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Ethought Online SuperMarket - Neverwhere
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List Price: $16.95
Our Price: $24.70
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Highbridge Audio
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781565112315
Format: Abridged
ISBN: 1565112318
Label: Highbridge Audio
Manufacturer: Highbridge Audio
Number Of Items: 2
Number Of Pages: 1
Publication Date: 1997-06-01
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Studio: Highbridge Audio
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Editorial Reviews:
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Richard Mayhew is an unassuming young businessman living in London, with a dull job and a pretty but demanding fiancée. Then one night he stumbles across a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her--and the life he knows vanishes like smoke.
Several hours later, the girl is gone, too. And by the following morning Richard Mayhew has been erased from his world. His bank cards no longer work, taxi drivers won't stop for him, his landlord rents out his apartment to strangers. He has become invisible, and inexplicably consigned to a London of shadows and darkness—to a city full of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armor and pale girls in black velvet. It's a netherworld that exists entirely in a labyrinth of sewer canals and abandoned subway stations. He has fallen through the cracks of reality and has landed somewhere different, somewhere that is Neverwhere.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Dark and imaginative
Comment: This book didn't really grab me at first, but the more I read it, the more I became wrapped up in this unique, dark, imaginative world. Richard Mayhew was just a normal man leading a normal life until he stops to help a bleeding girl in the streets -- an act that truly lives up to "no good deed goes unpunished." Soon he discovers that his identity has been erased, left off no better than any meandering homeless person. His life turns even more chaotic when he embarks to London Below, a gritty and surreal reality existing beneath London, and helps Door, the girl he previously rescued, to discover who killed her family and why. The plot becomes more intricate and engrossing, filled with a cast of characters you never quite entirely know you can trust, and the villians are genuinely menacing. The twists were also ingenious and well-planted, making it even harder to not finish this book. While the ending was overall satisfying, there were still a couple of loose threads that make me hope that there will one day be a sequel, but it is not entirely necessary. If you love dark fantasy and are tired of reading about the usual concepts, then Neverwhere is a worthy read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just About the Perfect Book Ever
Comment: This book starts out at a perfect pace, introducing the reader to the main character's ordinary life, and swiftly sweeps both the reader and this ordinary man into a dark reality from which there is no escape. By the end of the book, I had a real affection for the bewildered Richard, and for his friends in London below: the curiously powerful Door, the conniving marquis de Carabas, and even the single-minded bodyguard, Hunter. It's easy to become concerned in their fates, and they are all unique and likeable characters, each in their own ways.
This story is easy to relate to, as it follows a familiar plot: average person gets swept up in mysterious goings-on, meets allies, they have a quest to follow, with powerful enemies popping up now and then to interfere...or worse. This doesn't mean that the story is stale. Indeed, it constantly surprised me with its twists and turns, and its utter originality. But what makes the story familiar makes it comfortable; otherwise, the alien world in which Richard finds himself would be too cold and unknowable. Richard, being from London Above, gives the story its dose of reality, which of course makes the book all that more unnerving.
All fans of fantasy and modern thrillers will enjoy this book. This is the first book of Gaiman's that I've tried, and I'm looking forward to reading more!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good entertainment for a cold weekend
Comment: Richard Mayhew is living the life. He is engaged to a beautiful, well-connected business woman, he has a good job with a future, and he has friends, but one good deed changes it all. In a night Richard has fallen through the cracks of the sane, real world he knows into the supernatural Underside of London where lost human beings rub shoulders with all manner of creatures and life is as dangerous as the darkest parts of human history. Presented with a quest that may help him get his life back Richard embarks on a journey of discovery that will change everything.
Neil Gaiman's first novel is a great trendsetter for those that follow. It mixes fantasy and reality to such an extent that even those who don't go in for fantasy can get caught up in them. The characters are fully realized people and the situations test and challenge. His prose is well done and the story is fast paced. You can see it on the screen of your mind like a film. The only drawback is that it is not original enough to merit five stars. There are some rated R elements (especially violence), but over all this does not distract from the story. Suffice it to say this is not for younger readers.
All in all a great way to spend a cold weekend.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Decent reading despite the flaws
Comment: I've only read a couple of Gaiman books before, so i can't say how well this stacks up to his corpus in general, but as a relative outsider I liked (though not loved) it.
The Pro's: It's fast-paced, and held my interest. The setting was intriguing, and I liked the characters -- especially the antagonists. It even made me chuckle in a few places, which helped lighten the otherwise dark mood that is the general tone of the book.
The Con's: The plot structure reminded me of an old computer game: each stage is essentially a quest to get to the next part, and this format came dangerously close to wearing out its welcome. Also, there are a **couple** of major plot-holes in the story, though I won't discuss them as they are spoilers. Admittedly, they didn't immediately jump out at me: I had to reflect upon the situation after-the-fact to realize "um, wait a second..." so I don't know how much of a speed-bump they will be to other readers. Even then, it could be a misunderstanding on my part: this novel seems to have an internally-consistent logic EXCEPT when the plot dictates otherwise and it's "convenient" for something to happen. I kind of have a low threshold for that sort of thing, but others probably will be more forgiving.
Overall, the book's positives outweigh the negatives, so I conditionally recommend it to people who like dark, off-beat quasi-fantasy fodder. If nothing else, it's a fast read and holds the reader's interest, so give it a go.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Allegory.
Comment: I love this book. I'm biased, because I love Gaiman, but it's my favorite of his by far (and I've read quite a few of his novels). I really don't envision Gaiman having any kind of philosophy or politics with what he writes, because it seems to me, he attempts to remove us to a world as far from the mundane as possible.
However, I think everyone knows what it feels like to rant and rave and tantrum, to scream as loud as their lungs allow, and to be heard for a second and then ignored, just like our protagonist. We're all slipping through the cracks...
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