I can’t begin to describe how excited I am that Neil Gaiman’s newest book is almost finished! Its hard when your favorite author is a relative newcomer as they can never write fast enough for you. This is scheduled to come out in September.
Anansi Boys comes out September 20th and Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride comes out the 23rd….September is shaping up to be a great month!
what’s it about?
I’m not entirely sure…he’s been very cryptic about it on his site. He has mentioned that this is a comedy but I’m unsure what that means. Gaiman tries to write a different sort of tale each time. Stardust, probably his most well written book, is a fantasy tale of sorts…not knights in shining armor, more a tale of the fairy folk. Neverwhere is more magic realism, or more of a fantasy set in the real world. American Gods is more of a suspense/horror tale. Good Omens, which he wrote with Terry Pratchet, is a Monty Python-esque, somewhat sacreligious farce. Coraline is a children’s story in the horror vein. With Gaiman its bound to be something magical with a little bit of suspense. His stuff is always shelved in Fantasy/Science Fiction. Its odd, Jonathan Carrol writes very similar types of stories and is shelved in fiction.
Gaiman also vacillates between very adult stories and stories appropriate for teens on up. This one is supposedly in the later category.
If you were to read Gaiman I would start with Stardust or Neverwhere. Neverwhere is my favorite but unbiased readers seem to feel that Stardust flows better. I wouldn’t disagree and Stardust is a very beautiful, fantastical romantic adventure story.
An interesting side note: putting the word “teen” in a comments seems to make it go to moderations.
cool.. he’ll have to be my next library hit..
I have only read a few of Gaiman’s books and so far Stardust is my favorite.
Now Carl, if you’re recommending books and it’s 70 degrees out, please tell me you’re
reading on the deck in the sun. I wanna see some tannage.
Doing a little research I see that Anansi is a god of African folklore who is a trickster. Gaiman frequently uses mythology and folklore as part of his stories. In this folklore Anansi is a spider, which explains the web design on the cover. Hmmm…should be interesting.
That was weird, I was typing right into the calendar on the right and it didn’t auto return, It’s doing it again. This site is jacked! I have no power over my typing. I’m going on and on and on…
Reading outside is the best, but my bleached white skin might scare neighborhood dogs so don’t expect too much “tannage”. 🙂
“I’m going on and on and on…” and this is a new phenomenon? 🙂
This comments box is messed up. I working on redesigning the site on a better template that should take care of this issue. The menu bar shouldn’t be appearing on this page but I have yet to figure out how to make it go away.
I also like Stardust slightly over Neverwhere. The only reason being I believe is the lovely art by Charles Vess. On that note I’m excited to see how the Vertigo handles the upcoming adaptation. I didn’t really picture Door looking like I’ve seen her in the add but I like the way Glenn Fabry painted her. I also really like the children’s story ” The Wolves in the Walls “. It actually may be my favorite Gaiman tale. I’m still enjoying American Gods and I will be picking up Ansai Boys when it comes out in September.
I really like Laura Fraser as Door in the Neverwhere DVD. (She was great in Knight’s Tale as well) I don’t like the look of the comic at all from what I’ve seen so far and I’m not sure I even want to read it. She will always be the Lady Door that I see when I read Neverwhere.
Speaking of which, Hill House Books is eventually going to produce the author’s preferred edition of Neverwhere. This will be a limited edition collectible that will run about $200. I plan on getting this if at all possible. The cool thing about these editions is not only that they are exactly what Gaiman wants them to be but you also get a paperback reader’s copy of the book so you can read it and not mess up the collectible book!
Keri and I loved A Knight’s Tale,too. I tried watching Neverwhere on DVD over a year ago before I read the book. I didn’t give it enough of a chance though and I stopped in the middle of the first episode. Now that I have read the book I need to try watching this one again. I agree with you about the comic, too. I liked Glenn Fraby’s cover but I wasn’t too keen about the interior work. The charchters just didn’t look like how I pictured them. I didn’t special order one for myself. I figured I was just going to check out a shelf copy when it came in and see how it looks. I also would rather have seen them do an orginal tale in the Neverwhere universe than a strict adaptation.
