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Summary: i love this book!
Review: When i got to the end of this book, i didn't want it to be over. This is great storytelling at work, a mixture of fantasy and reality, horror and humor, that ought to convert anyone to gaiman fanship. I recommend this book to anyone brave enough to take the trip with Richard Mayhew through London Below, and experience this wonderful book. I have re-read it several times, and it is always with me.
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Summary: Visit a part of London you've never seen
Review: OK, so I've never been to London at all... but I don't think that matters. The world that Neil Gaiman has created is so vivid and teeming with exceptionally well-drawn characters that I never wanted the book to end.In a way, it's like every other adventure story before it - "The Hobbit", "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", "Alice in Wonderland"... the protagonist's physical journey parallels some emotional or spiritual journey and is marked by an intense desire to go home -- to have things be the way they used to be. We know, of course, that that's never the case. A million stories have been written along these lines. So, why is this one any different? Maybe it's the wry humor. Maybe it's the clever dialogue. Maybe it's the characters who are so outlandish, yet so real at the same time. Maybe it's the twists and turns. Or maybe it's the villains -- Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandermar -- a pair of baddies who are so perfect in every way. They are the villains you've always wanted to root against, and they say the most perfectly nasty things at exactly the right time. I found myself grinning often. And the story never slows. As soon as chapters ended, I wanted to start the next. I can, without reservation, recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy or adventure stories. It's like a fairy tale for adults. One that I will undoubtedly return to again.
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Summary: Master at work
Review: Neil Gaiman got me hooked with his Sandman series. I'd say that he is one of today's most gifted writers. The way in which he creates a tale is amazing. Characters come to life like few other authors can do, and the atmospheres he creates are astounding. Neverwhere is no different. Gaiman weaves a tale that mixes reality with fantasy, putting a fantasy world directly within the world of London and its underground. The story is written so well, that you start to wonder if maybe it's more true than we'd think. I had only one complaint about this book, it got over too soon. Gaiman's writing makes the time spent reading fly by.
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Summary: How I fell in love with Mister Croup and Mister Vandemar
Review: There's a bit of the bogeyman in Mister Neil Gaiman. He likes to play, not by just scaring us a little, but making a bit of mockery along the way. In Neverwhere, he succeeds perfectly. Richard, our Everyday Everyman, slips into the world of The Lost, where time bends and memories flutter and whirl about with a life of their own. This neverwhere of the title is London Below, a kind of fairy-tale-land inhabited by all sorts of people, places, and things, and believe me, they are the antithesis of our everyday hero. But what does a man do when he is wandering (running too) around in the shadows, fighting not only for his sanity, but his life? Well, for starters, he hopes he does not meet Mister Croup and Mister Vandermar. I fell in love with these two horrible hitmen. After all, they were so polite, so English, so dedicated to their work. I wanted to sit down and have tea with them, though I imagine, sitting down with them would mean having my hands and feet tied, and my tea, ever so sweetly mixed with some mysterious and slow, slow-killing poison. Well, they are a loveable twosome in some nice sort of twisted way. Richard fights the good fight and yes, well, I won't spoil the end. Let's just say, the fairy-tale-land London Below is a lot more fun than the London Above and this is where our Mister Gaiman really says something important about our modern lives. He understands why I, a plain Jane from the Nowhere, could fall in love with Mister Croup and Mister Vandermar, and why Neverwhere seems so terribly inviting to me. I want to lose myself among The Lost, too! This is a wonderful, fantastical novel that speaks to the resistence in all of us who feel we are stuck in a modern wasteland of consumerism and pop culture icons. [Where are Croup and Vandermar when you really need them? Hopefully, they are now working in New York and Hollywood.] Tea anyone?
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Summary: 20,000 Leagues under the City
Review: Although I expected this book to be a devolved version of Gaiman's marvellous "Sandman" world, I was delighted to find a completely different story. All the Gaiman hallmarks were there - elaborate but satisfyingly logical mythology, flashes of hilarity, voracious evil and stumbling, frightened good - but the secrets of London Below were thrilling and almost always unexpected. The bad guys were gruesome, the good guys self-interested, and the division engrossingly unclear. Richard Mayhew, the Everyman and our guide to London below, was far less irritating than his role would suggest, and Gaiman managed to avoid the trap of having the locals explain everything to the reader through Richard, though sometimes only barely. The few times that Gaiman's vision faltered were, unfortunately, very obvious, and these few clunky moments tended to occur at moments that should have been climactic rather than annoying. Gaiman's fantastical London and its ragtag denizens are the real attraction of this book, and the occasionally laboured plot is a small price to pay for the visit.
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Summary: Want to be a Writer - Read this Book
Review: Neverwhere is a kind of fun and fantastic adventure through a London we've never seen. It's the London Below, where those who've slipped through the cracks end up, and one man's (he from the "normal" world) journey as he winds up in this world. And despite all the enjoyment with the characters and the wonderful story that takes us everywhere, it's Gaiman's own enjoyment which comes through the pages. One impression I get as a read this book was Neil Gaiman every now and again sitting back while at his computer and laughing at some small element of story or wording or character that came out and how fun it was. Example - while walking through some rather thick London fog, the main character coughs, and says, "Sorry, fog in my throat." Short, funny, and fun. A nice pun that I think had Gaiman laugh for a moment. I think he had a blast writing this book. And those who want to write will love this book. It's inspirational in that it reintroduces you to having fun with the craft of storytelling. Fun with your characters as they surprise you, fun with your setting as you see where it takes you, and fun with your story as you see what happens next. Reading this instantly made me want to run off and write my own stories, merely for the sheer fun of it. Merely to have as much fun as Neil Gaiman seemed to have had with this.
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Summary: Different
Review: This book provides it's reader a great deal of unusual characters and scenarios like in "Alice in wonderland", only not that cute. Neil Gaiman creates an unreal world beneath our real world and does it keeping balance, in the story, between both of them that gives the author so many possibilities to write a story in wich the reader can not guess what's gonna happen as he turns the pages of this incredible book.
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Summary: Fiction or Reality?
Review: This book, in my opinion, is one of the best books I have read that has ever come close to sounding as if it were actually based on a real person's experience. I thought that this book was written very well, and I especially liked the parts that told of the main character's experiences underground. Ever since I finished reading this book, I began to wonder if, somewhere, maybe an underground world truly does exist. :)
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Summary: A wonderful tale of losing and finding oneself
Review: Neverwhere is another masterpiece by Neil Gaiman, who takes the reader and shows him just how deep down the rabbit hole goes. For the main character, Richard Mayhew, his trip to London Under is a confusing and harrowing journey that nearly ends his life on a matter of occasions, but for the reader it is a magical journey that explains those little things that we just catch in the corner of our eyes on dark nights. This book has it all: humor, drama, comedy and even some horror. Throw in the villian and some betrayals and you have a rollercoaster of a good time. Highly recommended!
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Summary: Alice in Neverware
Review: As many reviews have said, this is a modern day Alice in Wonderland with a darker side. Gaiman's graphic novel backround really shine in this comicbook-esq fairytale. I was captured very early into this novel but the unique, cartoonish characters and setting. This tale never lets up as it propels you down into a dream world and holds you tight until it spits you out into the unexpected ending. This is the type of book that makes remember why you loved those bedtime stories as a kid. If done respectfully, this would translate into one heck of a movie. I am very much looking forward to reading Gaiman's other novels.
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