Some books are fantasy classics that everybody knows about, whether they’re into fantasy or not, and many of them have an unread copy gathering dust in a long-forgotten corner of their bookshelf. And then there are fantasy classics like Steve Moore’s Somnium, which was originally published to critical acclaim back in 2011 and deserves to be far better known than it is. But I’d make a bet that anyone who owns that first edition returns to it so frequently that there’s no need for dusting.
That hopefully gives you some idea of how much I love this book, and how delighted this writer is that Strange Attractor Press has reissued it in such a gorgeous new paperback edition, with the author’s short chapbook Sketches of Shooter’s Hill (a quick journey through the South London topography of the novel) as a neat little addition at the back.
Somnium is about so much that it’s impossible to synopsise. It’s a story that begins inside the fevered imagination of a 19th century author who has withdrawn to an inn on the outskirts of London to write his book, the tale of an Elizabethan courtier who finds himself at a crossroads (just like the author) and then inside the dream citadel of Diana Regina, where his discovery of a fabulous library makes him (and the author) suspect that someone in the distant future may also be writing and manipulating all their fates. It’s a Moebius strip of a novel, a glorious swan-dive into the dreamscapes of occultism and paganism, an invocation of the Goddess, a love story to the moon, a playful analogue of time travel and the multiverse, and a lyrical and occasionally heart-breaking deconstruction of the creative process. It is also, at its most basic level, a genius retelling of long-forgotten mythology (the courting of Endymion by the moon goddess Selene).
Steve Moore, who unfortunately passed away in 2014, was a titan on the UK comics scene. As a writer, he was at the very beginning of 2000 AD and Doctor Who Weekly, and his association with (and nurturing of) a new talent called Alan Moore has become a story of legend. In fact, Steve Moore wrote the novelisation of V for Vendetta, the film based on one of Alan Moore’s most famous comics.
When people who don’t understand the comics scene look down their noses at the quality of its writers, they would do well to read Somnium and their opinions will quickly change. It’s a shame that Moore didn’t write more novels, but at least he wrote Somnium. It is an extraordinarily beautiful and powerful masterwork, and extremely highly recommended.
SOMNIUM (EXPANDED EDITION) / AUTHOR: STEVE MOORE / PUBLISHER: STRANGE ATTRACTOR PRESS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
