'm not always sure I understand what's going on all the time.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great work from Moore; full of twists, public toilet portals and the bizarre.

It nicely reintroduces a lot of the characters from the previous book without feeling too inorganic, and many of them have some of the best names in the game (Maurice Calendar, Commotion Venables and, of course, Dennis Knuckleyard).

Really, my only sticking point (hoho) is how awkward some of the more…intimate scenes are. They can be the downfall of many a book, and the book would’ve been fine, totally fine, without them.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read book one on audio, because Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, after I had requested this second book as an ARC. I thought I might like it. Well, I was wrong.
This series is a Marmite series, either you love it or you hate it. I tolerated the first book, including all the coughing by Coffin Ada, but DNF'd the second book around the 30% mark. I noticed I didn't care for the MC Dennis, I wasn't interested in whether he is really at fault for Buddy Holly's death, nor was I interested in what goes on in Long London.

I am sure this series will find its fans, but I am not one of them. Sorry.

[Peter Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn’t overly impressed with the first volume in the series and although volume two treads similar ground there’s not enough that is different - definitely a contender for the ‘Bad Sex of the year award’ but that’s not been awarded since 2019. It’s grossly overwritten, Alan Moore obviously luxuriating in his grotesquely baroque descriptions which rather cancel out any immediacy in the drama. I listened to 65%, didn’t listen whilst away for a week - returned to it for a further 2.5% and then felt I’d had enough.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having respected rather than enjoyed the first entry, I picked up the second book without much expectation and I must say it could be my book of the year.

With Moore you tend to expect an almost incomprehensible level of craft and skill with a certain coldness in how he writes character but the highlight for me here was the relationship between Grace and Dennis that carries the novel to heights the first book in the series just didn’t have.

I’m in on this series now, officially a fan.