Once Upon a Time IV: 'Snow, Glass, Apples' by Neil Gaiman

Mirror available here - isn't it gorgeous!


Neil Gaiman is a god!
I sat down to read 'Snow, Glass, Apples' a (free to read) short story by Neil Gaiman, expecting it to be good and it was far better than just good.
Gaiman twists and turns the Snow White story in his own wicked way. The story is a monologue by the 'wicked' Step-Mother with her take on her daughter. Snow White, no longer a figure of innocence is feeds off her father and the people of the forest, heart removed she survives.
Whether you like short stories or not you should definately go and read this. Thanks to Mee who blogged about this story yesterday.

Do you know of any online stories which would work for the Once Upon a Time IV Challenge?

Audiobook: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

A super quick review.
My love of Neil Gaiman just gets deeper and deeper. And this book has made me think perhaps I should take another look at Terry Pratchett.
Good Omens is a novel about the end of the world. A small boy, Adam is born who is prophesied to be the reason for the worlds end. The devils and angels have all been waiting for this point, for this final fatal battle to decide who really is superior while Adam just whistfully wiles away his summer with his friends.
The book is full of comical moments, as well as religious conundrums - just why would God place an apple on a tree and tell everyone not to eat it unless he meant it to be ate etc.
Stephen Briggs reading brings the whole thing to life and a joy to listen to. Read it!

My Thoughts: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman writes another corker. The Graveyard Book manages to draw you back to the childhood sensation of discovering a new world hidden in the depths of a few hundred pages.
The book is about Nobody Owens (Bod), escaping from murder at the age of one, Bod fines sanctuary in a Graveyard. The Ghosts and The Honour guard provide him with a family and a safe place to grow up, away from those who need to come to finish him off. As Bod grows older his obedience frays and he begins to explore the town around his graveyard placing himself in danger. The danger follows his scent, leading to a climactic ending.

Neil Gaiman managed to create a wonderful sense of place in this novel, the creepy graveyard transforming to become a place of warmth, love and security. The book is classified in our library as Young Adult, but this is a book which deserves to faind many many readers.

Challenges:
The Dream King 2/6
A-Z (Title)
The YA book Challenge 2/12
999 (New Fiction) 5/81
NaJuReMoNoMo 5/5

Reviews:
Bart
Stuff Dreams are Made On
Things Mean A Lot

My Thoughts: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

"Shadow had done three years in prison. He was big enough, and looked don't fuck-with-me enough that his biggest problem was killing time. So he kept himself in shape, and taught himself coin tricks, nd thought a lot about how much he loved his wife."


The moment Shadow is released from prison his life changes, his wife is dead having been killed in a car crash is a compromising position with his best friend, and on the way to her funeral he meets a man who will change his world.


Shadow suddenly becomes the employee of Wednesday half god/half con man. He runs every time this man calls taking him on various jobs across the States, and meeting a number of random gods. In every place he travels he meets gods from each of the countries that Americans originated from, all brought over by the beliefs of migrants and many forgotten by the current breed of Americans.


And that's not all he has to deal with: His undead wife keeps returning asking to be brought to life. Oh, yeah and...


"...all the gods that people have ever imagined are still with us... And that there are new gods out there, gods of computers and telephones and whatever, and that they all seem to think there isn't room for them both in the world. And that some kind of war is kins of likely."


The story of Shadow and of the war of the gods is interspersed with my favorite chapters, those from the past which show the arrival of migrants and gods arriving to the shores of America, my most favorite being the chapter entitled 'Coming to America' about twin African children sold to slave traders and shipped to America, that language just pulls you right in, and you feel like you have stepped into another novel.
Challenges:
999 (Fantasy)
A-Z: Author
The Dream King 1/12
The Genre Challenge 4/10
Fourth Annual NaJuReMoNoMo 3/5
The Chunkster Challege (640 pages) 1/6
Other Reviews worth checking out:
A Striped Armchair
Rhinoa's Ramblings

Two Completed Short Story Collections

The Little Black Book of Stories - Byatt

Way, way back in April I picked up and started this collection of short stories on a bus journey, the book then got put down and forgotten about till I rediscovered it for the RIP III challenge, and now its finally finished.

I love A.S Byatt's Possession but have never got around to reading any of her other stuff, well if this collection is anything to go by I should dig some more out. With the exception of one story, 'Body Art' I enjoyed all the tales, most I would say are relevent to the RIP challenge, while one 'A Stone Woman' was just very strange and mysterious. My favorite has to be 'Raw Material' a story about a creative writing teachers dismal class, with one shining light. The story was so soft and gentle that the ending came as a sharp surprise.

