Over the past twenty years, Neil Gaiman has developed into the premier fantasist of his generation, achieving that rarest of combinations—... read full description
reviews
Dec 30, 2008
Jennifer
rated it: 
Reviewed by Christina Tsichlis for TeensReadToo.com
PRINCE OF STORIES: THE MANY WORLDS OF NEIL GAIMAN is a wonderful book for any fan of Neil Gaiman. It is an overview of his work as well as his life. It is clearly a book written by friends of the man himself and has a jovial feel to it, almost like friends telling stories about one of their own to one of their own. As a reader, one feels almost included in the circle of friendship that clearly helped to generate this book.
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PRINCE OF STORIES: THE MANY WORLDS OF NEIL GAIMAN is a wonderful book for any fan of Neil Gaiman. It is an overview of his work as well as his life. It is clearly a book written by friends of the man himself and has a jovial feel to it, almost like friends telling stories about one of their own to one of their own. As a reader, one feels almost included in the circle of friendship that clearly helped to generate this book.
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Dec 23, 2011
Richard
rated it: 
Rating: 2.5* of five
What was I thinking? I don't like the Gaiman books I've read so far, feeling like beating him with long, leathery things studded with flesh-rending hooks, because CHARACTERS HAVE TO CHANGE SOMEHOW as a result of the journey of the novel, and his don't. So far, anyway.
So why read this gushing fanboy spoiler-fest? Why inundate myself with the trivia and ejecta of the man's undeniably interesting career doing things I don't care about, like comics and graphic More...
What was I thinking? I don't like the Gaiman books I've read so far, feeling like beating him with long, leathery things studded with flesh-rending hooks, because CHARACTERS HAVE TO CHANGE SOMEHOW as a result of the journey of the novel, and his don't. So far, anyway.
So why read this gushing fanboy spoiler-fest? Why inundate myself with the trivia and ejecta of the man's undeniably interesting career doing things I don't care about, like comics and graphic More...
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Jul 30, 2011
Pretty decent overall. Enjoy it especially for its well written summary of the Miracleman/Spawn dispute between Neil Gaiman, Todd McFarlane, and about a million other people. The rest of the info should probably already be known by real Gaiman fans, who are the ones reading the book anyways. If you've somehow stumbled upon this book before reading everything or almost everything he's ever done, consider a useful summary of where to go and what to read. It is however, as another reviewer stated,
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Jun 24, 2011
Jenni
rated it: 
After skimming through this book, I have come to the conclusion that the only people who should buy PRINCE OF STORIES are those who want a fat, pretty, hardcover book with Neil Gaiman's name on it to sit on their bookshelf. After all, people who are not big fans of Gaiman will have no interest in the thin summaries of all of his works (which comprises the majority of this tome), and diehard fans will find that there is almost nothing new to be found here.
The only pearls of enjoyment More...
The only pearls of enjoyment More...
Aug 20, 2009
Ninja Sock Puppet
rated it:
I've been a big fan of Gaiman's since Good Omens, at least. I've followed his career through graphic novels, children's books, YA fiction, and novels. His partnership with Dave McKean has been really wonderful, and I've developed a crush on McKean's work that borders on stalkerish. I have gotten to the point that (like Stephan Martiniere's work) I can recognize his art at a glance, so distinctive and evocative is his style.
My love for McKean knows no bounds, to the point that I'd More...
My love for McKean knows no bounds, to the point that I'd More...
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Jul 30, 2009
Sarah Pi
rated it:
I skimmed through this, but there's some fun stuff in it, including an excellent interview and some interesting trivia. I couldn't help feeling that it could be a little better - that they could have gotten the rights to reproduce a lost story, or at least found some more esoteric trivia and insight than explaining the dedications, which is what was resorted to for some of the books.
Also, discussing "A Game of You", they write "A careful reader cannot fail to notice Gaiman' More...
Also, discussing "A Game of You", they write "A careful reader cannot fail to notice Gaiman' More...
Jun 11, 2011
Airiz
rated it: 
Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman is a true-blue Gaimaniac’s ticket for a marvelous romp to the life of this literary rock star.
This is practically a complete package, a 3-in-1 if you will—a pseudo-biography, a compilation of detailed reviews, and a bibliography of his works. The readers are given glimpses of Gaiman’s life through interviews, conversations with author friends, quotable quotes, and short anecdotes of the author from being a journalist to being a novel More...
