Neverwhere: A Novel
by Neil Gaiman
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Book Reviews of Neverwhere: A Novel
Book Review: London Below isn't rock bottom, but I bet you can see it from there.
Summary: 1 Stars
There are hundreds of reviews here summarizing the plot of `Neverwhere,' so I'll cut directly to my opinions.
The main characters are tired archetypes. Richard is the average guy (er, bloke) out of his depth, and then there's the sexy female fighter, the orphan girl with strange powers (who is also sexy), and the sarcastic and selfish mercenary-type. Secondary characters are introduced and often killed a chapter later with no impact upon the plot or the emotions of the other characters or the reader.
Gaiman's dialogue can be excruciatingly precious, in a poor imitation of Douglas Adams' style, or it can be aggressively corny: a villain's shout of "You're [bleeping] dead!" is a real clunker.
My understanding is that Gaiman adapted this novel from his TV series of the same title. If so, this is probably why there are extensive descriptions of the sights of London Below - I'm betting there were certain visual devices from the series that Gaiman didn't want to sacrifice in the adaptation. Either way, his descriptive passages are long-winded and strike me as one of several tactics designed to artificially stretch the novel to its 400-page proportions.
The most irritating of these tactics to me as a reader is the mile-a-minute referencing of creatures, alliances, places, secrets, etc. that are never explored, explained or ever mentioned again afterwards. When Richard (quite understandably) inquires about these mysteries of London Below, he is almost always told that the subject in question is "something he's better off not knowing about." A few references of this type would give this world some color, but they come so thick and fast that I can only conclude Gaiman had no intention of fleshing them out. This level of laziness borders on antagonistic to the reader.
There are some cool ideas in here that warrant exploration. "Undercities" around the world apparently harbor legendary monsters - but where did they come from? Lots of magical trinkets and powers appear, but with little to no explanation behind them they're reduced to a string of deus ex machinas.
I was interested enough to finish this book, and I did genuinely want to know how the story ends, but `Neverwhere' so deeply flawed that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I can see why some of its qualities - the episodic nature of the storyline (as noted by another reviewer) and the excessive descriptions of its settings - may have helped make Gaiman's name in comics/graphic novels. But long-form prose is not his medium: the stilted plotting and lack of character development cause me to agree with the reviewer who likened this to fan-fiction.
Book Review: Good, but not as good as I expected - 3.5 stars
Summary: 3 Stars
As a fan of dystopian literature (Brave New World and The Handmaid's Tale in particular), I was drawn to Gaiman's creation of an alternate universe beneath London. His story begins when his protagonist, Richard Mayhew, discovers a young girl on the side of the road. After bringing her to his flat and helping her get back to her world, he discovers that he no longer exists in London Above, the London he has always known. Instead, he can only be seen or heard by those living in London Below, a dank, dangerous, and unpredictable world. With the companionship of Door, the girl he aided, Richard embarks on a perilous journey to discover who hired assassins to kill Door's family and to find his way back into existence within London Above.
Having seen this novel on many lists and read dozens of raving reviews, I expected to get sucked into Gaiman's universe, unable to leave until I finished reading. While I certainly enjoyed the novel, I read through it at a relatively leisurely pace and, until I neared the end, had little trouble putting it down. Gaiman's story is unique, darkly humorous, and at times gruesome enough to make me shudder, but I suppose it leaves something to be desired. London Below is an interesting place, but it is also confusing, maze-like, and definitely an underdeveloped part of the story. While at times it exists in the sewers, literally beneath London, most of the time it is more of a parallel world to London, containing the same places in another dimension. Perhaps this was Gaiman's intent--to leave the world hanging in between London and a complete parallel universe--but it tends to make the novel a bit confusing. What I did enjoy, however, was Gaiman's use of real places--particularly tube stations--within the world of London Below, giving backstory and meaning to strange station names like Earl's Court, which, in London Below, truly houses an earl with his court.
Although certain aspects of the plotline were predictable, it had many interesting twists (and Richard's sheer ignorance) to keep it away from the overused hero's journey movie plotline. But unfortunately, by the end of the book I did not feel that I really knew the characters, beyond Richard's whininess and very slow ability to comprehend all that happened to him. While I certainly enjoyed the novel, I could not say that it "blew me away" or that it had any lasting impression on me. Perhaps it is one of those books that require a rereading to pick up on all of the little details and references, but I doubt that I will reread it.
All in all, I do not regret reading Neverwhere and would recommend it fans of fantasy, dark humor, and Neil Gaiman.
Book Review: Alice and Dorothy's modern-day love child
Summary: 5 Stars
I am fairly new to the worlds of Neil Gaiman. In the past few months I have picked up and read a few of his Sandman collections, Mr. Punch, the script for "MirrorMask", "American Gods", "Good Omens" (co-written by Terry Pratchett), "Coraline", "Stardust", and most recently "Neverwhere".
In brief, "Neverwhere" tells the story of a good samaritan, Richard Mayhew, that rescues a girl, named Door, who looks to be a junky on the street. In actuality she is a very important person (a princess, in fact) in the "between", a world that exists below and sort of "parallel" to the streets of London. By helping this girl, Richard Mayhew enters this "between" world. Unfortunately, when someone falls into the "Neverwhere", the world above doesn't know they ever existed, which makes Richard's life rather difficult, to say the least.
The entire story takes place in and around London as Richard and Door, joined by a motley cast of characters, race to discover why Door's family was killed all the while dodging two extremely well written and scary evil henchmen, Croup and Vandemar. These two enjoy maiming and murder most foul and have honed their skills like martial arts masters.
