Garret’s Comments (group member since Jan 21, 2015)

Garret’s comments from the Return of the Rogue Readers group.

First, that's awesome, Danielle! I'll definitely pick up that collection. Second, about this talk of Hunter. I agree that she was selfish and, personally, I saw no redemption of her flaws at the end of the story. Even at the end when she told Richard he was now the Warrior, I felt like she was almost mocking him for killing the Beast of London rather than applauding his actions. Or, if not mocking, being condescending at the very least just as everyone else had treated him throughout the novel.

I also agree that Jess (Jessica!) and Richard were probably the worst characters in the story, but I would like to know how much Richard changed during his future untold life as a citizen of London Below. Did he just continue to follow Door around, did they become lovers, does he embrace becoming the Warrior, or is he ambushed by the Velvets and killed within weeks of returning? In this regard, I find a returning strength and weakness in Gaiman's writing that I absolutely love and hate in almost everything he's written: I always want more after I've finished reading.

I'm clearly late to the party, but have enjoyed the discussion thus far. This is my second time through this novel and I think I fell in love with it even more than I did almost twenty years ago. To answer one lingering question that's come up: there is another story set in this world called "How the Marquis got his Coat Back." I have not read it and the only place I have found it with a limited search is the US hardback reissue of Neverwhere that has that story tacked on the end. This version is out of print, but can still be found online from places like Amazon. I'm hoping Gaiman will add it to a short story collection, but time will tell.

Something interesting to note about this novel is that it is itself an adaptation of a BBC miniseries that Gaiman was hired to write (which I do own and is quite good despite its age and at-the-time technological limitations); Gaiman wanted more than what could be shown in that format, which is how the novel was written. They do run very close together, but the novel is superior in execution.

As for my own favorite character, the Marquis is mine because of his depth and really just how fun he was to watch in action with his attitude and general flair. He, like all of the characters and as has been pointed out, has so much story behind what we are given in this novel that it feels almost a crime that we are only given this short visit into that world. Even characters like Old Bailey would be fascinating in a connected collection of stories to read about; not a single character is wasted in the telling of this story.

For Amy and Danielle, with this being your first adventure into the mind of Neil Gaiman, welcome to the beautiful bedlam of magic he can create. In my experience and opinion, if you come back to him, you'll never leave disappointed for the trip you'll take.

Just for clarification for all readers, the Preferred edition is a Kindle-only for us US readers. This edition is supposed to combine elements of both the original UK edition with those put forth in the American-friendly original US edition. I have only ever read the US edition myself and am looking forward to noting the differences in this Preferred Text version. Excellent pick, Danielle, and happy reading to all.

I'm beginning to think that reincarnation is a real thing and that I've had many sea voyages in my past life after having read and enjoyed the last two stories that I've brought to the group, with On Stranger Tides being one of my new favorite adventures I've had in recent memory. The story was more fantasy than horror, which I did not necessarily mind, but the mix was done just right for me to feel at home in both settings, and I think Powers crafted a world mixed of the two extremely well. I never mind budding romance in the pieces I read, and I liked Powers did his own love subplot in such a way as to not be the focus of the story, but did help move the plot along in such a way as to make the reader root for hero, making you want them to get to each other and win the fight against the forces against them.

The only negative thing I had about the novel was that I did feel like certain parts of the story dragged, especially toward the middle and end of the story. This was not the case enough for me to dislike what I was reading, but I was indeed ready for the action to rise and the threads to be tied so that the characters could reach their ultimate goals.

I do agree that parts of the novel were amusing, Jordan, and even I laughed out loud as I read the novel which is a rare occurrence indeed for reading prose. This was my first time with Tim Powers and it definitely made me appreciate his work enough that I'll probably seek out more of his fiction later on in life.

Sounds great to me!

For the sake of [insert reason here] I want to add a third book to the poll: War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, which is considered the first urban fantasy novel ever published.

For our next selection I propose we choose between Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (an alternate history horror tale) and On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers (a pirate adventure novel with elements of dark fantasy). Choose, my friends! Let the poll begin!

Though I agree with Mike's content in his review, I still enjoyed the novel. There were things that annoyed me, yes, mostly found in the actual reading of the novel as opposed to listening to an audiobook, I'm sure, where contractions dont exist as if the author couldnt be bothered with such things. This was not a huge deal - chalk it up to artistic flair - but it did border on being almost unreadable during dialogue sequences where there is no indication in the form of quotation marks that someone is speaking, with the reader having to play detective in these instances in order to make sure someone is speaking about the fact that they are dryly spitting into the ground.

