scott plummer

i read this one in 4 days. 4 days!?!?

like i posted yesterday on twitter, i guess i like to read. who knew. :) to which i got an awesome response from one of my favorite twitter friends, @kapnkaty

well said as always kap'n. :)

of the four gaiman novels i've read so far, only american gods has taken more than 7 days to read, but then it is a long book, and so far still my favorite.

there isn't a whole lot, if anything, that i can say bad about this book. like the other three that i've read it had a plot point that completely off guard. so with that said, off we go to the spoilers.

*SPOILERS*

i kept read tristran's name as tristan, i chalk that up to being a richard wagner fan. one of my favorite wagner operas is tristan and isolde.

i never saw it coming that tristran was the next lord of stormhold.

why is it that in all the books i've read of neil's so far that there has been a woman in the main character's life that really kind of treats them like shit? let's review:

-in american gods while shadow is in jail, his wife cheats on him. i totally related to that, and i don't mean the jail part.

-in anansi boys charlie's future mother-in-law is one of the biggest ball busters ever to be committed to the written page.

-which is only surpassed by richard's fiancee in neverwhere.

-and finally in stardust the woman who he loves, who has accepted a marriage proposal from someone else, tells tristran that if he brings back the star that they saw fall, she will give him anything he desires. bitch. you knew what he wanted. :)

and while the male leads in neil's novels always seem to be treated like garbage by the women in their lives, they always end up in the end in a place, or with someone that is better for them, or where they ought to be.

quite possibly my favorite part of the book was the sky ships that fish lightning. something about that reminded me of something that would come straight out of child's mind, and i mean that in the best possibly way. i think it is just brilliant writing. just think about it. ships high above storm clouds fishing for lightning. :)

*END SPOILERS*

i thought about trying to rank these four novels in the order in which i enjoyed them the most but i don't think i can. they all pulled me in and kept me hooked for different reasons.

what's up next you may ask? well that would be the sandman. i got volumes 1 and 2 from amazon today. i'm not sure what to expect. i've never been a big fan of comics or graphic novels so this is really all new territory to me.

i'm sure it is going to be at the very least, an interesting journey.

after being completely, and totally blown away by american gods and anansi boys, i couldn't wait to start neverwhere.

my verdict?

mind=BLOWN

i honestly didn't think i could be i completely and totally impressed and in love with three books in a row from the same author, but neverwhere along with american gods and anansi boys has proved me wrong. most of this is going to be a spoiler, so i'll just alert you now.

*spoiler(s)*

first of all, like charlie in anansi boys i thought richard was a bit of a push over at the beginning of the book, which i believe was neil's intention. i loathed his fiancee jessica and her over bearing mother. if it weren't for mr. croup, mr. vandemar, and islington, those two might have been the characters i detested the most.

i completely fell for the set up in neverwhere. i was completely convinced that the marquis de carabas was going to be the one that betrayed them and was really the one that hired croup and vandemar to kill door, not islington.

with that said i was completely shocked that hunter was in on the betrayal, although she gained some sympathy when she admitted her betrayal.

the idea of the "fallen" angel, islington in this case, is often a cliche, the idea was handled wonderfully as was the dispatching of the angel along with croup and vandemar. that was wonderfully written and one of my favorite parts of the story.

i was quite happy that in the end richard decided that he wanted to go back to "london below" and be where he really belonged

*end spoiler(s)*

next up is stardust which i have already made good progress on. if all goes the same as with neverwhere i should be done with it inside of a week. after that i am probably going to start on the sandman series.

i honestly didn't think i'd be writing a "my year of gaiman" post so soon after my last one. i was around 80 pages into this one when i finally got my american gods post up on the 5th. i had started reading it i think on the 3rd. so i blazed through this one in just under a week.

damn.

according to it's wikipedia page, anansi boys exists in the same universe, but is not a sequel to american gods.

while i was hooked on american gods from pretty much the beginning it took a little bit to get into anansi boys, but just like american gods, this one got it's hooks in me and didn't let go.

my initial observations was that spider was a prick who only cared for himself, and charlie was weak who didn't care enough for himself, which i really identified with. throughout the book, at least to me, each character helps the other see their flaws and short comings and by the end of the book they are better off for the experience.

*SPOILER ALERT*

i love that spider and charlie are the good side, and the bad side of the same person, and that the "bad side", spider, was "sent away".

being a musician the realization by charlie that he had "god powers" through song really attracted me to the character.

rosie was never right for charlie, he was better off with daisy. just my opinion.

and graham coates? dude was a douchebag. period.

*END SPOILER*

there isn't a lot of insight and analysis in these "reviews" because i think over analyzing books, music, movies, etc. tends to wreck the enjoyment of them. so i will end by saying i thoroughly enjoyed this book and i can't wait to start the next one, neverwhere, probably tomorrow.

i recently finished neil gaiman's novel american gods. i'm not going to go into a long winded review but i just wanted to share my thoughts on it. i am not typically a fiction reader but i wanted to expand the types of books that i was reading. there will be spoilers, so if you haven't read it and you plan on reading it please stop reading this post now

you have been warned.

being new to gaiman's work i wasn't sure what to expect. he had come highly recommended. i loved it. it has it's moments of being quite unsettling. at first i found the "flash backs" to be somewhat jarring but due to the length of the book i eventually welcomed them as a break for my brain. i loved the use of american landmarks. there were moments when i was thinking what the hell is going on but he kept my interest and all i could think at the end was, "what, there's no more?" it is very, very good.

now for the spoilers.

1. for some reason i didn't make the connection that wednesday was shadow's father

2. i didn't see it coming, although i should have, that hinzelmann was also a god and had been sacrificing a child every year in the town of lakeside.

3. it kind of bugged me that shadow's wife had cheated on him while he was in jail, but in the end her charachter was one of my favorites.

4. i was also pretty disturbed at how bilquis was killed and repeatedly run over by a limo. but it was effective story telling.

*end of spoilers*

overall i loved this book and would reccommend it to anyone. it is one of those rare books that i will read again. even rarer still is that it is a fiction book that i will read again.

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ok, so now what is this "my year of gaiman" thing you might ask yourself?

i have set the task this year of reading as many of neil's works as i possibly can. i know i kind of cheated and started american gods in mid december of '09 but it's a big book. are you really going to begrudge me an extra two weeks?

i am going to provide similar type review of each book as i finish and move onto the next. it should be an interesting year, and i look forward to it and i look forward to your comments.