Jeff Noon's previous novels, Vurt and Pollen, have attracted a cult following with their psychedelic science fiction creation of the realm of "Vurt"--a region defined by illusion, dream and drug-induced fantasy. Noon has now decided to link up with an imaginative precursor by introducing Lewis Carroll's Alice as the protagonist in a new adventure that draws on Carroll's through-the-looking-glass inversions of reality, and adds a Jeff Noon menace and edginess absent from Carroll's Wonderland. Alice finds herself in 1998 Manchester when she enters an old grandfather clock, and soon becomes the prime suspect in the puzzling "Jigsaw Murders." Noon emulates Carroll's crazy wordplay throughout, and even adds his own illustrations inspired by those of John Tenniel, the famous interpreter of Alice.

Asimov's Science Fiction
Noon has taken the trouble to pack every page of his surprisingly linear story with more than enough puzzles and gags to keep the wise child in all of us amused. And with the aid of superb illustrations by Harry Trumbore--a perfect blend of Tenniel, Mad magazine, Jules Feiffer, and Maurice Sendak--this book proves worthy to sit Humpty Dumpty-like alongside Carroll's classics.

From Publishers Weekly
If Lewis Carroll had sent Alice off on an adventure into the future, what might it have been like? Noon (Pollen, 1995) answers this question in his wild and farcical third novel. Puns, riddles, numerical puzzles and cockeyed literary references abound in this tale of Alice's trip through her Great Aunt Ermintrude's clock into an unlikely alternate-universe version of Manchester, England, circa 1998. Among the many strange characters Alice meets are her termite-driven, robot "twin twister," the Automated Alice of the title; Captain Ramshackle, a Badgerman and Randomologist; and a Crow-woman/scientist named Professor Gladys Chrowdingler who puts cats in boxes that may or may not render them invisible. Alice soon finds herself involved in the investigation of a series of murders. The victims are discovered with their body parts carefully rearranged and pieces from a jigsaw puzzle on their persons. Because the pieces come from her own jigsaw of the London Zoo, Alice soon finds herself under suspicion and on the run from the Civil Serpents, who themselves may be trying to cover up an even darker crime. Lewis Carroll's odd sense of humor doesn't appeal to all readers and neither will Noon's, but Noon does a fine job of imitating Carroll while adding more than a dash of his own postmodernist sensibility. Will Alice find all of her missing jigsaw pieces and return to the 19th century? Only the Radishes of Time will tell. Line drawings by Harry Trumbore. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Noon's third novel (e.g., Vurt, LJ 10/1/94) will disappoint his fans and not win him any new readers. Alice, Lewis Carroll's heroine, goes on a third fantastic journey as she travels from her life in 19th-century Manchester, England, to 1998. While dreading an upcoming grammar lesson with her dreadful great-aunt, Alice is more concerned with the whereabouts of 12 missing pieces from her jigsaw puzzle and the stubbornness of her great-aunt's parrot Whippoorwill, who will not return to his cage. Alice enters the innards of a grandfather clock in order to recapture the parrot and emerges in a confusing world where she is the prime suspect in a series of murders. In contrast to the whimsical and inspired wordplay found in Norman Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth and Carroll's two Alice novels, this novel beats us over the head with heavy-handed puns and anagrams. Never funny, never philosophical, the book just meanders on. Not recommended.?Nancy Linn Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle Perez-Reverte, Arturo.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Salon, Richard Gehr
Jeff Noon attempts something unusually daring in Automated Alice, and he almost pulls it off . . . For Noon admirers . . . it will probably provide another essential piece in an increasingly interesting puzzle.

From Booklist
Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland always seemed a bit peculiar as a children's tale. Its references to pill popping and hallucinations have made it fertile ground for pop culture parody, such as Jefferson Airplane's counterculture classic song "Go Ask Alice." British author Noon has reworked the tale for the 1990s. Set in Manchester, England, in 1998, Alice has traveled to the future through her great-aunt's grandfather clock while chasing a pet parrot. Noon adds a suite of puns to bring the story up to date, including numerous "Computermites" and "Civil Serpents." Inspector Jack Russell and "policedogmen" replace the Queen of Hearts and her henchmen. Automated Alice, an animated porcelain doll, guides Alice through her mystery world. Noon's wit even includes a Quentin Tarantula, a filmmaker famous for his violent, celebratory portrayals of criminal life. Who says the classics are no longer relevant? Ted Leventhal