The Neverwhere author’s preferred edition sounds cool. I wish it was little cheaper though. 🙂 Wandering Star press has also rleased some limited hardcover’s of Robert E Howard’s work that I would love to get that is in this price range. Unfortuately the price tag is too high for me right now. I haven’t ever spent a lot on novel but a have dropped some money on a couple of comic book orgianal art work pages ( $ 125 & $ 250 ) mostly I have been able to get a lot of pages for under $ 30 each thank goodness.
Have they done a author’s preferred edition of Stardust? I would have to have one with Charles Vess paintings in them.
I also have been intending to pick up Gaiman’s John Bolton film. I should be able to loan that one to you down the road when I pick it up. I saw it at Best Buy recently and I may go back and get it this weekend.
I just checked out the Hill House books site and they also list an American Gods author’s preferred edition of that novel for $ 200. Do you have this one already?
They list each novel as having A LOT of new material which makes me go argh! I hope someday they do some cheaper versions of these editions.
From what Gaiman says these editions will never see the light of day except in these formats. No, I liked American Gods but Stardust and Neverwhere are the only 2 that I would dream of trying to scrape that kind of money together. I emailed them today to see if they would give me a better idea of the release date. When I corresponded with them last fall they said the spring and that obviously doesn’t look like it is happening. If I get Neverwhere I’ll definately let you read the paperback readers copy that they send with it and let you paw and peruse the hardback! 🙂
I’ve told you my likes and dislikes of the DVD. Having read the story and also liking the old Dr. Who tv shows makes this a much more enjoyable experience. I really liked some of the characters…Door, Richard, The Marquis…and didn’t like others. I liked Croup and Vandemar. I want to get the DVD as all I have is the video version and I want to hear Gaiman’s commentary. Someday!
I’ll have to check out the Wandering Star stuff so I can have even more to lust over! 🙂
Have you watched all the extras on Knight’s Tale? They are really, really good!
Ok, guys, someone educate me on Knight’s Tale because I had ZERO desire to see this. Still haven’t. It just seemed like… what’s the point?
Now for the record, I appreciate parody movies. But this didn’t seem like strictly a parody to me. Am I wrong? It seemed like one of those experimental cross-genre things that I didn’t want to waste $7 on. The kind of thing that I can imagine would have been really REALLY hard to sell to a studio suit. I can just hear it:
“Well, it’s like Robin Hood crossed with Moulin Rouge.”
Learn me!
Oh man, Knight’s Tale is just awesome. I’m a big fan of the whole medievel period anyway and the gist of this is that when the guys did the research (which they actually did alot of if you watch the DVD extras) the found out that knights who jousted were essentially the sports icons, or rock stars as they put it, of the day. They had fans, etc. So they built this entire movie around a guy who is not nobility but gets himself into competition and does the whole joust thing.
They add modern touches to the whole thing including music, etc which makes it very fun and entertaining. The colors in the movie are amazing and the actors are fun and funny. Its worth seeing just to see Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer. That’s another cool thing in that they took various stories of the Canterbury Tales and wove it into this story. There’s really alot of layers to this very fun movie. Its really worth seeing!
If you end up watching it don’t forget to watch past the credits…there’s an entertaining little ending there.
I guess I would say that A Knight’s Tale is what you might call a good summer time popcorn flick. Also like Carl I’m a medival period fan. It looks like the people who made the movie are also and they just wanted to make a fun movie based in that time period with some updating for our time with modern music and language. I guess you could say it’s a cross between Robin Hood and Moulin Rouge. I liked both those films though and hence I enjoyed A Knights Tale. If you didn’t enjoy those films though I guess this film may not be for you.
Carl, I also looked at the Neverwhere DVD’s last night. They were $ 40 and I just couldn’t pull the trigger on those yet. I need to check the half price bookstores and see if they have any.
It really bums me out that Gaiman says that the only way to get the extra material is to buy the $ 200 copies of those books. I wonder what the rational is behing that decision. I would think an author would want to as many people out there to read his preferred edition. Thus he/she would make that edition affordable to the masses. I’m sure Gaiman has a good reason but I just can’t think of one myself.
