No--its perfectly fine to love comics, I was just thinking, maybe the Shakespeare-Sandman comparison wasn't--well I'm sure you knew you were being slightly hyperbolic even then, and you were trying to make a point, so its ok. Just give the novels and short stories a chance, you might appreciate a book like Stardust more if you had to trudge through more of the sludgy stuff that is today's "pop" fiction. Especially in fantasy, ugh. Stardust was very fresh, very evocative, short and sweet, maybe you had to be read fairy tales as a child to really understand the pleasure I got from reading that book.

PS hehe, how's that for a blurb--for Stardust? I just noticed

I just realized that there is a Garth Ennis Spidey story... Tangled Web #1, I think. Quite good. I can't believe I forgot that...
I love Neil's short stories, and i'm beggining to reevaluate Neverwhere. Plus, i truly believe in the awesomeness of Good Omens.

the (help me) floyd

My response to you is....NO. American gods is not over rated. When i got the book i reread it about 5 times. This is not unusual or significant in any way. I always reread books many times over. But that i didn't find any faults or inconsistentcies in the plot or characters does say something. Usually with any author you find some little things that are off...but not with niel. He's...well..quite simply put, he is the shizznat smick smack shablangedy bling. I believe that he reused (loosely) certain concepts from other books that he created and later acted as a consultant. He also reused a bit of the cat from Neverwhere. Richard something or other. But his colective accomplishments are like one giant symphony. Each movement has a little piece of the previous ones endowed in it. whatever. American Gods redefined Niel. I think that you can't get any better without the aid of comic book form. And he has now proven, without a doubt, that he doesn't need a visual artist to help him. Did he ever in the first place? Maybe when he was a toddler. Enough brown nosing for one night. Caio.

Well said!
I thought there was definitely something very comic-like about AG. The words were kept to a minimum for what it had to say, which made it seem quite fast moving and powerful. And there were some great visual images, such as the autopsy.

Hmmm... I think I should reward this thread. It seems to be my most successful, and has generated debate long after I posted it. It also seems to be the only thing people post to on this section of the board. *pets his thread and gives it a cookie, and then a raw steak*
I'm training him to enjoy the taste of flesh. Namely, the flesh of overenthusastic AG fans. *evil, evil laugh*

the (joking, of course) floyd

Well, just to add my opinion, I never read books because someone says something good about them. The opposite really. I made a point of not reading Harry Potter because everyone told me, how great it was (perhaps that's silly, but it's the way I am). I read AG because... well... there was someone called Shadow in it, I thought the name was cool (cough).
Now, is it overrated ? Well, I like it a great deal, so I don't think so. But, of course, everyone's free to disagree.

It's underrated. I mean, among us, it may be, but you won't be seeing many doctorate theses written on it (which I think it merits).

It just beat a Bradbury book for an award... as someone who's just rediscovering him, thanks to my little sister, and thinks that every sentence Bradbury writes is pure liquid gold... i'm shocked. Maybe Bradbury's gotten bad, but I doubt it... and even if he has, he's never banal, which some parts of AG are...
And this isn't a crtisim of American Gods. Many things I love-- the Dark Tower, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, some of Sandman, all my girlfriends, some lesser Borges stories, the Sopranos, the Beatles-- are not as good as a classic Bradbury sentence. American Gods is not even on the level of the stuff i mentioned...

the (Borges loved Bradbury) floyd

Originally posted by The Lord of Nothings:
[B]It was a good book, entertaing, had some truth in it. But i don't think it deserves some of the praise its getting.


I never read the quotes, they people who give them are usally paid for their quote, and sometimes the names that are credited to those quotes are made up. The makers of the movie, The Patriot, got in trouble for making up quotes, and for every 1 book/movie that gets caught, there are at least a 100 that arent caught.

neil is a genius.
I love this book. If you don't "get" it, you've not read it deeply enough.
All the answers are there.
I t is "what dreams may come", personified.

I first came across Neil Gaiman in 1999. My dearest friend who always helped me to keep Aslan, Atreju, Graograman, HAnsel und Gretel and all the other wonderfull creatures hidden in our childhood dreams, in Yor's mine Nimrod alive one evening gave me a very beautifull bound and illustrated and as i later found out beautifully written book to read. I read it all on one evening, totaly hypnotised by the wonderfull story i read it in one big sip. I found myself lost in a new world but too soon pushed back into my little room up in the loft... I returned the book a day or so after that.... And forgot it for a little while....

This Book was "The book of dreams"

2years later on a different continent, one evening i recieved an email from the tori amos homepage *blush*
looked bored through the advertisment for her new album and on the bottom of the mail i found a vers of a book of a friend of hers... It caught my eye and started my mind... I clicked on the link and suddendly found myself back here on Neil Gaimans Website.... I browsed through the Webpage and found my old friend... The Book of Dreams... A day later i intruduced myself to "Neverwhere".... I found myself sucked into a dark world with little light, cold and still full powerfull rays of colour in every corner.... It made me shiver and it made me laugh it made me dream it gave me nightmares..... It made me run through the tuinnels in hope to find a way out of this cruely beautifull worl.... And as soon as i turned the last page i missed it...I still search for my lost friend Lady Door.... And my dark pal the Marquis...

