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Neverwhere

by Neil Gaiman

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Conversations
12,134	199	78	(4.15)	335

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▾Book information

Info:	HarperCollins e-books (2001), Kindle Edition, 400 pages
Member:	mayasees
Collections:	Favorites, Wishlist, Read but unowned	Rating:
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▾Recommendations

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martlet recommends A Madness of Angels: Or The Resurrection of Matthew Swift by Catherine Webb
SylviaO recommends King Rat by China Mieville, "A little bit more horror-ish, but it's another exciting adventure beneath the streets of London"
PghDragonMan recommends InterWorld by Neil Gaiman
derelicious recommends The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
PghDragonMan recommends There Are Doors by Gene Wolfe, "Some passageways we go through by choice, others by accident. Some doors take you to another room, others a lot farther."
elbakerone recommends The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia
elbakerone recommends Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
elbakerone recommends Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
infiniteletters recommends Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison
Phantasma recommends Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon R. Green, "Not as dark as the Nightside novels by Simon R. Green, but still with the same basic concepts in the same basic world."

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▾Member reviews

English (194) German (2) Dutch (1) Portuguese (1) Finnish (1) All languages (199)

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Showing 1-5 of 194 (next | show all)

A dark, beautifully rendered visit to a fantasy world, as one can expect from Neil Gaiman. (

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EstelleChauvelin | Dec 29, 2009 |

I really enjoyed this book. The "Alice in Wonderland" character, Richard Mayhew was very well drawn and was a likable character. The story kept my attention with the fantastical descriptions of the landscape of London Below. It was dark, scary, but through its people that Mayhew meets, he fell in love with the place. (

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jaynedArcy | Dec 29, 2009 |

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jaynedArcy | Dec 29, 2009 |

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▾Published reviews

3 reviews

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thingScore 100

The novel is consistently witty, suspenseful, and hair-raisingly imaginative in its contemporary transpositions of familiar folk and mythic materials (one can read Neverwhere as a postmodernist punk Faerie Queene). Readers who've enjoyed the fantasy work of Tim Powers and William Browning Spencer won't want to miss this one. And, yes, Virginia, there really are alligators in those sewers--and Gaiman makes you believe it.

added by Shortride | editKirkus Reviews

The millions who know The Sandman, the spectacularly successful graphic novel series Gaiman writes, will have a jump start over other fantasy fans at conjuring the ambience of his London Below, but by no means should those others fail to make the setting's acquaintance. It is an Oz overrun by maniacs and monsters, and it becomes a Shangri-La for Richard. Excellent escapist fare.

added by Shortride | editBooklist, Ray Olson

Gaiman's gift for mixing the absurd with the frightful give this novel the feeling of a bedtime story with adult sophistication. Readers will find themselves as unable to escape this tale as the characters themselves.

added by Shortride | editLibrary Journal

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▾Common Knowledge

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Series (with order)

Canonical Title

Neverwhere

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

London, England, UK (London Above)

London Below

Night's Bridge, London Below

Floating Market, London Below

Earl's Court, London Below

(show all 10 items)

Important events

Related movies

Neverwhere (1996 ∙ IMDb)

Awards and honors

SF Site Editor's Choice (#1, 1997)

SF Site Reader's Choice (1998)

Epigraph

I have never been to St. John's Wood. I dare not. I should be afraid of the innumerable night of fir trees, afraid to come upon a blood red cup and the beating of the wings of the Eagle.
--The Napoleon of Notting Hill, G. K. Chesterton

If ever though gavest hosen or shoon
Then every night and all
Sit thou down and put them on
And Christ receive thy soul

This aye night, this aye night
Every night and all
Fire and fleet and candlelight
And Christ receive thy soul

If ever thou gavest meat or drink
Then every night and all
The fire shall never make thee shrink
And Christ receive thy soul

--The Lyke Wake Dirge (traditional)

Dedication

For Lenny Henry, friend and colleague, who made it happen all the way; and Merrilee Heifetz, friend and agent, who makes everything good.

First words

The night before he went to London, Richard Mayhew was not enjoying himself.

She had been running for four days now, a harum-scarum tumbling flight through passages and tunnels.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Neil Gaiman bibliography

Neverwhere (novel)

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Neverwhere is the story of Richard Mayhew and his adventures through London. At the start of the story, he is a young businessman, with a normal life. All this changes, however, when he stops to help a mysterious young girl who appears before him, bleeding and weakened, as he walks with his fiancée to dinner to meet her influential boss.

▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com (ISBN 0060557818, Paperback)

Neverwhere's protagonist, Richard Mayhew, learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished. He ceases to exist in the ordinary world of London Above, and joins a quest through the dark and dangerous London Below, a shadow city of lost and forgotten people, places, and times. His companions are Door, who is trying to find out who hired the assassins who murdered her family and why; the Marquis of Carabas, a trickster who trades services for very big favors; and Hunter, a mysterious lady who guards bodies and hunts only the biggest game. London Below is a wonderfully realized shadow world, and the story plunges through it like an express passing local stations, with plenty of action and a satisfying conclusion. The story is reminiscent of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but Neil Gaiman's humor is much darker and his images sometimes truly horrific. Puns and allusions to everything from Paradise Lost to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz abound, but you can enjoy the book without getting all of them. Gaiman is definitely not just for graphic-novel fans anymore. --Nona Vero

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:18 -0400)

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