The actual story, though, intrigued me enough to finish the novel and mostly look forward to coming to it when I had the time. I think saying it bordered between western fantasy and an historical novel is apt, and I think that is what kept me going through those tough portions of the story. Though it could be rather repetitive by its very nature, I did care to find out what was happening with the kid, Toadvine, and the expriest, and obviously the judge as I found him to be a more mythic character absorbed in the strange and weird, which always grabs my attention. Without his character, I know I would not have finished reading and would have given up early on simply through the frustration of following along with the story through its stylistic laziness (I mean, how hard is it to follow proper rules of writing unless there is a point you are trying to make? Are we too stupid to understand the point, or is McCarthy so conceited that he feels he is above such pleasantries?).

Though my comments may indicate a lesser review, I did give the read four stars as the judge kept me interested and the ending was so bizarre that I found it fitting with the strange and weird so perfectly that it raised it by a star by itself. I think taking this novel as a serious exploration of life and times in the mid-1800s is a mistake, and one would not glean much for a book report, but I feel that if one takes it as a story reminiscent of the "weird tales" of pulp fiction during the 1930s (kind of like our earlier read by William Hope HodgleScope), one may find more enjoyment from it.

I'm almost 70% through and know I could have it finished within a week for sure.

Let's do it!

I mean, we all float down here.

Should be great. That'll give you guys time to plan my birthday surprise for three days later.

So I'm clear: Watership Down is the next book?

Hodglessonmiser...

I think the fever muddled her mind...

Ha...just kidding...but no, I really did watch movies as a child. I do think it would be neat to see this filmed if done right (obviously). I think the imagery alone invokes the need to be more fully realized and I'd love for a tale such as this to have a chance to go mainstream versus its indie status. I'd want something like a cross between the ridiculousness of Evil Dead and the seriousness of Pan's Labyrinth...which I know is a wide gap, but makes sense in my tired mind. Let's have Sam Raimi direct it, but Guillermo del Toro write and design it with Bruce Campbell as the "narrator" and Ron Perlman as the great and powerful bo'sun. Scored by some Swedish nu metal band with an affinity for Cthulhu rising up in their album art.

I also watched movies as a child.

Something else I thought was neat and unusual for a novel of its time: the narrator was not really the "astute hero" in this tale, but it was more so the entirety of the crew seemed in part equal measure as an almost survival horror type nature...anyone else have thoughts on this?

*slowly backs out of the virtual door of the thread muttering, "It's happened, they've lost their blooming minds"*

That's the one thing I love about this group, Sarah, is that we can bring these new finds to one another that we may not have had the chance or thought to experience on our own...I'm very pleased that you enjoyed it so much. Now, on to my own review:

I picked this book on an indirect recommendation by my boy Mike Mignola (creator/writer and most-of-the-time artist of the Hellboy comics) from an introduction he did in the collection "Strange Places" (volume six of Hellboy) for the two-issue run called "The Island." He cited Willam Hope Hodgkettle as his greatest influence for that story, with "The Boats of the Glen Carrig" being the specific source for the idea. As I've been burning through the Hellboy volumes, I thought that this could potentially be a fun read for the group, especially since I really just wanted to read the novel and find out what all the fuss was about.

Overall, I thought this was a great piece of prose for its time. It was very reminiscent of Lovecraftian horror, especially with its continued use of tentacled monsters popping up all over the place, and I've always been a huge fan of pulp-esque weird horror tales like Lovecraft, so this was one of those reads where I felt I was right at home with the story, as if it was written just for me. The horror was filled with adventure and I think the lack of overt description worked well with the material (though Sarah, myself, and critics alike seem to wish for more information on where these creatures came from, how they existed, and so on), as it let my imagination run as wild as the continued succession of events in the story, and I enjoyed making my own internal movie for this one.

Something I noticed that kind of set it apart for me in terms of a personal narrative, was the lack of any actual dialogue in the story. To a great degree, this was written in such a way that I can imagine these events being a "true account" through the style and tone, as it would be read to a person in the same way in which one reads it. I give it some credit for that, because I think that would be hard to pull off, and it was done so wonderfully by the author.

I, too, rated this one four stars, and it was missing that fifth star because of the episodic nature (I felt it could have been much longer with greater detail given to character development and creature origins). I still thoroughly enjoyed this story, and it is one of those few gems that I know I'll read again in the years to come, which I always say is the best praise you can given a piece of writing. To further this: Hodgkettle wrote several of these sea-faring horror/adventure stories set in what was called the Sargasso Sea Stories, of which "The Boats of the Glen Carrig" is just one of many in his loose, unrelated series. Knowing this, I know I will find myself visiting this Sargasso Sea in the future, as this foray into horrific adventure was too good not to revisit with a new crew and a new adventure.