Eden

I've already reviewed the novel Coraline, but this time I was reading the graphic novel adaptation, which was illustrated by P. Craig Russell. The art is okay, but since I've seen the 3D movie -- and liked it -- it took some getting used to. The graphic novel is a more faithful adaptation of the book than the movie was, from what I can remember. It's pretty much exactly the same, I think. It doesn't bring anything new to the book, apart from the visuals. Reading my original review, it seems like maybe the graphic novel has less to offer in some ways -- part of reading Neil Gaiman's work is his style and his wry little observations. Some of those are intact, but not as many as I remember.

So, bottle_of_shine is hosting another cat herding book reading challenge! This time we're to pick books we've read in the last couple of years -- and only five books! I'm assuming we're allowed to read older books that we only just got our hands on, otherwise my list would be quite limited... Anyway! Each book title links to my full review of the book, while the bits in this entry are me looking back with my rose-tinted glasses on.

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke.
I finished this one really recently, so it's fresh in my mind. It's a great thick brick of a novel, 1000 pages in the edition I have, and it combines the realist style of the Victorian period with fantasy! If you like Jane Austen (I don't) you might be pleased/interested to know that the style is a pastiche of her work. Which makes it pretty heavy going, but I ended up loving it a lot. You definitely have to give it a chance, and be prepared to roll with the meandering, slow plot, but I got to the end and wanted more. Good(?) news: there will probably be a movie (says IMDB) and a sequel may be in the works.

2. The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell.
This book is a really, really hard one. Not in terms of the writing, but emotionally, it packs a punch. It's science fiction, in a way, but it also focuses on the philosophy of religion and questions of faith. Sometimes the characters can be a little like cardboard cutouts, but there are some characters -- particularly the main one -- who stick in my head and won't get out. There is a sequel, but this one stands alone and doesn't need the sequel, I think. (My review of the sequel is here if you want to find out about it, though.)

3. Un Lun Dun, by China Miéville.
This one's lighter and easier to read than the previous two -- I think I read it in a single evening. It has loads of cute ideas (a living milk carton named Curdle! ninja bins!) and is just generally quirky and much easier to read than China Miéville's other stuff (e.g. Perdido Street Station, which almost made this list). I've given copies to several people who ended up loving it. Fun light reading! And Curdle. Read the book for Curdle, or he'll cry.

4. The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman.
I'm a total Gaiman fan, although it seems like quite a few of my friends just can't get on with his writing. This one is pretty light, as fantasy books go, too. It's The Jungle Book, sort of, but in a graveyard. The characters are amusing and occasionally amazing, and I just love the idea of a boy being raised by ghosts and a vampire. It is also well worth listening to him read it aloud here (for free!).

5. The Shining, by Stephen King.
This time last year, I wouldn't even have considered reading Stephen King. Now I've become very much a fan, so much so that this list wouldn't really feel right without me putting one of his books on it. I think a lot of people dismiss his writing because it's popular and he's a bestseller, etc, etc. His writing may not be that complex, it might not have those slick little touches of a really intellectual novel, but his writing works and is readable and absorbing, and he writes about real feelings and characters who could be real. What he makes up are the situations he puts them into. The Shining is a bit creepy, and quite a bit sad. If you haven't tried any Stephen King on the grounds that he's a talentless hack (I point fingers at my mother), I suggest you do try. Some of his books are definite 'misses' (I wouldn't recommend Bag of Bones to a new fan, for example) but sometimes he does really good things with characters and the situations he puts them into.

You guys, this was such a hard list to make. I feel sure all the books I left out are crying.

Merv Pumpkinhead: Agent of D.R.E.A.M. is a quite short and sweet comic. It's pretty amusing, based around Merv Pumpkinhead after his recreation by Daniel, and is full of references to James Bond, who Merv fancies himself to be rather like. There is some considerable doubt about that, considering the trouble he gets into!

This one is basically just light and funny, nothing incredibly new or deep, and it's nice that way.

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The Furies is another Sandman Presents comic. This one takes up the story of Hippolyta Hall, set sometime after the final volume of the series. In it, she is still an 'imago', a channel for the Furies, and she's drawn into the quarrels of ancient gods -- Greek gods, unsurprisingly enough. This time, a quarrel between Hermes and Chronos. The story ends with some resolution for Lyta, which is nice, and we also briefly see the new Dream King.

