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| Photo by Steve Black |
Gaiman’s first novel, that in many ways gave a perfect taster of his work to come, was his collaboration with fantasy fiction legend Terry Pratchett. The combination of both of these wild imaginations was a match made in writing heaven and, along with an impressive storyline, the humour in this book is unmatchable. Containing a balance of Gaiman’s forte for The Gods and Pratchett’s already well-known penchant for witches and other strange creatures Good Omens was named in BBC’s Big Read as one of the top 100 books of all time.
The story follows a rather intricate series of characters that are all linked to a prophesised apocalypse. The representatives of God and Satan on earth, the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley, have spent so much time on earth that they have become friends and quite enjoy living there. When news comes that, as the witch Agnes Nutter prophesised, the anti-Christ has been born on earth they decide to club together to keep an eye on this boy - who is unaware of his fate - joined by a large number of strange beings including the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Best Bit: The characters of the demon and angel Crowley and Aziraphale are a work of comic genius and both the dialogue and the inner thoughts are consistently laugh-out-loud brilliance.
La Triviata: The writing of Good Omens was conducted mostly via daily telephone conversations between the authors.
Neverwhere (1997)
In many of his novels, including Neverwhere, Anansi Boys, The Graveyard Book and Stardust, Gaiman picks very ordinary characters - Richard Mayhew in this instance - and plunges them, mostly against their will and better judgement, into extraordinary worlds. In Neverwhere, the protagonist is leading a stable, settled life in London when he stumbles across an injured girl on the sidewalk and helps her. This one act changes everything. Shortly after, he finds that he has ceased to exist in “London Overground” and the only people who he can communicate with are the people of “London Underground’, i.e. Neverwhere, like the girl Door whom he saved.
Best Bit: Gaiman’s ability to make what one might imagine a London underground to be many times more terrifying.
La Triviata: After Gaiman was originally asked to write a series for the BBC, he found that certain important elements of his script were left on the cutting room floor so he decided to accompany the series, aired in 1996, with a novel, which he began writing on the first day of production of the drama.
Stardust (1999)
A story quite unlike many of his other adult novels, Stardust was inspired by the fairy tales of Gaiman’s childhood. The main plot derives around two things: a wall that Gaiman drove past which gave him the initial idea for the story, and a shooting star he saw one night while at a party, which he found made the idea even better. He took his Sandman collaborator and illustrator Charles Vess aside and told him about the inspiration he had for a grown up fairy tale. Vess and Gaiman went on to release an illustrated book called Stardust in 1998. The following year Gaiman was encouraged to publish Stardust as a novel in its own right.
The story follows the journey of Tristan Thorne who has always been intrigued by the village beyond the wall. When he is trying to cajole “the love of his life” Victoria, into all the things he would do for her to be with her, they notice a falling star and Tristan makes a pact with Victoria that if he brings her back the star she will marry him. The story could never be as simple as catching a falling star and putting it in your pocket and Tristan’s journey is beyond the realms of imagining what he bargained for.
Best Bit: The almost ever-bickering relationship between Tristan and the falling star elevates Stardust far beyond a swashbuckling fairy tale.
La Triviata: In 2008, the novel was adapted into a screenplay of a movie of the same title starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert de Niro and Claire Danes.
American Gods (2001)
American Gods is without doubt Gaiman’s most epic and finest work to date. Although by far a more mysterious and brooding presence than the protagonists of Neverwhere and Stardust, the star of the novel, the aptly named Shadow, is true to Gaiman form pulled from his ‘normal’ and, after an early release from prison due to the sudden death of his wife, is surrounded by the before unseen world of Gods, nymphs and angels.
Gaiman leads Shadow on an epic voyage, chaperoned by Mister Wednesday who is a representation of the God Odin, into a battle of the American Old Gods versus New Gods. Shadow travels across America with Mr Wednesday, calling all the Old Gods into battle as they go, until they reach their destination and the gripping finale Gaiman creates.
For anyone who has never read a Neil Gaiman book American Gods is an absolute must. Following a gripping storyline, Gaiman delves into ideas of Gods, Americana, old beliefs, morality, and so much more. American Gods is a stomach-churning, knuckle-whitening, read from start to finish. Shadow is a creation of perfection by Gaiman and gives very little away of himself while madness erupts around him.
Best Bit: The marathon battle between the Old Gods and the New Gods which leads to a heart-stopping twist.
La Triviata: In 2010 American Gods was voted the first ‘One Book One Twitter’ through an online poll.
The Graveyard Book (2008)
Following the success of his first eerie children’s novel, the brilliant Coraline, Gaiman created a masterpiece in The Graveyard Book, which has chilled both adults and children alike. The idea for the novel came to Gaiman in the mid-eighties when, still living in Britain, he watched his son ride his tricycle through a graveyard. A type of Jungle Book story came to him and, almost 20 years later, he finally sat down and turned the idea into a novel.
The story follows a boy called Nobody Owens who, as a toddler, narrowly escaped the fate of the rest of his family as they were all murdered by the ominous figure of The Man Jack. That night he is rescued by the inhabitants of a graveyard. He is the charge of the people of the graveyard and protected by them until he turns 18 while The Man Jack, relentless in his mission to finish the job, makes the world outside the Graveyard a far scarier place that the grounds within it.
Best Bit: "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife. The knife had a handle of polished black bone and a blade finer and sharper than any razor... if it sliced you, you might not even know that you had been cut - not immediately.” With an opening paragraph like that for a children’s novel it’s hard to choose a highlight and the rest of the novel follows suit.
La Triviata: It has been rumoured since shortly after the release of The Graveyard Book that it to be adapted for the big screen with heavyweight names being mentioned including Disney, Ron Howard, and Neil Jordan.
In Conclusion...
Despite all the much-deserved acclaim, Gaiman has always made sure to stay as close as possible to his fans and, since his publishers set up a blog for him when he was writing American Gods, he still updates it surprisingly regularly. The author has been an inspiration not only for writers but for musicians too. His close friend Tori Amos has written songs about him on four of her albums. Gaiman is very much a writer of the present with a vastly vivid imagination and a true talent for placing the ordinary right beside the extraordinary and seeing how the former will fare. His quality and quantity of work over the past 30 years is prolific to say the least, having not only written novels and graphic novels but also film scripts, poetry, songs, short stories, comics, and children’s picture books. His secret seems to be having the talent and imagination he possesses and always knowing the best way to use it.
Original version written for AU
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