Book Review: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

After a tryst with a slave girl from Fairie, Dunstan Thorn marries his human sweetheart and they have a daughter. But not before a certain Tristan Thorn is delivered at the hole in the wall that separates the human town of Wall from the world of Fairie. Dunstan and his wife raise Tristan as their own. About twenty years later, Tristan has his own swoon-worthy human girl, Victoria, for whom he'd do anything. She's not so interested (she's the most beautiful girl in Wall and every guy is in love with her). They see a falling star and she asks him to get it for her to prove himself. The star has fallen on the other side of the wall, so he embarks on an adventure that will change many lives.

The whimsical premise is off-set by some harshness in the narrative. The tryst has a little too much description for my taste (I'd be uncomfortable if my kids read it) and the world of Fairie has a lot of violence and betrayal. I don't mind that so much (the original Grimm fairy tales were indeed grim) and liked the developing plot strands with other people in Fairie (including a royal dynasty and a coven of witches). On the other hand, making a fairy tale that adults can enjoy involves more than adding adult content or having only adult characters. The dramatic bits are good but too often predictable. I wanted something more from this book. It isn't terrible but is only passable.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Coraline Jones lives with her two parents in one of the many flats of an old house. Downstairs two aging actresses live and reminisce about their careers. Upstairs an old man is training mice for a circus act. The Jones's flat is next to an empty one. A door in their parlor would lead into the other flat but when they open it, the doorframe is bricked up. The parlor is for good guests so they hardly go in there anyway.

Coraline's parents are a bit neglectful and not entirely competent (the dad makes dinners but there's always something wrong with them). Coraline explores the area around the house and is eventually drawn back to the bricked-up door. She snatches the keys while her parent are out and discovers a passageway rather than a brick wall. Being an adventurer, she wanders into the other flat, where she discovers her other mother and other father. They seem the same as her parents but they have black shiny buttons for eyes. They also are more attentive to her needs and want her to stay. At first she is attracted by the offer. The other mother says she can stay as long as they sew button eyes on Caroline. She finds this less attractive. The other mother is insistent, bringing about a conflict between the two.

The story is bizarre and creepy and imaginative. Gaiman crafts a sinister other world where Coraline can learn more about herself and her relationship to adults, especially her parents. There's a lot of provocative details that engage the brain. In both worlds, there's only one Coraline and there's only one cat, so the cat has a special relation to the story and to Coraline. The book might even be more fun to read as an adult even though it has the classic "child's fantasy adventure" trappings.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran

Snow, Glass, Apples written by Neil Gaiman and art by Colleen Doran

In an imaginative reversal, the Snow White story is retold with the step-mother being the hero and the step-daughter the villain. But this isn't some revisionist sympathizing with the evil queen, it's a legitimate re-write of most of the story. The queen recognizes Snow White is a danger when the step-daughter comes to her bedroom, bites her hand, and drinks her blood. The pale white skin and ruby red lips and un-aging appearance of Snow White are there because she is a vampire. The queen doesn't act immediately which turns out to be a mistake. Snow's father is more willing to offer up his blood, resulting in his death. Once her husband dies, the queen sees she has to eliminate the vampire. Her men take Snow off into the forest where they cut out her heart, which remains beating. As the years go by, the forest is depopulated of all the dwarves and nymphs and other fantasy creatures. The queen makes a garlic-enhanced apple to solve the problem. A few years later, Prince Charming comes along, with disasterous results.

The story is an interesting alternate imagining of the Snow White story. I typically have no interest in stories that make the villain the good guy (like the musical Wicked or the Angelina Jolie Maleficent movies), so I was a little worried. This book is very imaginative and surprising. The art is fantastic though far too graphic (both sex and gore) to be a kid's book. In the afterward, the artist writes about how they changed the cover to be more off-putting for children, who are not at all the intended audience. That was a wise decision. This really is a horror story with an unhappy ending.

