I had to drive from Tennessee to Texas and wanted to listen to something for the 12+ hour trip. I got the trial audible subscription and looked at all the top books. Neil Gaiman popped up. I remembered listening the Moth Radio and hearing him talk about something related to his dad. Since then he had been on my radar.
But, I've heard of him before that. My brother always talked about the coolness of Sandman.
I didn't end up buying the audio version of Neverwhere, it turns out I already had it in my possession when I borrowed it from my brother.
Didn't I say I really liked / believed in star aligning coincidences?
In record time, it only took a month to finish the book. That's good considering I mostly read on the bus or while doing errands. Lately, I've been trying to avoid staring at my phone. It's hard.
Summary:
It's about this guy name Richard going to London Underground and embarking on a quest by accident.
Rating:
08.5 / 10.0
Reason:
It was good and I hadn't read a book like that ever. It was the first time I had to pay attention to details and there were many "ahhhh, I see" moments. However, Richard is annoying which is bad since he is the main character. Gosh, I wish I could have heard more about the Marquis or Door. She was cool.
SPOILERS:
SPOILERS:
SPOILERS:
So the story is about the every day Joe, Richard, stumbling across this young woman named Door. She's in trouble and he decides to help her out. In doing so, his life is completely altered. He no longer "exists" in the normal everyday London. He is only seen in the realm called London Underground, a place where the people who slip through societies cracks end up.
These two goons are on the lookout for Door, but no information is given on why. Pretty cool, eh? Since he no longer can live in London Above, he decides to accompany Door and her small, makeshift team to find out why she is being hunted. He hopes to return to the world above. Just from that you should guess how it ends.
What bugged me, was how useless he was. There was no explanation on why the others let him accompany them other than feeling sorry for him. I was also irked by the typical hero who is just given the title hero without really earning it. For example, the end. He kills this giant beast, but only by sticking out a spear he is holding and stabbing that thing as it lunged onto his pal. There was no tactic. He didn't even find the spear, it was given to him. In another part he has to face a trial to get this thing and the reason he passes is because he finds the belonging of a previous companion. That's it.
Door and company seek out this angel named Islington. It tells them to find a key and in return he will provide answers. They get it. Turns out, the angel is bad. One of their companions, Hunter, is also bad. She dies at the final stretch by the beast that she wanted to kill. The remaining party is caught but Door saves the day by preemptively replicating the key and opening a door to another dimension. The angel and his henchmen get sucked into the dimension and all is good.
Did you guess the end? Richard goes back to live in London Above then decides that maybe he doesn't want to live there after all.
Characters:
Despite the flaws with Richard I really enjoyed all the other characters and was fascinated by The Marquis. I imagined someone like the guy from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. While Door and Richard suspected him of being a traitor, I always knew he was "good".
Hunter, a hunter that ends up betraying the group, was also cool. She died rather lamely, though it is possible that she could still be alive. I loved that about the book, leaving stray ends for the reader to come up with their own theories.
Door, she was cool, but at the same time I couldn't get a good mental picture of her. Was she really young? 20? 25? 30? What about Richard made her like him? What did she do before the being hunted? I wanted to talk to her over coffee or something.
The Angel...it didn't really occur to me that he was bad. Perhaps I should have guessed it. Why did he need a key? What probably caught me off guard was it not being obvious. They talked to him about halfway in the book and I figured it was just a small plot line.
And that's that. Another crappily written review. You're Welcome.
-Alyssa
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