Book Review: Coraline

From Goodreads: There is something strange about Coraline's new home. It's not the mist, or the cat that always seems to be watching her, nor the signs of danger that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, her new neighbours, read in the tea leaves. It's the other house - the one behind the old door in the drawing room. Another mother and father with black-button eyes and papery skin are waiting for Coraline to join them there. And they want her to stay with them. For ever. She knows that if she ventures through that door, she may never come back.

Thoughts: Yet another stellar author! I love having authors I can count on to give me a good read. This is Gaiman at his creepiest best. While theoretically written for children, Coraline would be more than capable of inducing nightmares in some children. If your kids like creepy stories and aren't given to wild imaginations that run away in the dark - go for it. To tell the truth I would most probably be ok with both my 10 and 13 year old reading this.
Coraline enters another world through what should be a false door - all it opens onto is a brick wall. But some how, on this day, it opens onto another world, one that has been carefully crafted by the Coraline's "other mother." This creature has recreated Coraline's world, but why? And why buttons for eyes? When  Coraline refuses to stay, the other mother steals Coraline's real parents and she must enter the strange world again to save them.
What I really love about Coraline? She saves herself. She is scared, she is uncertain, but she is brave. She is a girl capable of being her own hero.

“Because,' she said, 'when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave.”

And I don't think we have enough brave girls in literature. I also love that the evil doer in the book is female. It is the other mother that controls the other world and all that is in it. Strong female characters in kids books - love it!
Gaiman's stories are simple but not condescending. The children in them are intelligent and resourceful.  They are able to see through the smoke screen that so many adults seem to put up. In short, Gaiman believes in his child characters and infuses them with a confidence all kids should have. Once again Gaiman is a winner in my book.

Book Review: A Game of You - Sandman Volume 5

From Goodreads: Volume Five of New York Times best selling author Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed creation THE SANDMAN collects one of the series’ most beloved storylines.Take an apartment house, add in a drag queen, a lesbian couple, some talking animals, a talking severed head, a confused heroine and the deadly Cuckoo. Stir vigorously with a hurricane and Morpheus himself and you get this fifth installment of the SANDMAN series. This story stars Barbie, who first makes an appearance in THE DOLL’S HOUSE and now finds herself a princess in a vivid dreamworld.

Thoughts: Definitely my favourite Sandman so far. In this volume Gaiman and his band of incredibly talented artists follows Barbie, a character who briefly appeared in The Doll's House. Barbie is now living in an old house divided into apartments with an assortment of people. Wanda, a transgender undergoing treatment to make her body match her feelings, a lesbian couple, a strange, quiet girl and an old man. Each of these people have a role to play in Barbie's dreams, but they may not all make it out alive. Gaiman lifts that very thin veil between Morpheus's Dream Country and the real world. Are our dreams truly our own, or do we simply move into abandoned dreamscapes and make them ours? What happens to the pieces of us that we leave behind in those dreamscapes and who can we rely on to save us when we can't save ourselves?

A Game of You gets 4 stars.

 *        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing 

Book Review: Season of Mists - Sandman Volume 4

From Goodreads: Volume Four of New York Times best selling author Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed creation, with updated coloring and new trade dress.Ten thousand years ago, Morpheus condemned a woman who loved him to Hell. Now the other members of his immortal family, The Endless, have convinced the Dream King that this was an injustice. To make it right, Morpheus must return to Hell to rescue his banished love — and Hell’s ruler, the fallen angel Lucifer, has already sworn to destroy him. 

