Moonchild: A Prologue

I loved this terrific novel and am writing here to strongly recommend that it be read along with THE MAGICIAN by Somerset Maugham. Maugham used a barely disguised Crowley as a basis for his villian and If you read both books you are in for a special treat.

This is a novel of quality. I read this as a student at a technical college. It is a novel by the notorious Aleister Crowley about magick and the struggles between light and darkness. Once you can differentiate between fantasy magick like Dungeons & Dragons and real life magick like Wicca you should be fine. You won't find any fireballs or lightning bolts, but good, real life magickal theory. I warn you, this a novel for adults as it contains disturbing content.

Moonchild is a visionary, metaphysical novel of the highest order. Crowley provides an elegant and mysterious exploration of the realms of magick, love and psychology. Reading Crowley's book is like getting equal doses of poetry, academia and enlightenment.In the days long before The Celestine Prophecy and others, metaphysical fiction was raw and edgy but also beautiful and wondrously haunting.Crowley was many men wrapped up into one and certainly a writer of fiction worthy of the highest praise.Wherever you are you crazy shining diamond, we thank you for this book.

I've read this book at least ten times and I've never seen the name George Gamow before. This is an excellent book. If you are unfamiliar to Magick you will still enjoy it. You may enjoy it even more than I did the first time. If you are a novice I feel obligated to tell you the characters are based on real people. Edwin Arthwait is Arthur Edward Waite; you should be able to figure out the rest. Arthwait is my favorite character. His use of the English language is hilarious. This book is extremely well written and like Diary of a Drug Fiend you need not be interested in the subject matter to appreciate Crowley's beautiful writing. There are a few footnotes and some obscure names but these shouldn't ruin your enjoyment of this novel.

Tons of Magickal theory in the setting of a pretty good story. The ending was a little lax. I underlined about half of the book, so many truths, so little time....