Book Reviews

By Alan Moore & David Lloyd

A true classic, though surprisingly obscure and hard to get a hold of two decades after its beginning, V For Vendetta stands as an example of Moore's writing genius, as well as his early mistakes. While a thoroughly enjoyable, intelligent, and thought-provoking comic, V doesn't hold a candle to Moore's epic masterpiece, Watchmen.

V tells the story of an anarchist trying to re-ignite a free society in a totalitarian British regime left after a global nuclear war. There are many inventive details of the society, but I was disappointed in Moore's reliance on concepts borrowed from other bleak fictional futures, namely, 1984, as well as real events. I felt the fascist society was too similar to Nazi Germany. I felt it was too evil, too clearly wrong, and as such did not produce sufficient moral dilemmas for the reader. One of Watchmen's great strengths was that it left you wondering if the actions of the villain were justifiable for the greater good. It had a much more robust commentary on ethics, technology, and social satire.

Sadly, a simple flaw exacerbates the unreality of Moore's future Britain - an easily avoidable flaw common in post-apocalyptic future scenarios. The story, written in 1981, is set too close in the future, 1998. This is often excusable - nuclear annihilation seemed much more probable then, of course - but too many details ground the story in a specific time and just turned out to be drastically wrong. Of course no writer can predict the future, but some of the best science fiction writers have come eerily close, as in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Huxley's Brave New World. By dealing in generalities and not setting a specific date, these classics are even more relevant today. Likewise, though 1984 does have the aforementioned problem eponymously, no other part of the book dwells on a certain date or recent technological trend, focusing more on timeless psychological ramifications of the eradication of independent thought. The scariest regimes come about slowly through increasing public ignorance and apathy. Sudden takeovers by fascists seem much more isolated and doomed to failure, at least in this genre of harsh futures.

However, Moore's well-known strengths in plot and characterization mostly balance the shortcomings in the social description. His characters, as always, are likeable and believable. The story was originally serialized in six-page segments, making for easy reading and concise plot events with many cliffhangers and dramatic revelations, and plenty of subplots, too.

Overall, the book is quite enjoyable as an exciting story. But its depiction of a bleak totalitarian state - however relevant and intelligently-written - dates the book and has already been done.

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