Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

NEVERWHERE

ISBN - 9780060557812
FIRST PUBLISHED - 1996
PAGES - 370 (Paperback)
GENRE - Fantasy
PUBLISHER - William Morrow

AUTHOR - Neil Gaiman

SYNOPSIS - Under the streets of London there's a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits him down here, beneath his native city: Neverwhere.

QUOTES - 

• You've a good heart. Sometimes that's enough to see you safe wherever you go. But mostly, it's not.

• I have always felt that violence was the last refuge of the incompetent, and empty threats the last sanctuary of the terminally inept.

• So the day became one of waiting, which was, he knew, a sin: moments were to be experienced; waiting was a sin against both the time that was still to come and the moments one was currently disregarding. 

• So many things to see, people to do.

• Can't make an omelette without killing a few people.

FL Speak - 

This was my first Gaiman book and truth to be told, I'd need to read a few more of his before I join his exclusive cult.

Neverwhere is a pretty straightforward story. Anyone who says otherwise needs to read more books. God gave Gaiman an idea and he turned it into Alice in Wonderland. Although, I'd say I liked Alice more. Richard, our protagonist and odd hero, really got on my nerves. I got dead tired of his whining and wondered if I should simply skim his parts. Well, as it turned out, he's almost in ALL the pages. That pansy, crybaby!

Enough of that. Neverwhere introduces you to London Below. A shady place beneath the roads of London where time works differently. London Below is not a place of evil, however you'd find all sorts of people and things (yes, I said things) living in the dark. It also has some fantastic places, like a Floating Market which never opens at the same place again. And then, there are metro stations that actually live up to their name. Earl's court is actually a court and Angel station is (no points for guessing it)

By far, the strength of this book lies not in the plot (which was completely obvious), neither in the god awful humour. It lies solely on the characters. Gaiman has done some wonderful magic on the characters and they shine throughout the book. Except for Richard, of course. Door is good, the twins who look nothing at all like are better but Hunter and de Carabas are the real ones you should read about. They steaaaal the show. I really wanted/wished for one of them to kill Richard and proceed on with the story. That would've been so much better.

So we have a Gaiman book, world building which is fantastic, a plot which is extremely predictable and characters you'd hate to love and vice versa. So what's missing? I'll tell you what's missing. The finale is missing. The answers are missing. The whys and hows are missing. The ending was a gigantic piece of shit. It's like Gaiman got tired of writing the book and suddenly had to be somewhere else. So all we got is a haphazard finale without tying it off. You ask me, what's not tied off? Read the book sweetheart. If you finish it, we can go through Q&A later.

I'd really want to read another book with Hunter or De Carabas in it. Or even Door. Just to placate my curious mind about the shitstorm this ending left behind.

RATING - 3/5

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

American Gods


Publisher: William Morrow
ISBN: 0380789035
Genre: fantasy fiction
Pages: 656
Bestsellers: Stardust, American gods


Nightflier Speaks: 
When I moved to America, I took my gods with me.* A ganesh idol, a sai baba photo, an om shaped incense stand. Strange how we travel/move into new places with our beliefs. How we plant our beliefs in the lands we live or locate to. Out of the holy places that I visited during my stay there, I remember visiting a few cathedrals. But America is populated by people of mixed races belonging to different cultures and lands. What is the true myth of America? What is the unified deity that the people who have 'settled' there believe in? Pray to ? Hope from? I have never thought about it personally.


Neil Gaiman's American Gods, though a story about our 'melancholy' hero Shadow and his weird life on the surface, deep down tackles the same question. It is in search of America's soul, its roots. Through the beliefs of the people who live in that land. At no level it raises questions about the reader's belief in god or the 'myth'. It is so unassuming. Its point is to tell the mythological history of America in its own quirky way.


The book opens in a jail, travels all across America, with Shadow and Wednesday (the king of gods), tells you of an impending storm, of a war, introduces you to the most weird folk gods, most of whom reside there through African tribes and the Indians. All this is interspersed with folk lore and tales from the past, manifestations of beliefs and devotion. And the current state of affairs in the land of opportunities. The technology revolution, the worship of credit cards and liquid money and material gratifications. Of course all this is very subtle with allusions so fresh, that Gaiman's imagination does get to you.


Somewhere along the way I also thought about why isn't Shadow reacting to any of the weird things happening to him. Why aren't all these gods and their existence bothering him. But as the book progressed and characters developed, I realized it's all in the belief. If you believe you will react. If you did not it won't matter to you. May be. And since Gaiman manages to play with your psyche as well, for not letting you wander about the mere authenticity of the plot, I think its a writing triumph. There are many subplots and subtexts to the allegories. And its all open to interpretation depending on your belief.


A very not so ordinary read. One of Neil Gaiman's finest. Apparently a lot of research has gone into this book. To not read it will mean missing out on that research at least!


* Of course what I truly believe in is something not suitable for the book review. But I do carry my beliefs (gods) wherever I roam.


Added as a postscript: the ebook I read also had excerpts from the online journal of Neil Gaiman. For anyone who is into serious fiction writing should go through it for the author's creative process. Quite a fun read! (added this after I read it)

Rating: 5/5
Price: 215 Rs. {flipkart}

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Anansi Boys


First Published: 2005
ISBN: 0-06-051518-X
Pages: 451
Bestsellers : Stardust, American gods


Synopsis:
The god Anansi is dead. Now its upto 'Fat Charlie' his only son, to fill the gap of 22 years of no contact and mourn. But 'Fat Charli' is not alone in the mourning. He has a brother, who enters his life to turn it upside down.