Thoughts: So have you ever wondered what would happen if Lucifer decided to abdicate his throne in Hell? Not only abdicate, but evict everyone and close the doors? Welcome to the Season of Mists, where Lucifer has left the building and handed the keys to Morpheus. What follows is the story of the other deities and entities who believe they should be given the keys. They all arrive at the Dream Castle to try and convince (bribe, threaten, cajole)  Morpheus to hand over the keys to, in the words of Morpheus sister, Death, "The most desirable plot of psychic real estate in the whole order of created things." 
One of Gaiman's strengths is he makes it completely believable that Odin, the Trickster , Faeries, Demons, a Japanese deity, Bast and Anubis, and angels would all want the keys and sit down to a banquet together to petition the lord of dreams to hand them over. Can you think of many writers who can gather such a stellar cast of big characters and make it work? Gaiman does, and all in a graphic novel format where he has to trust the artists to flesh out his words. And that in itself is a good point to make about these books - there are so many more people involved than just Gaiman. Yes, he gives it a great framework to build on with an excellent story line, but the illustrators, letterers and colourists all contribute to make it the excellent production it is. Once again, well worth the read.

Season of Mists gets 4 stars

 *        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing

Book Review: Dream Country - Sandman Volume 3

From Goodreads: The third book of the Sandman collection is a series of four short comic book stories. In each of these otherwise unrelated stories, Morpheus serves only as a minor character. Here we meet the mother of Morpheus's son, find out what cats dream about, and discover the true origin behind Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream. The latter won a World Fantasy Award for best short story, the first time a comic book was given that honor. This volume includes issues 17-20 of the original series and features completely new coloring, approved by the author, of issues 17 and 18.

Thoughts: Dream Country is the third Sandman volume. It has 4 self contained stories that involve the Sandman. The first is about the imprisonment of a muse - Calliope who also happens to be the mother of the Sandman's son. The second is What Cat's Dream about and I don't believe a word of it! The third explore the other world origins of A Mid Summer's Nights Dream and the last is about the façade we present to the world.
I think I prefer the continuous stories presented volumes 1 and 2. There was a little disjointed for me, although Gaiman's explanation at the beginning was interesting.

Dream Country gets 3 stars.

 *        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing 

Review: The Doll's House - Sandman Volume 2

From Goodreads: New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision. 
During Morpheus's incarceration, three dreams escaped the Dreaming and are now loose in the waking world. At the same time, a young woman named Rose Walker is searching for her little brother. As their stories converge, a vortex is discovered that could destroy all dreamers, and the world itself. Features an introduction by Clive Barker. 
This volume includes issues 9-16 of the original series and features completely new coloring, approved by the author.

Thoughts: There is a dream vortex. An entity that threatens to rip apart the dreamworld and the Sandman's only choice is to find and destroy it. However, the dream vortex is a young woman who has no idea of the damage or danger she is causing. 

The Doll's House takes us through some very scary territory. A boy kept in a locked basement, a convention of serial killers and the death of a young woman. This second Sandman volume was stranger than the first -  more story telling, less scene setting. Again, the proof of the strength of the story is it took me 3 days to read, not 3 hours. I'm still amazed at the depth of these graphic novels. I wonder if I will ever read another graphic novel which will impress me as much.

Book Review:Preludes and Nocturnes - Sandman Volume 1

From Goodreads: New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision.
In PRELUDES & NOCTURNES, an occultist attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his 70 year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On his arduous journey Morpheus encounters Lucifer, John Constantine, and an all-powerful madman.
This book also includes the story "The Sound of Her Wings," which introduces us to the pragmatic and perky goth girl Death.

Thoughts: I have a love/hate relationship with graphic novels - I either love them or hate them. Maus was brilliant, The Exile terrible. Whenever you look at lists of graphic novels to read, Neil Gaiman's Sandman rates within the top 3, often as number1. Gaiman has been a relatively new discovery for me, no more than 12 months. I'm still reading him thinking "Dude, where have you been all my life!"

My first indication that Sandman was good - it took me more than a day to read. There was a real, intriguing story to follow. There were characters I cared about, characters I really didn't like and being able to raise that kind of feeling in only a few words - your words have to be good. The second indication it was good is the fact I put volumes 2 & 3 on hold at the library before I finished one. Third indication, I put other things aside to read it.

