SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

What books (besides other Neil Gaiman books) might you like if you liked "Neverwhere"?

I think Charles de Lint's "Forests of the Heart" would be a good choice.

This is a great question that someone should ask for each book we read! Thanks for asking it.

You're welcome, Nick!

If I really like a book, I do wonder what else I might like.

well i don't see any spoilers, thank goodness, but as someone who finally started Neverwhere this weekend, and already 25% through since i'm enjoying it so much, i was very interested in this topic!

the only suggestions i have thus far are actually from gaiman himself. i have the version with a reader's guide, and it has a brief interview with him in the back. the relevant excerpt, after being asked what made him set the book in the london underground:

it began in 1986, with a late night conversation with editor Richard Evans, in which I (a young journalist) went on a lengthy rant about books like Little, Big and Winter's Tale, and about how they could be seen as the beginnings of a "Magic City" genre, and how someone out to write a Magic City book about London.

i hadn't heard of Little, Big, but Winter's Tale is one of my favorite books ever. suffice to say, when i saw that Winter's Tale partly inspired Neverwhere, i was very happy.

Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery. It is similar to Neverwhere due to it occurring in the New York underworld. The prose is certainly spectacular, and not something you normally see in sci-fi or fantasy. It's a short book, too.

King Rat by China Mieville goes on the list for my part.
Also set in London with a sort of London Above and London Below kind of feel. Also there's the play with mythology and old religion.

The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia. Gaiman recommended it on his website at one point, saying it did for Moscow what Neverwhere did for London.

cool, i already had spaceman blues on my (too long) list! been there so long i forgot what it was about, too. :-p

i have begun winter's tale, but never finished it. i would like to make another attempt because the beginning was pretty awesome. thanks for recommending this.

awesome! i LOVED perdito street station and the scar by mieville, and i heard this one was good too.

i would actually suggest perdito street station by china mieville, and lord foul's bane by stephen r. donaldson (similar darkness of story, but completely different setting). also two books by gene wolf, the sword and the citadel and the claw and the concilitor (i can't remember which comes first) - about a torturer's apprentice who gets let go for showing compassion to a "client".

Heather said: ... also two books by gene wolf, the sword and the citadel and the claw and the concilitor (i can't remember which comes first) - about a torturer's apprentice who gets let go for showing compassion to a "client".

The Gene Wolf books are part of the "Book of the New Sun" series that begins with The Shadow of the Torturer. The Claw of the Conciliator is book two (2). For your convenience :) they have been combined into a single volume called Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'. Books three (3) and four (4) have likewise been combined into a single volume called Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'.

Although it has been awhile since I have read these, my impression was that they were much better written then Neverwhere with fewer of the gratuitous logic twists on word associations. In comparison, "Neverwhere" is a much lighter [humorous] read and not really all that dark.

Ben, I read "Spaceman Blues" last summer. It was weird, really weird and I do agree that it does share some similarities with "Neverwhere".

heather: i will agree that Winter's Tale can be slow, and perhaps even a little frustrating at times. but the language, the poetry of the book, literally made me swoony at times. plus, i just loved the contradictory magic and timelines, the mix of grit and dreamlike states. i wouldn't say it's the best book i've ever read - it's a little too uneven for that - but the things i love in that book, i love so much. Winter's Tale is definitely in my top 10.

This is a good topic, I think the suggestions are great! I enjoyed the book and haven't read anything like it. So these suggestions help me find something good to read.

I just finished Jeff VanderMeer's Shriek: An Afterword and I think it would be a pretty good read if you liked Neverwhere. It's got the same sense of reality bumping up against the fantastic, although VanderMeer is generally more of a horror/dark fantasy writer than Gaiman. Shriek is also concerned with an underground world and people who pass from the upper world to the lower.... and once you've read it, you can move on to City of Saints and Madmen, which is awesome in a rather different way.

This is a great topic - I don't really have anything to add to this other than to say for those who liked "Stardust" I would suggest "Howl's Moving Castle" - I think those two have a lot in common.

I would suggest Scar Night by Alan Campbell for fans of Neverwhere, or Gaiman in general. There is something of mystery and absurdity that made me think of Neil very often while reading this book.