Thoughts on Neil Gaiman? I like his writing a lot, though sometimes

>>7666344
He gave us the Sandman, and for that he's automatically forgiven of any mistakes he can make.

>>7666351
he also wrote an excellent issue of Hellblazer


i've read none of his other work

>>7666351
>tfw 12 year old me getting weird boners at the diner mind-control scene
th-thanks neil

I read American Gods a few years ago, I thought it wasn't that great and far from the diverse and enthralling mythical journey that I was expecting. Perhaps I didn't approach it with the right expectations.

>>7666401
>tfw 12 year old reading the Djinni gay blowjob scene and failing to realize it was sexual
>tfw read The Portrait of Dorian Grey and didn't notice any homoerotic subtext

wtf I thought reading was supposed to make me see sex everywhere not become even more obliviously autistic

>>7666403
I dunno. I like Gaiman a lot but American Gods did nothing for me. It's just kinda a bland MC wandering around and seeing weird stuff.

>>7666421
...I don't remember any of that

Perhaps it's time to find my book and see what the kind of shit I was being exposed to as a tween

more like neil gay man

>>7666426
vore and catgirls are all I remember

>>7666442
That's how it's pronounced lad

I wonder if he was bullied in school for that name

Neverwhere was fucking awful, dropped it after 80 pages and never picked up anything else by him.

>>7666459
that's literally the first book he tried writing and it was based on a tv show script, not really indicative

honestly his graphic novels are light-years ahead of his novels Sandman and Coraline in particular.

>>7666465
I would push this further and say his short story collections are pretty based, too. It's just his novels I have issues with.

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>>7666344

>read American Gods
>MC is named "Shadow Moon"

Ocean at the End of the Lane was great.

>nothing /fantastic/ actually happens by the way. the protogonist was abused as a child so he rewrote his memory to escape his shitty life and the fact that his best friend died

>>7666769
Shadow's a nickname. His real name is Balder

American Gods reads like teen lit.

>>7666775
wait what, how did you take that away from it.

The Sandman is his masterpiece, which makes reading his other work only an exercise in disappointment. And I read American Gods before it, and really did feel it was retroactively much weaker.

>>7666344
He's a hack, and loved by reddit.

>>7666355
He did a great short story in an anthology of noir comics. Best one in the whole book.

>>7666442
>>7666457
He's made this joke in interviews, he's a fan of Michael Moorcock.

>>7666966
What's the anthology?

I've only read his comics and short stories which are cool

I should try his novels at some point but his writing isn't I don't know, punchy, enough for the subject matter as far as my tastes go.

>>7666465
>that's literally the first book he tried writing and it was based on a tv show script, not really indicative
I'm not buying this, especially since Neverwhere is rated higher than his other novels on goodreads.

>>7668216
>I should try his novels at some point
No, you really shouldn't. The comics are fine but his prose can't carry a novel.

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Got this for my birthday a few days ago. It's not amazing but I like it, it's a comfy read and I knew beforehand that it's suppose to be meandering

kneel gay man, lol

i have to admit that Sandman was pretty based.. but, wow, i get tired of glitter. fairy-dust. some people refer to it as "woo" - where they throw in a term that is supposed to automatically convey a sense of mystery and rapt awe. like Sagan staring into the sky, muttering "billions and billions".

also if i see another character that is a crusty Londoner wif a shabby bowler hat and fingerless gloves named something like Mr Farty or Mr Pissey i will punch someone.

probably Mr Farty.

>>7666775
How did you get that from it?

Also, I was pretty disappointed because I was in the middle of reading it when I saw your comment.
I'm kind of glad you didn't ruin it lol

>>7666355
Oh you are talking about Hold Me. That was great.

Also his short children stories like the Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish; Wolves in the Wall are stories that made me giggle.

American Gods felt mediocre though : \

>>7666344
My girlfriend got me Neverwhere for christmas and now i'm obviously obligated to read it, we'll see how it goes.

Anyone read Sandman on a Kindle? Does it fit?

>>7666344
One of the few acceptable exceptions for a YA author.

>>7668378
Fifty Shades of Grey is rated higher than Death of a Salesman on Goodreads. Please don't take ratings on Goodreads seriously, anon. You should know this by now.

