Neil Gaiman - the good and the boring

[timepiececlock]

Warning: this post contains very very mild spoilers for American Gods, probably stuff you could get off a long book jacket description.

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I've been meaning to make a post about this on LJ for a while, and I guess I just forgot.

So, about two years ago I read Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I liked it, a lot. Not my favorite book, but definitely in the top 10% of most enjoyable fantasy books I've read. I've read a lot, btw; it was my genre of choice growing up. It's a book I'd recommend to people and a book I finished quickly, and might read again at some point. I loved that the main female character's name was Door. Neil Gaiman, if you're out there, that was just cool.

So anyway, I loved it. On recommendation of LJers, I also read Good Omens. Now that was amusing, and there were bits I REALLY liked, but overall I didn't enjoy it to quite the squee-worthyness of Neverwhere. (it gets a B to Neverwhere's A) I also have this creeping suspicion that the parts I liked most were the parts that seemed the most Terry Pratchett-ish to me, like the fact that every CD becomes a Queen CD if left in a car long enough. Random, strange, and there to be funny for no particular reason. I never really got a funny vibe of Neverwhere (except with the two mystical hitmen), so maybe I just associate humor with Pratchett.

At this point, I consider myself a passing Gaimon fan. I'll pay attention to something that has his name on it, I'll laugh at book nerd in-jokes, and I'll agree that that one picture of his son on his blog DID look like a hot older version of Harry Potter.

I've browsed Gaiman's blog a few times, and it's a good read. I particularly enjoyed a commentary on fanfiction and slash that had a sample paragraph of Smeagol/Gollum slash, which was really very amusing to read, if sadly squicky.

When looking into the possibility of reading more stuff by Gaimon, I was recced American Gods by different people. The summary sounded cool. Not a new concept (I've seen mixing gods & spirits & magic with urban underworld life in numerous different things), but cool. So I bought it.

I read half of it, and was bored to death.

Okay, there are a few interesting things, but it's sad that the thing I remember enjoying most was that the guy Shadow met in prison was named "Low Key". If a name pun is the best thing I remember from appx 200 pages, something's very wrong here. The main character is someone I am completely unable to connect to, a bad beginning. I thought he'd be more compelling, but at halfway through I still didn't care about his fate at all. The gods met along the way were well-developed technically, but somehow... completely boring. I didn't care if they were dying out. I didn't care if Shadow was letting them use him because he was depressed about his dead cheating wife. I didn't find any of it particularly inspiring but kept reading hoping it would get more exciting and neat as I went.

This didn't happen. I just got more bored. The pace of the book is what finally did me in. I stopped almost exactly halfway through, about 100 pages after I should have stopped. It was just so sloooooooooooow. I can take too slow if I love the characters, and I can take too fast if I don't particularly care for the characters. But I need at least 1 of the two, characters or plot, to work for me. The prose and dialogue were fine quality (as expected), but without characters I feel for or a plot that interests me a book is worthless to my reading experience.

I haven't given away the book yet, but I have no plans to finish any time soon. It's just sitting around somewhere growing dust between its paper & glue bindings. I am curious: am I the only person who had this reaction to American Gods? Am I the only person who doesn't think it's the shinzit? I hesitate to call books (by authors I consider good) "bad", but usually that's the assumption that comes from a book you give up on in frustration and boredom halfway through. Relatively, though. I've certainly read worse things, and like I said the narrative itself is excellent. But if boredom kills any interest in it and makes you wish you'd spent your time reading something else on your book list, then it gets a thumbs down. It's like a movie made by really smart people that you really WANT to like, but in the end you can't respect it because it totally fails to entertain you or entrance you or titilate you in any way.

Neverwhere: *enthusiastic thumbs up*

Good Omens: *thumbs up*

American Gods: *thumbs down*


::prepares to duck::

Comments

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

IMO, his books are somewhat erratic, but Sandman is absolute genius. Well worth checking out if you haven't read it at all. ^^

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I haven't, but I've been told it's good. I generally find it very difficult to get into American comics, though. Is it up anywhere online? I might try if it was.

