#70 Neil Gaiman: Neverwhere

[bellinghman]

Neil Gaiman: Neverwhere

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Headline Review (19 Sep 2005)
ISBN-10: 0755322800
Category(ies): Fantasy

I first encountered Neverwhere years ago as a TV series. But here is the novel, which Gaiman started writing while filming.

The basic premise is an odd one, but striking. It's that of a hidden London, a London nobody normally sees, inhabited by those people normal people never see. It starts when Richard Mayhew, off on a date with his fiancee, rescues one of those people that most would studiously try not to see. But she's actually quite a high ranking member of the other London. The problem is, having helped her, and denied those pursuing her, he has now become one of the unseen. The rest of the novel deals partly with what it's like to be invisible when you don't want to be, and partly with how Mayhew deals with his situation and eventually becomes a hero, despite the presence of two of the most terrifying characters in fiction, Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar.

Highly recommended - but what Gaiman novel wouldn't be?

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

It's an amazing concept, which I find very evocative of my three years in London as a student. I also first saw the TV series. I have seen 'the book of the series' in the same cover as the VHS of the programmes. Is this the same?

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

This is a new edition, with some commentary, and some cleaning up of the text. Apparently, there was the original UK edition (from BBC Books), released at the time of the series. Then there was a US edition, with some changes for the different market. And this edition has some of those changes, and some reversions, and is marked as the author's preferred text. Also at the end are reading group discussion questions (as in a "How does Gaiman show the changes in Mayhew's character?" type of stuff).

Anansi Boys also has those at the end.