From Kirkus Reviews
The author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award winner for 1994, Vurt, and its sequel, Pollen (published earlier this year), transports Lewis Carroll's Alice into 1998 and an altogether postmodern, alternative Manchester. Just minutes before her daily writing lesson with her stern Aunt Ermintrude, Alice chases her parrot, Whippoorwill, into a grandfather clock and falls down into a colony of talking termites. The termites scurry about doing computations for a Mad Hatterlike character, Captain Ramshackle. Ramshackle treats Alice to a discourse on the completely random nature of the universe and, eventually, suggests how she might make her way home: Find 12 missing puzzle pieces and solve the ``Jigsaw Murders'' that are terrorizing Manchester. Turns out there's a nefarious plot being perpetrated by the Civil Serpents (Noon is full of puns and ridiculous poetry), who keep trying to lay down order; in fact, the Supreme Snake (a.k.a. Satan) has meddled with the DNA of the populace in an effort to banish randomness forever. As a result, everyone except Alice is afflicted with Newmonia: that is, they are part animal. All of this is explained by the amusing crow-woman, Professor Chrowdingler, at the Uniworseity of Manchester, who points Alice toward the last puzzle piece, guarded by the Supreme Snake. After a mock-epic battle, Alice dives into her jigsaw holding the last piece, and hears her aunt calling: She's been gone about two minutes. Noon never does much with mathematics, as his opening scenes suggest he will, and the Automated Alice character, an alter ego of Alice that develops from her doll, is disappointing. Still, Noon's authorial intrusions are fun: A broad swipe at the vulgar ``Chimera'' sensation, Quentin Tarantula; a discussion with the author about his previous two books, which have been treated unkindly by the ``crickets''; and an appearance from Lewis Carroll himself. Charming. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description
A stunningly skewed reworking of Lewis Carroll's classic from award-winning cyberpunk novelist Jeff Noon.

From the Publisher
In the last years of his life, Lewis Carroll wrote a third Alice book. This mysterious work has only recently been discovered. Now, at last, the world can read about Automated Alice and her fabulous adventures in the future. That's not quite true. "Automated Alice" was, in reality, written by Zenith O'Clock, the writer of wrongs. In the book, he propels Alice through time, tumbling from the Victorian age to the 90s. Oh dear, that's not at all right. This trequel to "Alice and Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" was actually written by Jeff Noon, who invented Zenith O'Clock...but never mind. What Alice encounters in the automated future is mostly accidental too...a series of misadventures even weirder than your dreams. Acknowledged as one of the most exciting new authors writing today, Jeff Noon's other works of fiction include "Vurt" (winner of the 1994 Arthur C. Clarke award), "Pollen, Nymphomation, Needle in the Groove, Cobralingus," and "Pixel Juice."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

On a dull and rainy afternoon in Manchester, desperate to avoid the question of ellipses (on which her Great Aunt Ermintrude is sure to test her this afternoon!) Alice wonders instead about the twelve pieces missing from her jigsaw puzzle of the London Zoo. Suddenly - oh dear! - her Great Aunt's parrot, Whippoorwill, gets loose, and Alice pursues him into the workings of the grandfather clock, emerging in the Manchester of 1998 - a world of automated wonders and inspired nonsense with a distinctly nineteenth-century flavor. The elusive Whippoorwill leads Alice along with a series of enigmatic riddles, causing her to become the prime suspect in a series of Jigsaw Murders. Chased by Civil Serpents, confounded by mutant hybrids, sinister game-play, chaos theory, quantum physics, computermites, tickling Vurt feathers, and an invisible cat called Quark, Alice discovers, with help from her automated alter ego, in the curiousest of places in this curiousest of worlds, one after another of her missing jigsaw pieces. Not until she finds all twelve will she be able to partake of the radishes of time and return to her own present.

SYNOPSIS

A stunningly skewed reworking of Lewis Carroll's classic from award-winning cyberpunk novelist Jeff Noon.

FROM THE CRITICS

Richard Gehr

Jeff Noon attempts something unusually daring in Automated Alice, and he almost pulls it off. In his previous novels -- Vurt and Pollen -- Noon explored a near-future Manchester, England populated by tripped-out dogmen and robowomen who frolic dangerously on the boundaries of the Vurt realm, a dimension created by dreams, psychedelic drugs and storytelling. Here Noon imports Lewis Carroll's Alice into 1998 Manchester by way of a parrot that flies into a grandfather clock. She lands in the middle of a "computermite" mound and quickly becomes enmeshed in a dreamworld of distorted language and logic. This, depending upon your tolerance of whimsy, ranges from the merely precious ("It's all based on the beanery system.") to the slightly embarrassing (the minor characters include a "spiderboy" named Quentin Tarantula and the guitar-playing sculpture James Marshall Hentrails).

With the help of his own gritty, John Tenniel-inspired illustrations, Noon enfolds Carroll's universe within his own. Alice actually made a cameo appearance toward the end of Pollen as an example of endangered literary creations. Here she eludes evil "Civil Serpents" and "policedogmen" who've deemed her the prime suspect in a series of puzzling "Jigsaw Murders." Aiding Alice as she attempts to prove her innocence and return home from a land more like Blunderland than Wonderland are a cast of odd characters: the computerized twin of the title; the artist Pablo Ogden, who terms his style "Skewdism"; the quantum-based professor Gladys Chrowdingler, whose cat, as you may imagine, plays a large part in the proceedings; and the author himself, here called Zenith O'Clock. As expected, a terrifying snake lurks in the middle of Noon's garden of unearthly delights.