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I don't know--I've only ever looked for it in hardcopy. :/ Do you have a good public library? The first time I read it, I found a full set at mine . . .

It's definitely not much like most American comics. I've read and enjoyed some of the mainstream stuff, but Sandman pretty much broke everyone's assumptions (at the time) about what could be done with the medium. There is a slight weirdness at the beginning, where it pretends to be connected to the DC comics universe (there's a storyline involving an inmate at Arkham Asylum, from Batman)--IIRC that's just because there's a loose connection between Dream (Neil's 'Sandman') and an earlier DC character. But by the end of the first volume it's off and running, and just keeps getting better. It's just breathtaking in places, and disturbing, and whimsical . . . And I'll stop going on about it now. *laughs*

[minim_calibre]

I've occasionally seen it up online, though I haven't kept up with what's available in over a year. It was popular enough when I did keep track that people tended to keep the scans floating around and the torrents live.

But, yes, most decent libraries have it, or can get it through interlibrary loan.

There's a loose connection between Dream and the Golden Age Sandman, and the first collected trade contains the majority of the more obvious DCU connections, but key players like Hector and Lyta were established minor DC characters pre-Sandman. It doesn't read like the mainstream spandex set, but it never completely disconnects from the world.

(And I think most of the Sandman stuff is still considered in continutity in the DCU, though who knows where it'll be when the latest Crisis sorts out.)

I love Sandman, and re-read the whole run once a year or so. I'm about due for another read, I think. It's one of the best things since sliced bread.

(Of course, I also loved American Gods, so, Rashaka, you may want to take the rec with a grain of salt.)

(Though if you liked the premise, but found the pacing and execution not as much to your liking, you may enjoy Anansi Boys, which is a shorter, faster, funnier read.)

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

Unlike most of the Western world, I didn't care for the Sandman series. I read the first four volumes and none of it clicked with me at any point. Wasn't hard for me to give it up. I'm rather glad I didn't buy them, my friend, Alicia lent me what she had.

[cavalaxis]

I have to disagree with you. American Gods was fucking brilliant. It wasn't the same type of book as Neverwhere. Save it and read it again in ten years.

And it's "Gaiman." Not "Gaimon."

[cavalaxis]

And the name "Low Key"/Loki and Mr. Wednesday should have clued you into what was going on -- they're not just puns. They're very deliberately used.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Oh I know they're deliberately used-- that's what I mean by pun. It's a pun because it's "low key" and "loki"... if it weren't for the implied "Loki" it wouldn't be a pun, it'd just be a nickname. The gods-among-us thing was made clear in the synopsis on the back and was certainly evident as far as I got into the book. I picked up on the names right away, and the two or three I didn't recgonize names for I still understood to be not human. A lack of understanding wasn't the problem.

And it's "Gaiman." Not "Gaimon."

::shrug:: Easily fixed.

Save it and read it again in ten years.

It's an option I haven't ruled out, as one's tastes certainly change over the years.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'll keep both views in mind when/if I try it-- then I won't feel weird if I love it or don't. :)

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

You might like it more than I did. I like to think of myself as pretty well educated - even if I don't act like it 95% of the time - but there was way too much happening on levels that I'll never reach nor have I aspired to reaching. I read all of the books because I told Alicia I would, since she's hugely into Sandman.

Of course, I did her the same favor with the first three Sin City novels. Even with expanded background with SC, I still didn't like any of it.

I'm more successful with turning her onto my stuff.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

(Of course, I also loved American Gods, so, Rashaka, you may want to take the rec with a grain of salt.)

