Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Doesn't live up to the hype

Customer Rating:

I had such high hopes for this book. Neil Gaiman is one of those superstar authors and (although you should never judge a book by its cover) the blurb made it sound like the kind of thing I'd be into: mythical beings with a modern twist, an alternative London hidden beneath our own, good contemporary fantasy. Neverwhere had all of those things, but I was expecting it to be better. The plot is quite straightforward: a chance encounter with the aptly-named Door causes Richard Mayhew to fall between the cracks of present-day London and into a world populated by talking rats, vampires and knights in rusty armour. Soon he is on a quest to avenge the murder of Door's father before the murderer catches up with him. Despite the enormous potential of the alternative world Neil Gaiman creates in this book, it feels as if he has merely sketched it out. The characters and their world were undoubtedly alive in his imagination, but only shadows appear on the paper. It is a perfectly pleasant read and I wish I'd read it on a beach somewhere instead of in my lunch break, but I came to the book with the wrong expectations and finished feeling disappointed. There were no complex characters or intricate plot strands and the multilayered, technicolour world promised by the cover turned out to be a bit beige. This particular edition, incidentally, contains extra bonus material, most of which (an introduction, an alternative prologue and an interview with the author) is quite interesting and some of which (reading group discussion questions) is excruciatingly cringeworthy.

Enchanting

Customer Rating:

I loved this book. I was recommended it by someone and was initially not convinced, and I don't regret changing my mind for a minute. Ok, me being a bit blonde took me a while to realsie the names of some of the places and people were tube stations... But was overjoyed when it ''clicked' in my head. It's set it London but, it's not, which is the beauty of it, as this place is this other world full of magic and fantasy. It's one of those books where you can truly appreciate an authors imagination and love for creating the book. What more can I say about it, I'm the type of person that will sit down and read a book in one single sitting if I can, especially if I enjoy it. And I deprived myself of sleep to fiish this one.

Simple but fun

Customer Rating:

This was one of those books which I really wanted to be better than it is. I'm a huge fan of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, which I think was an incredible achievement. Unfortunately Neverwhere really suffers by comparison. The concept of an alternate London hidden behind the 'real' one is fascinating, and as an adventure it rolls along at a cracking pace. However some of it is pretty simplistic, which came as a real surprise compared to the intricacies of the Sandman saga. For example, having a character who has the ability to open any door (and other things) is interesting, but calling that character 'Door' is a bit simplistic. On the whole it's an enjoyable read, just not Gaiman's finest work.

The genius of fantasy...

Customer Rating:

Neverwhere is a dark, atmospheric and extremely well written example of the genius of fantasy... it can by blowing our minds with strange new realms and worlds weave in poignant reflections and observations of our world, whether you acknowledge these undercurrents or simply enjoy the magic and escape it's what we connect to. Gaiman explores the issue of homelessness by taking a bemused office worker named Richard Mayhew out of the comfort of daily London life, this character is the epitome of the individual who lives a structured and normal life, proposing to his girlfriend because it's the appropriate next step and just screaming out for something different with his troll figures that he puts on his desk because he thinks it makes him look more interesting. He is plunged into the complex and fascinating world of London below, comprised of people no longer part of the staple of society, people who are homeless by choice and others who have been discarded by the world, and oh my the characters created are very good, the rat people, the caring but pessimistic monks, who can handle a fight. I'll agree with some of the other reviewers and say there are touches of predictability to the story but it's like a fairy tale quest in structure and I love that about it. After helping an injured girl named Lady Door who's been orphaned and is being chased by the villainess Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar who killed her family Richard becomes one of the many faceless people who occupy the alleys and dark places of London. By helping Door discover the reason for her family's death he hopes to get back to London above, what they discover is a powerful huntress, a mad Earl, a kindly Old Bailey, a viscous beast, an witty Marquis, an irate angel and the destruction of the hope of equality to a society that works by what you can scrounge not what you earn, occupied by people who do what they want. But that's this fantasy worlds charm and its got plenty of charm. Richards's voice is engaging, funny and observes the parade of bizarreness and detailed oddities with a detached sort of uncaring, who cares if it's real when he just wants to go home? This is a very good book and definitely worth buying and keeping and reading over and over.

Fantastic in all possible senses of the word

Customer Rating:

For those of you confused by the addendum: The Author's Preferred Text, Gaiman explains in the preface that this book started life as an idea, then a television script and went through several revisions before this version. Here he has edited and pulled together everything to come up with something he's most happy with. I can't say I've read any other version, but I would say that this one is excellent, so he's obviously on to something there. The story centres around the hopelessly ineffective nice guy Richard Mayhew. He has an ordinary life and an ordinary job and a demanding girlfriend. One night he saves the life of what he thinks is a homeless girl. It turns out that she is the Lady Door, and is a prime mover and shaker in a London which lives underneath the vanilla version and which is full of danger and magic and adventure. Once Richard has bumped into this world he begins to fade from the regular world and is forced, whether he likes it or not, to help Door locate the mysterious Angel Islington and escape the menacing clutches of Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar, two of the most repulsively entertaining villains I've ever come across. This is really a book where London is the star. It's a wonderful critique of and hymn to a city with more personality and brio than most people. It's inventive and full of surprises. It's funny and horrible. It keeps you turning the pages, desperate to find out what happens and then sad when you reach the end. I'd pay Gaiman to write a sequel, it's that good.