I admire more than enjoy this book. I'm not sure who I would recommend it to and probably won't read it again, though I did find some satisfaction in it.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman takes the old Norse texts, the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, as his source to tell the tales of the ancient Norse gods and goddesses, made so familiar by Marvel's Thor. Odin and Loki and Baldur and the rest are here. Gaiman picks and chooses the stories he wants to retell and has wound up with an overall narrative from the Norse creation myth (the nine worlds connected by Yggdrassil, the world tree) to the Norse apocalypse (Ragnarok, the great battle that ends the lives of just about everyone, gods and humans). But not quite everyone dies, so the ending isn't so grim--it suggests a cyclical nature to the mythology's history.

The individual stories are interesting, though some have more charm and memorableness to them. I especially liked "Hymir and Thor's Fishing Expedition" where Thor (who has never fished before) goes out with a giant and tries to catch something for dinner. Thor is a bit clueless and brutal though he is willing to try anything, because he's Thor. Loki features in many stories for good and for ill. He has a large roll in Ragnarok, especially as the father of many of the evil creatures fighting against the gods.

My only complaint about the book is the style of writing, which vacillates between having the voice of an ancient and otherly narrative and the voice of a very contemporary speaker. Such a juxtaposition works well in something like Anansi Boys, where ancient gods live in modern times, but here it is ill-advised and much less satisfying. Otherwise the stories are excellent.

Recommended.

Book Review: Troll Bridge by N. Gaiman et al.

Troll Bridge story by Neil Gaiman, art by Colleen Doran, and letters by Todd Klein

Neil Gaiman's short story Troll Bridge is given a graphic novel treatment. I haven't read the story but, as in many of his works, it reads like a familiar bit of mythology given a new twist. A young boy is out exploring the undeveloped countryside outside his English town (maybe it's the 1960s or 1970s?). He comes across a brick bridge under which a troll lives. The boy talks his way out of being eaten: he promises to come back when he is older, bigger, more satisfying to eat, and had a chance to see the world. A few times in his life he comes back to the bridge by accident, showing changes to his life but not much to his character. A fate worse than eating is in store for him.

The story is interesting and the art's spooky watercolor style fits well with the macabre events and tone. The main character is not as sympathetic as I'd like. His ultimate fate didn't resonate with me the way it should. I was fairly ambivalent. The whole thing is fairly short, making it a quick read.

Book Review: Neil Gaiman's Lady Justice Vol. 1 by C. J. Henderson et al.

Neil Gaiman's Lady Justice Volume 1 based on a concept created by Neil Gaiman, written by C. J. Henderson and Wendi Lee, penciled by Michael Netzer, Jim Web, et al.

Neil Gaiman was involved in the formation of a comic book publishing house in the mid-1990s, mostly contributing ideas. One such idea was Lady Justice. Inspired by the famous statue of a blindfolded woman with scales in one hand and a sword in the other, Gaiman's idea was that the spirit of justice is searching for a human avatar (always a woman) in situations where a grave injustice occurs. The spirit gives the woman powers to visit justice upon wrongdoers but leaves the exact method to the woman. Some women are more bloodthirsty than others.

In the first story, Janine, a woman in a wheel chair, witnesses the death of both her brothers. When the spirit of justice comes, Janine accepts the offer to be justice's avatar and is able to walk again once she puts on a blindfold. Queue the dramatic violence and action as she works her way up the organized crime syndicate that's responsible for her brothers' deaths. She is viciously efficient, though the spirit of justice leaves her at the end because Janine is more about revenge than justice.

In the second story, a young African-American girl is initiated into an inner-city gang, a tradition in her family. Gang life is pretty rough and soon enough the spirit of justice comes to her to avenge a drive-by shooting. Certainly the cops can't get anything done about it. The story is sadder and more painful than the first.

The last story involves a young district attorney who is swept up in an attempt to take out a drug lord. She's a small town lawyer and the FBI is interested in the man she's prosecuting, though they want to plea bargain him to get bigger criminals. Plea-bargaining doesn't interest the spirit of justice (nor the lawyer) and the FBI guy has his own agenda.

The overall set-up is interesting and the characters are developed enough that they are sympathetic. Occasional conversations about the nature of justice give the book some depth but aren't too deep. Unfortunately, the focus really seems to be on the violence and there are a lot of underdressed women running around. The book looks like an exploitation shocker, which is less interesting to me. Maybe if Gaiman had written some of the stories or had some editorial oversight, the book might have more appeal for me.

