Book Revew: Stories by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio

It's incredibly tricky to review an anthology of fiction, diverse as they tend to be in style and content.  Even trickier, then, when it is a book authored by over two dozen well-known names.  There is no common theme or genre linking these tales, and I think that was essentially the aim of the editors in producing this volume: it is a celebration of storytelling itself.  In the introduction, Gaiman writes about the power of four simple words: "And then what happened?"  It is this pure love of fiction that comes across in so many of the stories included in this book.  Below is a summary of some of the best.


"Blood" by Roddy Doyle
Written in Doyle's signature style, without a single speech mark in sight, the reader is treated to an insight into a rather unusual Dublin banker.

"The Truth Is A Cave In The Black Mountains" by Neil Gaiman
A dwarf and a reaver set out to find a cave which, according to legend, is filled with gold.  Except that the story isn't really about that at all.

"Samantha's Diary" by Diane Wynne Jones
The audio diary of Samantha is salvaged from a skip in a futuristic London, and tells the story of a most unorthodox Christmas gift.  I've often heard good things about the late Diane Wynne Jones, and "Samantha's Diary" offers even more encouragement to seek out her other work.

"Leif In The Wind" by Gene Wolfe
The cabin fever and isolation of a deep space mission become too much for a small crew who have already lost a number of their colleagues.

"The Devil On The Staircase" by Joe Hill
A fable with Faustian elements, Hill spins a yarn of a youth who spends his life carrying goods up and down the steps to his mountain village.  When he happens upon a gateway to a previously non-existent staircase, it sets in motion a series of life-changing events.

As with any anthology, there are a few weak links.  Chuck Palahniuk's "Loser" didn't quite satisfy as his novels consistently do, and while "The Therapist" by Jeffery Deaver offers an interesting premise, its execution feels like it is missing something.  But overall, Stories is a strong collection.  One tale which deserves an honourable mention is "Wildfire In Manhattan" by Joanne Harris, which introduces a modern take on Norse mythology and offers readers a glimpse into a fantastical world, all within twenty pages.

Genre Novels That Would Make Excellent Television

It has proven an incredible stroke of good fortune for the fantasy genre that some of the most successful recent TV shows have been adaptations of books that might not otherwise reach mainstream attention.  I am thinking specifically of True Blood, inspired by Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries, and Game Of Thrones, based on A Song Of Ice And Fire by George R.R. Martin.  It is undoubtedly no coincidence that the success of these two dramas derives from their home at HBO, known for high production values, in-depth storytelling that does not insult the viewer, and huge marketing campaigns which ensure a wide audience.

This got me thinking: there is a wealth of fantasy and horror literature out there to be mined for miniseries success.  Below are a few novels that I think make excellent candidates for adaptation.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Considered by many of Gaiman's fans to be the most ambitious of his novels, American Gods is a modern epic.  There has been talk on and off for years of a film version, but I think the cast of memorable characters and apocalyptic story arc would be better suited to the 12-hour series format of HBO, allowing ample time to explore the bizarre world that ex-con Shadow finds himself becoming a part of.  The great thing about this particular corner of Gaiman's universe is that there is room for expansion: the collection Fragile Things includes a Shadow novella, and the novel Anansi Boys features one of the supporting characters from American Gods, so producers would not run out of source material for a while.

The Book Of Lost Things by John Connolly

Considering the number of fairy tale-inspired pilots that came out this season (Grimm, Once Upon A Time, 17th Precinct), I'm surprised this book hasn't already been adapted.  The story of a teenage boy who accidentally enters a world comprised of myth and legend and is immediately threatened by the sinister Crooked Man, there is enough folkloric whimsy and genuine menace in the source material to make ideal family viewing - imagine the quirky charm of Doctor Who with the combined humour and violence of Buffy.

Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter

While that other infamous circus-centric HBO show Carnivale was an ultimately shortlived lesson in avoiding overly complex mythology, the recent film Water For Elephants has proved that there is still mileage in the backdrop of the travelling fair.  Carter's magical realism would make for some impressive visuals, in particular her winged heroine Sophie.  The novel is separated into sections based on the circus's location (London, Paris etc.), so an episodic format would fit the narrative fairly well.

Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite

A show about vampires in the American South? Yes, it sounds uncomfortably similar to True Blood.  But Brite's edgy, sexy novel was around long before Charlaine Harris dreamed up the by-comparison wholesome Sookie Stackhouse series.  Lost Souls centres on a band fronted by best friends Steve and Ghost, and the vampires who come to town to see them play.  If the bluesy, bloodsucking content is too similar to True Blood, then there are other options from Brite's oeuvre: Drawing Blood, in which a troubled comic book artist returns to a small town where the past is a living thing, or Exquisite Corpse, a twisted saga about two serial killers who fall in love (think Dexter, only ten times darker).

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

The hugely popular Interview With The Vampire movie, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, brought a massive readership to Anne Rice's novels.  The second fim adaptation, The Queen Of The Damned, tried to incorporate too many of the saga's various backstories and ended up being a bit of a mess (although it wasn't without its high points).  Anne Rice has since stated that her style of storytelling might be better suited to television.  A longer, more leisurely format would certainly compliment the lengthy character histories and far-reaching events covered in the novels.  If all ten books were to be adapted, from the now-classic Interview to the more recent and much more convoluted Blood Canticle, not to mention the offshoot "New Vampire" books, there'd be at least a dozen potential seasons of slick, sumptuous television.  Personally, I'd be fascinated to see how showrunners would portray the Egyptian origin story, which the second film completely skipped.

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5 More Awesome Fictional Characters

Following on from my Top 5 Fictional Characters, here is a second lot of made-up people who are incredibly entertaining.  I'd be happy to sit down and have a drink with each and every one of them.





5. Holly Golightly
(Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote)
Whether you're watching Audrey Hepburn charm her way through life on-screen or reading Truman Capote's source novel, there's no denying that Miss Holiday Golightly is no average gal.  Born Lula Mae Barnes in a backwood town in Texas, Holly is constantly reinventing herself, shaping her own destiny and cheerily hopping from romance to disaster to adventure.  One could also interpret the character as a manic, selfish strumpet, but let's not be mean-spirited.

4. Marquis de Carabas
(Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman)
I know, I know.  I seem incapable of composing any sort of book list without including one of Neil Gaiman's creations.  But seriously, read Neverwhere and try not to fall in love with the Marquis de Carabas, the protagonist's enigmatic guide to a fantastical London underworld.  Paterson Joseph's portrayal of him in the BBC miniseries is pitch-perfect in its wicked playfulness.  You might not trust the Marquis, but it is impossible not to like him.

3. Belle de Jour
(The Secret Adventures of a London Call Girl)
Technically, this one isn't fictional.  But while the anonymous nature of her numerous explicit memoirs lend her an almost mythic quality, Belle is at her most beguiling when she drops her seductive facade and addresses the reader honestly.  The ins and outs of her personal life are bared for all to see on the page, and though some (or most) readers may enjoy her adventures as mere titillation, there is a level of humour and intelligence in Belle's storytelling that make her genuinely likeable.

2. Tyrion Lannister
(A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin)
I have a confession to make.  I have never been within a hundred miles of George R.R. Martin's A Song Of Ice & Fire novels.  But Peter Dinklage's performance as "The Imp" in HBO's Game of Thrones has been so full of arrogance, sly wit and genuine emotion that I feel as if I know him well.  Everyone in my house agrees that he is by far their favourite character in this sprawling epic of scheming villains, noble heroes and bare-chested everyone else.

1. Jackson Brodie
(Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News?, Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson)
The world-weary private investigator has now featured in four novels, each of which finds him dragged into a fateful web of interlocking yet seemingly unrelated mysteries.  His quest in life, it seems, is finding people who are lost, a self-imposed mission which stems from the murder of his sister years before.  Her killer was never found, a fact that haunts Jackson more potently than any ghost.  He also seems to be a magnet for a series of disasters that become comical and Job-like in their frequency - a blown up house here, a train crash there.  Atkinson's novels are full to the brim with wry humour, but at his core Jackson is a deeply troubled soul.  Despite this, the reader cannot help but hope that in the next instalment, or the one after that, he will find peace.

Who is your favourite fictional character? I'm thinking about mining the wealths of JK Rowling's world in a future post and coming up with my Top 5 Harry Potter characters.  Or maybe a themed post: Top 5 spies, witches, adventurers, lovers.  Thoughts?

