This is “review” #6, and I still don’t know how to do this properly. I’m not really interested in giving a synopsis, but I guess there aren’t any rules, so once again, this is just kinda what I thought about this.
On Neil Gaiman’s amazon bio, he says, “I make things up and write them down.” Which is awesome. Obviously (?) he’s being a least a little disingenuous, but with this book it doesn’t seem too far off.
I believe this was his first novel, and that’s not surprising. It’s entertaining, and there’s a lot to recommend it, but this is not a book I’ll be revisiting; it’s not that compelling. Aside from the occasional “fuck” and the more-than-occasional pretty nasty violence and/or torture, it feels like a younger audience YA novel (not that there’s anything wrong with that). It’s funny, it’s pretty interesting, but I didn’t love it. The characters aren’t especially well-developed, and the really good ideas aren’t taken as far as they could be, and more than once I wondered why in the hell the story had taken a particular turn — not in the “Holy crap! Didn’t see that coming!” manner, but more, “That doesn’t even make sense.”
A number of questions could have been answered without making the book overly long, since there’s some extraneous stuff that just raises more “What the hell?”s without adding much to the story.
I still love Neil Gaiman, though.
Just for a little background, it was his first novel, at least solo (he co-wrote Good Omens with Terry Pratchett, which is amazing). But it actually originated as a radio play, and then he adapted it into a novel. So that might be something you’re picking up on in that it feels a little flimsy. Most of his writing is much more detailed.
That does seem more apt. I haven’t read Good Omens; I’ll have to check it out.
Wait, I thought it was a TV miniseries first, then novel, then radio play? Maybe? Either way, I agree about Good Omens. Infinitely my favorite Gaiman book out of the lot.
I agree with the YA-feel. The book’s exponentially better if you’re familiar with London, though; it’s clever that way.
I read American Gods before I read this one and I much prefer American Gods.
Me too.
I’ve been wanting to re-read this because it was actually an instant favorite for me. From what I remember, it’s probably fair to say that the characters themselves take a backseat to kind of being led around by the plot, but I personally didn’t mind.
Thinking about it that way makes me like it a lot more. I feel like there are lot of books that operate that way but cannot think of a single example at the moment.