Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Book 86: Neverwhere



Neverwhere was an interesting book by Neil Gaiman. It was absurd, intelligent and fun. It was the perfect book to escape from the mundane world of working over 60s hours a week.

This book is another book I’m reading that’s a loaner from a friend who also enjoys fantasy, sci-fi and bad movies. I will have to say unlike the last loaned book, I saw much more of my friend in it then I saw myself. This matches her personality where Moon Called more matched mine. But I liked that since I can see why she liked it so much.

One of the first things I saw was the Tube map. There were a few extra stops but just seeing the circle line and the layout, I went that looks like the Tube. Then I actually read the labels on the map and saw it was indeed the London subway system and it showed the old stops that are no longer in existent. I had to laugh. I’ve only been to London a handful of times. Apparently those times definitely left it’s mark on me. Then again London is one of my favorite cities in the world and I ingrain places I enjoy into my brain.

Neverwhere was an excellent bit of urban Alice in Wonderland. A man’s unwillingly fell down a hole into London’s underworld by helping the Lady Door. This world is filled with intrigue, strangeness and danger. Richard and Door team up. He is looking for his way out of London Below while the Lady Door is trying to figure out who killed her family and who is trying to kill her. So it becomes a thrilling adventure. Angels, assassins, the velvets who were a succubus/vampire like creature, rat-speakers and the Old Bailey all create an interesting world. I will have to say that due to reading this book with all it’s plot twists and interesting wording, I found a friend who came over solely to use my bathroom late at night made complete sense.

I was almost ready to get really really upset at Neil Gaiman when it seemed to end the way it did. The ending was just so unsatisfying at first until the very last couple of pages. Then he fixed everything and was actually able to create a stronger ending by doing it the way he did. It worked much better since it allowed for the end of the quest but at the same time gave the readers what they want and tied in the prologue better.

The characters I’m a little meh on. They were both virbrant and had so many different layers to them yet they could be two dimensional all at the same time.

All in all, it was an absurd adventure that was well written and a fun read. It had so many plot turns and you could never be bored while reading the book. I’m really glad that Neverwhere was loaned to me.

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