Neverwhere

I finished this great book yesterday, and I agree with the poster above.
 
I'm not sure if I'll ever watch the series, but I did love the book. I loved Stardust and American Gods as well, so I think I've been converted to a fan. Could not get into Good Omens though.
 
I finished it a couple of days ago. I much preferred it to American Gods; the narrative always seemed that much clearer, and it was full of good ideas which probably deserve a sequel!
 
I confess I've not read all of this thread; although I enjoyed the book I didn't enjoy it enough to read all 5 pages of the thread.

As I say I did enjoy the book as a light read but my biggest complaint about it is that it is an incredibly formulaic fantasy quest story. The only really novel feature is the trendy urban setting, which, to be fair, was very very well done.

Incidentally (and I don't know if I'm repeating stuff from earlier in the thread) but for those considering the TV series, my understanding is that the story was originally written as a script for the TV series and that Gaiman was not too happy about what was produced and the book was his 'how it should have been done.' I can't remember where I first found this comment but a quick google turned this up (from here):

...Gaiman chafed as he watched his vision whittled down by time constraints, budget issues and creative cross-currents. The writer put out a novel of the same title to “answer” the series and present his version of “what it should have been” — but time has softened his view and he now sees what fans of the show loved when it aired.

Also the book I have came out later and is 'the author's preferred text.' which apparently has some scenes re-inserted.
 
Just finished it today. I preferred it to American Gods; there's more subtlety and ambiguity that reminds me of Coraline. Somehow Gaiman makes it all work, even though, yeah, it is a bit of a standard heroic quest with some twists and betrayals.
 
This was the first Neil Gaiman book I read, after having seen a bit of the TV show but missed the last few episodes (back then, there was no catchup or downloading!).
After reading that and having my young mind blown, I became a lifelong Gaiman fan! I have the show on DVD and still enjoy it, but I think its mostly a nostalgia thing, it does look very dated.
Still- the story and the settling are fantastic. Every trip to London, it's on my mind. The use of magic is nicely understated, the way he brings an alternate London to life just by using place names and landmarks is elegantly simple.
It's a must read :)
 
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