Customer Reviews
messed up X-rated episode of Dr Who - By: deadmanjones, 13 Jul 2006 
It's been a while since I read Vurt, Jeff Noon's first novel of Manchester set 'cyberpunk' but, even with my memory, I can guarantee that Pollen is far more messed up than its predecessor. A through the looking glass tale involving various forms of inter-species breeding (human-dog, human-corpse, human-plants),in which the zombies live near Alderley Edge. However,in its modernising / continuation of traditional myths this has a lotin common with Alderley Edge's Alan Garner, who I'm sure would approve of the prominence of John Barleycorn.
This is the most messed up X-rated episode of Dr Who never made.
The Vurt fights back - By: dogbarkssome, 01 Feb 2006 
Following the huge success of his debut novel ‘Vurt’, it came as no surprise that Jeff Noon’s second novel would turn out to be a sequel. Fortunately, instead of a cynical ‘more of the same’ book, ‘Pollen’ is the very best type of sequel, where the novel takes the under-explored ideas from ‘Vurt’ & develops them further. In the first novel the vurt is introduced as a shared dreamscape filled with bizarre fantasy, &in this novel the inhabitants of this imaginary landscape start to invade reality itself. The background for the virtual reality dreaming of the vurt itself was always skirted overin Noon’s debut novel, but ‘Pollen’ pulls off the tricky task of giving the reader more information while preserving the dreamy fantasy feel. Another good example of the books development of ideas isin the explanation as to the background of the Shadow-creatures – characters completely unexplainedin ‘Vurt’, but here given a startling origin concerning the mating of the living & the dead under the influence of a hyper-fertility drug gone mad. Filled with fantastic imagery & evocative writing, ‘Pollen’ is a sequel that matches the brilliance of its predecessor. Highly recommended.
Blurred Reality - By: Simon J. Whight, 13 Aug 2005 If there is one thing I love about Jeff Noon novels it is his ability to take two things from opposing ends of a spectrum & mix them together. Humanity meets animal, organic alongside machine, traditional detective thriller meets fantasy, everyday mundane normality twisted into the dreamlike future. Pollen highlights this blurred reality to great effect, almost as if viewed through the eyes of a bleary hayfever sufferer.
As with most of Noons Vurtual universe, Pollen is setin the near future of Manchester, initially starting out as a bit of a detective romp, following the bizarre hayfever like deaths that build up through the novel. Once again there is a fantastic sense of pace to the book that sees you tumbling through the pages to devour 'just one more chapter' as the countdown to the big sneeze ticks on down. As you progress further throughout the book, the grim reality of the Manchester that it is setin becomes more & more separated from reality as our group of main characters head towards the big showdownin the fantasy domain of John Barleyman.
I love the fact that the Vurtual books can all be linked together, Noon has created a Manchester with a unique identity. Unified through dreams, Alice In Wonderland & the Looking Glass Wars, the mysterious lubricant company Vaz. Everything has a purpose & a history that one book may hint at & another may unfold. Take Vurts central theme of the mysterious dream feathers & how Automated Alice twisted take on Alice In Wonderland gives the history as to where the dreaming originates from.
This is one for underground culture to lap up. References to the modern day underground, be it music or the slightly dark side of our lifestyles today, will hook youin & the pacy, satisfying excitement of the books will have you lapping up each of the booksin turn. Its a shame that I've not seen anything from Noon for a while, am hoping the Vurtual universe will be expanded some timein the future. If you're new to Noon, best place to start is Vurt, but if you've been there & are looking for more, the quality carries on through this & Nymphomation. Completists will have to pick up Pixel Juice & Automated Alice to fill youin on those little questions that have been naggingin the corners of your mind.
Unreal - By: Kate, 28 Nov 2004 Even though this book stands alone it is helpful to have read Vurt which will get you used to Noon's unique writing style & also the slightly queasy world he writes about. It also helps to share Noon's fondness of Manchester. I love the fact that the city seems to be the only constant as reality & dreams mingle.
The vivid characters such as Boda, a cabbie with an all over tattoo of the streets of Manchester, & her dalmation boyfriend, Coyote find themselves fighting against the Vurt, dreams that want to take over reality. The strands of the story come together linking the Shadowcop Sybil & the prirate DJ Gumbo with Boda & Coyote as they try to get into the Vurt & stop the invasion of Persephone & her murderous flowers: there aren't many writers that could make flowers terrifying.
The only critism I have is that towards the end the story gets very confusing & I had to retrace my steps several times to understand what was going on. But I still enjoyed it, not least because some of the weird & slightly disgusting stuff from Vurt is explained.
total drivel - By: Teacher, 21 Jul 2004 
I bought this book based on the blurb on the back as it sounded intriguing. What the blurb doesn't tell you is how completely inane the characters & plot are. It is absolute rubbish unless you happen to like completely unbelievable fantasy.
