Gaiman - Tumblr Posts
"Oh dear," muttered Aziraphale, not swearing with the practiced ease of one who has spent six thousand years not swearing, and who wasn’t going to start now.
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman (via rhaxta)
This is totally me! Well, okay: 21 years of not swearing is sorta similar, right?
The Sandman by Jim Lee with words by Neil Gaiman
In The Language of Flowers by Kate Greenway, the American Cowslip is said to mean ‘you are my divinity’.
Book Review: Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
My Review in a Tweet:
It feels like cheating when you point out the similarities between two works then the author himself mentions a character by name, but this book truly feels like a Lewis Carroll or even James M. Barrie story. Lots of suspension of disbelief tho.
My Full Review:
I truly dislike saying this about a book, but I have finally finished reading "Neverwhere". There are a couple of reasons why it took me so long, but the main one is the constant and intentional nonsense you are forced to deal with.
The biggest responsible for that is the worldbuilding (or the lack of it): Gaiman cheats when he describes the "Londres de Abajo" (I'm guessing he named it the "Under London" in English or something like that?) as this mirror reality under London (not very subtle) that just happens to have anything the plot needs and works with simple and straightforward rules, the most important one being the owing of favors. The randomness of the characters and locations they visit constantly throws you off.
In favor of the novel, I did like the "clasic fairy tale" feeling of it, where our protagonists meet some perilous tests, fierce foes and unexpected allies. All of these also had a certain "greek myth" or "folk tale" nature to them, like the Beast of the Labyrinth or the Huntress and the Warrior.
The characters are very likeable, but they fall a little short in being fully developed or having truly great moments for themselves. "This thing happens, then this other thing happens and we are done", the characters don't seem to notice any of it or truly react to the events around them, they just stroll through the plot. Only in the ending I felt like they were experiencing real consequences of the events in the story.
It was a nice enough reading, but I don't know if I would recommend it, except maybe for teenagers. I remain curious for the rest of Gaiman's works, specially "American Gods", "Good Omens", and finishing "Sandman" (of which I read the first two volumes).
5.5/10.
My Other 2024 Readings.