I mean no offence, and I'm not trying to start a flame war, but I must ask you, Jonathan: Are you out of your *ing mind?!!!!!! Neil Gaiman?!!!!!Originally posted by Jonathan Townsend:
...Perhaps Neil Gaiman's four part Books of Magic and Sandman would make a good start. ...
I spent a couple months last year reading American Gods, and I must confess that it was a total waste of my precious time.
Freinds kept egging me on, sayihng, "Oh keep reading, hes great," and I kept reading, thinking it would get better. But it never ever got better.
Oh maybe ten pages out of 800 were interesting, like when he was tied to the tree for days like Christ, that may have been interesting. And then when he died and went to the River Styx, that was kinda unique.
But ten good pages does not a good book make, no way. No sense of story, no forward movement, whole chapters that have no significance to either story or character, just some guy from the comic book world who has a readymade audience, and who has a license and obsession with hearing his own voice.
Sometimes, I keep reading something to fully and completely dismiss an author. Did that with Norman Mailer years ago, although it took three books to do that. Did the same thing with Neil Gaiman.
There, I got that off my chest! :p