2023: A Trilogy

by The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

Well we're back again,
They never kicked us out,
twenty thousand years of
SHOUT SHOUT SHOUT

Down through the epochs and out across the continents, generation upon generation of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu have told variants of the same story - an end of days story, a final chapter story. But one with hope, even if the hope at times seems forlorn.

The story contained in this trilogy is the latest telling. Here it is presented as a utopian costume drama, set in the near future, written in the recent past.

Read with care.

REMEMBERED - TOLD - TRANSCRIBED
for K 2 Plant Hire Ltd.

***

In the Spring of 2013, the undertakers Cauty & Drummond were on a tour of the Western Isles of Scotland. It was while staying at Jura's one hotel that they came across a strange-looking book. The book was titled Back in the USSR and authored by someone using the name of Gimpo. Back in the USSR was the memoir of a young woman who had been a nurse in the Falklands War in 1982.

Gimpo ended up in Kiev in what was then the Soviet state of The Ukraine. Here she met with two women named Tat'jana and Kristina who went under numerous aliases, the most widely used being The KLF. Also in Back in the USSR it was claimed that Tat'jana and Kristina had been heavily influenced by a book originally written in English as The Twenty Twenty-Three! Trilogy by someone calling themselves George Orwell. But this George Orwell was in turn the pen name of Roberta Antonia Wilson.

What you are about to read is what they read - well, almost. As for Back in the USSR, if we are able to sell the initial edition of this book and make a return on our investment, we hope to publish that. As for the current whereabouts of Tat'jana and Kristina, we have no idea. They were last seen disappearing into the depths of the Black Sea in their decommissioned Project 865 Piranha submarine. This supposed disappearance happened on 23 August 1994. Rumour on the internet has it they would not reappear for another twenty-three years.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Music, Dystopia, Humor, Comedy

375 pages, Hardcover

First published August 23, 2017

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

So they reopened the line to Trancentral, and the first arrival was 2023. A few people noted the apparent hot-take satire in pre-release excerpts, and I was concerned not least because Cauty's solo art has sometimes verged on the B*nksy, but don’t worry: there are layers. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d deliberately released sections which sound awful in isolation precisely to weed out the lightweights, just like the way Alan Moore’s novels always include one chapter that’s only just about readable. Alan Moore is here as a character, of course: he’s a member of massive but bankrupt has-been band Extreme Noise Terror, along with Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty. In the novel-within-the-novel, that is: the 'Publisher’s Preface’ explains that the Drummond and Cauty who found the book are undertakers. And while you could say that’s metaphorically true, said preface also claims that 2023 won’t be sold in the likes of Amazon or Waterstone's. I pre-ordered my copy from Waterstone's because that way you get a special stamp. Rule one: 2023 lies.

All fiction does, of course, though sometimes these days people seem to forget it, take the narrator or character’s views for the author’s. Needless to say, that’s one of the many ways you’ll come a cropper here. The most obvious model is wide-eyed sixties countercultural screed Illuminatus!, but what you might not know from that book’s reputation – I suspect because many more people started it than finished it – is that it ends up a lot less ‘Yeah! Rebellion! Screw the Man!’ than it started. So too here, except 2023 doesn’t even start out that rebellious. One of the things you don’t really get from that Guardian excerpt with its AppleTree and GoogleByte is that this future ruled by five megacorps? It’s a utopia. Not the sinister fake sort, but for real. Sure, it’s still unevenly distributed, some places are poorer than others – but AIDS and ebola are cured. War’s a thing of the past, ISIS are happier running YouTube channels than they were decapitating people, and Fairtrade had to rename because now all trade is fair. It is potentially significant here that the CEOs of the big companies are all gender-switched versions of their male equivalents in our world; right down to the author of the book-within-book being Roberta Antonia Wilson, this is a book fascinated by the idea that if millennia of male power made the mess, then women taking over is the solution. In part, it’s a rejoinder to the blokiness and male fantasy angle which mar Illuminatus! and its countercultural kin; less appealingly, it can lapse into essentialism, though again it would be a category error to take the more TERF-y views expressed in some places here for the authors’ own. Still, if you’ve been reading Drummond for a while, you should know that he can’t resist prodding at the profoundly problematic, and there’s definitely nothing here to rival the more appalling depths of his work with Zodiac Mindwarp.