The art in this comic is quite pretty, but it kind of hits uncanny valley for me. Also, Dream's new character design is odd.

I quite like the Sandman Presents comics. They aren't done by Gaiman, but by a range of artists and writers. They pick up on minor characters of the main series and follow them about a bit. Dead Boy Detectives features characters so minor you've probably forgotten them, Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine, who having escaped hell and Death, become detectives. In this volume, they're asked to solve a series of murders...

It's light reading, a little silly, and it's fun to see other minor characters showing up -- like Mad Hettie and Hob Gadling.

It's a little inaccurate to tag this as a graphic novel, as it's actually more of a novella with illustrations. The illustrations are gorgeous -- but then, I expected that, since it's illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano (who did a lot of designs for the Final Fantasy game series).

It's a simple little story, based on a Japanese myth. The writing feels very much like a fairy tale, which is nice; Gaiman is good at adapting his writing. It's interesting to see how easily Dream and his realm are woven into the story which, I'm told, isn't much different to the original folk tale.

Death: The High Cost of Living is a short and sweet little comic, featuring Death as she appears in The Sandman, but as the star. None of the other Endless appear, instead it follows Death during her one day in a hundred years of being a mortal. It's a pretty simple little story: it's interesting because it stars Death, who as a character is awesome, but the story itself isn't dazzling. The art is nice and the bonus story where Death talks about STDs and such is fun, but in itself, it isn't dazzling and it's not a good introduction to the series.

The Kindly Ones is the heaviest of all the volumes, and the hardest to get through, because there's a lot packed into it and it's quite emotionally hard-hitting.

As a story, it's pretty amazing. A lot of threads come together in this book and you can finally see where everything was going all along -- so many characters are revisited and their stories tie firmly into the whole. I especially liked the reappearance of the Corinthian, and Nuala's story, which I was anticipating but still got me right in the heart. We don't actually see Orpheus in this volume, but he's still behind everything that's happening, in a way -- and yet all you need to know is that he was Dream's son and Dream killed him. It's really amazing how all the volumes tie together and yet can be read alone.

The art has changed a lot from the first volume, most noticably in this volume. In some ways, I like it a lot -- I particularly like Death and Delirium's character designs in this volume -- and in another way it's kind of jarring.

If you think you can get through these easily because they're "just" comic books, you're probably wrong. It's taking me a surprisingly long time to get through a single volume now I'm thoroughly embroiled in the series.

This volume stars Delirium and Dream, mostly. The other Endless all make their appearances, including the so far missing brother, Destruction, but it's mostly Dream and Delirium. Delirium is a really interesting character, and the implication that she might change again is interesting. Dream is growing up a bit, no matter what he thinks. The idea of one of the Endless abandoning their realm because they don't want their responsibilities is interesting: I assume it's going somewhere further than this.

The conclusion to Orpheus' little character-arc is quite sad, really, but also fitting. And it was good to see more of Desire and Despair and to see them with complex feelings you wouldn't expect -- like missing their brother, and being scared of what's to come.

A Game Of You is quite an interesting volume. This one isn't focused on Dream, at all, in one sense -- on the other, it's all about things he presides over, of course. I liked the bright, fairy-taleish art in a lot of this volume, and I especially liked that old threads were, once again, picked up and woven back in. The Sandman does this quite a lot, and I like it -- no character is wasted.

The end of this was really nice, but I was so sad that Wanda died. Barbie is a nice character, though: I liked the facepaint designs. Thessaly is an interesting character, I wonder if she'll turn up again. Based on the trend so far, I'm going to go with yes.

A little sad that all we saw of Death was a tiny glimpse, but then, we only saw the tiniest amount of Dream, so his big sister shouldn't upstage him.

Dream Country is an interlude between bits of ongoing plot, I'm told. You can actually read it without reading the other stuff, as long as you have some basic idea about what the Endless are. There are four stories: one about a captured Greek muse, one about cats and dreaming, one about Shakespeare, and finally one in which Death stars instead of Morpheus, and helps a metamorph to die.

They're interesting little stories: Calliope is my favourite. The cat one is interesting, cats dream too and they see Morpheus as a cat... The idea of Morpheus making a deal with William Shakespeare was brought up in an earlier volume and it's followed through on here. And finally, a story about Death... it's interesting because the main character is an interesting idea, and doubly interesting because Death is rapidly becoming my favourite character, despite her few appearances.