Nightflier Speaks:
Anothe Neil Gaiman book. Another 'bizarre meets a normal guy's life' plot. How uncanny the book could be right ? With these thoughts in my head, I picked up the book.
To my surprise and delight, despite a cliched, contrived plot, Neil Gaiman gives you a riot and a fun fest. The book is so quirky and fast paced, that it never bores you. It keeps on surprising you with its genius subplots.
So before I overdo it with my praises, let me explain the plot to you.


'Fat Charlie Nancy' has grown apart from his father Anansi (Nancy from Anansi!) because of his embarrassing ways (who was a god in his life). Upon hearing of his death, Fat Charlie's fiancee (an eternal do-gooder) forces him to make his peace. On his trip to Florida, for the last rites ceremony, he learns that his dad was a god and he has a brother, called Spider. Of course like a normal human being Fat Charlie does not believe in such absurd revelations. Through some turn of events, Spider comes to meet Fat Charlie. Not only does he bring along chaos, he totally disrupts the order of life for poor Charlie. Charlie then sets out to straighten his life. As expected he does something so wrong that now everyone must face the consequences. The 2 brothers despite the differences set out to make it all right and pay an homage to their father.


This book, strengthened my belief in the story-telling being more important than the story itself. Mr. Gaiman brings us Anansi, the spider god, who is full of mirth, mischief, but never any bad intentions. The book creates that vibe. You do not feel morose even in some particularly bad situations the characters are in. In fact you look forward to everything coming along brightly. I think that is a story telling #win. Not just that I loved how a really quirky carribbean folk god has been brought to life and also how the story follows the monomyth.


Also, literature wise, I love how words just flow for Neil Gaiman. Not sure if this is great literature or not, but the book is so inventive, it does not disappoint.


It doesn't fail in any department - characters and character development, plots, subplots, tying the loose ends, and most importantly FUN.
I am feeling unusually cheerful and full of life (despite being overloaded at work). That is what Anansi (or any god?) does to your mood, I think ?


All in all a total mad-gab-riot-fun book! 


- #NeilGaimanFangirl


Excerpt:

It begins, as most things begin, with a song.

In the beginning, after all, were the words, and they came with a tune. That was how the world was made, how the void was divided, how the lands and the stars and the dreams and the little gods and the animals, how all of them came into the world.

They were sung.

The great beasts were sung into existence, after the Singer had done with the planets and the hills and the trees and the oceans and the lesser beasts. The cliffs that bound existence were sung, and the hunting grounds, and the dark.

Songs remain. They last. The right song can turn an emperor into a laughing stock, can bring down dynasties. A song can last long after the events and the people in it are dust and dreams and gone. That's the power of songs.

There are other things you can do with songs. They do not only make worlds or recreate existence. Fat Charlie Nancy's father, for example, was simply using them to have what he hoped and expected would be a marvelous night out.

Rating: 5/5

Price: 285 [flipkart]

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere

ISBN: 0060557818

Pages: 372

Publisher: William  Morrow and Company

Genre: Fantasy fiction

Bestsellers: stardust, American gods

Synopsis:

To those living on the world 'above' there is a London 'below' full of interesting, shocking, magical and cruel secrets. And on a fine evening just like that Richard Mayhew's life changes, for better or for worse, when he stops existing in the world 'above' and gets exposed to the world 'below'

Excerpt:

She had been running for days now, a harum-scarum tumbling flight through passages and tunnels. She was hungry, and exhausted, and more tired than a body could stand, and each successive door was proving harder to open. After four days of flight, she had found a hiding place, a tiny stone burrow, under the world, where she would be safe, or so she prayed, and at last she slept.

Mr. Croup had hired Ross at the last Floating Market, which had been held in Westminster Abbey. "Think of him," he told Mr. Vandemar, "as a canary."

"Sings?" asked Mr. Vandemar.

"I doubt it; I sincerely and utterly doubt it." Mr. Croup ran a hand through his lank orange hair. "No, my fine friend, I was thinking metaphoncally -- more along the lines of the birds they take down mines." Mr. Vandemar nodded, comprehension dawning slowly: yes, a canary. Mr. Ross had no other resemblance to a canary. He was huge-almost as big as Mr. Vandemar -- and extremely grubby, and quite hairless, and he said very little, although he had made a point of telling each of them that he liked to kill things, and he was good at it; and this amused Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar. But he was a canary, and he never knew it. So Mr. Ross went first, in his filthy T-shirt and his crusted blue-jeans, and Croup and Vandemar walked behind him, in their elegant black suits.

Nightflier Speaks:

Neverwhere started as a fantasy fiction series on BBC. And during the show's transmission the creator Neil Gaiman, not too happy with its perception, started writing the novel. After re-writing it twice and making it suitable for non-londoners we have a book  whose cover aptly reads 'Author's preferred text'. I was recommending the animation movie Coraline to a friend when I looked up Wikipedia and read that its based on a Neil Gaiman story. I was hooked. Googled some more and that's how I ended up ordering Neverwhere.

The tale starts perfectly normally for Richard Mayhew, who is leading the most normal life in London 'above'. When one fine evening he encounters lady door and is sucked into the life in London 'below' eventually. Now they must venture on a journey together to solve some mystery and get Richard's normal life back! With exciting characters like, the Carabas, the hunter, cruel people like Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar , magical beings like the Angelus and rat speakers, the book is full of vivid imagination.

Moreover if you have ever been to London or are a Londoner, London will never feel the same to you. With all the allegories for places in London 'below' the book hits the creepy button inside your head. The author uses his rich imagination and weaves the plot around the place beautifully. And the book has magic. So there! The characters feel very real and the book is full of 'British sense of humor'. Thus the book keeps you engaged on several levels apart from very good storytelling.

A must read for fantasy fanatics!

Rating: 4/5

Price: Rs. 599 (Crossword)