So: 2023 in another timeline. Utopia, more or less. No death squads, no book-burning, but because people are people, some of them aren’t happy. Crucially, though, these unhappy people? They’re mostly fairly terrible. A pensioned-off Putin. A Dalston poser. A self-declared African monarch whose primitivist/futurist celebration of disorder rightly horrifies his family. These are agents of chaos in a borderline Warhammer sense of ‘chaos’, destruction for its own sake or for the sake of some vague sense that a more meaningful world might result. And the action of the novel largely revolves around one of them somehow contriving to throw a perfectly tailored golden apple into this Olympus and get everything kicking off. Drummond and Cauty aren’t just being harsh on themselves as Drummond and Cauty, ageing has-beens, but also on the whole category of artist-pranksters they’ve made their own. And versions of them refract through this under various fairground mirror aliases – they may be the American Medical Organisation, or two Ukrainian women with a submarine, or the Utah Saints, but however huge their hits, they never come off looking like terribly impressive figures. Around them move various familiar figures, distorted to greater or lesser extents. Even beyond the gender-swaps, some of the characters’ names have been changed – Gaga and Azaelia Banks have the faintest of aliases – but others haven’t. The titles of Harry Potter novels are changed, but not Harry’s, or Dudley’s. Everyone from Michelle Obama and Yoko Ono to Subcomandante Marcos and Drums of Death (aka Colin from Oban) turns up under their own name. The preface’s pseudo-publisher and their worries about legal issues? I worry too. If nobody sues over this, I’ll be amazed.

So is it any good? Well, considered as a conventional novel, it’s a bloody mess, even before an ending which is no less disappointing for admitting that endings tend to disappoint. But then, considered as a sailboat your bookshelves are a dead loss too; just because they're made with the same materials, doesn’t mean they’re trying to do the same thing. As an interrogation of Illuminatus!, another component of the KLF’s own wonky mythology, a part of their baffling ongoing Gesamtkunstwerk, it’s every bit as essential as the ice cream van, the bonfire, or the songs. Well, OK, maybe not the songs.

[Ben Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Batshit mental. Exactly what I wanted.

[Mark Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

One month ago, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu published 2023, followed by perhaps the most elaborate book launch ever. In the ensuing chaos, it was almost easy to overlook the book itself (except for p299, which is now forever mine).

But I've now finished it and, like the event itself, I'm still not enitirely sure what to make of it. Like The JAMs, it is massively self-referential, multi-layered, and knowlingly rips-off (samples?) a range of books, ideas and people, and mashes them together. It is set in a utopian near-future where world peace has been established through the benign influence of five technology companies (FaceLife, GoogleByte, etc) who have taken over failing nation states, and which are run by the five most powerful women in the world.

It's also about a dead perch, a live perch a fox, two Yoko Onos, Banksy, Alan Moore, M'Lady GaGa (and Parker, who drives her pink Rolls Royce), Roberta Anton Wilson, Chodak, Michelle Obama, Tammy Wynette and The Utah Saints, Johnathan King, a failed child actor who may well become the leader of the New English Tory Party for Old England, five different King Francisco Beosa XXIIIs, one of whom may, or may not, be a genuine African witch doctor, and the Tiger Who Came for Tea. Amongst many, many others.

But to try to describe the book any more than that would be futile, unless you are familiar with The Illuminatus Trilogy (whose structure & style it adopts, along with several characters and sub-plots) and the entire backstory of The JAMs, in which case I suspect you will have already bought this book without question. If you're not familiar with the above I am genuinely curious as to what you will make of it, as I'm too entwined to be objective.

