"The Silly Quest” is the fifth novel written by Nick Mur, the fourth published in Italy by Oppure (Rome, 2005).

“In this new Nick Mur’s work all the influences and the referrals are easily recognizable and, moreover, there’s the delicious usage of the chapters, scanned by appetizing quotations which move on from Aristophanes to Chuang Tzu, from Beowulf to Walt Disney, from Anaximenes to the author himself. A typical postmodern mix, asserted in Italy with “The name of the rose” by Umberto Eco [...]. As Vittorio Spinazzola states in an article titled "The healthy crisis of Postmodernism”, this literary current indicated an effective reply to the difficulty of the past literature with the ‘spectacularization’ of the page. The novel is preceded by an introduction of the author […] where the possibilities offered by postmodernism to get out from the habitual schemes, inserting the author in a wider field, practically with no boundaries.”

ANGELA VISTARCHI            
Lecturer of American Languages and Literatures
Sassari University.        

“Rib of the cultural factory in the age of the late capitalism, according to Jameson’s lecture, Fantasy is an expressive form which instinctively joins the manifold styles of the contemporary times: from R.E. Howard’s folklore to J.R.R. Tolkien (until Dungeons & Dragons) and the Hollywoodian epic canon, here synthesized by the example of “The Lord of the Rings” by Peter Jackson; from the Japanese animes and mangas to the rock music and heavy metal, Nick Mur interprets this literary current his way, relying on the pastiche, but not getting tangled in codified taxonomies, rather releasing himself with originality from the stereotypes, for instance when he takes advantage of his autobiography in fantastic terms. Going back to the story we live a parallel and possibly absurd history. It might be defined “Murian Dark Age”. Taking a look to the pages we assist to a real cognitive reinterpretation of an hypertechnologic past, fulfilled by characters who, instead, live a confused present where the technique is no longer the ruler of the world. In the old but unfinished modernity, other writers had entrusted this sensation of transit with surreal tones, but the author seems to reach more nihilist solution, nietzscheian, hobbesian, made of power, cruelty and prevarication […].”

MARCO NEGRO    
Reviewer for Oppure Editore
Roma               

Nobody knows the present truth of the new American Dark Age. The less Jeremy, imprisoned in a life he feels not to belong to. But one day the meeting with Gotham, a dark and mysterious vagabond, turns out to be decisive to solve every enigma. But what has that man to do with the disappearance of Jeremy’s father? What are the strange creatures who bring confusion among the villages? What was it and what findings did the event called by Gotham ‘The Silly Quest’ bring to?

Resumen from the Back Cover