Neverwhere: A Novel
by Neil Gaiman
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Book Reviews of Neverwhere: A Novel
Book Review: A bit slow
Summary: 3 Stars
Gaiman (re)writes the Heroes journey. Like Luke Skywalker's tale, Richard Mayhew too must grow up and become the Hero. He too loses his first guide (OB1), picks up new band of rabble rousers (Han, Chewie, the droids) bent on protecting the royal lady (Leia) and must decend into a Labrynth (cave) where he must slay the Beast (himself/vader/fear) before facing off against the big Evil (Palpatine/Vader) before helping the girl save the day and become knighted in the process.
But Richard lives in 21st century London Above. He's a number cruncher who, in helping a wounded "street urchin" finds that no one knows him, his apartment is rented while he's still in it, his bank fails to recognize his PIN and no one can see him...except those from London Below. In pockets of time, those who have slipped through the cracks of society live under London in a completely different world. There, the rats rule, rat-speakers translate, various kinds of people exist for indeterminate amounts of time, and many have unique abilities. And here, he befriends the "street urchin", the Lady Door on her quest to find out who killed her entire family and why. Will he find his way back to London Above? Will he go back? Will he stay?
I found Richard oddly like Arthur Dent from the Hitchhiker's Guide...reacting rather blandly to such oddity and unusual occurrences. The pace of the book was slow to warm up, the assassins way too comical, and oddly unfulfilling where Door and Richard left things...to possibly be picked back up. I think Gaiman, so used to leaving much on the panel and the art to convey, didn't really grasp the characters or story as he fully could have.
Book Review: A delightful book full despite rat-eating violence
Summary: 5 Stars
Gaiman has this way of creating delightful stories even though they might contain less than delightful content: such as biting the heads of off live rats, bloody torture, and sifting through human sewage with a net. This is true in Neverwhere, where the story often turns violent. Somehow, though, it doesn't leave any feeling of nervousness or disgust, which is what grounds this type of story in Fantasy and out of Horror.
I'm not sure how he does it, but I believe it might the wondrous and complex worlds that he creates: in Neverwhere, this world is "London Below", a pseudo-real subterranean world in the tunnels and sewers under London. There are many interesting things happening, that the brutality of certain scenes is somehow made more palatable. Dont get me wrong - this is not a gore-fest, but there are very violent moments, as well as moments of extreme emotional distress for some of the characters... but there's no lasting sting. I associate it with a fine Single Malt: there might be a smokey or even sharp flavor to start, but the finish is pure velvety smoothness.
Another reason that Neverwhere appealed to me is the characters: each was a hard-survivalist on the surface (a requirement of living in the dangerous world below London), but they all had a depth to them that quickly revealed the heart under the hard exterior. I found myself liking every character, no matter how small their part in the story.
I highliy recommend Neverwhere, alhtough it may not be as suitable for younger readers as, say, Stardust
Book Review: Stylish Dark Fantasy!
Summary: 4 Stars
"Neverwhere" is an entertaining dark fantasy from celebrated writer, Neil Gaiman. The wild and whirling world he creates from the material of urban London -- where unsuspecting folks can fall "between the cracks" and end up in the surreal London Below -- owes a debt to GK Chesterton's delightful and outlandish "The Man Who Was Thursday," another joyous flight of singularly British imagination.
As in Susanna Clarke's masterpiece, "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell," Gaiman offers a vision of London as an Old World enmeshed with Other Worlds - mirrors and doors and subways can be passageways to dark, unknowable places. Gaiman's characters are memorable - I especially enjoyed the condescending Marquis de Carabas, a man who does not suffer fools gladly. Richard Mayhew is a likable but often hapless hero. He's a character slowly coming to terms with the sights and wonders around him, but for a good deal of the story he does little besides offer variations of surprise and bewilderment. This is more an observation than a complaint, since Gaiman wants his reader to see Richard's character arc from befuddled businessman to worthy hero.
Gaiman is especially good at evoking atmosphere; his rich descriptions weave a magnificent tapestry of surface textures. He has a lot of fun with London landmarks, offering parallel takes on the British Museum, the Old Bailey, Earl's Court, and so on. In this sense, it is no wonder that Gaiman hailed Clarke's debut as the best fantasy written in the last seventy years - their sensibilities accord as devout Anglophiles fascinated by the intersection of reality and imagination.
Book Review: Through the labryinth of human nature
Summary: 4 Stars
A fantastical journey through the world of London Below, that is as believeable as it is engaging.
Gaiman's protagonist, Richard Mayhew, is an unassuming and passive young man who has just settled quite comfortably into the metropolitan city of London with a steady (if unexciting) job and an attractive fiance who's starting to show her true nature as a bossy and uncompromising maneater.
When Richard stumbles across an injured girl by the pavement and decides to help her, his world as he knows it disappears; or perhaps it is more accurate to say that he disappears from his world as they become oblivious of his existence. With a name like Door, this girl can only spell trouble for our hero.
What ensues is a bildungsroman of sorts where young Richard finds himself thrown into the perilous underground world he never knew existed - filled with wayward angels, carnivorous assassins, an invincible female warrior and a marquis with dubious intentions, while trying to help Door dodge her assassins, and find his way back to London above. Along the journey, Richard grapple with issues of courage and sacrifice, trust and betrayal,while his sanity is put to the test.
A huge plus point in the story is Gaiman's attention to vivid details of the world he creates. These include the floating markets which are like mobile bazaars that sell everything from nightmares to rubbish, one of which actually sets up its stalls in the shopfloors of Harrods.
An absorbing urban fantasy that is as timeless as it is modern.
Book Review: Creepy, scary good!
Summary: 4 Stars
Believe me, I'll never look at a crack in the sidewalk again without thinking about this book. That's the highest testimony I can give to how captivating this novel was for me. It made me think about all the things that I, you, and Richard Mayhew had never even considered. Richard didn't have the slightest idea that an entire world existed in London Below. How could he when he was so involved in his own life in London Above? Who goes around thinking about an entire other world existing for those who literally slip through the cracks?
Neil Gaiman gave me a creepy, scary glimpse into that darkest part of an imaginary London. The characters he invented for this story are wonderful. I loved watching Richard grow and mature and see him become a person to be relied upon. I loved Old Bailey with his feather coat and his birds for sale. I loved the marquis de Carabas who was so very bad and yet somehow so very good. I loved Hunter with her single minded focus and I would have been glad to "dispatch" Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar myself. Two meaner, nastier villains I have yet to meet. Strangely enough, it was the character of Door whose personality seemed to elude me more than any other. Maybe I should read the book again. There must have been aspects of her that I missed while I was so busy imagining that there might, just might, possibly be a London Below.
This book has to be a fantasy readers delight. Expect to be entertained, you won't be disappointed.