Neverwhere

Rating:
Summary: Master of the icon
Review: Neil Gaiman understands the iconography of our modern world more deeply than any modern writer. He starts with a set of symbols we think we understand, then redefines them and presents them to us in such a stunning new light that the reader comes away wondering why they missed what should have been perfectly obvious. In this book he takes that same magic touch and applies it to the London Underground. Subway trains, we learn, hold the high court of an aging, eccentric baron. Empty rooms are bound together by magic doors and lived in by people of such high noble standing that even the angels envy them. That drunken beggar sleeping on the platform turns out to be the loyal retainer of a high prince.

After you read this book you will never again look at a subway train the same way. Neil Gaiman has mastered something few writers ever learn: ficiton changes the way we see our world.


Rating:
Summary: Good Urban Fantasy
Review: I read this book after reading Gaiman's AMERICAN GODS. I appreciate Gaiman's style and the homage that he pays to the roots of urban fantasy in his books. I did feel, however, that despite his skill he is missing something in the content of his fantasy, and that ultimately NEVERWHERE tries to do in one book and not enougth ink what Charles DeLint has done more effectively and more gradually in several books. The story and characters squashed into NEVERWHERE could easily have made three or four interesting books if Gaiman had fleshed them out a little more. Gaiman paints an interesting underground London universe in NEVERWHERE and, while I enjoyed the book, I felt that it ended before I was satisfied. There's a lot more meat there, and Gaiman has only let his readers taste a few bites of it. Keep going... I think that Gaiman's urban fantasy could rival DeLint's if he kept at it--and it would be a more modern urban fantasy minus some of the celtic mumbo jumbo that DeLint seems to think so necessary.

Rating:
Summary: Touching and Exciting--A Wonderful Read
Review: Neil Gaiman is a very artful storyteller, with just enough wit to make you smile, but never so much that it takes away from his plot or characters. In that sense, I do believe he finally outshines Douglas Adams who was always most concerned about dazzling with cleverness.

This novel is hard to put down. When you're done, you will have fallen in love with the characters and wish that there was a sequel for you to follow their continuing adventures. The style is clean and direct, the tone something like a Tim Burton production--colorful and interesting and slightly sinister.

For fans of fun stories, endearing characters and wry humor, this is for you. Also highly recommended are the aforementioned Douglas Adams and Robert Asprin.

Rating:
Summary: Thank Goodness Someone took the mantle!
Review: Feeling woeful having exhausted the Douglas Adams books and Tom Robbins, I spent time reading lesser books by lesser writers. Having read Sandman occasionally, then spreading to other "graphic" novels by Gaiman, I found Neverwhere! Humorous, intelligent and captivating!! This writer creates a story that does not leave you! You will not want to put this down, but if you must for some reason, the depth, texture and details remain so vivid that you will not miss a step when you revisit the story. Some othe readers will speak of gaps or this being a "rough draft", I challenge them! This book offers mysteries, answers, fables, intrigue and a wonderful ride! I am addicted and so pleased that he is young! More to come!

Rating:
Summary: Mind the gaps. . .
Review: In the mid eighteen hundreds, an author named Henry Mayhew traveled London's streets gathering life stories from real beggars, thieves, prostitutes and other humble folks and criminals ordinarily ignored and avoided by those outside their invisible underclass. Mayhew compiled their first-person testimonies into a huge, oral history project focusing on their degradation and the desperate circumstances in which they existed, his real life characters rivaling those in fictional works by Dickens.

Surely Neil Gaiman is paying homage to Henry Mayhew with the surname of his unassuming protagonist who explores an underworld he never realized was there before -- a thoughtful touch. And I like the blatantly expressive, funny names Gaiman has chosen, in the manner of Dickens, to suit his characters. I love the mix of subtle details and over-the-top silliness. I love the way Gaiman, without showing off by explaining too much, plants entertaining bits through the tale, and I appreciate how well the story holds together despite my missing some.

Roller coastering through Gaiman's London in Neverwhere reminds me of experiencing Mark Helprin's New York in Winter's Tale and gives me similar enjoyment. Readers who require the journey to make sense may not derive the same thrills, but I delight in the effortless ride through London Above and London Below.

