In which I attempt to hold all my Neil Gaiman books, mostly unsuccessfully, and ramble on about how hard it is to pick a favourite author, let alone book. Although if I had to choose one – yes, it’d be him. Although don’t ask me to narrow it down to a single book. Please.
Good Omens was actually my gateway book to Neil Gaiman. I read a lot of Terry Pratchett as a teenager (without appreciating the finer points of his books quite to the extent that I do now, but then – that’s the beauty of re-reading), and I know that after Good Omens I expected other Gaiman books to be similar.
They weren’t. They were something else entirely.
I don’t remember when I got hold of Neverwhere, or where, but I know I fell completely in love. The humour, the perfectly realised world slipping quietly along right next to ours and just out of sight, the characters – everything just worked. Plus, by the time I got hold of the book I’d already spent a little bit of time in London, so it was both exotic and familiar. I adored it, and still do.
Favourite books are hard, though. Would I recommend Neverwhere to someone as an introduction to Gaiman? Yes, absolutely. Did I buy it for a friend as my favourite book? No, because I thought she’d appreciate both the intricacy and grandiose scale of American Gods more. I think, just as we have different favourite books for moods and spaces in our life, we also have different favourites that we like to recommend. Because we want the recipient to enjoy and appreciate the book just as we do, we tailor our choices to them, too.
And now – rambly video!
How about you, lovely people? Are you a Gaiman fan? Do you have a favourite book (of his or anyone else’s)? And if you were to recommend a favourite book to me, what would it be? Let me know below!
I have read both American Gods and Neverwhere and probably some other Neil Gaiman as well. (This is not a slight to Neil Gaiman – there were just times in my life when I read many, many books). I recall Neverwhere as being charming, but really liked American Gods because it takes place in the American Midwest and seems to capture a kind of Midwestern gothic. Not all of my friends like science fiction, so sometimes I have to ease them into the genre via fantasy. So in that case, Nevetwhere might work better.
I love Neverwhere, but it’s true that American Gods is probably rather more technically brilliant (and charming is a perfect description of Neverwhere. It captures you). It’s just got such an incredible breadth and depth to it. I’m not sure I’d call Neverwhere sci-fi exactly, but I’d recommend it anyway. Just because 😉
AS YOU KNOW, your father, the King, …. no, wait, not that … oh, yes. As you know I am not a huge Gaiman fan. I liked The Ocean at the End of the Lance, and Stardust, but most of his writing leaves me a bit cold, and some of it feels stretched, a short-story idea that’s been over extended into a novel.
As to favourite books, I have 65 catalogued as ‘favourites, but if I weer forced to choose it would be LOTR; there’s just so much in it.
I’ve been thinking about this all morning, and the one I would recommend to you above all others is The Complete Borrowers, by Mary Norton. When I was a child, my best friends were William Brown, Nancy Blackett … and Arrietty Clock. I loved the Borrowers stories passionately as a child, and I still do. Their world was so beautifully and vividly drawn (and the original illustrations by Diana Stanley were also enchanting) it felt very real. The characterisation was superb, too, and the stories were involving and interesting. I still think the first four books are the best children’s books ever written. The 5th, The Borrowers Avenged, was written many years after the others, and while still very good, it doesn’t have the same tone as the rest.
I really must re-read The Ocean at the End of the Lane – I feel like a missed something somewhere, because I didn’t connect to it as well as I do to his other stories. But the Borrowers – I LOVED them when I was a kid! Was it Borrowers Afloat where they went off down the river and wound up living in the model village? I remember that as being my absolute favourite.
The Borrowers Avenged sounds like some sort of adult’s version where they rise up against the big people and lay waste to the world.
Dang, I shoulda known you’d have read them 🙂 Yes, Afloat was that one – my favourite was Aloft because COOL BALLOON. (And Miss Menzies, I loved Miss Menzies). That wasn’t quite the plot of Avenged 🙂
Now I shall have to think of another fave to foist on you … how do you feel about The Sword in the Stone (original version), by T. H. White?
No, it was so awesome to be reminded of them! I hadn’t thought about them for years. And I’m pretty sure I never read Borrowers Aloft, because I would have remembered a balloon. I think I just had the first one and Borrowers Afloat.
And I think I’ve read the original Sword in the Stone – I know we had it at home, but at the time I was obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology rather than Arthurian legend. I might need to revisit!
O well, I’ll stick with my original recommendation then, so you can read Afield, Aloft and Avenged (and the short story Poor Stainless).
😀 I never say no to recommendations