[Roberth · Rating 4 out of 5]

What the FUUK did I just read?

[Francisco Jota-Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert(a) Anton(ia) Wilson vive.

[Alicia Huxtable · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, the only reason I have rated this book 5 stars is because I just read 375 pages of words, yet I have no.idea what I read......but I couldn't NOT read it. If I ever work out what I just read, I'll amend this review.....but it is doubtful that will happen

[Albert Kadmon · Rating 3 out of 5]

En shock. Todavía no sé si lo que he leído es una puta mierda o una puta maravilla.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

23 out of 5 stars.
2023 is an incredibly fun, clever sendup to the Illuminatus! books , satirical scifi romp, and semi autobiographical/farcical take of the KLF themselves.

One important note: I would not recommend reading it to anyone who is not familiar with the history of the KLF or havent read Illuminatus! Theres just too much parody/sendup/tribute that would be lost to the reader otherwise.

Set in the near future the utopia presented in 2023is both incredibly believable and incredibly not believable. In fact thats a theme of the book - the blurring of reality and fiction, much like Illuminatus!. Real figures are portrayed here, as well as analogues to real people. The plot of this book is best represented by the BANKSY image "modern love". A couple in love not looking at each other but their cell phone social media feeds. The plot is about the fakeness of this life and an eagerness for "the dark ages".

Interestingly enough the only character that really has any arc is the author herself - Robert Antonia Wilson aka George Orwell.

The kaleidoscope of personas makes this book a ton of fun and unpredictable. Alan Moore, Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, Yoko Ono, BANKSY, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel are all characters in this book. All part of hte plot in some way, but its a swirling kaleidoscope of stuff leading to a penultimate event - again like Illuminatus!

Unlike illuminatus the structure of the book is a bit more sane... sorta. Character perspective is usually pretty segmented. Perpsecitve of one character is contained within a single chapter. Where this book is crazier is in the 4th 5th 6th dimensions added by unreliable authors. The author has diary entry at the end of each chapter, which details the writing o fthe book and the fictious author getting nuttier. The author also frequently mentions interactions with Cauty/Drummond/Moore which is another layer to the book.

Prose within chapters also has the author speaking directly to the reader explaining why certain decisions with the novel were made.

This author isnt the JAMs but an invented tribute persona author of Roberta Antonia Wilson (George Orwell). Maybe.

All this sillyness and cleverness gives this book a warm fuzzy feeling for me.

[Shane Bordoli · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a relatively short book in 3 parts, the cultural references are pretty basic and the plot easy to follow (in a psychedelically surreal fashion) all of which were a pleasant suprise - I was expecting an arcane tome of references beyond my ken. Unfortunately what started out as the most exciting book I'd read in years (I read part 1 in a single sitting) ended up being a bit of a wet fart. Part 1 is phenomenal and groundbraking, what followed seemed to change or forget what basic premises and characters had gone before and my interest began to evaporate. In the end I forced myself to finish it for a sense of completion. No doubt their next forray into creativity will contain their usual iconoclastic fingerprints and be more fully formed. The KLF brothers started this book re-writing history and the way novels are written but they were making it up as they went along and for me it kind of showed. I loved the way it had multiple levels of authorship and seemed to be Phlilip K Dick meets Kurt Vonnegut in a way only Bill & Jimmy could pull off. But I have to say it's time to put the JAMS back on the shelf for now. I have the feeling even they got a bit lost as to what they were trying to do or had already said in the book. Great cover and some great bits, but some of the jokes wear a bit thin - M'Lady Gaga is a great joke that comes unstuck on about it's 86th usage. Long live the JAMS nevertheless. One reviewer said it was like Facebook on acid but couldn't work out if that was a good thing or not. I agree with that description and began to think it was a good thing but in the end it turned into a bad trip for me.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed out loud at random intervals while reading this. 2023 is, in essence, a parody of The Illuminatus! trilogy, which is, in turn, a satire of conspiracy theories and theorists; a kind of anti-Ayn Rand — a literary acid-trip with Joycian overtones.

