Nebula Award Nominee: The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman

The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Neil Gaiman
William Morrow: 2013
Nominated for the Nebula Award: Novel

An older man returns to his childhood home for a funeral, goes off for a walk, and in visiting the family of his friend, remembers a significant period of time from his childhood that he had long forgotten.  If that sounds overly prosaic, trust me, it is not.  The Ocean at the End of the Lane is written with a very reflective tone that grounds the story in a very real and "normal" life of a seven year old boy who did not have many friends but always surrounded himself in books.  This may be the childhood of many an adult who will nod knowingly at just that. It is a common enough story, and from that perspective, it is similar to Jo Walton's stunningly good Among Others.

And where there is a quiet supernatural element in Among Others, the supernatural in The Ocean at the End of the Lane seems to begin small with tiny steps so as to not overwhelm either the reader or the unnamed protagonist, it builds.  From people seemingly being given money in ways that don't make sense to what feels like a true version of how faerie might work to something that becomes bigger and more evil and more menacing than readers would expect from how simply The Ocean at the End of the Lane begins.

At its best, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is simply and scary, where strangers and nannies are a source of fear and where marital discord can seem a part of something bigger and worse.  But then, that's part of what makes this such a wonderful novel.  Is this an older man looking back at his childhood, remembering for a brief moment in full detail the hopes and fears of his seven year old self exactly how they happened?

Or, are those childhood events part of the imagination of a young boy who isn't able to process and understand why his life is suddenly so topsy turvy and difficult?  The more I think about it, the more I wonder if this isn't something akin to what Joe Kelly did in his graphic novel I Kill Giants, which, like the Gaiman novel, has a young protagonist dealing with some serious real life issues but is fighting those issues in a very serious fantasy manner.  Which, if that is Gaiman's intent, suggests that The Ocean at the End of the Lane is exactly as masterful as I am coming to think it is. 

The farther I step away from having finished the book, the more impressed with I am.  This is a novel where reader interaction is absolutely vital, because the reader is filling in the white spaces between the words and pages where imagination can take over.  The novel on its own is excellent.  The novel with the reader picking up another way to read what story is being told is sublime.  Whether or not this was Gaiman's intent, the novel works on either level (as a straight up telling of a story, or as a childhood fantasy dealing with deeper family issues).  Highly recommend.

And oh, that cover art.

Me > Neil Gaiman?

Thanks to John Scalzi I spent some time looking through the new technorati rankings for books because, like everybody else, I want to see where I was ranked.

I expect these rankings to change on a daily basis, but at the time I ran the search, I was ranked 148. Not bad, if a little high. I recognized some blogs ahead of me and have no doubt that they have a bigger readership (and linkership) than I do. No probs. I kept going down and then it hit me.

Where the hell is Neil Gaiman? Oh…Neil is sitting at 215.

I’m more popular than Neil! We may live in the same state, but victory is mine! No longer will the talk be about Prince and Neil Gaiman, no, no! Prince and Joe Sherry. FTW!!!!

What’s that? The rankings are probably inaccurate? Oh, alright. Can I still beat up Chuck Norris? Fine.

I listed out the top ten (as of 12:00 pm Central Time 10/14) and also most of the other ones I’ve recognized or read. No claims are made for getting everything or for the rankings to not change by the time you read this.

I would expect SF Signal and Torque Control to be a little higher. I can accept my ranking relative to Nicola Griffith’s. That might be accurate in terms of readership (I’m making this up as I go along), but then I realized that my ranking was higher than Neil Gaiman, Jeff Vandermeer, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, Mary Robinette Kowal, and freaking Galley Cat.

The hell?

Galley Cat is probably a top 20 blog at the very least, if not higher. Top 10. Galley Cat gets hella links.

I may have missed it, but I didn’t see Livejournal blogs in there. I suspect that would change the game quite a bit (and would also help the number of links back to here).

My take on this is that the technorati ranking is just about as accurate as my sitemeter counter, which is to say that it probably missed at least a quarter of all visits / links, if not half. Sitemeter is better at telling me when I’m getting tracks from livejournal, but Technorati is horrible at that. There’s probably a reverse from something else.

Regardless, here’s a snapshot at one particular time.


1. Jacket Copy
2. Whatever
3. Becky’s Book Reviews
4. Chasing Ray
5. Jen Robinson’s Book Page
6. The Book Smugglers
7. Romancing the Blog
8. if: book
9. Maw Books
10. Angieville

13. Fantasy Book Critic
15. Temple Library Reviews
16. Fantasy Café (tie)
19. SciFiGuy.ca
24. SF Signal
49. Grasping for the Wind
69. Fantasy & SciFi Lovin’ News and Reviews
72. Torque Control
148. Adventures in Reading (wooo!)
214. Ask Nicola
215. Neil Gaiman’s Journal
218. Ecstatic Days
283. Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist (tie)
283. Mary Robinette Kowal (tie)
323. Fantasy Book News & Reviews (tie)
396. Galley Cat (tie)

World Fantasy Award Nominee: The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman
2008
Nominated for the World Fantasy Award: Best Novel

You know how a book (or anything) can receive an extraordinary amount of hype and buzz and good word of mouth and critical acclaim, so much so that by the time you get around to reading you wonder if it can possibly be that good? That’s The Graveyard Book. It has won the Newberry, the Hugo, is nominated for the World Fantasy Award. Can it possibly be as good as all that?

Well, yes. Actually.

