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Summary: science fiction?
Review: It is hard to categorize an author like Jeff Noon, but this book seems to move further from science and fiction and more into fantasy. About half way through I thought "this is just getting silly". I think I prefer an edge of reality in my sciece fiction that was missing from this title. ..yes Vurt was a good book and I think the sense of mystery it maintained allowed the bizarre world portrayed to keep its consistent feel. But Pollen offers incomplete, and implausible explanations or lack of explanations for things better left unsaid.
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Summary: Pollen: Jeff Noon's Idea Farm
Review: Jeff Noon's Pollen is an idea farm waiting for harvest. It begins with the energy and promise of Vurt, but never commits to the story it started. It progresses by layering every possible scenario up to the last minute, cramming ideas into the final third that are never explored to their potential. Jeff Noon writes his books on a continuum, each referencing the others and the author in a witty entanglement. Unfortunately, at times, Noon's style of weaving references convolutes and denies the story it's climax. Pollen is a fair read and full of interesting ideas each awaiting its own novel. For now, Noon's other books execute his ideas more aptly. Still, a wild, fun read and for Jeff Noon fans a necessary, sometimes tedious one.
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Summary: Too Disjointed for Me
Review: Noon is a well-known English sci-fi writer, and his wild imagaination is on full display in this surreal blend of cyberpunk, science-fiction, drug haze, surrealism, and Greek myth. Unfortunately, it came across as a little too much of too many things to keep me involved. In a Manchester of the future, the barriers between the real world and the dream or "vurt" world start to break down as an insidious pollen begins to reduce almost everyone to sneezing, sniffling wrecks. It all gets far too phantasmagorical for me.
Rating:
Summary: Too Disjointed for Me
Review: Noon is a well-known English sci-fi writer, and his wild imagaination is on full display in this surreal blend of cyberpunk, science-fiction, drug haze, surrealism, and Greek myth. Unfortunately, it came across as a little too much of too many things to keep me involved. In a Manchester of the future, the barriers between the real world and the dream or "vurt" world start to break down as an insidious pollen begins to reduce almost everyone to sneezing, sniffling wrecks. It all gets far too phantasmagorical for me.
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Summary: blinding
Review: Noon manged to draw me so into the book I couldn't stop reading it - every page kept me turning to see what would happen next. All pre-concieved conceptions of dreams and reality were thrown into dis-array - no book has made me want to take up writing more than this one. I only hope all his books are this good :-)
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Summary: Pollen, it's great.
Review: Pollen is Jeff Noon's second trip to the world of Vurt, and it is a worthy successor to the modern classic. With enough lightly veiled references to his previous novel to keep fans happy, and a story line that you can go away humming. So, the 64 million dollar question, is it a better book than Vurt? No. Sorry. It starts well, but the ending just loses its edge. So, better than 99% of the books out there, yes. Better than Vurt? No
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Summary: Different can be good.
Review: This book goes in a very different direction from its prequel, Vurt; although Vurt was a high-speed page-turner, and is still one of my very favorite books, Pollen may be higher in intellectual content. The references to the John Barleycorn story are quite fascinating, and we get a knew perspective on the Manchester of Noon's imagination with its zombie-filled hinterlands, and the trucks of Vaz that cross the wilderness. I also love Noon's prose. In Pollen, he abandons the hipster sing-song of Vurt in favor of more flowing, sensuous lines, and unforgettable imagery.
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Summary: Complicated, but fascinating story.
Review: This book is a sequel to Jeff Noon's first book, Vurt. I found Pollen to be very interesting and full of new and exciting adventures. However, it did get a little complicated with too many characters.
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Summary: Great read for the first 200 pages
Review: This book was great in the first 200 pages, but it is a 300 some odd page book. It started out fast paced and addicting just like Vurt and kept that way for more then half the book, but for the end sequence it just didnt get me like vurt did. I really did enjoy this book i just wish Noon would have ended it sooner and didnt drag it on the way he did. Still a great book and i recomend it highly just because Noon is an amazing writer and it is worth reading just to see his words leap off the page and swim in your mind.
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Summary: Pollen
Review: This is a very good book. Everbody who wants to read it has made a good decision. But it's not the best book to start with. To get inside of Noon means to start with Vurt and then you automatically go on. You can do this best by reading Pollen. It's a sneezing expierence. Every second the pollen count is rising and by that your mind seems to vanish into the VURT. Be prepared and have some handkerchiefs at your side. Just read it. Du/Du
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