5 Modern Novels That Deserve To Be Classics

For a heathen like me, reading a good book or coming across an immensely talented author is probably the closest thing I have to a religious experience.  It happens quite rarely, but when it does, it's the most peculiar feeling.  I want to tell, no, order everyone I know to immediately go out and buy the book I've just read, but another part of me wants to hold this treasure back, keep it all to myself.  I think it stems from my teenage crush on the Scissor Sisters, which faded as soon as they became immensely popular.  Nobody likes their own private joy to become mainstream.

On the other hand, there are some novels that I read and instantly find myself hoping that other people feel as thrilled by it as I do, that it will be the topic of discussion in book clubs and living rooms all over the world.  Because some books are just that good.  Here are five modern novels which I feel deserve widespread, long-lasting admiration.  I hope there's something on this list for everyone!

5. The Green Mile by Stephen King

Until this spiritual, heartbreaking serialised novel hit the shelves, the world had seen Stephen King as a horror author and not much else.  "Horror author", in this context, not particularly being a compliment.  Then he penned the tale of John Coffey, a gentle giant on death row with an extraordinary gift.  The film adaptation serves as a lesson in how to adapt a novel, as the story has incredible power in either medium.

4. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Eugenides's first novel, The Virgin Suicides, was a poignant and pensive fable of innocence lost.  His second book, Middlesex, massively ups the ante in ambition and scope, spanning several generations of an immigrant family, tracing a rogue gene through time and culminating in the birth of Calliope - protagonist, narrator, hermaphrodite.  This is no literary gimmick, however; Eugenides follows Cal's story believably and lovingly from being raised as a girl, through a shocking and transformative adolescence, all the way to adulthood, by which time Cal is living as a man.  Written with humour and intelligence, Middlesex makes me wish Jeffrey Eugenides would write more books.

3. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

I've raved about this book before, so forgive me if this all sounds a little familiar, but months down the line the story has stayed with me.  A handsome but arrogant porn star and drug addict is involved in a car accident that leaves him drastically disfigured.  While recovering in the hospital, he is visited by a woman named Marianne, who is clearly deranged but also entirely bewitching.  She tells him that they've met before, even though he has no memory of this encounter.  What follows is an eight hundred year love story, a trip around the world and a journey to the very heart of Dante's Inferno.

2. A Density Of Souls by Christopher Rice

I've included Rice's second and third novels The Snow Garden and Light Before Day in previous lists, but his debut A Density of Souls is probably my favourite.  It is in turn a coming of age story, a revenge tragedy, a romance and a horror novel.  Four friends enter high school and are immediately pulled apart - by bullying, by their own selfish desires, by love disguised as hate and vice versa.  What happens to them as teenagers sends ripples throughout the rest of their lives.

1. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
I first read this book when I was meant to be revising for a French exam.  Subsequently, each time I revisit it I get the same rush, as if I am doing something slightly naughty.  It is a feeling that goes well with this read.  The premise is a very, very loose parody of The Omen, but the duo of writers have taken a step back and seen the bigger picture.  The opening chapter introduces us to Aziraphale, an angel, and Crowley, a demon, who are seen conversing as Adam and Eve are booted out of the Garden of Eden.  Their friendly banter is a running motif in the novel, as is a book of prophecies by Agnes Nutter (the world's only reliable psychic) and the adventures of young Adam, a perfectly ordinary boy who just so happens to be the Antichrist.  Good Omens works as an intelligent, good-natured satire, but also as a not-too-serious meditation on human nature.

Some other books I wanted to include in this list are The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon - but I reckon they're going to go down as classics anyway.

Top 5... Short Stories

For me, short stories are a fine art - when done well, they are able to take the reader on a journey, without the luxury of a few hundred pages to set the scene and develop character.  Below are five of my favourites; the titles in brackets refer to the author anthologies in which they can be found.

5. The New Daughter by John Connolly (Nocturnes)
A single father and his two children move to a house on the edge of a vast field, home to a mysterious mound.  As time passes, the man begins to notice peculiarities in his daughter's behaviour.  She spends more and more time by the mound behind their house, and odd-looking straw dolls keep appearing, as if from the ground...  A chilling fairy tale that is made all the more effective by its brevity.

