Neverwhere
December 30th 2006 03:11
Like I said before, Neil Gaiman is a freak. A complete one, and only in the very best way.
Neverwhere shows off alot of Gaiman's very good tricks. He can invent a fairytale (again, like I said last time, I mean the old style full of sex and blood type fairy tales, not the safe for children versions) world, drop the reader in it, wrap that world around them, intoxicate them with it and leave them wanting to see more and more of it.
Neverwhere is set mainly in London below, a place where Barons and Earls rule the train systems, where magic is intrinsic and fey. Where everyone knows when and where the next Floating Market will be, even though they don't know who decides it. IT is a place of horrendous, oppressive nightly darkness and of a Hunter with a caramel smile (that was my favourite metaphor from the book by the way).
And like all of his work, I can't tell you alot about the plot without spoiling the whole book. Suffice to say it is as twisted as a corkscrew (or Homer Joyce on a good day), stunning as a tonne of bricks, and as original as existence. The main characters are Richard Maybury, an accountant from London above who dooms himself with an act of charity, the Lady Door, the Marquis de Carabas and a whole host of interesting good guys. The bad guys though, are hilarious. If you've read Terry Pratchett's "The Truth" or watched Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, you'll have a general idea of their dialogue.
Suffice to say brilliant. But I do have one small complaint against Mr Gaiman, which is also a complliment. Like I said, he creates these beautilful, mystifying worlds that you completely lose yourself in for a few days and then will never go back to that world. AARRRRRGHH!!!!!
Going to buy me a copy of Anansi Boys very soon though. Can't find the copy of Tandia I borrowed.
JZ
Neverwhere shows off alot of Gaiman's very good tricks. He can invent a fairytale (again, like I said last time, I mean the old style full of sex and blood type fairy tales, not the safe for children versions) world, drop the reader in it, wrap that world around them, intoxicate them with it and leave them wanting to see more and more of it.
Neverwhere is set mainly in London below, a place where Barons and Earls rule the train systems, where magic is intrinsic and fey. Where everyone knows when and where the next Floating Market will be, even though they don't know who decides it. IT is a place of horrendous, oppressive nightly darkness and of a Hunter with a caramel smile (that was my favourite metaphor from the book by the way).
And like all of his work, I can't tell you alot about the plot without spoiling the whole book. Suffice to say it is as twisted as a corkscrew (or Homer Joyce on a good day), stunning as a tonne of bricks, and as original as existence. The main characters are Richard Maybury, an accountant from London above who dooms himself with an act of charity, the Lady Door, the Marquis de Carabas and a whole host of interesting good guys. The bad guys though, are hilarious. If you've read Terry Pratchett's "The Truth" or watched Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, you'll have a general idea of their dialogue.
Suffice to say brilliant. But I do have one small complaint against Mr Gaiman, which is also a complliment. Like I said, he creates these beautilful, mystifying worlds that you completely lose yourself in for a few days and then will never go back to that world. AARRRRRGHH!!!!!
Going to buy me a copy of Anansi Boys very soon though. Can't find the copy of Tandia I borrowed.
JZ
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