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What's New
Review Features
S - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
Complete Listing
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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)
Collections (S/F)
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| The Classics |
Bradbury, Ray (S/H)
Burgess, Anthony (S)
Tolkien, JRR (F) |
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| Neal Gaiman |
| Author Information |
Reviewed Books |
Other Books |
| Notes: Gaiman is also the author of several
comic books, including the Sandman series |
Neverwhere
American Gods |
Coraline |
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Our Ranking Neverwhere is one of those
novels that doesn't really seem to have a genre. I've heard the style referred
to as "urban fantasy" and I guess that fits. Basically, it is a very fantasitical
book, but is set in a more modern setting, in this case, today's London. King
Rat by Mieville and even a lot of Clive Barker's stuff fit this mold but Neverwhere
probably threw away the boundaries more than any of them. This story really wouldn't
be a story without the superb setting Gaiman created. As I mentioned, the time
is today's London, but with one incredible twist. Basically, below London lies
a parallel world where all a whole subculture dwells and mostly just tries to
survive. This London Below is a sinister, very dark world that more or less twists
the meaning of London above. Each seemingly innocently named tube station or corner
takes on a whole new meaning down below. Gaiman does a terrific job, especially
in the new takes of all the tube stops. (While, it isn't necessary to know London
to enjoy this, it certainly helps a great deal. It just seems to make it more
intimate) Gaiman truly creates a fantastic world for his story to flourish in.
A world that is incredibly dark and filled with even darker characters. Mr. Croup
and Mr. Vandemar certainly take the trophy for the best characters here. Always
paired together, they are just plain evil, but the writing and characterization
of them is far from plain. They are so incredibly, well, aloof I guess is the
best word, that it makes their casual violence that much more addicting. I'd probably
have to put these two in the top 10 villains category. After them, Gaiman creates
a terrific surrounding cast around the main character. The Marquis is incredibly
interesting and dark enough you never quite know his motivations. Door is pretty
fascinating in her own right. The only one drawback is the main character, Mayhew,
that this cast surrounds. Maybe it's just that Gaiman has no real interest in
the real life London, so Mayhew becomes less interesting, but whatever the reason,
he was the weakest character and a bit annoying. However, this is just a slight
hit and certainly does not detract from the story. Overall, the story itself was
fairly well written. The plot is full of twists, action packed, quite violent
and very fun to read. The style itself was a bit choppy at first, but Gaiman really
seemed to gain steam the more and more he got into London Below. The writing seemed
a bit off, and not quite as narrative as you are used to seeing in a book, but
to me that really seemed to be a little of the comic book writing left in Gaiman.
By the ending, this book was really clicking on all cylinders and was very tough
to put down. I certainly enjoyed this read, and will be grabbing another one of
his shortly, probably American Gods. |
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| Our RankingFirst off, Happy Holidays to
everyone. Hope everyone is happy and healthy and getting plenty of books to read
for '04. Now for the review...American Gods is my second novel by Gaiman, lent
to me by my best friend (the same guy who lent me Neverwhere and House
of Leaves..draw your own conclusions). I'd been looking forward to this one after
reading the thoroughly enjoyable Neverwhere, so maybe my expectations were a little
too high. To me, this was a frustrating book: completely filled with potential
but then never quite hitting the ball out of the park. I have to admit, this is
a tough review to write. I've flipped the rating from 3 stars, to 4 stars, to
3-5 stars about 10 times each. Gaiman really makes terrific leaps as a writer
in this one. Gone are the comic bookish descriptions and choppy writing. Instead
you have a very well written novel, loaded with some powerful (and bizarre) imagery.
You also have a flat out great concept to build the story around. However, even
with all of this, the story itself is flat and seems to drift back and forth to
what turns out to be, not a great ending. First, as I said, the concept of the
story is a great one. Basically, Gaiman creates a modern day America, where old
Gods from the different immigrants, colonists and explorers that stumbled onto
America over its life, are alive, wandering around the continent. Most have them
have been forgotten, and lost their followings, but they are unable to leave.
A few, still have pockets of followers, but all of them have fallen from the alters
they were once placed on. In there place are the new Gods, the internet, credit
cards, highways, etc. and the new Gods are growing impatient with the old guard's
existence. From this impatience comes the main plot which is the old Gods, led
by Odin, are trying to survive a coming war with the new Gods. In the midst of
all of this, is the main character, Shadow who Odin has picked out (reasons unknown)
as his personal bodyguard. Shadow suddenly finds himself thrust into a world he
never knew existed, surrounded by powerful Gods on both sides of the war...and
isn't even fazed by it. Shadow is one of my issues with the book. He is so incredibly
not emotional, takes everything much too for granted, that he really brings nothing
to the story. He just plods along, letting everything happen around him, and even
when he does make decisions (including some incredibly painful ones) they seem
unfounded. This could be one of the reasons the story lacked so much too. The
story really doesn't seem to have an anchor. It is driven by Odin and Shadow wandering
about, gathering the troops waiting for the war. As a reader, you are just brought
scene to scene, and unfortunately a lot of these scenes do not really add to the
plot. Overall though, (and this might sound like a contradiction) the writing
itself is very well done. The descriptions and the character interactions are
very well written, they are just describing something that lacks a story. This
novel, almost felt like it could have been a spectacular short story, but when
its stretched out to a novel, it just didn't carry. Despite that, I'm still very
curious about what Gaiman will do next. The talent is obviously there, and Neverwhere
shows he has the ability. This might have just been a step sideways. |
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