Fragile Things - Gaiman

This was a great collection of short stories, as expected by Gaiman. A few were abandoned but most were loved, in particular The Day the Saucers Came and Octobers Chair. A random selection of these stories I have reviewed as I read them:

Goliath, Keepsakes and Treasures & Bitter Grounds, Closing Time, October's Chair

Challenges: RIP III, Short Story Challenge, 100 Shots of Short

A Neil Gaiman Double Whammy!

So much for an afternoon marking, I devoured 2 Neil Gaiman books, both for the RIP III Challenge and both were great.

I've read Coraline before, but last time it just kind of passed me by, this time I was in the right mood and I loved it.

Coraline is a modern fairytale. She is a young girl living in a house, with two overly busy and unattentive parents. The holidays are dragging and Coraline's life as an explorer is starting to get a bit boring. In the back of their flat is a locked door which leads to a brick wall. Well, being a fairytale we know that doorways such as these only lead to danger, and that our heroine will have to go and explore.

Behind the locked door, is Coraline's other family, all scarily with buttons for eyes (despite being grown up, one of the pictures I had to cover as I read the page, her eyes were just too freaky!). This alternative world is created by the mother, who appears to steal children's souls. And that's the intention she has for our main character, but as this is a fairytale we watch Coraline in her war against this adult.

I want to get the graphic novel version of this in the near future.

Other Reviews:

Booknut

An Adventure in Reading

The second Gaiman book was a gorgeous graphic novel which I spotted in the library and had never even heard of. Creatures of the Night includes 2 stories, The Price and The Daughter of Owls.

In The Price the narrators home is basically a home for stray cats, all manner of cats turn up to stay in the house, and all settle in fine. Until the Black Cat arrives, he sleeps on the porch but every night he is covered in cuts and welts. Once brought into the house to protect him from whatever is harming him, everything goes wrong for the family, from losing work, to accidents and srguments. When he is returned back outside, his owner sets out to discover just what it is that is attacking him.

The Daughter of Owls is a strange little tale, about an abandoned child believed to be the daughter of an owl. She is feared by the villagers and banished to live in the old convent. As with all feared female children she grows up to be a beauty and her actions cause havoc for the village which rejected her.

The pictures in this book are stunning, not at all like cartoons. The picture I really want to show you I can't find on the net, and I have no digital camera or scanner to capture it with.

Sunday Salon: A random variety, plus Short Story Sunday

This weeks Sunday Salon is going to include a random mixture of bits and pieces. Firstly, I have to say that reading this week has been slowly, some of that is down to the fact that I started a book I thought I would love and just didn't want to admit to myself that I couldn't be bothered by it, I wasted 3 evenings on A Carnivore's Inquiry, only reading 120 pages when I could had guessed after 30 pages that I would be giving up on this quickly. I also spent 2 evenings with that horrible foggy brain you get before a cold comes out, which has really affected my reading.

I'm now reading The Famished Road, which I'm loving, but wondering how I'm going to review. I'm quite tempted to do a WG style review, so if anyone has any questions about this book that they'd like to ask, ask away here as it will help me structure the review. I'm hoping to finish reading this by mid week.

Talking about Weekly Geeks, this week is catch-up week and while I don't have any outstanding reviews to write up or completed challenges, I have this mammoth reading list for Fall into Reading to tackle, as I really need to catch up with my reading or I won't be completing many challenges in time. So I'm going to try and finish The Famished Road this week, read Coraline and tackle at least one of my bookring reads. Outside of reading, I also need to catch up on my sign language lessons, I haven't been for 9 weeks, largely because of the school holidays (its run at school), but I haven't practised as I should so I've seemingly forgot nearly everything I spent a year learning, and I need to catch up on my A Level course this afternoon.

Less babble about me, now time for Short Story Sunday. This morning I read Keepsakes and Treasures by Neil Gaiman, from his Fragile Things collection. This story is definitely only for adults but is first rate.
This story is about a man who was born to a woman locked away for clinical nymphomania in the 50's, despite being in an asylum she still managed to fall pregnant, and his father can only be one of the men who are supposed to be protecting her. From a young age, the boy has used murder as revenge and punishment for those who harmed him and his mother. His actions are noticed by Mr Alice, one of the world's richest men, but a man who used his money to stop the public finding out who he is. The boy comes to work for Mr Alice for the rest of his life, he is the person who seeks out and fulfills Mr Alice's desires, whether they are business desires or personal ones. Mr Alice's main desire is for young men to have sexual encounters with. The main part of the story centres around Mr Alice's acquisition of the Treasure of Shahinai, a young exquisitely beautiful boy.
This is an excellent story, but avoid if you dislike sexual scenes or bad language.

I also read yesterday Gaiman's excellent story Bitter Grounds, in this story we follow a young man who is clearly bored of life and just looking for an escape. He decides to drive around America, and meets a professor on his way to a lecture. When the professor mysteriously disappears, the man steals his papers and goes to the conference himself, giving a speech about the zombie coffee girls.
These where read for Short Story September

Short Story September: Closing Time by Neil Gaiman (and a wee nod to some bloggers BBAW style).

