Vandermar & Croup are freaking scary

[timepiececlock]

Was v. v. bored last night with LJ on the down & outs, and no one around to play cards with, and nothing interesting on tv.

In a moment of whimsy, I jumped in my little car went driving out in far too heavy rain to the nearest Barnes & Noble, and bought Neverwhere by Neil Gaimon. At nearly 10:30 or so, not long before closing. When I'm alreayd in the middle of about 6 other books, and textbooks on top of that.

I got home, read 107 pages (as opposed to my usual attention span of 20-40). I did the dishes, and read 30 more, and went to bed.

I read another 11 pages standing in the cashier line at my college office, waiting to buy a parking sticker.

I love this book.

Now: onward. Things to do. People to damage.

Comments

[katiedack.livejournal.com]

Is it that good? Now I feel I need to buy it. I remember when it was first published. I was intrigued and I have no idea why I didn't buy it.

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[rashaka.livejournal.com]

well, it's not as good in my opinion as the Dark Tower series by Stephen King-- that's the epitome of any fantasy novel[s] written after LotR, especially dark urban fantasy. I could rec those books to a new person every day from now until my death, and I'd still want to talk about them in the afterlife.

Neverwhere is a very involving book, and I like the narrative style a lot. And its easy to read, so you can spend a lot of time in it and not realize how far you'd gone, because you were enjoying it. I think I'd like it more if I knew anything about London (which I don't at all), but I still find it amusing, dark, and very interesting. The main charcter has a sort of Arthur Dent style, though not quite as oblivious or whiny. I like him. And I love that another major character is named Door, because I have a fascination with the symbolism of doors.

[katiedack.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the explanation. I think I'll add it to my books to buy list. I remember the hardcover was quite attractive and I wanted to buy it because the description on the flap was interesting. Okay. Sold. Thanks.

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[rashaka.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. And, you know, the last line on my original post was a quote from Mr Croup, one of the villains the book. They're a cool pair that alterate between amusing and scary, sort of like BtVS's Mayor Wilkins, only more scary and less cheery.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Yay! I love Neverwhere (and am in the middle of a big Neil Gaiman reread myself). You might like American Gods as well. And yes, Vandemar and Croup are brilliant! (Oh, another "urban fantasy" that I really like is Emma Bull's War for the Oaks, which is set in Minneapolis and has what I think of as a very Carabas-like character in it - and I've heard good things about China Mieville as well, but I haven't read any of his stuff yet.) Heh! I probably shouldn't mention even MORE books that are not textbooks or the six books you're currently reading! ;)

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[rashaka.livejournal.com]

:grin: Thank you for the recs though... I love fantasy books. I remember reading a shorter one I relaly liked called "Street Magic", but I never found anything else by the same author.

I remember reading a book in like fourth grade that was actually too old for me I think, cause when I think back on it now, I probably missed a lot of the subtlties. Anyway, it was called "Troll Taken", by Rose Estes, and it was all about this woman who realizes her very very young infant has been kidnapped, and replaced with a changling child. It was a very tense, very strange tense book, but I liked it.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

I love fantasy books.

Oh, me too - ever since I first read The Chronicles of Narnia (probably before you were born!) I have a fairly sizeable library of 'em, in fact!

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[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I read the Narnia books--way young. I remember in fifth grade some people were doing book reports on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and I was sitting back with my copy of Jurassic Park thinking "Gosh, I read the Narnia books before third grade! Why are people so slow?" But that also had to do with my reading books during recess and lunchtime. I was a little bookworm.

one more

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Also, another book that I loved was Clive Barker's The Thief of Always. It's very easy to read, and I think was oriningally aimed at a young adult audience, but it's still one of my favorites. There's a great showdown at the end between the Big Bad and anything in the imagination of the main character, a young boy.

Re: one more

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Oooh, noting that one down! Lots of people have mentioned Clive Barker to me, but somehow I always had the impression that his books are really, REALLY violent. Maybe I'll start with this one! Gah! More BOOKS! NOOOOOO!

Re: one more

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Well, I started to read his book Weaveworld, and I didn't like it as much. The gore was too high, without grabbing my interest enough to keep me reading. I never finsihed that one. But The Thief of Always has some violence, but not so much that I was overly put off by it. Actually, I first listened to it on audio, which was a little scary when i was like 13. Then last year (four years later) I found the paperback on sale really cheap, and bought it. I liked it as much the second time.

NEVERWHERE!

[octopedingenue]

The very first Neil Gaiman work I read, and I adore it. I recommend "American Gods" as well, though it can get convoluted at points (the little inset-stories are gorgeous, though); I love "Stardust" a bit more, but I have a weakness for enchanted-forest stories. "Neverwhere", "Smoke & Mirrors", and "Good Omens" are my favorites (though I consider GO more a Terry Pratchett-flavored novel than Gaiman).

And you're so right: Vandemar & Croup are scaryashell. And cool and enthralling. But mostly scaryashell. Completely useless bit of trivia: Pratchett used 2 characters pretty much identical to Vandemar & Croup except in name (V&C are far superior though) in his book "The Truth". I hope it was a shout-out and not a hope-nobody-notices-this. Even more useless bit of trivia: more V&C clones in a fairly recent, really, really stupid issue of Amazing Spider-Man about Spidey (I'm not kidding) rescuing a stray kitty cat from danger for the entire issue. Or maybe I'm getting it all wrong--are V&C reflections of some fiction-archetype I'm unaware of, and all the others are also reflections of that archetype? Or has the world really gone Gaiman-copy-happy?

Mary Borsellino wrote an outstanding "Buffy"/"Neverwhere" crossover starring Dawn: "Forgotten Girl".

"Neverwhere" was based on a BBC TV series that Gaiman also wrote. Come to think of it, I wonder if it's available on DVD? Hmmmm...off to Amazon...

Re: NEVERWHERE!

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

neat. I read "the forgotten girl". Very cool. I didn't get some of it because I'm not finished with the book yet, but it was still a very nicely written fic. Though I'd have expected Dawn to put up more of a fihgt to get her life back.

[spikespeigel.livejournal.com]

Neverwhere was his first work (not counting Bad Omens with Terry Prachett). His really good stuff's in his latest novel, American Gods. Finished that over the Christmas break and that man knows how to spin a damn good yarn. It smacked of Sandman, but he did it in just the right way that it completely had me turning the pages to see what would happen next.

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[rashaka.livejournal.com]

So he's the writer of the Sandman comics that seem to be so popular? I've heard people say reall good things about it, but I've looked at them before and the art wasn't really my style.

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[spikespeigel.livejournal.com]

Art ain't everything, ya know. Especially for a Vertigo book. Trust me, if you liked Neverwhere, you'll love Sandman. The way he wraps things up was ingenius. The ending was there all along. You just had to be clever enough to see it.