The same way beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, the success of this sort of tale depends not only on readers' receptivity to the genre , but also partly what each of us brings to it, the connections and associations it has for us, just as reading the same poems may charm some readers but repel others. Of course, that's how literature generally works, but Neverwhere is especially that kind of story.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Fantasy
Review: Richard Mayhew is your average Joe Citizen - an ordinary man with an ordinary life, working at a job he finds dull. His only spark of interest is his society-climbing, domineering and snobbish girlfriend. But this ordinary man is about to be plunged into an extraordinary adventure as he, much against his girlfriends wishes, stops to help a girl who is laying bleeding on a London street.

He discovers that he no longer exists in the London he knows so well. He is now an inhabitant of "London Below" - a world that is home to the people who have "fallen through the cracks" of London Above. Amongst the world of abandoned subway stations and sewers Richard meets some engaging characters, and some more deadly than he has ever seen in the familiar streets.

The girl he has helped is Door, a young woman who is investigating the assassination of her parents. They set out together on a mission of vengeance - travelling the labyrinth of tunnels to discover who hired the assassins, before Door becomes their next victim. On the way, they enlist the help of the Marquis of Carabas, a conman who deals in favours, and Hunter, a mysterious Amazon who is hired as Door's bodyguard.

London below is a beautifully created dark world of forbidding shadows and danger. Against this dark and depressing backdrop, Gaiman creates a cast of colourful characters as our odd trio encounter the angel Islington, the Black Friars, and a rather eccentric birdman - Old Bailey.

Regardless of the fantastic settings and characters, I found Gaiman's novel to be totally believable. Richard Mayhew is a character that we all know. Perhaps one that we see in the mirror on a daily basis. And he comes form the hustle and bustle of a world that we can all relate to. We even find familiarity in the bizarre characters of London Below - eccentrics, conmen and people out just to push their own agenda.

But, above all, I found the most poignancy in the allegory of London Below. When people who don't fit our moulds "fall through the cracks" of society and become invisible - whether they be homeless, runaways or just different, all of our cities have the dwellers who are invisible to the rest of us.

Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" may not be everyone's cup of tea. However, I recommend that you buy a copy, draw the curtains, make yourself a hot chocolate and introduce yourself to the sheer brilliance that is "Neverwhere".

Welcome to London Below...

Rating:
Summary: Amazing and Beautiful..
Review: Reading this was making me feel in touch once more with the fairy tales that I had read as a child. I loved that anything was possible and that there was magic to be found in the mundane.

The one thing that I had really liked was that Richard Mayhew was a complete everyman. It made it more believable to get inside his point of view and relate to his situation. The characters were highly realized and were definately real. Door, The Marquis and Hunter felt like friends as I was reading it.

Also, Neil's writing style is just fabulous. I love that his writing is fast past. I have sat there, reading it and got through fifty pages of it without realizing how much time has passed. It is absorbing and engulfing.

Overall, a great book, possibly a classic.

Rating:
Summary: Mind the Gap
Review: Everybody traveling in London by Tube, is familiar with the loudspeaker's warning "Mind the Gap", that is the space between platform and train carriage. Reading Gaiman, "gaps" take on a much more complex meaning... People can fall through the gaps/cracks, literally, not only down onto the rails but much deeper, ending up in "London Below". Richard Mayhew, a young man with nothing much happening in his life, is an unlikely Samaritan. Still, when confronted with a choice he follows his charitable instinct and assists a wounded rag girl he finds lying in the street. To save her from her apparent killers he goes on a quest and from this moment his life turns into a rollercoaster of discovery and danger.

"Neverwhere" is a brilliant yarn of life in the underbelly of the city, with shady human characters, speaking rats and special "guides". There is more than one reality for sure. In London Above, Richard and the rag girl, named appropriately "Door", can be seen but not recalled beyond the moment. The real-life maze of London underground tunnels, hidden passageways and dead ends provide the existent, yet twisted, backdrop to the story. Time and distances have no meaning. The names of tube stations acquire new relevance: the Earl resides at Earl's Court, the black Friar monks are in Blackfriars and Islington is an Angel. Following Door and her unusual companions, Richard discovers the limits of his endurance. He has to question his existence and reality. While his desire to get back to his normal life keeps him going, his chances to shake loose from the shadowy underworld increasingly appear to diminish...

The novel, which expands on Gaiman's successful tv production, is a great read, whether you know London or not (yet). His style is fluid and engaging, his characters are very much alive and moving the various layers of intrigue along at a good pace. [Friederike Knabe]