I think I love Neil Gaiman more and more everytime I read him. I just read this fantastic story while lolling in the bath and had to come and say a few words about it.

Closing time is another of Neil Gaiman's stories within a story. He starts out talking about an old club in London, one damp and misty night, 3 men are sitting in the bar recounting ghost stories, when the narrator announces he has a story of his own to tell:
"I'll tell you a true story, if you like. It's a story I've never told a living soul. It's true - it happened to me, not to a friend of mine - but I don't know if it's a ghost story. It probably isn't."

The story is about his childhood, and a meeting with a group of boys, possibly brothers, who seem out to spoil his innocent childhood. They show his naked pictures, tell him dirty jokes and teach him how to swear. Then one day they take him to the gardens of an abandoned, but very neatly kept, old house. In the garden there is a mock tudor playhouse. Its this playhouse that becomes the place of mystery and suspense, a dare leads to an unexplainable event, one the narrator fears he will never know the answer to.
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BBAW kicks off with an opportunity to let everyone know what your favorite blogs are and why. I'm going to name 3, all three contain great reviews of books that I'm interested in, interesting comments and they seem to make great challenge participants. I often visit these blogs looking for reviews and recommendations as they seem to be spot on, and match my taste. They are
A Striped Armchair
An Adventure in Reading
B&b ex libris

Short Story September: October's Chair by Neil Gaiman

I love Neil Gaiman so I was expecting to love this story and I did, it's really a story within a story.

The month's of the year have all been personified, with their various personalities and appearances linked to the month they represent. They met reguarly as a council to tell short stories, and this month it is October's turn to lead the meeting. Their actually turns out to be a lack of stories, and a fair bit of squabbling, and then you get to October's gorgeously told short story.

Runt, is as you may have guessed from his name, the youngest, skinniest and most bullied child in the family, and generally doesn't quite seem to fit in anywhere. As life moves on Runt dreams of running away, and accumulates all the items he deems necessary in a tubberware container: Mars Bars, Beef Jerky and 30 odd dolars. When he pulls out the tub one day and realises it is full, he knows that this is the day that he has to run away, to try and make a new life for himself. Despite all his dreams of freedom, Runt has little belief that he will last much longer than a day without being found, but he makes a run for it anyway.

Arriving in a new town, Runt meets a young boy called 'Dearly', this boy knows that he once had another name, yet it is so rubed away he can no longer read it. Runt has no apparent problem with meeting and hanging out with a ghost, they spend the night having fun and enjoying each others company. When it comes to time to part, Runt asks if he can stay with Dearly for good, Dearly points him in the direction of an old and derelict house, saying that in that place they could make that dream come true.

This story was told really well, and would make an excellent read for any short story lover. I found a copy of this story in Gaiman's short story collection, Fargile Things.

My Thoughts: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

I know that I'm probably one of the few people never to have read Neverwhere, but it was worth the wait. I'm definately having a bit of a Neil Gaiman year, seeming to be reading his books all over the place.

For anyone in the dark, like I was, Neverwhere is a novel set in London Below. Richard is a typical middle class office worker in London, he gets up, goes to a boring job, and sees his boring girlfriend and then does exactly the same thing the next day. That is till one evening an injured girl literally falls at his feet. His life changes in moments, leaving him dumped, invisible to everyone arouund him and able to talk to rats.

The injured girl, Door, leads him to a life under the normal London, filled with the people who just 'fell through the gaps'. The train stations act like portals, and more than live up to their names and his life is at risk with every step he takes.

I absolutely loved this novel. The inverted world of London, the fantasy creatures and the pace with which the story unfolds. For years I shrugged away from fantasy literature, and I seem to have discovered it through children's literature and its opened up a new world of books. If anyone has any great recommendations for more books from this genre please share them with me :-)

Each of the Gaiman books I have read so far have been bookrings, so I'm planning on asking for some for Xmas, all with the gorgeous black and white covers.

Challenge:

20th Century Reads Project (1996)

Classics Challenge (Fantasy Classic) Book 6 of 6

Other Reviews

Eye on Everything

Raidergirl3

Bart's Books

Stephanie's Confessions of a book-a-holic

If you've reviewed this leave a link to your review and I'll add it in

My Thoughts: Mirrormask by Neil Gaiman

I grabbed this book whilst I was in the library today, I then came home and read it all in one go. This novella is about 15 year old Helena, she is a member of a circus and like all teenagers she wants out, she wants to be 'normal' and live in the real world.

When her Mum gets sick, Helena is drawn into a dream world full of flying books, winged hungry cats, police beetles and Valentine her side kick through this world. Quickly Helena realises she much prefers her old life and has to go on a quest to return herself to her family.