American Gods was different. Page after Page i found myself in a new world, not beeing able to put the book down until sleep closed my eyes or or someone draged me out of Lakeside... Even after i turned the last page i didnt fear to loose Shadow.... At first i thought it was because i never ever got to know him well enough, not like the lady door and the ppl from the london beneath... No, Shade was always me the reader..... Living a different life fighting the same ghosts with different names.... All in all a Shadow .... A shade of a me i didnt get to know yet... Even if that might not have been Neil Gaimans intention when he invited Shadow to bet the hero of his new story i'm still thankfull for it as there r lots of books that are great to read and teach you a lot of things... Lots of books with lots of different Qualities... But Neil Gaiman gave me something back that i lost since John Fowls "The Magus", Ray Bradbuys "Something Wicked this way Comes" Michael Endes "Neverending Story"... All those books beeing totally different in their story and in the way they r told gave me something that make them more valuable to me then James Joyce Olysses, Mevilles Moby Dick or Virginia Woolfes Orlando.... The gave me a piece of a dream a piece of me i didnt get to know yet....

Overrated or not.... Thank you Neil Gaiman for inviting me into this great and powerfull World....

How do u messure the quality of a book anyway. Nonsense...

L.D.G.A.

Well, having finally read it (bought it on Easter Saturday, started it after Midsummer. How terribly symbolic? *rolls her eyes and sighs* ) I have to say it wasn't as good as I expected it to be. It feels somehow empty when I think of it, as devoid of meaning as some the gods in it. I loved the Sandman stories, some more than others, and I'm surprised to find this just well-crafted, as others have said. Nice work, well done, well crafted, but just as they advertise it with "As good as Stephen King or your money back", I ended up finding it quite like some of King's stuff. A fan of Dark Tower but everything else seems slightly "immaterial", again like the gods in AG. It was unexpected to say the least.

I was lucky enough to hear him read Coming to America 1721 before the book came out and that had magic to it, but the overall thing... I couldn't say.

Much like four or five cups of chicory laced coffee in the morning, this novel moved me.

I fell in love with American Gods. For days it came along with me everywhere I went. I drew it into a week long reading experience. (And seeing as how a novel of the same size will take me at most two days if circumstances allow, this does indeed say quite a bit.) And, on top of that, I broke the paperback binding--something I never do if it can be at all avoided.

The affinity I felt for the novel had nothing to do with "blurbs" or "reviews" (which, admittedly, I don't read) and everything to do with cleverness and compelling characters to name just a few points. The story made me feel.

I read Neverwhere after AG and, though I enjoyed it quite a bit, I was disappointed. In comparison it seemed rushed and, dare I say it?, almost simple. That's probably not the word I'm looking for, but there it is. Soon after I realized it wasn't fair to compare the two. And I'll keep that in mind when I read the next Gaiman novel so as not to repeat the same mistake.

But see "over-hyped" falls into the same nasty category as "sell-out" as far as I'm concerned. It seems like those terms are used whenever something displeases someone in the least manner. They're not fair. They're too easy.

It wouldn't matter to me if Italo Calvino or Fernando Pessoa, two of my all time most beloved writers, came back to life and shouted in mixed English to the world their love for American Gods. Or, for that matter, their contempt for it. What matters is that it remained with me, that it will continue to stay in my mind, long after I finished it.

when I bought AG, i read the whole thing in abput 48 hours and then felt compelled to re-read the whole thing, purely because I could remember some thins that had given away details which I can't mention bcos of this being a no spoilers thread, but had to go back and double check these. It drew me in instantly.

Oh, and can I mention how ridiculous I found the whole "as good as SK or your money back" thing? I can't stand reading SK and have never finished more than the first couple of chapters of anything he has written. This was much more compelling and instantly gripping, (more blurb-speak, sorry), and I learnt about so many myths that otherwise I would never have thought to explore.

I don't think there is any way to judge how good a book is except purely subjectively, and there is just no way you can compare two authors. Nor even the same author in two different genres. Sandman, yes, almost perfect as an example of comic writing/ graphic novel writing (whichever you prefer or have heard NG describe himself as a writer of), but I really felt that this was, although long, perfect enough to have me rereading it about once every two months. and each time, a new idea seems to hit me. same as with Sandman I spose.

Oooooooops just noticed how mouch I'm rambling, sorry.

I'm not sure if i'm offtopic.
If so, I'm sorry.
AG is very well crafted, yes.
But i needed to get off my chest that most of the cheering reviews should go to Mr Punch.
That, in my opinion, is the best thing he's done yet, but then again, i'm still waiting to get my hands on coraline.

i loved American Gods and am loving Coraline as well...

ah, who am i kidding; i haven't been disappointed yet

After 7 pages of compliments at the forefront of the novel, and, being the third Neil Gaiman tale I've ever read "(or so I thought at the time), I must say, emphatically,
NOAmerican Gods is not overrated.

[This message has been edited by Leroy Binks (edited 07-26-2002).]

It reminds me of Imajica by Clive Barker, only not as sexual. Similar story, similar structure.

I never read novels and I finished it. I finished Imajica too (a long time ago) but it took alot longer.

The women in both books seemed flatter than the men. Kinda cardboard. (Or dead! I guess, next to dead, cardbarod is better.) Clive Barker's women aren't that good either. Something about the relationship with the wife wasn't right--detached, none of the sensual sort of grief people feel when they lose a mate--you know, the way the sheets smelled, the coffee cup, seeing someone who looks a little like the person, realizing it isn't her, the hurt after that-- little stuff that gets to you bad. That was missing, except for the "Puppy" thing which felt wrong too--why did he love her? No clue. We dont' get to see that. But then that's kind of his character I guess.

I liked it. All this hype that goes with this genre. God. I didn't realize it was out there. It wears me out just reading about it.

I need nap now.