This is practically a complete package, a 3-in-1 if you will—a pseudo-biography, a compilation of detailed reviews, and a bibliography of his works. The readers are given glimpses of Gaiman’s life through interviews, conversations with author friends, quotable quotes, and short anecdotes of the author from being a journalist to being a novel More...
Feb 12, 2012
Abbi
rated it:
Curious reading. I found I was familiar with much of it, though that isn't the book's fault, but essentially everything that was interesting I had already seen in one place or another, likely because Neil Gaiman is so internetable, thus many of the quotes and interviews and pieces of information are all all over Tumblr and so on on a fairly regular basis. I skipped the Sandman parts, as I've not yet read them, but they seemed comprehensive and interesting. In a near-academic way this book a More...
Nov 07, 2011
John
rated it:
Even though I consider myself a fan of Neil Gaiman, I never realized the amount of work he produced that I didn't know about. I am thankful for finding this book which was printed in 2008.
Pretty much the entire book is a listing of Neil's work with some behind the scenes information and background from artists and other writers. I am a huge fan of his Sandman series and really enjoyed finding out some tidbits that I missed as I've read the comics over and over.
The last qu More...
Pretty much the entire book is a listing of Neil's work with some behind the scenes information and background from artists and other writers. I am a huge fan of his Sandman series and really enjoyed finding out some tidbits that I missed as I've read the comics over and over.
The last qu More...
Jul 24, 2009
Wendy
rated it:
This is one of those odd biographies. It's more of a literature review than anything else, though there is some biographical information of Gaiman throughout. What makes it odd is that, while it's chock full of information, most of it would only appeal to people who are dedicated Gaiman fans; but dedicated Gaiman fans would already know the information, and thus would have no reason to read the book. A person who came into his career later, or who was only aware of his work in one genre or anoth
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Apr 01, 2011
Daryl
rated it:
No one is more a fan of Neil Gaiman than I. He's a literary hero to me, on a par with Tolkien and Zelazny. Maybe because of that, this book really didn't work for me. I hoped to learn more about Neil by reading this book, but didn't. There’s unfortunately little about Gaiman’s personal life, his writing processes, or his inspirations. The exception, is a lengthy interview with the man himself, published at the end of the book. There’s not much new in the rest of the book for anyone who’s fairly
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Feb 18, 2009
Dawn
rated it:
An enjoyable companion piece to Neil Gaimain’s work, with plenty of juicy tidbits for the enthusiast. For such a fat book, it’s remarkably quick to get through, since a lot of it is summaries of already published works, with encyclopedic listings of people, places and things. My two personal favorites were the overview of the Spawn lawsuit, and the big Neil interview toward at the end.
Even though the whole book might be too much for any but the most ardent fan, it’s worth picking up More...
Even though the whole book might be too much for any but the most ardent fan, it’s worth picking up More...
Nov 29, 2011
Mari
rated it:
I'm not giving this book a middling review because the authors were in any way bad at what they wanted to do, but simply because it wasn't what I needed in order to scratch my itch. If you want a synopsis of Gaiman's works, then this is a fantastic and joyful book, written by a group of people who clearly enjoyed themselves the whole way through. Gets five stars on that level. If you want an in-depth literary analysis of Gaiman's works (I'm a lit geek, and that side of me needs feeding now an
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May 17, 2009
Audrey
rated it:
I can't really recommend this for anyone who isn't a diehard Gaiman fan. With that said, there's a good bit of information here that I was delighted to find -- it's nice to have a summary of all Gaiman's works in one spot, divided by genre/type, along with character summaries, bits of trivia, and more. However, there was a lot that I skimmed, just because it's so darn long (and because it could've used a better editor, and heck, better writers). I enjoyed the interview too, but aside from those
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Jul 05, 2010
H. Anne
rated it:
I found this to be a rather interesting book, at least for the first half. I never knew a whole lot about the issues with Todd McFarlane as I think I had some general dislike for McFarlane by then. It was interesting to know how many vague and mostly forgotten characters Gaiman reworked and so on. So forth.
So much of the book, though, is basically an overview of all Gaiman's work so it ends, I believe, with the Graveyard Book, I believe. And while it's nice to have the summary an More...
So much of the book, though, is basically an overview of all Gaiman's work so it ends, I believe, with the Graveyard Book, I believe. And while it's nice to have the summary an More...
