A couple of weeks ago, Angry Robot Books published the latest magical contemporary fantasy novel from Jeff Noon: Moon Over Brendle. Already very well-received, the publisher has provided CR with an excerpt to share with our readers (in case you need any more convincing to give it a read). Before we get to that, though, here’s the synopsis:

The Dust tells the story…

1968, Lancashire: It is Joe Sutter’s last summer before going to secondary school. His world is like ours but beyond and beside what we know is Greot; a vast swirling rainbow of many-coloured dust. It settles on the dead, it swathes cities and fields. Joe is one of the few who have the gift of always being able to see it. But no one knows what Greot is. Is it the trillion-eyed god? The history of everything told grain-by-grain? Prophecy? The magic of creativity?

Joe can’t know; all he wants to do is draw comics and listen to music. Then one day, after climbing up to the ancient tower on Brendle hill, he meets an old writer of pulp SF books who is determined to pass on the power and joy of telling stories. And everything changes.

Decades later Joe is a successful SF novelist, and the time has come to tell his story, not only of how he became a writer but also how the secrets of the dust were revealed to him, one grain at a time.

And now, on with the excerpt…