As for the Wandering Star limited edition Robert E Howard books. The limited hardback editions are expensive but they sold well enough that Del Rey reprinted them in trade paperback editions at a 10th of the price and just left out the color on art work on select pages. You get all the same story pages as the limited edition hardbacks though.
I read some more American Gods last night. I’m enjoying it more and more as I get into it. I think Shadow had sex with the Egytian cat goodess Bast. It doesn’t say it speicfly but I’m sure that’s who that cat was in the funneral parlor’s house. I’m a little confused on just who Wednesday is supposed to be and what his true agenda is. I thought he was Odin but I’m not so sure now. I also have thought maybe he is death but I don’t know. I’m sure all will be revealed. 🙂
Jeff obviously likes this movie and I probably like it even more than just a summer time popcorn flick only because I’ve always been fascinated with Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales, I enjoy all the actors/actresses in this, and watching all the extras really does lend a ton of depth to this movie. They shot in Romania I believe and used locals for all the extras. Paid them a wage they weren’t used to making which really helped them out. They searched and found authentic period stuff to use in the movie (the part where they set his arm actually was written in after they found that old piece of equipment in their searches).
I’m not sure about the Robin Hood thing but I can see the Moulin Rouge comparison. Like that movie Knight’s Tale has very rich color and texture in the costumes, backgrounds, etc. and also uses modern music in a very entertaining way.
This isn’t Shakespeare, but it is waaay up on my list of favorite movies.
You can get the Neverwhere DVD’s cheaper. Gaiman recently had a link to a site that was much cheaper than even Amazon. I need to see if I can track it down. It may have been a site that was selling the British version but, contrary to what it says, this is a region free dvd so no matter where you buy it from it will play on any machine.
My guess with the author’s preferred editions is that Harper Collins, his publisher, would only allow a certain number of books to be published by Hill House. I’m sure Gaiman doesn’t care as he has repeatedly made statements that he is against the whole idea of making things collectible and thus inflating the price. This also may have been the stipulation of Hill House that they are only making collectible books and thus making the price what it is.
I’m on my way to Nebraska for 2 days and will be listening to the last half of American Gods on CD that my wife checked out of the local library for me. I had listened to the first half a year or so ago. Its unabridged…something like 19 hours long total!!!
You know I don’t think I have ever watched the extras on the Kinght’s Tale DVD. I will have to do so now. I didn’t realize the Chauncer and Canterberry tales ties where in the movie. I hope you have a great trip to Nebraska.
I absolutely love A Knight’s Tale. I think Heath Ledger is good looking in this movie, which helps! I also like Paul Bettany and Alan Tudyk. Paul Bettany played in Wimbledon, which Mike and I just rented through Netflix. Wimbledon turned out to be a really cute movie. I actually liked Kirsten Dunst in this movie, too. It is a must see for anyone who likes a romantic comedy. You don’t even have to like tennis to enjoy this one – ask Mike. Alan Tudyk played in 28 Days and was hillarious.
A Knight’s Tale was on television recently. I started to watch it and was thinking that this is a DVD in which Mike and I should invest. Mike came into the room and I told him my thoughts. He then pointed out that we actually have this DVD, YEAH!!!!!
There are so many great moments in this movie. Two of favorite parts are when Paul Bettany is introducing Heath Ledger to the crowd before his sword fight, and when Heath Ledger and Shannyn Sossamon are dancing at that party or ball or whatever you want to call it.
Great, great movie. I actually like it more every time I see it.
I have Wimbledon in our Netflix queue as well. Anything with Kirsten Dunst is a must see movie! 🙂
Jeff, have you seen the bigger edition of the Gaiman/Vess Stardust? Its a beautiful book. I sent it with a friend once to a convention and Vess autographed it and drew a picture in it for me.
I have an oversized softcover tradepaper back edition of Stardust if that’s what you mean? Is your’s hardback or softback? I love the edition I have though I would take a hardback version if they made one. 🙂
Yep, that’s the one I have as well. I believe I bought it at A to Z right before my friend was going to the con where Vess was. I need to read it sometime. I’ve looked through it always read the novel when I re-read it.