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2023: A Trilogy Hardcover – August 23, 2017

4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 243 ratings
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“What the Fuuk Is Going On? ―a question you may soon be asking yourself in amusement, smiling and shaking your head." - Pitchfork Well we're back again, They never kicked us out, twenty thousand years of SHOUT SHOUT SHOUT Down through the epochs and out across the continents, generation upon generation of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu have told variants of the same story - an end of days story, a final chapter story. But one with hope, even if the hope at times seems forlorn. The story contained in this trilogy is the latest telling. Here it is presented as a utopian costume drama, set in the near future, written in the recent past. Read with care.
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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Faber & Faber Social
  4. Publication date
    August 23, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    6.02 x 1.02 x 9.21 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0571338089
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0571338085
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Well we're back again,They never kicked us out,twenty thousand years of SHOUT SHOUT SHOUTDown through the epochs and out across the continents, generation upon generation of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu have told variants of the same story - an end of days story, a final chapter story. But one with hope, even if the hope at times seems forlorn.The story contained in this trilogy is the latest telling. Here it is presented as a utopian costume drama, set in the near future, written in the recent past.Read with care.

About the Author

The Scream is a painting by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. The Scream is one of the five most famous paintings in the world. The Scream was painted in 1893. In the background of the painting are two men dressed in black wearing black top hats. These two men were the then representatives of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. The current representatives of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu are Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond. The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu are many things. The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu are also known as The JAMs.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Faber & Faber Social; Main edition (August 23, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0571338089
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0571338085
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.02 x 1.02 x 9.21 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 243 ratings

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The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
243 global ratings
best band ever with a good sense of humor
5 Stars
best band ever with a good sense of humor
i haven't read it yet, but i am excited to. they said they would return in 23 years and here they are! i anxiously await the 2nd and 3rd part in in the trilogy if they make enough money from this one. best band ever with a good sense of humor! turn up the strobe!
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Top reviews from the United States

michael gonzalez
5.0 out of 5 stars Very, very 23
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2021
Verified Purchase
This book has more 23s than any other book I’ve read in the last, oh, I don’t know, 23 years.
4 people found this helpful
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psychic vinyl
5.0 out of 5 stars best band ever with a good sense of humor
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2017
Verified Purchase
i haven't read it yet, but i am excited to. they said they would return in 23 years and here they are! i anxiously await the 2nd and 3rd part in in the trilogy if they make enough money from this one. best band ever with a good sense of humor! turn up the strobe!
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psychic vinyl
5.0 out of 5 stars best band ever with a good sense of humor
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2017
i haven't read it yet, but i am excited to. they said they would return in 23 years and here they are! i anxiously await the 2nd and 3rd part in in the trilogy if they make enough money from this one. best band ever with a good sense of humor! turn up the strobe!
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7 people found this helpful
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Brian Parker
4.0 out of 5 stars What is Art?
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2017
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If you're reading these Amazon reviews, you're probably (like me a little while ago) familiar with the KLF (aka The Timelords, aka The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu), their music, and their performance art. If not, you'll certainly miss a lot of references. But even familiar with them, you might be wondering: can they write a novel?

This book is full of references, blatant and oblique: Robert Anton Wilson's Illumnatus! trilogy is there in big flashing lights, along with a few other books; tons of politicians and celebrities and companies, barely aliased; the authors themselves, or at least, alternate reality versions of them. I'm certain I missed a ton. As a conventional novel, it's unsatisfying... one of many similarities with the Illuminatus! trilogy. Every character is alternately sympathetic and terrible. Narrative arcs go unfinished or fizzle out. There is little insight, and no moral is handed to you on a silver platter.

But in the thrashing of the characters, their foolishness and fatalism and conceits, you're encouraged to ask (and answer) your own questions. The nature of "Art," transience, the human condition... even if you don't get the myriad references, there's enough here to get your brain working on some philosophical questions. Is that enough for you?
18 people found this helpful
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Unhappy Pink Lady
3.0 out of 5 stars Arrived in unexpected condition.
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2021
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I already know I will love the book,,,
But the shape of the book jacket and the book itself was unbelievably AWFUL.
The book jacket is ripped in 4 or 5 different places.
The right side of the pages look like the book has been read by several people with large, very dirty hands.
I would readily accept (or purchase) another cover.
One person found this helpful
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MinistryOfHauntology
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2017
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Interestingly, this book took exactly 23 days to be delivered.
30 people found this helpful
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D. Limey
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2017
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I am amused.
10 people found this helpful
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Teresa Janz
1.0 out of 5 stars Chaotic
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2021
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Very disjointed, hard to follow. Sounds like the ramblings of a dedicated recreational drug user.
One person found this helpful
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Charlie F
2.0 out of 5 stars Love the KLF
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2017
Verified Purchase
Literally... WTF is going on?