Easy to read, pretty comfy, albeit a tad middle-of-the-road. Has the potential to be remembered as the next Terry Pratchett though.

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i started american gods optimistically, since i like sandman so much, but barely made it through the first chapter. it read like it was written by a talented but raw 15 year old trying too hard to prove he's not a kid anymore.

>implying The Sandman isn´t a rip-off of Swamp Thing.

>reading genre fiction

>>7672684

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>>7666344
I was about to make this exact thread, wtf

>>7667909
>Moorcock
I... just made the connection.
Clearly, my schoolyard days are far behind me.

He was the best thing about The Matrix.

He co-wrote Good Omens with Pratchett, so I forgive him for American Gods.

>>7674546
Okay but did that book feel like 80% Pratchett to you, or is that just me? I found Pratchett's influence more apparent than Gaiman's.

>>7674567
I can't imagine collaborating with Pratchett was a fun gig, and Neil is not the type to clash heads with someone.
Neil even made how angry and opinionated Pratchett was the focus of the remembrance piece he wrote about him.

I posted this in another thread, but since there's a Gaiman thread I'll post it here instead

>look up/buy book I'm interested in
>Gaiman quote on the cover recommending it, sometimes even a foreward.

Motherfucker is well read at least.

But yeah, I would day that he's kind of hit or miss, but I like him. I think his comic output is more consistently good than his novels. Sandman is legitimately still one of the best things I've ever read though, so he'll always get a pass in my mind for that.

Gonna read Trigger Warning soon, I think he does better with short stories than full novels so I expect it to be good.

>>7666424
I really like American Gods, but i can never work out why.
Like i'll finish it, and then try and critique it and come up with nothing either way.
Weird

As writer: good. As a person: literally a cuck.

>>7674567
I guess it did feel much more like Pratchett's book in terms of humor and writing style, but the plot and characters felt more Gaiman-esque. Damn I have to read it again now...

Real talk - I love the shit out of Stardust. Easily in my top ten comfy books of all time.

>>7666424
I don't want to commit myself to reading American Gods so can someone explain it to me?

The idea is that the Old Gods slowly retreated from the world because (wo)man released all the evils in the world and they needed to slowly retreat from the world. Typically in poems and stories the coming of the old pagan Gods back into the earth was supposed to usher in an era of goodness and paradise. It's even many church hymns. But in this that doesn't happen at all. Is this a purposeful reversal of the old poetic expectations or is he just ignorant of all of that and simply wanted to make Percy Jackson fanfic?

I liked Sandman but I can't get into his prose. American Gods didn't read well to me, but I should check out his other stuff too.

>>7666775
I did not take that from it at all.

Guess I gotta reread it now.

>>7675817
this is true

Neil's ok. He's one of the few contemporary genre writers I can stand so he must be doing something right. His descriptions are usually pretty damn good but his prose goes full retard sometimes.

>>7671901
Ever read Good Omens?

>>7675817
How though?

>>7676117
Probably looking to far into the whole "everyone remembers things differently thing

>>7671891
That doesn't work for within the same author. Why would people rate his "first" book better than the others if it wasn't better? Makes no sense.

PLEASE RESPOND

Is reading Sandman on a Kindle PW a good experience or is it too small for that?

>>7676493
The Kindle is too small.

>>7666351
Meh sandman is well written but Gaimen sucks as a comic writer
He has a lot of trouble letting the medium take control of the storytelling

I read American Gods in an afternoon and wasn't particularly impressed by it. That put me off reading any of his other novels. While I'm not a comic book fan I'd like to run through the Sandman series at some point.

As for the man himself, he always comes across as exceedingly smug when I see him in interviews. A smugness that I don't believe is entirely earned. But then again I am far from an expert.

>>7676931
Yeah the British people who write American owned comics for some reason are incredibly smug (Except for like Ellis)

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>>7666344

He's a good writer, readable and droll, but he'll never be great because he accepts his influences too easily, and is too comfortable while being infatuated with books. His stuff will always be quotation, derivation, or imitation.

He's a terrible writer. Everyone in this thread needs to go back to >>>/reddit/ asap