I had to stop listening to this one, because of the content.

However, I decided it that it was instructive for myself to keep these ones in my list, but marked as DO NOT READ. ( )

Cool concept but could have been much better with different writer / style. ( )

I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. The plot was nebulous, and I struggled seeing any symbology. Everything seems mysterious, and then boom the character figures things out. I thought based on the title and description, that the target audience would be teens or young adults, but I found the content to be more mature than that.

Still, it is well written, so even though I didn't like some things about it, I found the writing itself entertaining. ( )

I had a quick look at the TV show and very quickly decided that i wanted to read the book instead, and i'm rather glad i did.   I absolutely, totally enjoyed 'Stardust', which was the only one of Neil's books i'd read before, so i was hoping i was in for another super reading treat with this.

So, suffice it to say, i still have no idea what the TV show was like, and having read the book i really have no interest because the book is so good i just don't want to spoil the memory of a great story.   But i'll most certainly be reading more of Neil's books though.

This book really has just about everything going on in it.   There's a dark satirical edge to it, a murder mystery thing, a love story, folklore, lots of action, lots of gods and goddesses and other mythical creatures, and many other things besides.   How Neil managed to tie it all up into one complete story is outstanding writing to say the least.

What struck me most about it was the dark satirical edge that i found within it.   How so many modern countries are turning their backs upon the old ways and enslaving themselves to modern ideas and ideologies.   The continuous tension between those that would hold us back and those who would drive us forward, and the battles that happen when one or both push it too far.   Yes, we all see it played out in the political realm every day, conservatives v modernisers, but underlying all of that is the beliefs and ideals of everyone in society and who gets to control and dictate them.

And in the middle of it all is our protagonist, Shadow.   What a character.   He's thrown into this world of gods and goddesses as each side attempts to attract him to their school of thought.   Just like the political classes, the corporatocracy and religions as they all attempt to enslave us into their ideologies and use us in their battles for ultimate power.

So yeah, super duper read.   It's a big, big book but well worth the time. ( )

I haven't been this bored with a book in a while. I really do not like Gaiman (although I do love the episode of "Babylon 5" he wrote), but one of my college suitemates loves this book and recommended it to me and I trust her taste and on top of that my Fantasy class kept mentioning it when we read "Neverwhere" so I decided to read it.

Firstly, if you are a fan of gods coming to life and interacting with each other, this is a novel you might be interested in. If you like series like "Percy Jackson and the Olympians"/"Heroes of Olympus", "The Kane Chronicles", Sherrilyn Kenyon's "Dark-Hunter" and related series, or are a "Gargoyles" fan, you might like this novel. If you love "Sandman", you will undoubtedly like this. The focus is principally on gods and mythical creatures from various pantheons/belief systems across the globe gathering together to interact. Anansi, Kali, Thoth, Odin, Loki, the Zorya, Wisakedjak, Eostre (Easter) and others make appearances. The research Gaiman did for this is very interesting and it's enjoyable to learn about all these different mythologies. I do love that this is not a strictly more familiar European mythologies story but covers nationalities around the globe.

Gaiman uses an interesting writing technique for a great portion of the book: the chapters switch up, so that one chapter is the primary plot while every other chapter is a 'random' story focusing on some mythological figure in some manner. My particular favorites are the one starring a female thief and her journey from England to America and an early group of Native Americans and their holy woman. These chapters, which are more like a collection of short stories, were far more enjoyable than the primary story. I think I would have liked this book more if it was a collection of short stories starring various mythological figures than an anthology interspersed with a novel. This actually does not surprise me, since I have enjoyed several unrelated Gaiman short stories a great deal, like his "Matrix" story, "Goliath". Maybe he's just better at short fiction.

When the story starts, it seems to try and pull you into the character of Shadow and you are caught between learning what the plot is about (and you don't actually learn that until way after the middle of the book) and learning who Shadow is. Quite frankly, I found it hard to care about EITHER mystery. Some guy in prison who does coin tricks and some war between old gods/magical creatures and 'modern' gods along with a small-town sideplot and drama. Worse yet, the other characters are not all that interesting, either. Wednesday is a lecherous most likely pedophile and a con artist wrapped in too many mysteries with too few clues that could make the writers of "Lost" jealous. The Zorya were interesting to learn about and I liked Eostre, but other than that this novel does not inspire me to research any of these people as I have when the characters (like Anansi) were presented elsewhere. They often feel placed simply for name recognition and are thus used poorly.

Then there's the way the book treats women. Again we come back to Gaiman's weird obsession with prostitution. I seriously cannot comprehend why he almost always does this but he does. I did not expect the best treatment of women here, especially since it's Gaiman, but I held out. He does better here than he does in most other places. There are great number of prominent female characters. Some physically powerful. Some simply vocal and powerful through the use of their voice. Two women even play strongly into the primary finale. Their treatment is formulaic, lazy and insulting and puts the focus back on Shadow. The old gods are, shockingly, run by a guy and his male toadie. The new ones are run by a guy and his mostly male toadies. I don't know what message Gaiman was trying to send by making the embodiment of modern Media be a woman, but none of the messages are very appealing. If you want to be charitable, I would say he's making a comment on how women cover media as objects that people see all the time, whether it's advertising, special trimming on shows or things men trade around on dramas. If you don't want to be charitable, you could say he's making a comment that media is a woman because the stereotype of a woman is bossy, bitchy, obnoxious, too curious for their own good, loud and annoying, like media tends to be, and this is all-around insulting. I hate to think he's naive enough to believe that women are actually in charge of media in general and THAT'S really why he did this because the truth is completely the opposite and that makes this decision look laughable at best. I also don't really understand two major characters in Shadow's story life: Bast and Samantha Black Crow. Bast randomly decides to sleep with Shadow in one of the weirdest 'heroes get sex' moments I've read in a long time. By the end of the story, for some reason Shadow seems to think there's the possibility that Samantha liked him in a romantic manner, even though they have only met twice and he knew there was no attraction those two times. The first time Gaiman has a 'lovely' bit of writing where he mocks what sounds like the college female stereotype (great job with that). The second time the audience meets Samantha it's unclear how the situation she was involved in fell out and is never explained. The second time Shadow meets her I just rolled my eyes and prayed for the story to end.

I did not enjoy this novel and I would not recommend it to anyone unless you are a Gaiman fan. ( )