I read one of his books recently, and..... I did enjoy some of it....

Is there anybody else here who'd like to discuss this with me?

domainator2010 said:

I read one of his books recently, and..... I did enjoy some of it....

Is there anybody else here who'd like to discuss this with me?

Which book of his did you read?

The Graveyard Book.

i liked his series neverwhere. actually, i also like his version of beowulf. mostly i know his film/screen work.

I know someone who knows him so I cannot comment.

I adore him!

I don't own positively everything he's ever done, but I have a bit of a collection including the older graphic novels, some short-story and essay collections and most (if not all?) of his novels.

The Graveyard Book is a fun one.

Neverwhere (the novel) is possibly my favorite, but I really enjoy all of his writing. Really looking forward to the American Gods TV adaptation.

[Edited 2/5/16 11:21am]

I took my orgname from one of his books.

I like American Gods.

Superfan1984 said:

I liked the Graveyard book and American Gods but couldn't get through Anansi Boys. I was thoroughly disappointed in it. One strange thing that stands out for me was in American Gods where there's a line something to the effect of, "she put her dishes in the dishwasher but didn't turn it on as it wasn't full yet...." and for whatever reason that line really put me off. Condescending. Like he was saying that that was what the "average Joe" did, waited until their dishwasher was full. I don't know, silly thing to get hung up on, but...Why? What do you think of him?

That is a strange thing to react to... especially since isn't that what most people do? I certainly don't get condescending... or any judgment at all from it. It's like saying "It was getting dark, but there was still a little bit of red glow in the sky, as the sun hadn't completely set."

Anyway, I like Gaiman. Seriously loved Sandman (and most other comic work I've read) and many of the short stories and I really liked American Gods and Anansi Boys when I read them, but honestly have little clear memory of them now. I've read Coraline and Odd and the Frost Giants for younger readers, but I have not yet read The Graveyard Book (just bits and pieces read to me by my wife, who actually is much better at getting around to Gaiman's books these days--I think she's done pretty much everything). But that has to do with the fact that I'm reading mostly nonfiction anymore (though I am reworking my way through Terry Pratchett's Discworld series--which means that the Gaiman I'm reading now is occurring in the form of cover blurbs).

My personal opinion is that the 1st part of the Graveyard Book was quite good, it was fascinating just getting into the World he's created, but towards the 2nd part, the writing went downhill - it read more like a movie than a book, you could visualise the separate shots. (he's obviously got his eye on the movie rights).

There was also a good bit of similarity to Harry Potter, with the 3 headed monster and all, which incidentally also comes from Scotland.

I'm still glad I read it though, after all. I might try some more books of his later.

He's a genius

i used to be a big fan...once he stopped writing comics full time, i think his quality started to slip severely. at this point, i think he's largely riding on his laurels.

good omens is excellent, neverwhere is decent, american gods is crap, anansi boys is utter shit....and on down the line.

his short stories are his best work. his comics are okay, until you start reading for real good comics and you realize that his are mediocre at best.

so, no...i don't really like his work anymore. i find his wife pretty annoying, as well. kinda wish people would graduate from the neil gaiman bandwagon...

oh yeah...stardust is really good.

[Edited 2/9/16 9:00am]

well, now that a couple of people have chimed in on "the wife," I guess I'll go ahead and say what I left out of my first post. I didn't want to bring her up first, though.

Even though I've been a Gaiman fan for quite a while, for the last few years I usually encounter him primarily as Amanda Palmer's husband, and I actively follow her work (while his gets put on the metaphorical stack of books I need to read sometime in the near-to-distant future). Her last "real" album, Theatre Is Evil, is probably my favorite album from the last five years. (I know many others are "better"--but I don't like 'em as much). I know lots of people don't like her, I know pretty much all the reasons they don't--I do like her, though. And her Purple Rain New Year's Eve concert was the best Prince concert I'd heard in probably a decade up to that time--he started shaking himself up and getting some of the cobwebs out of his cogs that very day as he started releasing stuff with Third Eye Girl. There are many many Prince boots I'd gladly give up if I could find the videos I had (and then lost in a drive crash) of that show--sadly, the original source of them was one of the victims of one of Prince's Youtube purges.

Oh, and you're right, peedub--Stardust is really good. Just to get back to the subject of the thread.

i've read "american gods" and liked it a lot, although i'm not usually one for that sort of

fantasy type of fiction. but there are always exceptions. i would have never thought i'd

like GOT type books but i loved that series.

anyway, after scanning through Gaiman's bibliography, when i finished 'american gods'

i thought a lot of the blurbs about his other work read either like they were more young

adult or comics. so i don't really know where to go next, or if anything else by him is for

me, as such.

anyone got any tips?