Book Review: Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman)

Despite being warned that I shouldn't read the rest of his novels right after American Gods, because it is apparently almost similar (apparently), I somehow found myself continuing my fascination with Neil Gaiman's novels with Neverwhere.

Well, actually it was because I needed a light paperback book to read on the plane to Bangkok (Forest Mage was too darn heavy) and Neverwhere was on the top of the first pile of boks I looked at, so thats how I ended up reading it.

Well, happily, I found that American Gods and Neverwhere are completely different books. And I enjoyed it a lot. So, for want of something to post about today, I shall temporarily forget about the idea of keeping the Hopefully-Weekly-Book-Reviews for the weekends, and post the review to...

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Title: Neverwhere
Author: Neil Gaiman

Synopsis:
Under the streets of London there is a world of which most people could never dream. When Richard Mayhew accidentally stumbles on this hidden city of monsters, saints, murderers and angels, he is catapulted from a safe and predictable world into one that is eerily familiar yet utterly bizarre.


What I Liked:

• I liked the way he takes everyday things and familiar names and turning them into something completely different in a fantasy setting.
• I especially liked the idea of taking the Tube stations' names and turning them into characters and locations.
• Mind the Gap. Sheer genius.
• It's certainly a lot funnier than American Gods. Not as funny as Good Omens, mind, but it still has its moments.
• The Marquis De Carabas is a cool character
• I liked the whole owing and returning debts and calling in favours thingy

What I Didn't Like:

• I've noticed that in his stories (comics AND novels) that Gaiman has a tendency of lapsing into weird surreal dream sequences that I don't really understand very much. In this case, The Ordeal completely flummoxed me.
• Richard "Fish out of Water' Mayhew reminds me too much of Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• For a main character, Door didn't seem very well developed to me
• Too many things left unexplained, too many loose ends, and too many details hankering for a sequel to be written just to explain them...
• Why isn't there a SEQUEL????

Summary:
This is only the second of Gaiman's novels I've read (if you don't count Good Omens), and it's my favorite so far (again, if you don't count Good Omens).

Funnily enough, when I was in London last year, I remember looking at the weird names of all the stations and thinking that those names have potential to be turned into a cool story. Little did I know then that Gaiman had already thought of it, and turned Tube station names like Angel Islington, Hammersmith, and Earl's Court (among others) into characters and locations in Neverwhere.

Sigh. Looks like my future masterpiece will have to be about the Putra LRT stations then. Somehow, Terminal Putra or Taman Bahagia just doesn't have the same ring to them as something like Angel Islington. Though if I were to go over to Singapore, names like Buangkok and Punggol do present infinite possibilities....

Anyway, I've always liked the concept of taking everyday things and familiar names and turning them into something completely different in a fantasy setting. In fact, That's the mix of the real world in a fantasy setting concept that attracted me to the first few Harry Potter books in the first place, though it's too bad Rowling got too caught up in her own hype to further advance and develop it properly. Garth Nix does a great job at it though.

Come to think of it, it kinda helped that I recognised the names and places that were referenced in the book, and had even been to some of them, because it added to my enjoyment of the story. In fact, I doubt I'd have enjoyed the book as much if I hadn't actually heard of the places and names before. Just as a foreigner watching Sepet or Gubra would probably not fully understand some of the quintessionally Malaysian elements in them as well as we would.

All in all, Neverwhere was a really satisfying read for me. A combination of an intriguing and intersting plot, some reasonably interesting characters, a concept I like, as well as a few little neat touches here and there made this my favorite Gaiman novel so far.

Now, I wished there were more books about London Below. I wanna know what the Sheperds are like and why we don't want to know about the Underline...