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Loading... Neverwhereby Neil Gaiman
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A very enjoyable read (listen, really) — read by the author himself. ( ) One of the best fantasy books I've ever read - almost as good as the Lord of the Rings, in my humble opinion. A whole universe started and finished in a single book - Neil Gaiman for you, ladies and gentlemen! This book kept me quite entertained over the course of a week and a couple of airplane rides. It is filled with interesting characters on a mad quest through a magical London that exists in parallel with the real London. Some of the parallel city parts reminded me a bit of [a:China Miéville|33918|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1243988363p2/33918.jpg]'s [b:The City & The City|4703581|The City & The City|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266894982s/4703581.jpg|4767909]. However, this book was written first and the existence of magic adds an entirely new dimension. The concept is not entirely original, but Neil's interpretation of Alice in Wonderland / Wizard of Oz is. The situations and motivations are darker and more sinister. The writing is, on the whole, rich, amusing, and inventive. That being said, I have some complaints. This is pretty obviously a book cobbled together from another source: a television show. Scenes are presented very episodically. There are characters and situations that just come in and amuse and then leave. Are they setups for a future episode? Perhaps. I was also bothered by the inconsistency in viewpoint. The perspective is third person limited, but we get 'inside' more than a limited number of heads. In the space of just a few paragraphs, the viewpoint can reveal the thoughts of the protagonist, a companion or two, and even a minor character. Neil's writing is too good, even in this first novel, for that to be jarring. But it was noticeable. I would not recommend this as a starting point for Mr. Gaiman's work. But it is a required stop on the journey. [A note about the HarperCollins e-book I downloaded from my library via Overdrive: the formatting left a lot to be desired. There are many missing line breaks and the page formatting did not adapt well to my Nook. The latter is no doubt an effect of being a PDF, rather than EPUB. The former is not excusable.] I really should not have been as bored with this book as I was. But as often happens with Gaiman, almost everyone else but the protagonist is an interesting character, and unfortunately the reader is stuck watching the protagonist's story. And it's boring. The fantasy world is interesting, albeit far more interesting to someone much more familiar with the city of London. I didn't like how the primary female warrior's story ended, particularly since it's a story device to bring the protagonist back into the spotlight, which he doesn't deserve. Otherwise, the plot is kind of meh. The focus is more on the character interactions and real-life references than the plot, which is probably why it works more as a mini-series than as a book. I'm also really tired of Gaiman writing prostitutes as seductresses or unfortunate victims of villains (without any commentary about prostitution in general; they're just easy fridge fuel). Either do something constructive with the character or don't include them because it's just really frustrating. That being said, most of the characters are also male. If you want to read this, don't. Watch the television mini-series. It's kind of corny (I mean it was 1996) but the acting was pretty good and they made some neat casting choices. Plus, the book is based on the mini-series. It's not amazing television either, but it's more enjoyable. La construcción del Londres de Abajo, junto con toda l fantasÃa es lo que hace que Gaiman sea Gaiman.
Gaiman blends history and legend to fashion a traditional tale of good versus evil, replete with tarnished nobility, violence, wizardry, heroism, betrayal, monsters and even a fallen angel. The result is uneven. His conception of London Below is intriguing, but his characters are too obviously symbolic (Door, for example, possesses the ability to open anything). Also, the plot seems a patchwork quilt of stock fantasy images. Adapted from Gaiman's screenplay for a BBC series, this tale would work better with fewer words and more pictures. The novel is consistently witty, suspenseful, and hair-raisingly imaginative in its contemporary transpositions of familiar folk and mythic materials (one can read Neverwhere as a postmodernist punk Faerie Queene). Readers who've enjoyed the fantasy work of Tim Powers and William Browning Spencer won't want to miss this one. And, yes, Virginia, there really are alligators in those sewers--and Gaiman makes you believe it. The millions who know The Sandman, the spectacularly successful graphic novel series Gaiman writes, will have a jump start over other fantasy fans at conjuring the ambience of his London Below, but by no means should those others fail to make the setting's acquaintance. It is an Oz overrun by maniacs and monsters, and it becomes a Shangri-La for Richard. Excellent escapist fare. Is contained inHas the adaptationIs expanded inInspiredHas as a supplement
Fantasy.
Fiction.
Literature.
HTML: National Bestseller Selected as one of NPR's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of All Time The #1 New York Times bestselling author's wildly successful first novel featuring his new Neverwhere tale, "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back." Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them. And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew. "A fantastic story that is both the stuff of dreams and nightmares" (San Diego Union-Tribune), Neil Gaiman's first solo novel has become a touchstone of urban fantasy, and a perennial favorite of readers everywhere. "Delightful ... inventively horrific." â??USA Today No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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