4. A Lamia in the Cevennes by A.S. Byatt (Elementals)
Magical realism at its best here, as a troubled Brit awakes one morning in his sun-drenched villa in the Cevennes to find a mysterious, serpentine woman living in his swimming pool.  Bizarre stuff, beguilingly written.

3. House of Flowers by Truman Capote (Breakfast at Tiffany's)
Surreal and beautifully imagined, Capote's writing has never been better than it has here.  House of Flowers follows the trials and tribulations of Ottilie, a beautiful young prostitute in the West Indies. 

2. The Problem of Susan by Neil Gaiman (Fragile Things)
Something that has long bothered fans of C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia is the way in which Susan, the eldest Pevensie sister, is dismissed at the end of The Last Battle as too much of a grown-up to return to the magical land.  Gaiman's tale catches up with Susan years later in real life, by which time her memories of Narnia have become distorted symbols of her adolescent anguish and sexuality.  A wonderfully dark look back at a masterpiece of childrens' literature.

1. Don't Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier (Not After Midnight)
The story will be familiar to many fans of the film adaptation.  A grieving couple travel to Venice following the death of their child.  They are approached in their hotel by an elderly, scatty woman who claims that the spirit of their daughter is still with them.  Shortly after, the husband begins to see a small hooded figure running through the side streets and back alleys of the city.  Could their daughter have truly come back to them?  For newcomers to this tale, the climax will truly shock.  If you're familiar with the ending, then I recommend you try Ian McEwan's novella The Comfort of Strangers, in which another couple find themselves in trouble in Venice.

Top 5... Children's Books

Here is my selection for the five best children's books.  I've cheated a bit, and entire series are listed under just one entry in some cases. 

5. The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper

Beginning with Over Sea, Under Stone, Susan Cooper's five-book series draws on Arthurian legend for its inspiration.  The first book begins innocently enough as a Famous Five-style adventure - a group of siblings find a treasure map while on holiday in Cornwall which might just lead them to the Holy Grail.  The second instalment, The Dark Is Rising, raises the stakes considerably - Merriman Lyon, the kindly uncle from the first book, arrives in the life of young Will and informs him that he is an Old One, and is charged with defending the earth from the forces of darkness.  I won't go into any more detail - suffice to say, Cooper invents a magical but dangerous world in which her young heroes and heroines fight for the triumph of the Light over the Dark.

4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Gaiman's imaginative, Gothic take on The Jungle Book centres on Bod, a toddler who wanders into a cemetery after his family is murdered.  While this motif of "the boy who lived" may smack of Harry Potter, that is where all similarities end.  For one, the villain in this single volume is more sinister than Voldemort manages to be over the course of seven.  Raised by ghosts, tutored by a werewolf and protected by what may or may not be a vampire, Bod soon learns a number of supernatural tricks that will ultimately help him track down his parents' killer.  There are also lighter elements, such as Scarlett, a young girl who befriends Bod, and Liza, the spirit of a witch who was buried just outside consecrated ground.  As is usual with Gaiman, the relationships and emotional lives of the characters are never compromised for the sake of plot - Bod grows from a confused and ignorant child into a young man wise beyond his years, and the final few pages gave me a lump in my throat.

3. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Okay, so this may not exactly be a children's book.  But it is a book about children, and a damn fine one at that.  Exploring the innately savage nature of Man through the prism of a group of marooned schoolboys, Golding realistically and grippingly details the decay of manners and civilisation, slowly at first, then with chilling rapidity.  Its denouement is one of the best things I have ever read, even as an adult.

2. Tales From The Wyrd Museum by Robin Jarvis

The Wyrd Museum is an antiquated crypt of a building, located within a labyrinth of side streets somewhere in London.  Owned by the mysterious Webster sisters, it houses a most unusual collection.  When young Neil Chapman and his little brother arrive at the museum, where their father has just accepted a job as caretaker, they have no idea what horrors lie in store.  This trilogy, composed of The Woven Path, The Raven's Knot and The Fatal Strand, mixes ancient mythology, modern humour and elements of genuine fear - the Valkyries in book two are particularly terrifying.  It is first inferred, then dramatically and compellingly revealed, that the museum's trio of elderly proprietresses are in fact the Nornir, embodiments of the Fates, and they have been guarding a secret beneath the Wyrd Museum for centuries.  Neil and the savage, elfin Edie Dorkins, find themselves in the middle of a battle between good and evil that will take them from the blitzed London of the 1940s to present day Glastonbury, and ultimately back to the heart of the Wyrd Museum.  Enjoyably dark and surreal elements include a possessed teddy bear, a pair of talking ravens and creepy-as-hell bird dolls that exert a malignant influence over their owners...