Noon's "Alice" update, while only slightly more anxiety-fraught than Carroll's edgy masterpieces, is immensely more self-conscious. By placing himself at the center of a Borgesian "librarinth," Noon both adds to and subtracts from his own mystique. While he has promised more adventures in the world of Vurt, Automated Alice lacks Vurt and Pollen's disquieting slippage between reality and the domain of the Other. For Noon admirers, though, it will probably provide another essential piece in an increasingly interesting puzzle. -- Salon

Times

Philip K. Dick is alive and well and living up North. Noon's writing is crazed, fragmented, and abrupt as a broken windshield.

Publishers Weekly

If Lewis Carroll had sent Alice off on an adventure into the future, what might it have been like? Noon (Pollen, 1995) answers this question in his wild and farcical third novel. Puns, riddles, numerical puzzles and cockeyed literary references abound in this tale of Alice's trip through her Great Aunt Ermintrude's clock into an unlikely alternate-universe version of Manchester, England, circa 1998. Among the many strange characters Alice meets are her termite-driven, robot "twin twister," the Automated Alice of the title; Captain Ramshackle, a Badgerman and Randomologist; and a Crow-woman/scientist named Professor Gladys Chrowdingler who puts cats in boxes that may or may not render them invisible. Alice soon finds herself involved in the investigation of a series of murders. The victims are discovered with their body parts carefully rearranged and pieces from a jigsaw puzzle on their persons. Because the pieces come from her own jigsaw of the London Zoo, Alice soon finds herself under suspicion and on the run from the Civil Serpents, who themselves may be trying to cover up an even darker crime. Lewis Carroll's odd sense of humor doesn't appeal to all readers and neither will Noon's, but Noon does a fine job of imitating Carroll while adding more than a dash of his own postmodernist sensibility. Will Alice find all of her missing jigsaw pieces and return to the 19th century? Only the Radishes of Time will tell. Line drawings by Harry Trumbore. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Noon's third novel (e.g., Vurt, LJ 10/1/94) will disappoint his fans and not win him any new readers. Alice, Lewis Carroll's heroine, goes on a third fantastic journey as she travels from her life in 19th-century Manchester, England, to 1998. While dreading an upcoming grammar lesson with her dreadful great-aunt, Alice is more concerned with the whereabouts of 12 missing pieces from her jigsaw puzzle and the stubbornness of her great-aunt's parrot Whippoorwill, who will not return to his cage. Alice enters the innards of a grandfather clock in order to recapture the parrot and emerges in a confusing world where she is the prime suspect in a series of murders. In contrast to the whimsical and inspired wordplay found in Norman Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth and Carroll's two Alice novels, this novel beats us over the head with heavy-handed puns and anagrams. Never funny, never philosophical, the book just meanders on. Not recommended.Nancy Linn Pearl, Washington Ctr. for the Book, Seattle Prez-Reverte, Arturo.

Kirkus Reviews

The author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award winner for 1994, Vurt, and its sequel, Pollen, transports Lewis Carroll's Alice into 1998 and an altogether postmodern, alternative Manchester.

Just minutes before her daily writing lesson with her stern Aunt Ermintrude, Alice chases her parrot, Whippoorwill, into a grandfather clock and falls down into a colony of talking termites. The termites scurry about doing computations for a Mad Hatterlike character, Captain Ramshackle. Ramshackle treats Alice to a discourse on the completely random nature of the universe and, eventually, suggests how she might make her way home: Find 12 missing puzzle pieces and solve the "Jigsaw Murders" that are terrorizing Manchester. Turns out there's a nefarious plot being perpetrated by the Civil Serpents (Noon is full of puns and ridiculous poetry), who keep trying to lay down order; in fact, the Supreme Snake (a.k.a. Satan) has meddled with the DNA of the populace in an effort to banish randomness forever. As a result, everyone except Alice is afflicted with Newmonia: that is, they are part animal. All of this is explained by the amusing crow-woman, Professor Chrowdingler, at the Uniworseity of Manchester, who points Alice toward the last puzzle piece, guarded by the Supreme Snake. After a mock-epic battle, Alice dives into her jigsaw holding the last piece, and hears her aunt calling: She's been gone about two minutes. Noon never does much with mathematics, as his opening scenes suggest he will, and the Automated Alice character, an alter ego of Alice that develops from her doll, is disappointing.

Still, Noon's authorial intrusions are fun: A broad swipe at the vulgar "Chimera" sensation, Quentin Tarantula; a discussion with the author about his previous two books, which have been treated unkindly by the "crickets"; and an appearance from Lewis Carroll himself. Charming.