So this book is absurd. It requires you are familiar with

* The Illuminatus Trilogy,
* The Thunderbirds and other British TV shows from the 1970s,
* British pop/arts culture between the 1980s and now,
* The music of the KLF and the personal histories its members,
* The work of Alan Moore, and
* more

It's obsessively self-referential, rich in word-play, stupidly plotted, and really funny.

If you are into the above, then you must read this book. If you've never been interested in any of the above then don't read this book as it won't make any sense. Actually it makes very little sense either way, but the constant stream of jokes will be lost on you if you don't know that it was James Cauty's personal second-hand American police car that the Timelords used in their video for Doctorin' The Tardis.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

"One day in 1967 Wilhelmina S. Burroughs and her BFF Brianna Gysin were assembling tape cut-ups in a little demo studio that Paul McCartney had set up with the help of Wilhelmina's former boyfriend Ian Sommerville (who did not sing for Bronski Beat). Paul dropped by to see if they had anything he could bring along to a recording session taking place later that afternoon and they furnished him with a few cast-offs and thought little more of it. When they heard "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" months later, they were delighted to hear the use to which their throwaway tape fragments had been put. Of course there was no question of demanding payment (though Paul is said to have quietly sent along a substantial check). Less than a year later, Yoko Ono was on the scene and she was henceforth credited as the crucial influence in bringing avant-garde influences to The Beatles while the contributions of Burroughs and Gysin were largely forgotten."

* * *

Okay, that's not a real excerpt, but it should give you something of the feel for this novel.

Confession: I've never read the Illuminatus books and I suspect that had I done so, I might have appreciated this book more. But I've spent enough time around those who have read them (and various acid casualties, oddballs, etc.) to get the general feel of it though I was also well-served by my general knowledge of pop culture/music lore and the history of the KLF/JAMs/etc.

It's a quick read, and though I read it from cover to cover, I think the book might have actually been improved by skimming. There are some genuinely funny and occasionally thought-provoking bits, but I'm not really sure if there's enough here to sustain a complete novel.

[Phil Zimmerman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had such high expectations and I was let down so much. I knew it would be cryptic, I knew it would be weird, I didn't know it would be bad.

If you are looking for a better version of this work, just read The Illuminatus! Trilogy.

[Jon Bounds · Rating 5 out of 5]

The JAMs take to the novel like they took to the single. A collage of literature and culture, truth, memoir and fantastical fiction.

[Dûr · Rating 2 out of 5]

The lads probably had a lot of fun writing this, but even as a devout fan of the group and the Illuminatus! Trilogy (which serves as the template to much of 2023's style and references), it never really goes beyond surface level satire. It's not like the JAMs were trying to write a serious work of literature, but no amount of meta-textual self awareness regarding its own irreverent style negates the book's shortcomings. If you dig it you dig it, but the KLF's talent for crafting impeccable and prescient singles has not translated into brilliant literature, and it plays a lot like some of the stuff I wrote in elementary school, where I threw together a lot of cultural references and hoped that some of it would stick. (It did the first time I did it, then I tried to re-create the success by doing it again and it was terrible.) The most interesting part of the book is how the K Foundation uses it to further mythologise themselves, attempting a form of autobiographical revisionism. For that alone it's worth reading as a piece of curiosity for those of above average fandom.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

To call this niche would be an understatement, however if you are going to read it you have probably sought it out. It definitely benefits from some background reading. I had read bill Drummond’s 45, two other books on the KLF and listened to quite a bit about ken Campbell. I had even attempted to read the Illuminati’s trilogy. This is where in my opinion the book both lives and dies. It is bonkers but great and I can almost hear Ken Campbell reading it! He would have done a great audiobook version! Maybe I’ll have another crack at the Illuminatus trilogy again!

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it a lot, until I found out who wrote it, that also coincided with me reaching 'book three'.
It's random and odd, but enjoyable.
It's not far off the tv-show The Mighty Boosh, just in it's absurdity.