For me, the pictures in a graphic novel are secondary. If the storyline isn't good, it doesn't matter how good the pictures are. The words still tell the story and without them everything is lost. Gaiman tells a good story. He leads you through the story, literally leading you to hell and back. And his version of Death - not a s funny as Pratchett's but every bit as inspired. If you want to explore graphic novels, enjoy the fantasy/ horror genre there would be worse places to start. Gaiman is a true story telling genius regardless of format.

Preludes and Nocturnes gets 4 stars

 *        Did not like it
**       It was OK
***      Liked it
****    Really liked it

*****   It was amazing 

Book Review: Good Omens

From Goodreads: According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .

Thoughts: I listened to this as an audio book and loved it. Pratchett and Gaiman write a hilarious account of the last days. Crowley (a demon) and Aziraphale (an angel) have come to know and let's face it, like each other, over the several thousand years they've spent on earth. What's more, they've come to like earth – it's music, it's movies, it's food, even some of it's people. And having survived the 14^th century, they feel things are on the up and up. But now apparently it's time for the apocalypse and well, they're not sure they want it!

Along with motorcycling riding 4 horse persons of the apocalypse, an 11 year old Antichrist who, through a baby swapping mix-up has been raised as a normal human child and a very confused hound of hell, they race towards the end wondering who will win and does it even matter.

Pratchett or Gaiman by themselves are brilliant and hilarious. Together they are dangerously funny. I would love to have been a fly on the wall as they created this, I'm sure some of the conversations would have been incredible. All I can say is if you are after a book that will entertain you, make you laugh and remind you that not everything is doom and gloom (even if the apocalypse is approaching) read this. You won't regret it!

Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

From Goodreads: Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

Thoughts: Why has it taken me so long to discover Neil Gaiman? Why did no one grab me by the shoulders, shake me and shout YOU NEED TO READ THIS!! Gaiman has definitely become one of my go to authors. I listened to this, read by Neil Gaiman himself. I love when an author does a talking book, you get to hear it the way they intended.
Gaiman's writing is just beautiful. His storytelling draws you in, takes you back to childhood where you were sure monsters were real, but so were heroes; friendships were forever, even if you ended up living miles apart and adulthood was something a long way away. Each of the characters is real and tangible. Even those characters which aren't central to the story such as the mother are clearly seen and observed without intruding.
This book has the ability to cross age groups - complex enough to engage adults, with a story enthralling enough to capture kids. I plan to listen to this again as we take the long drive south for Christmas - something a little bit different to break up the monotony of the trip. 
Soon, very soon I plan to do a list of books that would make good Christmas presents. This one will make the list. Read it - I know very few people who will regret it.

Book Review: American Gods

From Goodreads: Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow's dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost – the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book.Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and underneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow's road story is the heart of the novel, and it's here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book--the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow.
More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country--our obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what's real and what's not. --Therese Littleton

Thoughts: Gaiman, I think is either a love him or hate him author. You're either going to get a mass of enjoyment and reflection out of what he writes or you going to think it's a complete waste of time. Me, I loved it. I loved it because it makes your mind twist and turn in directions it normally wouldn't. It makes you think about the world around us and how we react to it - either passively or actively.
Reality is if you are looking for a book that takes a nice linear line, where you never go "hang on, what the hell happened there!", where your characters always make sense and the story comes together in a nice, cohesive way, this is not the book for you.
It's also an incredibly hard book to review for all of those reasons. David Monroe on Goodreads summed it up beautifully for me. He said:


Much like any Neil Gaiman story, the devil is in the details, and you just have to resolve yourself to coming along for the ride or you'll miss it. It's not one story, or two, it's many, and it's all complete...and you have to just read it, and enjoy it, and accept it. Or just don't bother.

The devil is in the details and if you can give yourself over to just taking the journey Gaiman wants to take you on, it's fabulous. On the other hand, you could just not bother - it's completely up to you.

This book completes the Fantasy aspect of my 100 Best Books List challenge.