My only experience with Neil Gaiman’s writing (other than a viewing of Coraline) was Anansi Boys, which happened to be the sequel to American Gods to which no one had bothered to tell me about. So, yeah, I was hesitant. I mean really… of all the people on this site that I know that like Gaiman, couldn’t one of you have bothered to let me know? Huh? Fine. It’s done with.

Now, erasing that slight… really, I am… I will tell you that I totally gave Gaiman the brush off. I filed him under ‘what the hell’, ‘hype’, ‘don’t give a damn’ and ‘world weary.’

My bad.

Neverwhere is brimming with exotic personalities who have ‘fallen between the cracks’ and landed in ‘London Below’, the place below the sewers and train tunnels, where rats have kingdoms and Night is still an idea that is terrifying. The plot is a familiar one, there is a quest, there are bad guys, there is the hesitant hero and a rakish Marquis. Oh, and there’s Door, the determined princess in distress. But Gaiman’s writing creeps along the sewers and delivers us to angels in a way that takes your breath away.

“And then it erupted over the side of the platform. It was diaphanous, dreamlike, a ghost-thing, the color of black smoke, and it welled up like silk under water, and, moving astonishingly fast while still seeming to drift almost in slow motion, it wrapped itself tightly around Richard’s ankle.”

I wonder sometimes what falling through the cracks would be like. If everyone that I knew suddenly ‘unknew’ me. Would I go mad? Would I huddle in doorways and wait for the gloaming to swallow me? Could I survive? (Seriously, help me out here...I'm all for huddling...)Our hero, Richard, meets Hunters and Velvets and Earls and assassins that make those creepy floaty dudes from Buffy episode Season 4, #10 look like Hummels. Richard, of course, is made better by knowing these creatures and learns that life isn’t all about corner offices and pretentious fiancés..and that sometimes angels can be assholes, but we already knew that, right?