Unless you're okay with lots of blood and boobs, I can't recommend this book.

Book Review: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

Charles Nancy had a tough childhood. His dad was quite the joker and always pulling tricks on him. Like the time he told his son that children dress up for Presidents' Day at school and get big bags of candy. Of course Charles was mercilessly mocked at school and got no sympathy from dad that night. Worse yet, his dad nicknamed him "Fat Charlie." Any name Mr. Nancy gave somebody stuck to them like glue, so Fat Charlie was always trying to get himself a different nickname. He got so exasperated with his father's teasing ways (not to mention is roving eye), he moved to England. As an adult, he's got a respectable job and a fiancé who has an overbearing mother. Things are going well until his dad dies and he has to fly back to Florida for the funeral. His dad had a heart-attack while singing karaoke at a tourist bar--too much flirting with the blonde tourists probably did him in. Strange things happen back in Florida, including the discovery of a brother Fat Charlie never knew he had. He begins a voyage of discovery that takes him back and forth across the Atlantic and even into the realm of the Caribbean gods, because his father was really Anansi, the spider god. He's the trickster god of their pantheon and he's still causing trouble for both his sons.

The novel is a whimsical fantasy like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Crazy events keep happening and the writer is fairly self-aware of his own storytelling. The tone is light and refreshing and this makes great summer reading. I listened to it as an audio book (rented from the library!). The reader, Lenworth Henry, does a fantastic job with the British and Caribbean accents as well as crafting memorable character voices.

Definitely worth reading and/or listening to!

Book Review: Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

After reading lots of post-apocalyptic stories, it's nice for me to read one about the apocalypse. Good Omens tells the story of the coming of the Anti-Christ. Everyone who is in the know assumes it will be just like the book of Revelation. In the know are two angels (one working for Heaven and the other for Hell) as well as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse (who kill time before meeting up with the Anti-Christ at Armageddon by causing trouble for people). The ineffable plan of God is about to come to fruition, time is on the verge of ending.

But the plan goes awry. Crowley (Hell's angel, who used to be called Crawley because he was the snake who tempted Adam and Eve out of Paradise) is supposed to swap the infant son of Satan for the son of an American diplomat, but there's a mix-up in the nursery that goes unnoticed. Aziraphale (Heaven's angel, who gave his flaming sword to Adam and Eve when they left Paradise because it was about to rain) has an agreement with Crowley. They have both been living on the earth long enough to have an affection for humans and all the neat stuff they have invented. Most importantly, they've started to latch on to free will, not only trying to get people to do good or evil on their own, but also starting to do a bit of work for each other when it's convenient and not too obviously contrary to their superiors' orders. Things are complicated for the angels.

The real Anti-Christ was raised as a normal child called Adam Young. He has some strange influence over other people but is basically a good boy most of the time. He has a group of friends in his small English town who play the usual games and are opposed by another group of local kids, a rival gang if you will.

Also in the mix is Anathema Device, a young women descended from Agnes Nutter, a seventeenth century witch noted for her accurate (though obscure) prophecies. Those prophecies involve the end times and her family members. The predictions are hard to interpret before the fact, however, so she runs around a bit trying to put two and two together before the world comes apart.

All this might sound like a serious drama, but in the hands of Pratchett and Gaiman, it's much more of a mad cap adventure. Crowley and Aziraphale are buddies trying to keep things going a little bit longer on earth. If the plan is really ineffable, who's to say the world isn't supposed to end now? The book has the dry, British sense of humor found in Douglas Adams's works or Monty Python. It is quite delightful and had me laughing out loud in several spots.

Highly recommended.

Also, I read this because Julie and Scott discussed it on A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. Check out their fun comments!

All Hallow's Read

In case you don't want to give out computer games for Halloween, how about Neil Gaiman's suggestion?



I didn't just post this because there are zombies in the background, I think it's a pretty good idea. Especially nowadays with Nooks and Kindles and such, it would be pretty easy to give a book to someone who is close to you but not geographically close.

h/t to Sherry at Semicolon for sharing the video