[Pantelis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Περίεργο φρούτο. Μου θύμισε την θητεία μου στον στρατό. Αν δεν σ' ενδιαφέρει ο Ντισκορντιανισμός, οι KLF, και όλο το background αυτών των δύο μάλλον δεν υπάρχει κάτι να δεις εδώ. Αν σ' ενδιαφέρουν, όμως, είτε το διάβασες ήδη είτε θα το διαβάσεις με το που τελειώσεις αυτή μου την πρόταση.

[Jurgita · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why?

[Alias Pending · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars - for a very, very specific audience.
There is no way for one not steeped in SLACK to appreciate this fully...
and Part 3 grew ever more opaque to even me, becoming just a string of name-drops that only a hardcore UK raver could follow.
The climax of the actual story is a throw away line in the middle of some chapter...
aside from that, it was a zany ride in a 1968 Ford Galaxie police car.

[Gerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

A third of the way through this book I thought it was going to be the best book of the year so far for me but then it seemed to lose it's way somehow. I think one of the reasons it fell away after such a promising start is that it is just a bit too long and a bit light on content and story.

However I imagine the authors had enormous fun creating it and consider it a work of art, possibly pop-art! It is clever and funny. Often clearly tongue in cheek as they throw in loads of links to bands, musicians and music related events of the past and references to world and political and religious events and people, sometimes re-writing history, sometimes putting a new slant on events or offering a 'close-to but different' almost parallel universe type view, sometimes disguised, sometimes not.

I wonder whether the book would have the same impact on those not particularly knowledgeable about the music world or familiar with the history of Bill Drummond and Jim Cauty, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu or the KLF or the K-Foundation but I guess it stands alone and no prior knowledge is required although in truth that is one of the aspects that endeared me to this book.

I am aware that I have just written a review that tells the reader absolutely nothing about the story but suffice to say it is a complex web of past, present and future events (loosely based on a second coming) where the jumbled up collection of characters, some real, some imagined, some based on real people, some animals, some dead - all have a part to play and despite the complex web of people, places and events, it is easy to follow. Despite the chaos, there is structure, a story and a finale.

So in conclusion, I enjoyed it, but not as much as I thought I would after the first few chapters. At times I felt like it was reading the NME of the eighties, a bit too intellectual and abstract for its own good! A solid three and a half stars.

[Ken Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 'Justified Ancients of Mu Mu', the writers of this uneven metafiction are in fact Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond, once members of the KLF, a band who vowed to to zip their lips for 23 years after famously burning a million pound in royalties in an 'event' on the Hebridean island of Jura, back in 1994. Well, the enforced silence is over, and our boys are back, not with music, but with some pop culture infused literature!

This trilogy purports to have been written by 'George Orwell' (who in 1948, wrote 1984 whilst on the island of Jura), a pseudonym for Roberta Antonia Wilson (referencing the male author of the Illuminatus Trilogy) whilst sequestered herself on the self-same island of Jura.

The world of 2023 is one of utopian wonder. War, want and inequality are ended under the aegis of the 'Big Five', corporations [GoogleByte, WikiTube, Amazaba, FaceLife and AppleTree], which have replaced all former nation states. And so we join with Winnie Smith and watch as the Internaet Age is undone by nothing more than an artist who calls herself Yoko Ono (in honour of the real one), and a very limited edition of a book called 'Grapefruit Are Not the Only Bombs'.

The story rolls along easily enough, though the plethora of obscure references, intertwining backstories, and a cast of hundreds, both real, imagined and doppelgangered, can be at time confusing. It is a humourous and mostly lighthearted romp, which, sadly, quite fails to land the ending. I took a star off it for that Stephen Kingish failure.

[Tronikyouth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meta meta meta

[Mike Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

23

[Jose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imposible no venerar a Bill Drummond y Jimmy Cauty, es decir, los KLF.

