Thread: Neil Gaiman's works

I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman's works, how many of you think he's a great writer?

seconded

American gods... i can die now

Well... he's way over-hyped. He has some interesting stories, and urban mythology is one of my favorite areas (although, I prefer a mythology springing from the urbanity, rather than surviving from the ruralism, and not the media Gods... which was a cool idea). His ideas are cool (see previous parenthetical statement), too. But there's just something missing. In terms of top writers in craft, though, he's certainly near the top.

Originally Posted by Candrah

Funnily enough, I agree with Ilasir about the something missing thing. I've only read American Gods so dont have anything to compare it to but I loved the ideas in it and mostly liked the way they were presented. But, I just cant get my head round what was missing. I was thinking maybe it was my headspace at the time I read it but I dont know... It just didnt blow me away the way I thought it would. Not to say that its not on my list of current favourite reads though

Stop laughing at me!!!111!!

Has anybody read Good Omens? honestly I like it better. American Gods deserves a reread every once in a while, so yes, it is a good book.

I've read Good Omens and am currently re-reading American Gods, reminded by this thread. Vastly prefer the latter...I'm not a big fan of Pratchett's work.
Gaiman I find interesting if a bit of a critic's darling-that is to say, I think him somewhat over-rated. I found his "Sandman" work preposterous and pretentious. Anansi Boys is in my to-read pile but I keep selecting other things.
I wish Alan Moore would write more novels.

I never cared much for Sandman myself, bro. That was the main reason that American Gods blew me away. I consider it one of the best fantasy novels published in my lifetime, but that may have more to do with a childhood spent obsessing over various mythologies (mainly Norse)* than anything else. Anansi Boys, while very enjoyable, quite funny, and superbly written, isn't up to the same level.

Gaiman's short fiction is, IMO, hit or miss. Some of it is spectacular (How To Talk To Girls At Parties, Feeders & Eaters), some of it is just: "Huh." (Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky) Not bad, exactly, always well written and interesting, just overly ambiguous and/or undramatic.

*Funny story: My younger brother has forgotten more about mythology (including really minor pantheons) than I know. He was living in Nebraska when I read AG, and I knew he had to read it. I mailed it to him. A couple weeks later he mailed it back, and had written copious notes on various bits and pieces in the margins and any stretch of white space he could find. I got a real kick out of that, mainly because of how into it he got. He's usually the most laid-back guy you'd ever meet.

Yeah...I originally picked up AG because of the blurb comparing it in terms of impact to Crowley's Little, Big, which I like plenty. Gaiman, as mentioned above, is stellar in terms of craft, has some good ideas, but just isn't my cup of coffee.
I know some things about mythology, though I'm not a buff. I prefer Crowley if I have to choose between the two. Engine Summer is next on my list...I just found a copy.

Anasi Boys is good, not great. My roomate (before he left back for america, and i didn't have my copy yet) Left his on the bus with about 20 pages to go. He wasn't that annoyed, which was a good inclination as to it's level of greatness.

i quite enjoyed the sandman series, but i'm a graphic novel nerd, so yeah
and smoke and mirrors was a pretty good read, bit too simplistic at times
i would say his writing ability lacks a lick of polish to make it real shiney

but in terms of spinning a yarn and story telling, i think he does well

Oh, I love comics. I've been reading them since before I could read. LOL. It's not that, it was mostly the incredible hype piled onto the series that I was flooded with before I got to read them, the constant art changes, and the fact that -- IMO -- the series tried so hard to be darkly important that it became tiresome. I loooooved Gaiman's work on the second series of Miracleman, and think that he was probably the only person with the 'nads and talent to follow Alan Moore's mindbendingly good work on the first.

For those wanting a sample of Gaiman's work, this is one of my favorite pieces of his short fiction:

How To Talk To Girls At Parties

"We rang the doorbell, and the door was opened by a girl. I could not have told you how old she was, which was one of the things about girls I had begun to hate: when you start out as kids you're just boys and girls, going through time at the same speed, and you're all five, or seven, or eleven, together. And then one day there's a lurch and the girls just sort of sprint off into the future ahead of you, and they know all about everything, and they have periods and breasts and makeup and God-only-knew-what-else -- for I certainly didn't."

Enjoy!

Oh, and for mod, if he hasn't caught this one yet:

I, Cthulhu

(Haha. The afternote, concerning a mysterious possible collaboration between Lovecraft and P.G. Wodehouse, may be even funnier. )

Originally Posted by Leyline

For those wanting a sample of Gaiman's work, this is one of my favorite pieces of his short fiction:

How To Talk To Girls At Parties

"We rang the doorbell, and the door was opened by a girl. I could not have told you how old she was, which was one of the things about girls I had begun to hate: when you start out as kids you're just boys and girls, going through time at the same speed, and you're all five, or seven, or eleven, together. And then one day there's a lurch and the girls just sort of sprint off into the future ahead of you, and they know all about everything, and they have periods and breasts and makeup and God-only-knew-what-else -- for I certainly didn't."

Enjoy!

I like this! Just read this today, just had the book FRAGILE THINGS, can't wait to read it.

Honestly I've read a few of Neil Gaiman's books, but couldn't really get all that into American Gods or Anansi Boys. The one book I did enjoy and keep on my list of favorites, however, is Neverwhere. Also, because of my roomates' kids' love of reading (thank god I'm not surrounded by ppl who don't like books), I recently discovered he'd written a children's book called The Dangerous Alphabet, and its rhymes seem to have stuck in my head.