Throughout this wonderful adventure, Richard and crew will cross paths with almost every fantastical creature imaginable, including an Angel.
The story moves at a brisk pace and all of the characters are exceptionally realized. Each character has been made very three-dimensional thanks to Neil Gaiman's deft writing skills.
The streets (and underside) of London are given a life of their own. Medieval and Modern England collide in unusual and interesting ways. Imagine waiting for your train in the Tube and when it opens, instead of stepping into the boxy, hard plastic, metal and rubber capsule you are used to, you are greeted to a room with velvety drapes, thrones, emperors, magistrates, jugglers, magicians, party-goers, tables of food. Of course, you may not be able to see such a thing, if you live in London above. That train car would look broken and unused ...the doors wouldn't open, the lights wouldn't work......But this is the world of "Neverwhere". Things aren't always what they seem. For instance, that beggar on the street corner you see every day on your way to work, could very well be a king.
Written with a lot of wit and a lot of heart, Neil Gaiman has crafted a modern-day fairy tale that's melded the best pieces of popular fantasy and turned it upside-down, inside-out, and back again. I highly recommend this book to everyone especially if you've enjoyed works like "Alice In Wonderland", "The Wizard of Oz", or any fantasy novel, for that matter.
Book Review: A Story for Those Wandering in Our Own Subways
Summary: 5 Stars
Most novelists would describe themselves as storytellers of some kind, arguably the function of the Novel is to tell a story while conveying certain themes to the reader. However, the large population of today's novelists are more concerned with rehashing well-worn thematic storytelling instead of pushing the envelop of creativity to take the reader on paths they haven't seen, and experience things from angles they never comprehended. Luckily for us, Neil Gaiman has asserted his role firmly in the latter. Neverwhere can be best described as an amalgamation of elements derived from many facets of fantasy and science fiction. What makes the story successful is the ideal blend of the fantastical and the real, the contrast fuels the narrative and makes the novel a cohesive piece of great fiction.
The story follows Richard Mayhew, a typical Londoner of little regard. On his way to a dinner function with his fiancee he stumbles upon a bleeding young woman on the street. He takes her home and his life changes forever. The young woman, aptly named Door, takes him on a journey to a world standing in the shadows, full of people who can talk to rats, traveling markets, and assassins of the most ruthless sort. Richard ends up traveling with Door trying to uncover the mysteries of her past, and desperately trying to find a way back to his world, London Above.
Gaiman has a knack for creating memorable characters and Neverwhere isn't any different. Richard is every bit the forlorn traveler that the reader would expect, and he plays the role beautifully. He is both endearing and funny, and his knack for macabre humor brings needed levity to the novel. Door is the weakest character in my mind, she is fairly generic, but their are certain points, especially towards the beginning and end, that make her shine. My favorite character, however, is the Marquis. For me, he ties the novel together. He takes Door, the protagonist Richard, and the many ancillary characters and weaves them into the narrative in precisely the right way. He makes the novel move.
Good storytelling is not an easy business. In an era where genre's are hashed and re-hashed, Neil Gaiman has carved out his niche as a gifted storyteller amongst a sea of hacks. He doesn't dazzle you with the ideas he conveys, but rather the method for their illustration. He's comfortable in his style and confident in his execution. It is easy to write a story about a man trying to find his way home. It is immensely more difficult, however, to take that idea and create something powerful, relatable, and memorable, and at this, Gaiman succeeds absolutely.
Book Review: New Twists on Old Archtypes
Summary: 5 Stars
On the face of it, Neverwhere is merely the millionth re-telling of the unwitting hero cum fish-out-of-water story, complete with all the necessary plot points and character types to make any lover of a good fantasy tale feel right at home.
And then Gaiman spins the world 17 degrees right and 149 degrees over and tells the same old story with a different name in a brand new, compelling, and super-entertaining way. Sure, we get Richard from "normal world" who unwittingly enters "abnormal world" where he will take much of the story coming to grips with the unknown-only-to-him fact that he is the "hero" of the story. And there's Door, the girl on a quest who needs his help, and the marquis (the wizard), and Hunter (the bodyguard) and a variety of bad guys, kinda bad guys, probably bad guys and just general unknown quantities.
But the simple and hugely pleasant fact that the story is not set in some medieval fantasy world nor involves the normal medieval fantasy world button pushing to move the story forward makes this story an incredible delight to read. Okay: page-turner. Gaiman re-invents London by burying it in its living history and then making the history live rather than fade away. Not gone are the times of London past, as time/space has a way of folding in on itself in this world just below the surface of our world. You still can't go home, again, but you can get a look at some of the stuff you missed out on the first time around. Sort of.
The story is a race to the finish. Gaiman doesn't - indeed, with this story, he probably can't - let you ponder on some of the weirdness of his landscape. You get fleeting glimpses of the weirdest things, and then overhear snippets of conversations about things you'll never encounter, all of which builds in a more complex world than the simple cat-and-mouse, race-for-your-life story at the center of the novel.
The story is also beautifully and elegantly written. Gaiman ignores the fiction writer's guild-required "fantasy prose construct" and writes easy, flowing sentences. His writing matches the descriptions the words convey, always smoothing the story along or butting you into a brand-new totally-unexpected scene in just the right way: you'll understand when you follow the main character and the marquis on their first up-and-over and down-and-through journey of London, which takes you from the muck of the sewers to the roofs of skyscrapers, all without blinking an eye.
Stand back from the fantasy shelf of wizards, thieves, warriors and clerics and pick up this intelligent, quirky and unique take on the genre.