Neverwhere

Absolutely, positively, blown away by this novel, the world, the writing, the characters. The whole thing envelops you from the first few pages like a blanket that takes you away from the outside world and immerses you firmly in the novel's setting. By the end, as the real world does its best to peak in around the fringes to remind you it exists, you are begging that this not be the end, that there is more to this wonderful fantasy.

What an amazing ride, the world that Gaiman weaves oozes with fantastical theme. The idea, the premise is so simple but so very well thought out and, perhaps most importantly, brilliantly executed.

This is one of those rare 5 stars where I loved the book so much but am having such trouble explaining it in show more words. Simply put, it's just something you have to experience personally to fully understand the excitement I felt reading this. show less

“I mean, maybe I am crazy. I mean, maybe. But if this is all there is, then I don't want to be sane.”

Neverwhere – what genre to call it? Difficult to define – the popular shelf label is Urban Fantasy, but to me it’s not quite that since it takes place mainly in a fantasy setting. Horror is certainly present, especially from the diabolical hands of the twisted villains, complete with gory tidbits. Ultimately I’m settling on Dark Fantasy since it’s more of an adult fairytale with horror twists.

This was my first read of Gaiman, and I have to say I’m impressed – he has a colorful way of weaving scenes where they’re burned firmly in your psyche without having to dig into the bag of excessive descriptions and tedious show more derailing. Some of the sentences are downright poetic, but the bulk of the writing is straightforward polish.

Characters are another successful feat. Richard, a good person overruled in his personal life by those more aggressive, works well as the lead when he’s absorbed into this distasteful world. The Marquis was varied with his scope of being both likeable and unlikeable; his scenes proved he was one of the better characters with his dry humor and never knowing quite where you stood with him. Not knowing whether he could be trusted, not sure which side he was on till the end, made him stand out as a delight to read about.

Croup and Vandemar are some of the more unique villains I’ve had the pleasure of reading. They’re insane but almost amusing with their bizarre dialogues, viewpoints, and personality oddities – clever with their killing and torture ability, top notch at finding their prey, and able to create chills for the reader when they’re zooming in on their victims. I never saw some of the surprises with who they ended up working with.

While rich in fairy tale fantasy, it’s not confusing if you keep reading, the world being a complex build of chilling monstrosities (especially that bridge of darkness), creative otherworldly beings (rat speakers and the twists of raising the rats to a higher level in London of all places...), and fantastical elements including angels, secret doors, and created portals.

Pacing comes in an even hand, there’s heavily applied suspense during nail-biting scenes, and there are plenty of surprises to wrap scenes with. The ending choice on Richard’s size wasn’t a surprise, but even with the boring life he’s returning to, I doubt I’d have chosen the same fate as he did.

Definitely worth a read – will be checking out more of the author’s work in the near future. show less

Great book... a little grotesque, which almost put me off, but the writing is so damn good. Unlike The Giver, another dystopian novel I recently read, Neverwhere has a clear ending, which is a beautiful synthesis of dark and light... Gaiman clearly has his fingers on the pulse of deep psychological healing which is a pleasure to read. This is no aimless mess-with-your-mind stuff - the darkness is all part of Gaiman's plan to offer a therapeutic reading experience. No wonder Tori Amos likes this guy.

Whenever I travel lately, it seems that I always reach for a Neil Gaiman novel to keep me occupied and happy on the inevitably tedious journey through the airports of the world, so for this latest sojourn I picked up an old favourite. Neverwhere is a particularly good travel book because you can play witness to Richard Mayhew’s journey to London Below (and back) and contemplate the magic of how travel can change you - or, in some cases, bring you back to yourself. Richard is lucky enough to find himself in one of the world’s most magical cities, but he is mired in mundanity with a tediously straightforward job, a fiance who is less than inspiring, and a life that seems to be plodding slowly but surely towards a predictable end. show more Luckily for Richard, he proves himself to have a heart of gold (even if it flounders occasionally), and a chance encounter with the Lady Door begins his travels to a London glimpsed by few Upworlders. His journey follows a pretty straightforward hero’s quest, but in typical Gaiman fashion it is the unique and fascinating characters, situations, and details that keep the story turning page after page. Even after having read the story (and seen the BBC mini-series) a number of times, Richard’s story never seems to dull and I am constantly wanting to hear more about the myriad of characters who show up throughout London Below. This world is more than can be contained in a single novel, and I am surely glad that we get a small extrapolation in an extended short and a forthcoming whole novel soon! show less

This is Neil Gaiman at his finest. Compelling, fascinating, and a page-turner from cover to cover, Neverwhere has all of the beautiful language of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the epic scope of American Gods, and the humor of Anansi Boys. The story kept me guessing, and each new revelation pulled off the trick of making total sense, while still being a surprise.

