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.