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Science Fiction & Fantasy |
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Neverwhere: A Novel
written by Neil Gaiman
Studio : Harper Perennial
by Harper Perennial
Release Date : 2003-09-02
Publisher : Harper Perennial
Released : 2003-09-01
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780060557812
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 572 reviews)
List Price : $13.95
Our Price : $6.96
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Product Description |
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Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinarylife, 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. |
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Americancivilwar.com Review |
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Neverwhere's protagonist, Richard Mayhew, learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished. He ceases to exist in the ordinary world of London Above, and joins a quest through the dark and dangerous London Below, a shadow city of lost and forgotten people, places, and times. His companions are Door, who is trying to find out who hired the assassins who murdered her family and why; the Marquis of Carabas, a trickster who trades services for very big favors; and Hunter, a mysterious lady who guards bodies and hunts only the biggest game. London Below is a wonderfully realized shadow world, and the story plunges through it like an express passing local stations, with plenty of action and a satisfying conclusion. The story is reminiscent of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but Neil Gaiman's humor is much darker and his images sometimes truly horrific. Puns and allusions to everything from Paradise Lost to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz abound, but you can enjoy the book without getting all of them. Gaiman is definitely not just for graphic-novel fans anymore. --Nona Vero |
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a cheap and deplorable cash-in by the talented Mr. Gaiman |
Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. Unfortunately, he has a little problem; he's got a successful career in multiple mediums, winning awards and selling millions of copies of his novels, comics, and now films. This has led to the translation of EVERY work of his having a planned adaptation into other mediums. Neverwhere was a nice little low-budget BBC miniseries, and it worked well as that. It was basically Sandman-lite, but it had its charm. Now, since Gaiman has proved himself as a competent author of comics, novels, and scripts, it also HAS to be a book and a comic series. Similarly, Stardust was a nice novel, and it got a great movie. Now, there is a comic adaptation on the way, even though it was already an illustrated novel. WHY?
Encouraging his behavior by buying it in multiple forms is going to kill Gaiman artistically: rather than coming up with new material, we will be flooded with translations of the same old work over and over again. Case-in-point: his failed script for a children's cartoon series, Interworld, was published as a half-baked 180-page children's novel, with poor grammar and poor editing, in hardback for $14. Luckily, I borrowed it from a friend, because had I bought it, I would be infuriated.
Don't humor Gaiman in his artistic constipation; he's a GREAT author. Sandman, Mirrormask, Good Omens, these are TRUE CLASSICS of their genres, and the man has the potential to change film, comics and literature, if he only continues to create original content. If we allow him to coast in his career by simply cashing in on his already made franchises, he will fail to make an impact. True fans of Gaiman, stay away from this, and all other remakes of his work. |
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perfect |
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This book arrived well before the expected date and was a great buy. I will be buying from them again. |
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I didn't buy into it at all. |
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I watched the superb Hellboy Golden Army film while I was reading this so so novel, and it really hammered in my dissatisfaction with this book. This occured because of the wonderful underground world that was created in Hellboy if not by Del Toro, then the person who wrote the original graphic novel. The whole London Underground thing which ties the names of tubestops to characters is absurd and ridiculous. Imagine if Neil Gaiman were not a household name (sort of) but a first time novelist trying to pitch this story to Tor publishing. He would be thrown out within seconds. Luckily Gaiman has a wonderful imagination and is a gifted writer so all is not lost. But lame is really the best word I can come up with to describe the whole plot. I loved American Gods and Stardust, but Gaiman is definitely hit and miss in my book. |
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There and back again |
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All London office worker Richard Mayhew tried to do that evening was help a damsel in distress, but he got more - way more - than he bargained for. Neil Gaiman has spun another magical mystery tour from the elements of the mythological quest paradigm. Underworlds, eternity, horrific beasts to be slain, labyrinths, immortality, heroes and antiheroes - it's all here in modern form, but nothing crucial really changes, does it? Reading this book is like watching a movie in your head. And through it all, the hapless Richard discovers a well of personal courage that he never thought existed. A timeless tale of humanity's existential search told anew, skillfully written and highly recommended. It's a trip! |
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There. |
Neverwhere is a fantastic story and won't disappoint most Gaiman fans. Although Neverwhere is full of 'twists,' I wouldn't recommend this book to someone who enjoys stories solely for their surprise endings. The 'twists' in Neverwhere are somewhat predictable--to the point that I find myself wondering whether Gaiman meant for Neverwhere to be surprising in the first place, or, if so, whether surprising readers was at the top of his agenda. I've concluded that it probably wasn't: there's so much more going on in this book.
The way Neverwhere is written is interesting. It's almost like a history textbook that fictionalizes London's past and present and is authored by Neverwhere's characters (charismatic murderers, to name some), all of whom refer to themselves in the objective third-person. Similar to the way most history textbooks about most places are written, really. Except, way more entertaining.
And I loved Richard's ordeal. SPOILER: Richard's ordeal *wasn't* predictable, for me. When Richard walked through those doors, I expected some horrible Inferi to jump out and tear him to shreads and confirm that Rowling jacked her ideas from this book completely. But, no. I was wrong. Richard ends up experiencing a reality in which he's a crazed homeless man on the verge of suiciding. This is one of the most poignant, suspenseful moments in Neverwhere, and it seems to have something to say about the plight of the homeless and the calousness, disdain, and apathy with which they're received by those who are more fortunate.
I also appreciate that Neverwhere isn't about Richard hooking up with this girl or that, yet it is about love and compassion for others.
A good book. Definitely worth reading.
My favorite passage:
"...[Door] began to cry, in low, raging sobs, that sounded like they were being tugged from inside her.
"'There. There,' said the marquis de Carabas, awkwardly, patting her shoulder. And he added, for good measure, 'There.'"
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