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Summary: Fantastic Book!!
Review: This book was great! It is true, as one of the other reviewers said, that the characters lack depth. But so what! It was still a fun read...and if I wanted depth, I could read Dostoevski! I am delighted to find another author of this calabre..I no longer have to wait for Powers, de Lint, and Blaylock. There is a new voice in fantastic lit!
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Summary: Magic
Review: "Neverwhere" is a wonderful story full of magic in all the places you would never think to look. I picked up the book mainly due to the inscription by Tori Amos on the dust jacket; I wasn't disappointed. It is likely that I missed a lot of the subtleties stemming from the many London references, but still...I don't think I'll see New York (or any city for that matter) in quite the same way again. At one point in the story there is a wonderful exchange between the marquis and the team of Croup and Vandermar: "What," asked the marquis de Carabas, a little more rhetorically, "does anyone want?"
"Dead things," suggested Mr. Vandemar. "Extra teeth." For me, I guess the only other thing I would want is for this story to neverend. Randy DeVita
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Summary: An exquisite world right under your feet
Review: An incredibly delicious book....You can't help but read it multiple times, trying to savour every second, every minute, every syllable.
I had been a long-time Sandman fan, and this novel proved to me that Gaiman's talent can translate very easily into regular prose. A must read for everyone!
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Summary: Gaiman's creative energies births another fantastic story
Review: Gaiman constantly impresses me with his wit and humor. Neverwhere was a fantastic book with clever twists and turns. I strongly recommend it to anyone who has ever enjoyed one of his books.
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Summary: This book changed my life, Neil Gaiman is a god
Review: After I read this book I began to worship Neil Gaiman. I carved a little statue of him out of a elephant's tusk and step up an altar for the man that should rule the world. I have read "Neverwhere" thirteen times since I got it last month and it is the greatest. Neil Gaiman is my hero. I want to go up to be just like him. If I every met Nail Gaiman I would get down on my knees and start kissing the ground that he walks up, for it IS SURELY BLESSED!! And for all of you that think I have been reading Neil Gaiman since he came out with Sandman, I will prove you wrong. "Neverwhere" is the only thing I have read from him. I haven't even read Sandman or Good Omens. "Neverwhere" is the greatest book of all time.
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Summary: London meets Mordor in Neil Gaimon's enchanting first novel.
Review: In this fabulous and fantastic first novel (I mean both of these terms in their literal sense); Neil Gaimon has created a seperate world unike any since, perhaps, Fritz Leiber's "The Sinful Ones". He relies on present day London for his canvas, rather than some long ago and far away land of fantasy; and his palette is filled with some of the most colorful and remarkable characters in recent memory. There's someone here for everyone to relate to. From the swashbuckling if slightly tattered Marquis de Carabas (my personal favorite), to the haunted and hunted waif, Door; there are thieves and ghouls and monsters and vampires galore, along with an endearing cast of secondary characters. The main protagonist, Richard Mayhew, is a bumbling dork who accidentally falls into this enchanted land; and the primary antagonists, the Mssrs. Croup and Vandemar, are the most evil pair of villains since the two who locked Pinnochio into a bird cage. This is a great first novel whose cinematic qualities will have everyone playing casting director as the story unfolds. I personally am hoping for a whole series of Neverwheres to take me back into the bowels of London as soon as possible.
Ray Schmitz III
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Summary: Too much walking on the surface...
Review: I found myself turning the pages but being disappointed at the lack of depth. The characters are just that-characters and not "living" people. It is a good read and I loved the concept. If you like to stay on the surface of things-read it
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Summary: Neverwhere reminiscent of Crowley's Little, Big
Review: I first heard of Neil Gaiman in 1989, when I picked up issue #6 of Sandman. Sandman(and his Miracleman stint)turned me into enough of a Neil Gaiman fan that I started looking for his other efforts. I read Good Omens and was briefly diverted and I read the Goldfish thingie and was genuinely charmed. So I was thrilled to discover Neverwhere, his first solo novel. I found it very readable, while not what I would call original. The character of Richard Mayhew was too much like Arthur Dent from Hitchhiker's, and, like someone else here observed, the plot was a bit derivative. While reading the first chapters, I couldn't help but think of another novel dealing with alternate worlds, John Crowley's Little, Big. In Little, Big, the doors into this other world(the realm of faerie), can be opened by members of a certain family. In Neverwhere, Door's family does much the same thing, moving back and forth between the two worlds. The title of the book, Neverwhere, echoes what Crowley's characters call Faerie--"elsewhere." Architecture plays a major part in Neverwhere, though not as much it does in Little, Big, but still, in both books it's the means of traveling back and forth between the two worlds. Crowley's book is much deeper, though, much more dense. I'm not accusing Gaiman of stealing ideas--maybe he's never even heard of John Crowley. I'm just sharing with the group what this book reminded me of--in a good way. I like Little, Big, I like Neverwhere. I'm glad that Gaiman has written his first solo--maybe with a little more practice, he can put out something that can hold a candle to what he accomplished with Sandman.
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Summary: "Neverwhere" worth the trip
Review: There's a certain kind of story that I'm a sucker for, the story of average people with average lives getting sucked into a world of magic and the supernatural. Its the subject of many bad movies on cable tv late at night, but when its done well it can't be beat for entertainment value.
Neil Gaiman has been a favorite of mine since I discovered "The Sandman" several years ago, so I jumped at this novel as soon as I saw it. The premise of this book is not terribly original, it combines elements of Tim Powers' "The Anubis Gates", Christopher Fowler's "Roofworld" and many a classic quest novel (there are repeated references to "The Wizard of Oz" among other things), but the execution is deeply satisfying.
Gaiman makes it seem so effortless, its not until you've finished the book that you realize what a great story he has pulled off. I particularly liked the concept of Earl's Court as a travelling subway car, invisible to the up-worlders going about their business on the same train.
But what really makes this novel work is the characters, the hapless hero Richard, young Door, the mysterious marquis and Hunter, and two of the most unforgettable villains you will ever meet. I cared what happened to them all. I hope Gaiman will return to this world in future novels, as Robert Holdstock did with "Mythago Wood" (also highly recommended).
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Summary: A nice counterweight to the average summer-light fare
Review: I truly enjoyed this book, both for its form and its substance. I had never heard of Gaiman, but picked up the book while browsing at a local
bookseller. (Publishers take note - its prominent placement at the store and its attractive cover caused me to pick the book up and read the first few pages. Intriqued, I purchased the book.)
The idea of a dark underworld co-existing with our own - yet generally invisible to the casual or well-heeled inhabitant of this world- works on a couple of lvels. It works as a literary device which allows us to examine the dark side of our own existence, yet without being challenged directly. It also works as a statement, albeit understated and perhaps unintended, of the real subterranean existence of many of us.
(As a native New Yorker, there is a relatively large group of people living in abandoned subway tunnels, etc. who generally pass through this life either unobserved or ignored by us mere commuters) Although, many have compared Gaiman's work to Douglas Adams. I thought a comparison could be made to Jack Finney, author of Time and Again and other novels (I believe he also did Night of the Living Dead) and stories which involved time and space. If you liked Gaiman - I think you would like Finney. Finally, after reading this book, I "surfed the net" and discovered that this had been a t.v. serial. I saw pictures of the cast. It was not what I had imagined when I read the book and created my own mental images of the characters. I wonder whether or how my impressions of the book would have changed if I had these visions implanted for me (as happened with Hitchhikers Guide).
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