This was a strange little book, every page is illustrated with either cartoon like pictures which we would expect in a graphic novel or pictures from the film Mirrormask, it's like it can't quite make up it's mind which it wants to be. Personally I much prefered the graphic novel-esqe pictures. The story was interesting enough, well written, I wasn't gripped though, maybe it was because it was a novella but things seemed to move a bit too fast. One minute Helena has entered a strange world, the next she is a Princess eating tea with the Queen (I actually went back to see if I'd skipped a page).

Challenge

Young Adult Challenge Book 2 0f 12

July Book Blowout Book 4

If you have reviewed this book, leave a link to the review in the comments and I'll add it to the bottom of my review

My Thoughts: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

I've been meaning to read a Neil Gaiman novel for a while as everyone seems to rave about him and I finally got around to it! I had seen the film earlier this year, and while I loved the film I seem to have forgotten the majority of it so this story was still fairy fresh to me.

The novel, for anyone who doesn't know, is set in the village of Wall, a small English village in which the locals guard the wall which leads to the land of Faerie. Despite no one being allowed to cross into Faerie a market exists every 9 years which allows the inhabitants of Wall to mix with the people of Faerie. Early in this book the market results in a child being born, he is brought to live in Wall and grow up as a normal citizen.

When this child is 18 he falls in love with the popular Victoria Forrester. So in love with her is he that he promises her anything she wants in the world, she requests the star she has just seen fall from the sky. The star lays in Faerie, so off he goes on his journey. Along the way he meets a variety of characters and situations.

This is a feel good book, something nice to drift off into at the end of a busy day at work. I will certainly be looking out for more of Gaiman's work. I have seen a stunning graphic novel copy of Stardust in the bookshop and may have to ask for it for Christmas.

Challenges:

July Book Blowout

20th Century Project

Others Thoughts:

Andi.Lit

A Striped Armchair

Just a Reading Fool

Becky's Book Reviews

Bart's Blog

If you have read and reviewed this book please leave a link to your review and I'll add it on, also feel free to link back to my review.

My Thoughts: The Sandman: Dream Country, Neil Gaiman

My first Graphic Novel ever! And my first read for the Graphic Novel Challenge. I picked a Neil Gaiman as I am interested in reading more of his work since reading some of his short stories that he has posted on his blog, see here for my mini review, I also have my first Neil Gaiman novel arriving in the next week so I'll be able to compare his style in that.

Now, not having a clue about Graphic novels I ordered The Sandman: Dream Country from the library, recognising the title Sandman and not realising at all that this was in the middle of a series, having enjoyed it I will now look for the first volume and maybe work my way through all of them.

This book was composed of 4 stories: Calliope, A Dream of a Thousand Cats, A Midsummer Nights Dream and Facade. I loved reading the first 3 in particular A Midsummer Nights Dream, in which the theatre troop is taken by Will Shakespeare to perform his famous play on the Downs in Sussex, to a rather unusual audience. The illustations where fantastic and I really loved the scene when the 'Longman' of the Sussex Downs opens up to reveal the audience.

I also really loved the idea of the cats in A Dream of a Thousand Cats attempting to change the universe with their dreams, something people aim to do all the time.

The fourth story was the only one that reall didn't hold my attention, it was a bit too sci-fi for my tastes.

I'll certainly be reading more graphic novels in the future.

Part of my 20th Century Challenge

If you have read this book feel free to comment or leave a link to your own review.

Neil Gaiman: Various Short Stories

I saw a link to the Neil Gaiman Journal on Eva's page and during the last few days I've been reading his short stories which are avaliable to read on the site. I just thought I'd pop up a few quick thoughts about them on here.
How To Talk To Girls at Parties
A trifle of a story depicting two teenage boys descending upon a house thinking their luck is in. Unfortunately for them these aren't quite the type of girls they were looking for...
Cinnamon
A lovely story about a young Princess with pearls for eyes, who refuses to talk. The girl's aunt offers rewards for the person who can make her talk, all fail until a tiger arrives.
I loved the fairytale-esque style of this sory.
A Sudy in Emerald
I followed the links on his site to download this free of charge for Harper Collins and listened to it doing some housework then curled up in bed.
I thought this was an okay story, very Sherlock Holmes in style (which isn't my taste at all). It was made better by listening to Gaiman reading it. Hearing the intonation and the different character voices took me back to childhood, being read a bedtime story or listening to a teacher reading a story (well) to the class.
I Cthulhu
A strange little story, with a sci-fi feel, in which a "tentacle-faced thing" is reported to a human his journey to earth.
The Case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds
A parody of a murder mystery in which the murder victim is Humpty Dumpty and the murederer is...................................? This tale is full of different nurserytale characters.