Nov 20, 2008
Alisa
rated it:
So far I've learned that Gaiman "takes the view that mornings happen to other people". :) I think we're kindred souls.
Update:
I really enjoyed the interviews in this book, and the scattered quotes by Neil Gaiman. I had to skip a lot of the rest; the authors give detailed break-downs of his books, and as I'm still reading most of them, I didn't want to get spoiled! I look forward to picking it up again, after I've finished a few more of his works.
Update:
I really enjoyed the interviews in this book, and the scattered quotes by Neil Gaiman. I had to skip a lot of the rest; the authors give detailed break-downs of his books, and as I'm still reading most of them, I didn't want to get spoiled! I look forward to picking it up again, after I've finished a few more of his works.
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Jan 06, 2011
Aleta
rated it:
This is an interesting book about Neil Gaiman and his works. So much of is synopsis, and I did not read all the synopses - I kept thinking "why am I reading this; I should just be reading Gaiman"? There are interviews and insights into Gaiman's work that I enjoyed though, and I have added some things to my "need to read" mental list.
Mar 08, 2009
Yune
rated it:
Picked this up when I needed to grab something to read while waiting for the talk at the venue next door to start.
If you want a synopsis of everything Gaiman's ever written, here you go. A wee bit gushy at times (layered meanings behind names were of course deliberately done by a writer of Gaiman's caliber, etc.), but otherwise fairly insightful.
If you want a synopsis of everything Gaiman's ever written, here you go. A wee bit gushy at times (layered meanings behind names were of course deliberately done by a writer of Gaiman's caliber, etc.), but otherwise fairly insightful.
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Jan 02, 2009
Kerry
rated it:
An interesting mixture of biography, bibliography and review, not to mention several pieces of Neil's collected here for the first time. Some of it is slow going, but there are priceless insights, I assume helped along by Bissette who's been one of Neil's artists (Swamp Thing) and a publisher (Sweeny Todd).
Feb 09, 2010
Lori
rated it:
This is for serious Gaiman fans only. There is a ton of detail and lots of spoilers so it could ruin things for the uninitiated. I learned a lot about Gaiman I didn't know and there are some very cool interviews with his collaborators as well as with the man himself so I thought it was well worth the read.
Aug 26, 2010
Dan
rated it:
An excellent if lengthy tome on the wonderful Mr. Gaiman and his worlds. Full of interesting background facts, plot synopses (with spoilers, so be warned) trivia, quotes from Neil and his many colleagues, interviews and more. Highly recommended for any fan of his writing!
Dec 28, 2008
Steven
rated it:
Good overview of Gaiman's work across all media, though a lot of page count is synopses (so if you've read a lot of his work, it goes quickly).
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Aug 05, 2011
The interviews are cool; the analysis, or lack thereof, is disappointing, considering how dense - yet engaging - Gaiman's fantasies are.
Dec 30, 2008
As a fan of Neil Gaiman's writing, I look forward to reading this. It looks like it won't disappoint :)
May 15, 2010
I just realized I don't want to read this until after I've read some of his graphic novels...
Aug 04, 2011
Nicolo
rated it:
A treasure of a book. This is recommended reading for Neil Gaiman fans old and new.
Mar 31, 2009
Alice
rated it:
Startlingly comprehensive reference of Neil's work, with interviews (incl. one with The Fabulous Lorraine and one with Neil that is v. interesting) and random ephemera galore. Even as a super-hardcore screaming fangirl it was kind of overwhelming. I wouldn't read it all the way through unless you're doing a thesis on Neil's work, but it's a good resource to be aware of.
Jan 22, 2009
Amanda
rated it:
I didn't end up reading this entire book - it's hardly a beach read. What I did meander through (mostly the stuff on Sandman, I admit) was pretty interesting - decriptions, little known bits of trivia, and quotations from Mr. Gaiman all pulled into something akin to an encyclopedia of his works. Unfortunately, the book is a little weighty for a fan read, and doesn't have quite enough substance for scholarly pursuits, so I suspect it may end up gathering dusts on many shelves.
Jun 18, 2010
Lara
rated it:
I quite enjoyed a few of the interviews in this book, especially the long one with Neil at the end. If you're a fan of Gaiman, though, you're likely to already know most of what the authors have to say. I found myself skipping pages and pages of novel and comic and short story summaries simply because I've already read them.