Love the KLF. Longtime fan of the music, the art, the mythology and the chaos they Kreate. That said, I couldn't make heads or tails of this and, frankly, gave up. I got the interweaving of old friends (Gimpo) and influences (Wilson) and all of that, but the gender swapping and time swapping and language swapping and geography swapping and on and on left my head reeling. I want to LOVE this, and I appreciate the craziness of it all (because that's what B&J do)... but measured as an entertaining read, I just couldn't keep up. Maybe I'll come back to it sometime when I'm willing to put more effort into it, vs. a casual read.
21 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Wierd but neat for a KLF fan
Reviewed in Canada on April 1, 2019
Verified Purchase
This is one odd book, but I liked it. It took a while to arrive, but I think that was a publisher things more than anything. If you like the KLF then check it out.
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Alaran
5.0 out of 5 stars The religion of doubt
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2017
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The musical output of The KLF (and associated acts), particularly their Stadium House anthems, was a chaotic fusion of multiple styles and genres that somehow all came together perfectly in a cleverly ordered structure. This book is constructed in a similar way. It forms a smorgasbord of philosophies and political concepts thrown into an eclectic mix of literary styles that, somehow, just works wonderfully.

Set in the eponymous year, ‘2023’ looks back over recent future history, ie the next few years in real terms (something Ford Timelord might possibly describe as ‘timey wimey’). Within this parallel dimension history the exploits of Drummond and Cauty in the worlds of art and music are retold and re-envisioned multiple times, with many of their acts attributed to others such as The Beatles, the Utah Saints and former KLF collaborators Extreme Noise Terror. The inclusion of Discordianism and the recurring figure 23 are inevitably scattered about throughout the whole work as might be expected.

It is a mixed utopian dystopian ‘history’/account of the near future serving as treatise on the balance between order and chaos. In this way, it acts as a critique on the modern world/modern life; challenging what is happening in society in the present day.

This is an incredibly difficult novel to attempt to review. I certainly wouldn’t consider pretending to know what it is supposed to all mean or what its message is (and, I expect, nor could anyone, even Drummond and Cauty). The truth being (most likely) that there is no one message and meaning and no intention that there should be. But everyone should find at least something within its pages to make them think.

Aside from that it is written with great intelligence and wit, proving to be a highly entertaining read. Furthermore, it is not imperative that you need to be a fan of The KLF or the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu or any other personas of Drummond and Cauty to find this enjoyable or intellectually stimulating. Although obviously the more you know of the fascinating exploits of The KLF, the more in jokes and references you’ll find.

Hail Discordia.
13 people found this helpful
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Craig White
5.0 out of 5 stars Phew! They Damn Near Immanentized The Eschaton........
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2017
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.....and it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be!
perhaps the last thing you might expect after a 23 year moratorium would be a novel. however, if you were to guess the 23 year gap was ended with such, you would be odds on to predict that it would lean heavily on 'the illuminatus trilogy'. which it does muchly! it reads in very much the same way, but i would also say that it's not essential to have read it before 2023 - just helpful. of course there are stolen characters and themes, but the jams have been guilty of a little (a lot!) larceny in the past, so you'd expect it - what'll happen after copyright has wielded it's unforgiving sword? a book with great blank passages? i don't think so. (although it has happened before with '1987-the edits'!)
literal liberties are taken with time, characters and events are involved in twisting the story toward an apocalyptic christmas t.o.t.p. conclusion, most of the protagonists supplied with a copy of 'grapefruit are not the only bombs' by one of the yokos - no, i'm not going to try and unravel things here, why spoil your fun? and it is fun, not loud out laughing fun, but fun nonetheless - i was just going to review it thus - 'what a load of shight, i loved every word', and maybe should have! it's a gripping, compelling read full of imaginative twists and insertions, and considering the authors, balanced - it's a story! drummond and cauty flit in and out of things (as characters) without any great effect on the plot, but it's comforting that they are (fnord) there! look elsewhere for facts!
suffice to say they've produced a work fitting to the hype, and an entirely appropriate end to the moratorium! maybe this is it? who knows?
4 people found this helpful
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Fire Dragon
4.0 out of 5 stars A Book of Two Halves (*****/**)
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2019
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When I started reading this book I was hooked. The prose was top notch, the characters and settings were intriguing, and the plot moved at a good pace. But this was the KLF and they have a habit of self-destruction, and this book slowly imploded into a mess of tangled plots, with too many ideas, and trying too hard to be original. I think the book was mainly Bill Drummond's, rather than Jimmy Cauty's. If Bill ever decided to write a good novel, without trying to be too clever, too anarchic, he could write something brilliant - the opening chapters clearly demonstrate this. If the book had continued with the quality of the first 100 pages or so, I'd easily have given it five stars. The second half though I'd give two stars. Overall I'm being slightly generous in giving the book four rather than three stars. (Three and a half is perhaps more accurate, but at school we were always told that halves should be rounded up.)
5 people found this helpful
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MR H.
3.0 out of 5 stars A must for KLF followers
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2023
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Ever since their beginnings in the late eighties, the KLF have always been more about ideas and concepts than the finished product. This is evident in this novel as much as their other work, be it rave pop or conceptual performance art.

The book is bursting with ideas, and gives a fascinating glimpse into the cultural influences, ideas and mythology that run through the duo’s work. In terms of storytelling, it’s not great and leaves you wanting more. But the shear volume of ideas going on still makes it an entertaining read. For anyone who wants to delve further into the thinking behind this legendary band this is a perfect insight into the minds of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty (with a lot of references to them collaborating with Alan Moore, did he help them write it?). It’s an ideal companion piece to John Higgs’s fantastic biography which gives Bill and Jimmy their own pleasingly weird voice in the KLF legend.
One person found this helpful
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