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling

It is hard to talk about this book in isolation from the rest of the series.  Like many others of my age, I grew up with Harry Potter - literally.  Initially, I began reading the books out of sequence; I picked up The Prisoner of Azkaban at the age of thirteen, the exact same age as Harry in the book.  After that, I read The Chamber of Secrets, which I found lightweight and disappointing (it is by far my least favourite of the entire series).  When I finally got around to reading the first novel, The Philosopher's Stone, I was under the impression that reading about eleven-year-old Potter's adventures would be fluffy and easy compared to the dark twists and turns of The Prisoner of Azkaban.  I was pleasantly surprised; the first book does the incredible job of creating the mythology of Rowling's wizard world with remarkable ease, as well as setting the young hero on his path from the very first chapter where he miraculously survives the death of his parents.  It doesn't get much darker than a double murder, not to mention the Roald Dahl-esque abomination of a family with which Harry endures his early childhood.  From the outset, Harry is an underdog, an everyman.  A hero with no outstanding personality traits, which meant that young boys could imprint their own personalities onto him, inserting themselves into the starring role.  After the third book in the series, events began to take epic, tragic turns.  Classmates are murdered, Voldemort's power grows, the delicate balance between the wizarding world and that of the muggles begins to blur... but it all begins with a baby on a doorstep in the suburbs.

Another trilogy by Robin Jarvis which I very nearly included in this list is The Whitby Witches, about a pair of orphaned siblings who are fostered by an elderly eccentric named Alice.  The youngest of the two, Ben, is cursed with second sight, a power that is greatly coveted by many in the small seaside town of Whitby.  I would also highly recommend Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Complete Works of Saki.

Top 5... Fantasy Novels

Here goes, my round-up of the best fantasy fiction. Ever. It might piss off a lot of people that The Lord of the Rings isn't on here. I apologise in advance, but I figure that Tolkien won't mind being benched just this once in order to put the spotlight on a few other deserving authors.

5. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
When I first read this book in primary school, the cover proclaimed it was the first instalment of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. It was only later that I realised it was written much, much later than its supposed sequel The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe.  What I love about this book is that it can be read as a part of the larger saga, as it explains such anomalies as the presence of a Victorian lamp-post in another world, or it can be read in total isolation.  Like any other Narnia book, The Magician's Nephew is a children's story first and foremost, and as such is a rollicking adventure, but it provides endless enjoyment into adulthood too.

For other youngsters discovering new worlds, you may also enjoy: Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

4. The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice are often shelved as Horror or Romance, but I feel that they fit more into the genre of Fantasy, never more so than in the case of The Queen of the Damned.  While the central characters consist of vampires, witches, ghosts and paranormal experts, the novel's aim is not to deliver chills like a conventional horror novel.  Instead, Anne Rice uses these horror staple figures to spin an epic tale that begins with a curse in Ancient Egypt and climaxes at a rock concert in California.  The titular vampire, Queen Akasha, is awoken from her eternal slumber by the music of Lestat, the anti-hero of Rice's previous novels.  But this is only a small part of the plot.  An antiquated organisation, the Talamasca, have taken it upon themselves to record the activities of supernatural beings such as vampires, and their interference in events ends up being life-changing.  One of these investigators, a woman named Jesse, discovers just how closely she is connected to the vampire world.  Ancients begin to gather from around the globe, some to aid Akasha in her newest quest, others to stop her.  Told from multiple viewpoints (a rarity in this series), The Queen of the Damned is one of Rice's strongest, richest novels, with an engaging cast of supporting characters and fascinating historical detail.

You may also enjoy: Dracula by Bram Stoker, another rendition of the original vampire.

3. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Fairy tales are big business in Hollywood right now. Hansel and Gretel are being reincarnated as witch hunters, Red Riding Hood is getting a sultry reimagining and there are two "dark, gritty" remakes of Snow White in the works.  Movie producers are obsessed with upping the sex and violence of old Grimm favourites and serving them up to teenagers on a platter.  And it's easy to see why.  Fairy tales are often about, at their core, the loss of innocence, the journey from a world of children to a world of adults.  John Connolly takes this as his cue in The Book of Lost Things.  The young hero, David, has recently lost his mother.  His father remarries, and soon David's stepmother gives birth to a baby boy.  Feeling pushed out, David takes refuge in his books.  One night, a series of bizarre events lead David into another world entirely, one which may or may not be of his own making.  He encounters knights, wolves, hunters and the sinister, ever-present Crooked Man.  At its heart, The Book of Lost Things is a coming of age tale, but it is also a reminder of the immense power of stories.

You may also enjoy: Pan's Labyrinth, a film by Guillermo del Toro, in which a young girl escapes her own brutal wartime life and goes on a magical quest.

2. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
Published outside of the UK as The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman's vision of an alternative, steampunk Britain, populated by humans and their animal "daemon" counterparts, captured readers' imaginations the world over.  Young, feral, and relentlessly questioning of authority, Lyra finds herself at the centre of a plot involving missing children, a witch's prophecy, a journey to the North and a mysterious device that seems able to tell the truth and predict the future.  This is the first novel in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, which evolves into an ambitious, controversial, Blakean masterpiece over the next two books, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.  I first read this trilogy when I was thirteen or fourteen, but like every other entry on this list, it is a hugely rewarding read at any age.


For other remarkable children growing up, you may also enjoy: The Harry Potter novels by JK Rowling.

1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Shadow is released from prison, just in time to learn that his wife Laura has died.  Adrift in a world that he no longer understands, Shadow is employed by the mysterious Mr Wednesday to accompany him on a road trip across America.  Gaiman adeptly merges genres and creates a unique mythos here, by asserting that a country as new as America is built on the traditions and faiths of other lands - and as such, is inhabited by all of the gods, spirits and demons that true believers brought with them when they came to start a new life in the New World.  Mr Wednesday is an old soul, and he sees a war coming between the new wave of technology, media and science, and the gods who fear that without worship they will simply cease to exist.  The over-arching narrative is interspersed with tales of immigrant deities doing their best to make their way in the modern age (my personal favourite is the New York taxi driver who is also a Djinn).  American Gods is a hugely imaginative piece of fantasy, but it may also be the Great American Novel.

You may also enjoy: Neil Gaiman's loose sequel, Anansi Boys.

Some other fantasy titles that deserve an honourable mention: Wicked by Gregory Maguire, The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton (a well-executed piece of modern fairy folklore, sadly let down by its sexed up sequels).

Book Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

This post is going to be brief and biased.  Brief, because I don't want to talk too much about the plot or characters of The Graveyard Book, I simply want you to discover them for yourselves.  And biased, because ever since I picked up American Gods six or seven years ago, I have been a huge fan of just about everything Neil Gaiman has created, from its sequel Anansi Boys (an excellent marriage of fantasy and comedy) to his collaboration with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens, and his endlessly entertaining short stories.


So here is a brief synopsis.  Nobody Owens is a 21st Century Mowgli, orphaned as a toddler and taken in by the kindly spirits that inhabit a cemetery atop a hill that looks down over the Old Town.  At first, Nobody (or "Bod" as he is known) grows up blissfully unaware that his life is any different to that of other children.  But the outside world soon begins to creep in, first in the form of Scarlett, a childhood sweetheart, and later on Bod becomes curious as to the circumstances that brought him to the graveyard.  Why doesn't he go to school like other children?  What happened to his birth parents?  And who is the man Jack, that everybody seems so afraid of?


Anybody familiar with Gaiman's work will appreciate the skill with which he writes the sinister dialogue of the villains and the quirky but earnest voices of characters like Mrs Owens, Bod's adoptive mother, and Liza, the young witch buried just outside consecrated ground.  And the novel's climax, while giving nothing away, provides the reader with a huge sense of satisfaction as Bod makes use of the otherworldly education he has received.


The Graveyard Book gets a whopping 5 out of 5, A++, 100%.  And now I just have to sit and wait for Gaiman to write something else.

Last year in books

So here we are.  The obligatory first post, in which I am required to charm the pants off the blogosphere with my wit and intelligence.  I thought that, as this blog is going to be centred on my reading and writing habits, I might begin with a brief chat about the last couple of books I've devoured.