Empieza el primero de los libros que componen este tríptico y uno tuerce un poco el morro porque conceptos como los antiguos países/estados mercadeando su soberanía a grandes corporaciones es una cosa basiquísima de la sci-fi distópica (además de ya superada en 2016 gracias a esos instrumentos de dominación que permiten controlar todos los sectores habidos y por haber en lugar de ceñirse al ámbito operacional de una corporación, es decir, que en la fecha de escritura de este libro los megafondos tipo Vanguard o BlackRock ya habían convertido el cliché de estado-corporación en una idea anacrónica) que a los lectores pues les sacan del asunto, pero en eso que empiezan a trenzar ideas a cada cual más loca dentro de name droppings indiscriminados y a juntarlos con infinidad de narradores parlamentando entre sí y una forma muy peculiar de contar de 23 maneras distintas la historia de KLF (incluyendo una perversión en la que Alan Moore es parte de la banda) y es muy difícil no plegarse ante estos genios por sacar una obra ni de lejos perfecta pero a buen seguro sin igual en la literatura contemporánea.

El argumento, que viene a ser algo así como una parodia (y perversión) del mito cristiano del nacimiento navideño de Jesucristo, es una excusa para que KLF metan reflexiones sobre el poder del arte y la cultura popular (lo del libro que interpela a una sola persona en el mundo y "le cambia la vida" de verdad al punto de convertirle en un legionario de Alá es una metáfora brillante sobre el poder de la creación artística), y ello lo intercalan con teorías sorprendentes y fuera de la contemporaneidad tipo auspiciar y celebrar que la gente vuelva a un tribalismo extremista en cuanto a las religiones que profesan o que todos los avances en comunicación de la era de internet se anulen y se vuelva igual a un ludismo no pero sí que a algo más próximo al medievo. Bueno, que tampoco sorprende en ellos: para algo siempre han defendido el caos.

Y todo ellos regado con risas a costa del realismo mágico, la inclusión forzosa de cuotas raciales y el omnipresente feminismo de los cojones.

PD: está muy bien que aquí se destapen como fanes de Azealia Banks.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no idea what I have read. This is a trip - and involves flights of fancy that I can't even comprehend. But it all worked so well together!

Blurb:
File under Utopian Costume Drama
The supposed disappearance happened on 23 August, 1994. Rumour has it they would not appear for another twenty-three years.
2023 is a novel about world peace and the end of the internet. Its considerable cast of characters includes Yoko Ono the Elder, Yoko Ono the Younger, John Lennon (not that one), Alan Moore, M'Lady Gaga, Lady Penelope, Mister Fox, Dead Perch, Dead Squirrel, Extreme Noise Terror, Jimmy Cauty, Bill Drummond, Celine Hagbard, Vladimir Putin, Michell Obama, George Orwell, Roberta Antonia Wilson and the characters from In the Night Garden [but not as you've ever seen them].
It is not satire, but it might make you laugh. It is not crime but it might be a mystery. You may well ask: What the Fuuk is Going On? And you may finish the book none the wiser.
Built by the JAMS for Dead Perch Books
Illuminated by The 400

If you have any knowledge of 90's pop culture, the JAMs might possibly have rung a bell with you. They are Justified and they are Ancient, and they like to roam the land.... And this book, written in 2017 to reflect on what is happening in 2023, is as completely and utterly, gloriously bonkers as anything produced by the KLF. Stick on your CD copy of Chill Out, and immerse yourself into a world that defies any description. So I won't try any further. It's a trip, that's for sure.

Absolutely loved it. A fantastic keeper from #ABOS A Box of Stories, and I am so, so happy to have had this in my latest box. I think it was in the SFF box, but this work defies all labelling.

