An occasional series detailing the findings of Greg in the advancement of paper-based distractions.
Neverwhere (by Neil Gaiman) ˜˜˜˜˜
From the cover and blurb on the back, this is a potential winner. Chosen from Dymock's bookshop because the author co-wrote 'Good Omens' with Terry Pratchett, and said book was a pulp-rendered-masterpiece of stupendous proportions, I had high hopes for Neverwhere.
Set in a "London Below London", poorly described stereotypical Victoriana characters go on an unexplained quest after a young girl's family (known for being able to open portals and doors to anywhere) have been killed. The girl - unoriginally named 'Door' - meets a weedy character from the real London who has accidentally 'fallen through the cracks in society' and continues her quest.
Frankly, some of the collective literature I've had the pleasure to co-write with my friends has more excitement and depth. Clearly Gaiman had a word-count to reach and little time to do it. You could see in his writing the way he progressively added to the story rather than planning it out - a simple progression, where the reader only found out what was coming next just before it did. Even the torture scenes lacked Gaiman's usual dark horror (read his Fragile Things to see him do horror properly). They were almost laugh-out-loudly badly written - how could you be scared of something so dire?
In summary: Bleh.
Neverwhere (by Neil Gaiman) ˜˜˜˜˜
From the cover and blurb on the back, this is a potential winner. Chosen from Dymock's bookshop because the author co-wrote 'Good Omens' with Terry Pratchett, and said book was a pulp-rendered-masterpiece of stupendous proportions, I had high hopes for Neverwhere.
Set in a "London Below London", poorly described stereotypical Victoriana characters go on an unexplained quest after a young girl's family (known for being able to open portals and doors to anywhere) have been killed. The girl - unoriginally named 'Door' - meets a weedy character from the real London who has accidentally 'fallen through the cracks in society' and continues her quest.
Frankly, some of the collective literature I've had the pleasure to co-write with my friends has more excitement and depth. Clearly Gaiman had a word-count to reach and little time to do it. You could see in his writing the way he progressively added to the story rather than planning it out - a simple progression, where the reader only found out what was coming next just before it did. Even the torture scenes lacked Gaiman's usual dark horror (read his Fragile Things to see him do horror properly). They were almost laugh-out-loudly badly written - how could you be scared of something so dire?
In summary: Bleh.
2 comments:
That looks like a prose novel rather then the graphic version. I have the latter and it's much better. In fact it sounds like the prose was written like a poor imitation of a serialised graphic novel where the properties you describe are desirable.
There's a graphic novel??? If only I'd known! :D
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