Austin Improv

so this was like the summer of Neil Gaiman for me. i read Fragile Things and Anansi Boys back to back, reread Signal to Noise and Mr. Punch, finally found a copy of Violent Cases and saw Stardust. Twice. all of which has reminded me exactly WHY this man is my favorite writer.

however, i need to geek out with some people about just how great he is. can anyone help me with this need?

I recently read the first thing of his I've ever read. "Good Omens" which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett (but you knew that). Pretty good. I laughed my a** off at the Biker of the Apocalypse that changes his name from "Pestilence" to "Pollution" and the tagalongs with names like "Embarrassing Personal Problems" and "Things That Don't Work Even After You've Given Them A Good Thumping".

I believe it was recommended to me by someone who knew I was a fan of the Adams, Fforde, Moore, Leyner et al brands of silliness. I don't know if this book is representative of Gaiman's work in general. Isn't he more of an SF guy?

So why is he your favorite - and what's a good book to start with if one is going to give him a try?

One of my favorite things that he has written is a short story in his collection Angels and Visitations. It is a story about an elderly woman who finds the Holy Grail in a thrift store bin and a knight keeps showing up at her home now to trade things for it. It is a very funny piece.

Asaf wrote:One of my favorite things that he has written is a short story in his collection Angels and Visitations. It is a story about an elderly woman who finds the Holy Grail in a thrift store bin and a knight keeps showing up at her home now to trade things for it. It is a very funny piece.

I friggin' love that short story. Asaf, I kiss you.

I'm still going with Neverwhere. It is the model of modernized dark fantasy and parable.

Imaginative characters, inventive use of archetype, blanding of traditional and modern fantasy elements, dark and distrubing, but full of wonder and magick.

His Sandman comic book series is a classic of course.

And I read his blog.

mpbrockman wrote: I believe it was recommended to me by someone who knew I was a fan of the Adams, Fforde, Moore, Leyner et al brands of silliness. I don't know if this book is representative of Gaiman's work in general. Isn't he more of an SF guy?

Good Omens is amazing! it's not NON-representative of the rest of his work, but i wouldn't consider it the archetypal Gaiman work, brilliant as it is. there are some short stories that have the same kind of dry wit, and scenes in his more "serious" novels that will make you gut laugh in the same way.

but definitely not Sci-Fi. definitely more in that nebulous realm between Fantasy and Horror, where gods walk the earth doing karaoke, angels sit on park benches trading stories with serial killers and London is filled to the brim with underground communities.

mpbrockman wrote:So why is he your favorite - and what's a good book to start with if one is going to give him a try?

i think it's primarily because, for all of the genre elements in most of his stories (oddly enough, a large bulk of his comics work outside of the Sandman is realism while his prose work delves deeper into the fantastical...which i've always found an interesting dichotomy), he has a fundamental understanding not only of the power of storytelling but of humanity. his stories are always at their core human stories, filtered through this mythic lens. i've always put it as "he makes the divine mundane...and the mundane divine." Old forgotten gods and the primary forces of the universe sit around discussing politics, while the fate of the world hinges on a bad break up. that kind of stuff. he fuses and transcends genre, swirling some alchemial brew of fantasy, realism, horror, comedy, action and sex into utterly compelling modern mythology.

i could go on, but i think that covers the main stuff. as for a "beginner's" book...if you dig comics, i would recommend starting to dig into his epic Sandman series. or for a lighter but no less brilliant sampling, try Death: The High Cost of Living. i NEVER get tired of that. for prose...hmm...depends on which way your tastes skew, i suppose. American Gods and Anansi Boys are two of my favorites, but i think the most accessible (and another favorite!) would be Neverwhere. a lot of action and humor, building its own mythology rather than building off of others (as with the first two books). he also has some incredible short story collections if you want a broader sampling...Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things are both excellent primers.

hmm...i don't think i was much help there.

Asaf wrote:One of my favorite things that he has written is a short story in his collection Angels and Visitations. It is a story about an elderly woman who finds the Holy Grail in a thrift store bin and a knight keeps showing up at her home now to trade things for it. It is a very funny piece.

ah, Chivalry! One of my favorites as well! what could have been a Monty Python sketch turned into an almost heart wrenching tale. if you can find a copy on DVD of "A Short Film About John Bolton," which was a short he wrote and directed, one of the bonus features is a live reading he did in Seattle and he opens it up with a reading of Chivalry. actually getting to hear him read it is an absolute treat.

other favorite shorts for me include Other People, Harlequin Valentine, Murder Mysteries, A Study in Emerald, The Day the Saucers Came, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, The Wedding Present, The Price, The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories (particularly since I moved out to L.A.), We Can Get Them For You Wholesale and Tastings.

nadine wrote:His Sandman comic book series is a classic of course.

And I read his blog.

me too. it's a lot of fun, and i love the Cool Stuff and Things section. anytime i'm bored online, there's always some new treat to be found.

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American Gods! Stardust, Good Omens, and I adore his short story collections. I need to read Neverwhere badly. And I'm a huge fan of Mirror Mask. But my shelf needs allot more Neil on it.

I have an autographed copy of Stardust if someone wants to buy it before I put it on eBay.

Perfect condition, shrink-wrapped with a Certificate of Authenticity from Midtown Comics in NYC.

Would I had the money I would but that off of you in a heartbeat. But I'm sure the Ebay Gods are going to reward you VERY well for that one. Good Luck!

Jordan, I didn't have to read who had left this post when I saw the subject. I just bought the first book of Sandman, and reading it over as once again enchanted me. My favorite writing of his will always be Neverwhere, dispite my love and obsession with Death. Keep putting out the good word.

I just finished the Graveyard Book. Cool take on Jungle Book. I liked.

Graveyard Book? That sounds awesome!

You can listen to "Chivalry" here and other Gaiman tracks here.