[Craig White · Rating 5 out of 5]

they very nearly imminentised the eschaton.....and it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be!
perhaps the last thing you might expect after a 23 year moratorium would be a novel. however, if you were to guess the 23 year gap was ended with such, you would be odds on to predict that it would lean heavily on 'the illuminatus trilogy'. which it does muchly! it reads in very much the same way, but i would also say that it's not essential to have read it before 2023 - just helpful. of course there are stolen characters and themes, but the jams have been guilty of a little (a lot!) larceny in the past, so you'd expect it - what'll happen after copyright has wielded it's unforgiving sword? a book with great blank passages? i don't think so. (although it has happened before with '1987-the edits'!)
literal liberties are taken with time, characters and events are involved in twisting the story toward an apocalyptic christmas t.o.t.p. conclusion, most of the protagonists supplied with a copy of 'grapefruit are not the only bombs' by one of the yokos - no, i'm not going to try and unravel things here, why spoil your fun? and it is fun, not loud out laughing fun, but fun nonetheless - i was just going to review it thus - 'what a load of shight, i loved every word', and maybe should have! it's a gripping, compelling read full of imaginative twists and insertions, and considering the authors, balanced - it's a story! drummond and cauty flit in and out of things (as characters) without any great effect on the plot, but it's comforting that they are (fnord) there! look elsewhere for facts!
suffice to say they've produced a work fitting to the hype, and an entirely appropriate end to the moratorium! maybe this is it? who knows?

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in the belief that engaging in a trilogy located in large part in the Kingsland Road area of Hackney, replete with cultural references pertaining to the 1980s and 90s through to a speculative grip on the near future could not be an entire waste of time. This book furnishes the reader with many reasons for believing otherwise.

Cultural references come thick and fast and with all the creative energy of someone trying to get four elephants into a Morris Minor (two in the front, two in the back). Anyone who lived through this period, wandering through it highways and by-ways, holding form the to the view that In the Night Garden is the only thing worth remembering so far about the 21st century, is going to ask themselves what they were up to during all these years and why did the authorities let them get away with it.

I'll give it foive....

[Gary Fowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasingly odd, this novel manages to cover a fair bit of ground. There is plenty in here for KLF fans to unpick. Set in the nearly future, this begins as a mash up of 1984 and the Illuminati Trilogy before quickly spiralling off in multiple directions. John & Yoko, Alan Moore, Bill & Jimmy, Jonathan King all make appearances and the story almost buckled under its own weight.

Luckily for us the author/s lead the reader through the many bizarre situations via recaps and continual references to the actual writing.

I enjoyed this, but I don’t know if I could recommend it to anyone else. I think in amongst the madness there are some threads about the horror of the modern world. The book that people flick through until they find a passage they understand only to then have that change their lives for instance.

Wonderful and slightly weird. This one will stay with me for a while.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The importance of literature is a big part of the KLF mythology with their origins relating to the illuminated trilogy which I have yet to read.
So when I found the hardcover for less than you pay for paperbacks today I was excited but also very interested in the book. Excited as it’s the return for the duo but interested to see how they would approach the story.
Now having read the story I have complicated feelings for this.
The good: the writing is very engaging and their satire of the year 2023 is spot on
The bad: the story feels lightweight and the use icons( of which they’re a fuck ton of cameos and people whose names are inverted) although sometimes interesting itself cannot carry a whole almost 400 page book.
Overall I feel there are great parts that overall left me with a slightly empty feeling of wanting more. Only recommend if you are a fan of the duo of which I am.

[Daniel Andreu · Rating 4 out of 5]

No se puede describir lo que es este libro, ni la experiencia de leerlo. No me quiero ni imaginar lo que tiene que ser que alguien que no se conozca más o menos la mitología absurda salida de los KLF se lea este libro e intente sacarle sentido, lo que es peor, tomárselo en serio. Esta reorganización de la cultura popular y la política de los últimos 30 años es una cosa loca que tiene en esa locura tanto lo mejor y lo peor. Lo peor es que toca tantas cosas diferentes que no desarrolla nada, y realmente tiene historias e ideas muy interesantes que estaría muy bien ver más desarrolladas, por lo que a veces frustra un poco. Pero si uno asume que el libro es así y se deja llevar, lo va a disfrutar al 500%.