The Graveyard Book is the story of Nobody Owens. The novel opens with the murder of his parents and sister. The killer, Jack, would have killed Bod except that very young Bod managed to wander off and escape into the neighboring graveyard. The ghosts of the graveyard decide to take Bod in and raise him and protect him from the outside world, specifically from the man who still wishes to kill him. Bod is given the Freedom of the Graveyard, which offers him far more over the years than a simple permission to live there.

Through the eight chapters (and one interlude) readers will watch Nobody Owens grow from a toddler to a fifteen year old young man, have a variety of adventures both inside and outside of the graveyard, and face down the man who killed his family. This spoils nothing, this is implied throughout the novel.

The Graveyard Book is beautifully written, it is graceful and it is clever, and beyond all of that – it’s a hell of a good story. In short, it is everything you want from a story. It is quietly funny.

Really, he thought, if you couldn’t trust a poet to offer sensible advice, who could you trust?

There is tension, action, discovery, hidden plots and secret histories. There is a boy who lives in a graveyard and counts ghosts and his friends and family.

The Graveyard Book is the sort of book where you don’t talk about genre or publishing categories when you talk about it. You just hand it to a friend, your mother, your priest, your cabbie, a stranger and say “read this. It’s really good,” and expect them to thank you later.

Outstanding. Spectacular. Delightful. Wonderful. There are all sorts of adjectives to use when talking about The Graveyard Book. Choose one. I’ll probably have meant that one, too.

Who Killed Amanda Palmer

The Who Killed Amanda Palmer book is subtitled "A Collection of Photographic Evidence". This book is a series of pictures depicting the various ways Amanda Palmer has been killed. That's the premise of the book (and the album).

There are brief stories written by Neil Gaiman. The stories, like the photos, are glimpses into the deaths of Amanda Palmer. Some of them are a touch on the gruesome side.

As a collection of themed photographs, it's an interesting book. As a collection of stories from Gaiman, well, it's not that. These aren't full stories, they are ideas and, if you will, snapshots.

The Who Killed Amanda Palmer book also contains the lyrics of all the songs from the album and can reasonably be considered the liner notes for the album. See, the album was released without a booklet, just a cardboard slipsheet.
Who Killed Amanda Palmer has become something of a multimedia affair. There is the album, the book, and a series of videos.

I don't know how well the book would succeed as an independent entity. I am not the market for photography books (though I do enjoy them), but from that perspective, I do think Who Killed Amanda Palmer is an interesting coffee table book which depicts one woman found dead in a wide variety of ways. Seriously, the typewriter to the head (and accompanying story) is easily my favorite.

Where it truly succeed is as a companion to the album. Now, I don't know how well the album has sold or what Palmer's reach has been in terms of getting the album out there (to say there are issues with the her label would be to revel in understatement), but this book is a beautiful collection of lyrics, photographs, and short-short stories from Neil Gaiman.

Who Killed Amanda Palmer is a beautifully put together book.

Given that Amazon.com has a tank for sale (check out the reviews), it may come as a bit of a surprise that the Who Killed Amanda Palmer book is not actually for sale on Amazon. You may have wondered what, exactly, Amazon doesn't sell...well, this is it. So, if you are so inclined, Who Killed Amanda Palmer can be purchased here and only here (so far as I know).

I think it's worth it. But, as it has been suggested recently that I may have a crush on Amanda Palmer*, I may not necessarily be the most impartial of judges. Despite that, this is a pretty damn cool book and I'm glad I bought it.


*it's a completely platonic musical crush, I swear it. I'm taken, she's taken. What more do you need to know?

GRRM is not working for you

Or, according to Neil Gaiman: "George R. R. Martin is not your bitch"

Just in case you were wondering or concerned.

The more I think about it - and since this comes up on the internet every few months - the more I agree with this position, and for a variety of reasons.

Quick Takes: Neil Gaiman, Steven Erikson, Michael Reaves, Steve Perry

The Sandman: The Doll’s House, by Neil Gaiman: I am not the ideal reader for graphic novels. I want more text and description and plotting through the narrative and here the image tells as much of the story as the text boxes do. I don’t have a good feel for The Sandman, but because of its influence and “importance”, I want to actually read them all. This is the second volume of Sandman stories. I preferred the first, overall, though there were some impressive moments in this collection.



The Bonehunters, by Steven Erikson: Here we get back to those aspects of Malazan which I am able to most engage with and figure out. The remnants of Dujek’s Host, the last of the Bridgeburners, Ganoes Paran, and the armies of Adjunct Tavore Paran. Besides this, we get more Apsalar, Fiddler, Quick Ben, and Kalam. Near the end of the novel Kalam really gets a chance to shine and shows why the assassin is such a legendary character and why he is so feared. Oh, and there is more Karsa Orlong, which is always a good thing. So, what is it about? Difficult to say. Erikson pulls together some threads and begins to set up the final three volumes of The Malazan Book of the Fallen and the overall war against the Gods (for lack of a better term) that some people are beginning to see coming. It is becoming exceedingly difficult to talk about the Malazan novels because increasingly I am more and more confused as to what, exactly, is occurring and to whom. This is why when Erikson narrows the focus back to the Malazans I am most able to understand. Overall The Bonehunters was mostly interesting and mostly coherent, but this sixth volume is not a good place to begin the Malazan series. The first five volumes are required reading (though Midnight Tides still chafes quite a bit) before reaching The Bonehunters. I am becoming slightly disillusioned with Malazan, and I only hope that when the ten volumes are complete I will better be able to understand what it is that Steven Erikson is trying to do here.



Death Star, by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry: Bad, bad, bad, bad, Darth Vader, bad bad, Tarkin, bad, bad, bad, explosion, bad, The End.