2010 was a pretty excellent year for reading.  I didn't so much as touch "Freedom" by Jonathan Franzen, or any of the Booker shortlist.  I always intend to, but fiction fashion is fickle, and it always seems that as soon as I've shelled out on half a dozen pristine paperbacks, a new wave of authors are in and my new purchases are obsolete.  The literary high brow don't seem to have much time for many of my tastes, either.  You won't find a decent horror novel being nominated for the Orange prize, or any decent thrillers on the same shelf as Ian McEwan.


That said, I couldn't bring myself to read any more than a hundred pages of Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo".  Either Quercus need to hire better literary translators, or the late Larsson had a talent that is invisible to the naked eye.


I took the time this last year to make a start on my extensive To-Be-Read list.

"The Shining" by Stephen King.  This book has been around since before I was born, and even though I've been a massive fan of King for the last ten years, the only image "The Shining" brought to mind was the iconic moment from the film of the same name, in which Jack Nicholson leers through a broken doorway and shouts: "Here's Johnny!"


The novel itself was a pleasant surprise.  The character of Jack Torrance, off-season caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, is not a two-dimensional psychopath-in-the-making as the film had let me to believe, but rather a recovering alcoholic who is desperate to mend his relationships with his wife Wendy and precociously intelligent son Danny.


Danny has second sight, and when the family move into the hotel, moments from its chequered past begin to surface.  As winter sets in, Jack develops an unhealthy obsession with the hotel and its previous guests.  The reader is left in the dark for much of the novel as to whether Jack's visions are as real as Danny's, or simply a product of cabin fever, and while the story's climax is so well-known that you can't help but predict some of the inevitable plot twists, that doesn't prevent King from producing moments of pure terror.  A few hints: hedge animals, bathtub, dog suit.


"Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman.  I've loved Gaiman's prose since I first picked up "American Gods" in 2005.  "Neverwhere" is the story of two cities: London Above, the city of Big Ben and St. Paul's Cathedral, and London Below, a mythical underworld.  In this alternate city, Knightsbridge is the Knight's Bridge, Earl's Court is a literal royal court, the Black Friars are a religious order and Islington is a bona fide angel.


Stumbling into this world is Richard Mayhew, a Scot living in London with his fiance.  When he stops one night to help an injured girl in the street, she draws him into London Below on a quest to save the city from the evil Messrs Croup and Vandemar.  Joining them is the fantastically imagined Marquis de Carabas, and the enigmatic Hunter.


Next on my Gaiman TBR List - The Graveyard Book.  I would also highly recommend Anansi Boys.

"Let The Right One In" by John Ajvide Lindqvist hardly needs an introduction these days.  Adapted into a chiller in the author's native Sweden, it's since been remade for English-speaking audiences under the slightly underwhelming title "Let Me In".


It's Blackeberg, it's the Eighties, and twelve year old Oskar is enduring the living hell that is adolescence.  Bullied at school, more or less ignored by his mother, he finds companionship in his mysterious new neighbour, Eli.  The twist in this tale is not a huge one: Eli is a centuries old vampire in the body of a young girl, and is forced to go to extreme lengths to feed her bloodlust when she is left without her sinister guardian.


Horror elements aside, this novel also packs an emotional punch.  While the misery of a lonely pre-teen would make for dull reading in itself, the relationship that develops between Oskar and Eli is truly moving, and the story's climax had me with my heart in my mouth.


"Horns" by Joe Hill.  Iggy wakes up one morning with a raging hangover and demonic horns protuding from his forehead.  As a premise, this doesn't suck - but I was worried that the explanation wouldn't live up to it.  I needn't have, as Hill delivers thrills and chills in equal measure just as in his previous novel "Heart Shaped Box".


As Iggy tries to find out how he got his horns, he finds that people react to them in odd ways.  They feel suddenly compelled to confess their darkest thoughts and impulses to him.  Iggy decides to use this knowledge, not just to solve the mystery of the horns, but to find the man that killed his girlfriend one year before.


Not quite a simple revenge story, not a straightforward horror, "Horns" is a clever and complex contemporary novel.


I can't wait to read more of King and Gaiman this year.  I'm also hoping to discover some brand new talented author who can claim hours of my time.  And when I'm not reading, I'll be writing.  And occasionally drinking.