Which Neil Gaiman novel do you like best, oh mighty flist?

[scoobygang63]

Concentrating is HARD. Despite the poverty and the joblessness, writing out my entire job history endlessly (even though the majority is cut and pasted from other applications I have filled out) is SO BORING I could cry. And then I have to try and explain why I am fantastic which takes quite a long time, and a lot of rewriting

Comments

[soupytwist]

Good luck applying, honey! *smish*

And I love Neil (and enjoy Neverwhere - I found the names thing cooler than you apparently did, and I think most of the characters are interesting) but I definitely think he's better at short stories and comics than he is at novels. I don't dislike the novels, but they are especially prone to a sort of... same-itis, where it starts feeling a bit like he's already said it before, and better? The Graveyard Book, his newest, is better than most though, it felt much newer and less like he was trying to do what he'd already done better in Sandman. (Which I think is still going to be his best work forever, and that is... kind of sad. I mean, if I ever do something that great I'll be happy, but it's the idea, you know?)

[scoobygang63]

It's the idea of having peaked that's so depressing... like now you're just going to live in the plot of Death in Venice. I R geektastic. But yeah, I know what you mean. I'd be ecstatic to have created something brilliant but more than a little depressed to think I can only get worse from there!

I just... can't not find the names a little bit lame. No matter how much I like some of them, there's always a guilty thought lurking in the back of my mind telling me this is a cheap, cheap trick. I'm not very far into the book at the moment though, so mostly this is my hatred of the name "Door" coming through.

Also I am reading the original version of the text and not the author's preferred copy and I'm curious as to how different the latter is.

I do want to read The Graveyard Book, which I somehow omitted from the poll, because it sounded like a really good concept. Which is why I love his short stories, because they all tend to have really interesting concepts that I can get behind.

[soupytwist]

Seeeeriously. *flails*

And I believe Neverwhere is one where Neil has gone 'PLEASE READ THE AUTHOR'S PREFERRED VERSION ACK ACK ACK', so that might indeed be interfering with your enjoyment. Though if you haaate the very idea of the names thing then it might well not be your favourite anyway.

Graveyard Book is way more like his short stories that way, yeah. (Though: he does say it can be read as each chapter being a self-contained short story, but that is actually bollocks. It's a novel.)

[scoobygang63]

I don't hate the names thing, it's just not enough to make me go "OMG brilliance!" and so far it's all I have. Although I reiterate that I am not very far in at all, so this is by no means my final and considered opinion!

I really enjoy Neil's blog, and seem to remember some stuff about the preferred text so I might try to get my hands on it at some point...

[alili]

i said something else for lest fave because out of those listed i have only finished 2. i started american gods but i didn't get far before anothe book distracted me - it's such a big book!

i heart teh neil as you know. i did my dissertation on him after all ^_^

[scoobygang63]

I still have no idea how you managed to do a degree in English (albeit with Film) when you hardly ever manage to get to the end of a book! It makes me do this face: 0_o

[marysiak]

I've only read Good Omens and American Gods. I loved Good Omens, I thought American Gods was all right.

Are you coming to my premier!!!

[scoobygang63]

Good Omens is fantastic... It was how I discovered Gaiman, as I used to be a huge Pratchett fan.

I really, really want to, but I am absolutely destitute until I get paid and that's not until next week! I've been trying to figure out how I can afford to go, but I'm already stupidly overdrawn. I'm sorry, it's just terrible timing :(