Salted but still taken. :)

Unfortunately the nearest public library in Irvine is pretty small (oh how I miss the San Jose Public Library system!), but I might as well see if they have it. They charge a quarter per volume for transfer requests, though. If they don't have it I'll have to hunt around online.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I couldn't sit through the movie Sin City. My family and I started making cracks about it within 15 minutes, and not long after the wolf was chewing on Elijah Wood we collectively decided we'd rather watch TV (not because of that scene in particular, but because none of us were getting anything out of the movie.)

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

Where SC is concerned, I went in expecting something ... else? I only found stylistic elements worthwhile, no one did a particularly impressive job of acting (Mickey Rourke was just playing himself, he said as much in interviews) and it almost ruined Nick Stahl for me.

If I'd had gone by myself instead of with another friend, I probably would've ended up leaving. I rarely leave a movie, even if I'm by myself, since I'm usually pretty good about deciding what I want to see. That, though, it side-swiped me. I was baffled at the amount of praise it garnered from my Friends List.

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

There's a loose connection between Dream and the Golden Age Sandman, and the first collected trade contains the majority of the more obvious DCU connections, but key players like Hector and Lyta were established minor DC characters pre-Sandman. It doesn't read like the mainstream spandex set, but it never completely disconnects from the world.

Ahhh, ok. ^^ (I don't think I've ever actually read a mainstream DC title--grew up on Marvel's X-Men line, but never tried to cross over as a reader.) I'll bear that in mind next time I reread the series. Isn't there also something weird with the copyright because of all that--Neil owns Death and all of the other Endless, but has no legal rights to Dream? I seem to recall hearing something about that when the two movies were being discussed . . .

[chase820.livejournal.com]

I gave up on American Gods at the same moment you did--about halfway through--for the exact same reasons. I couldn't connect with Shadow at all.(And what a perfect name for him, since he really was just a shadow of a character.) Plus, as you also mention, there was the glacial pacing on top of that.

I keep meaning to pick it up again and try to finish it, but every time I contemplate that I just get all meh and mulish.

So count at least one person on your side. :)

[clodia-risa.livejournal.com]

Apparently all of his books fall into two categories - and a lot of people only like one or the other. I think it is American Gods v. Sandust, but I like everything he does.

I do recommend Sandman, as I feel it is his best work. He is almost more expressive with his pictures, and at times seems to be trying to imitate that with words in his novels, so the pace is better in the graphic novels.

[cavalaxis]

Sorry. I realize that sounded a lot more bristly than I intended. I shouldn't post grumpy. My apologies.

[memlu.livejournal.com]

I actually prefer Gaiman's short stories to his novels, though Stardust and Coralina both have visor holds on my heart, so. Neverwhere was all right, I thought, but not terrific (great ideas, but I didn't think the execution outstanding) and while American Gods had lovely prose and some equally grand ideas, it didn't really snag me the way his story collection, Smoke and Mirrors, did.

[buttercup0222.livejournal.com]

I had the same reaction as you. I got into Neil Gaiman because he is very much woven into the Tori Amos fandom. Read Neverwhere about 7 years ago and loved it. (And yes, the name "Door" is indeed awesome.) For me, it was one of those books that you're sad when they're over.

Then I read Good Omens and loved that too. I also got a book of his short stories called Smoke and Mirros, which I would highly recommend. Stardust was fairly good - not great, but enjoyable.

Then I tried to read American Gods and didn't make it halfway through. I found I had no interest in the story whatsoever and returned it to the library. It's the reason I also haven't read Anansi Boys, because some American Gods characters are supposed to be involved.

[vickiso.livejournal.com]

Wow, you didn't like American Gods? I'm kinda surprised, though I can see what you mean about the pacing.
Gaiman also put together the Books of Magic, which is another great comic book series. I haven't read his newest, Anansi Boys, yet, but it's on my bookshelf, and I'm a slow reader.
Mirrormask is a really, really weird movie, but you should go and see it anyhow. It's kinda enjoyable in the "have I been smoking hash for the last two hours?" kind of way.
Gaiman's also done the script for the upcoming Beowulf movie.