I only took off a half a star from the rating because of the character of Richard, whose Arthur-Dentish, fish-out-of-water antics grew a little tiresome. He was the least realized character of them all, and was passive throughout a large portion of the story. Door was the real hero, and yet we only rarely got to see what she was thinking.

The allegory of homelessness was not show more subtle, but the approach worked and worked well. So few fantasy novels tackle this theme, and Gaiman's take was refreshing.

In structure, you might think this is a pretty "standand" fantasy novel, but I saw it more as an archetype done well. Well worth a read, and probably a reread at some point down the road. show less

Summary: When Richard Mayhew rescues a bleeding girl in the streets of London, he finds himself drawn into a world under London, the quest she is on and the evil forces set against her.

You have embarked on a conventional but successful career, are engaged to a fashionable and beautiful woman, living in urban London. Then on a date one night, it is as if a door opens in a wall, and out tumbles a disheveled girl, bleeding from a stab wound in her arm, lying in the street in front of them. This is the situation that confronts Richard Mayhew and his fiancée, Jessica. She wants to quickly move on from an awkward situation for dinner with her boss. Richard cannot. Despite the threat (carried out) of a broken engagement, he takes the girl show more back to his apartment. And everything in his world will change in consequence.

He quickly learns both of a world under London from which the girl has come and that she is being pursued by two sinister assassins who have already killed the rest of her family. The assassins, Croup and Vandemar, show up at Richard’s apartment but the girl, named Door (so named for her ability to find and open doors), makes herself scarce and eludes capture. Richard agrees to help by finding a figure from the underworld, Marquis de Carabas, who helps Door escape. Only Richard is changed–he has become invisible to the overworld of London. He eventually finds Door in the underworld and joins her in the quest to find the entity who ordered the death of her family–and hopefully to find his way back to his life in London above.

This will take him on what is alternately a quest and a flight from Croup and Vandemar in this dangerous underworld of phantom subway lines, courts in rail cars, mysterious night time Floating Markets in the overworld, and sewers. He faces life and death ordeals and encounters with everything from rats and their Rat-speakers, the fierce warrior woman, Hunter, who becomes Door’s bodyguard, and an angel and a hideous beast. Most of the time, he feels himself a loyal but useless appendage, yet eventually finds in himself resourcefulness and courage unknown to him. It’s a quest in which it is not always clear who may be trusted. Yet a bond grows between Door and Richard.

Gaiman does an incredible job of world making in the London underworld he creates, both the physical space and the characters with which he populates it. If you think Croup and Vandemar sinister, wait until Door finally finds who they’ve been working for! The one other fascinating aspect of the world Gaiman creates are the characters who have lived in the underworlds of other cities, including mythical Atlantis, and the mythical foes like the Beast of London, that roam the underworlds of these other cities. Having previously read American Gods, I appreciated being introduced to this earlier work, a novelization of a TV series.

Gaiman almost makes one wonder what lurks below our own cities…. show less

O meu primeiro contacto com Neil Gaiman em versão prosa. Já tinha apreciado bastante o seu trabalho na série de BD Sandman, por isso estava curioso. Apesar de bem apoiado por desenhadores de grande qualidade na BD, Neil Gaiman mostra que é perfeitamente capaz de transmitir imagens igualmente vivas e únicas com as suas palavras. Não vemos o que ele nos descreve, mas a imagem criada por essa descrição fica gravada nas nossas mentes.

A história de Door desperta-nos a imaginação, entretém-nos, enerva-nos, educa-nos. Acompanhando o percurso desta personagem, seus companheiros e seus inimigos, vemos um mundo que julgávamos conhecer através duma perspectiva totalmente nova.
No fim, tudo se resume a uma escolha entre a liberdade da show more imaginação e a prisão das mentes vazias e vãs. show less