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Shadow Moon has just served three years in prison - years spent because he took the blame for his wife, Lauras, part in a bank robbery. All he wants to do now is live the quiet life, get his old job back, and be with Laura. But of course, this cant happen - a car accident robs him of his wife and his best friend Robbie, as well as his illusions about his marriage, since Laura was unfaithful with that best friend, who was also going to give him a job. When Mr. Wednesday, a self styled grifter and rogue offers him employment, Shadow accepts because there really is nothing else for him to do.
Wednesday needs Shadow as a bodyguard, because theres a war brewing between the old gods that people brought with them to America and the new gods of technology and media. Shadow finds himself in a strange world -- where roadside attractions are sacred places, and where the dead dont always stay dead. Laura comes back, and her desperation to pass for alive in a decaying body combined with her determination to help her husband is strangely moving. Their relationship is odd, because despite her death and her flatly honest, almost harsh comments about Shadow (for who cares about tact, when youre dead?) they really do love each other, and Shadow spends much of his time trying to figure out how to bring her back.
There are many plot twists, such as a murder mystery in the too perfect town that Shadow finds himself staying in, and many small short stories that, rather than distracting one from the action, add to the story. The true joys of this book lie in the characterization -- it makes perfect sense that members of the Egyptian pantheon should have opened a funeral Parlor in Cairo, Illinois, and different mythological figures are done well and interestingly, although even those expert in mythology might want their encyclopedia of myth close by. Recognizing the different cultural myths of America can also be fun - such as Jonny Apple Seed and the myth of the Government Conspiracy.
Those who read and enjoyed Stardust might not like this book - while Stardust was light and gentle with a heavily romantic plot, American Gods is far darker, bleaker, more film noir than fairy tale. I often read books for well-done male characters, and I loved Shadow - hes big, but hes not the stereotypical big, dumb guy. Hes intelligent, quiet, and has a determination that I enjoy. I admit, his wife saves him a few times too often, but the fact that Shadow experiences all of these strange happenings without really batting an eyelash is very refreshing.

Note: This was my very first published online review. So please be kind. :) It ran at Gotta Write and Mostly Fiction, and another version of this, the very first, ran at Science Fiction Romance. That one tilted the happenings more for romance readers, and is probably the only review to ever compare Neil Gaiman with Jude Deveraux. Out of respect to all these places, I'm not going to set up a link here.

A young man comes to visit Los Angeles, and finds himself stuck when a blizzard hits his native homeland of England. He wanders to a bench and sits, where he is approached by a strange, grizzled man who tells him a story in exchange for a cigarette.

In heaven, before the fall, before the creation of man or the universe, a murder is committed. Raguel, the vengeance of the Lord is called to solve it. As he interviews the different angels, from Lucifer still in his glory to the officious Phanuel, we get glimpses of another reality, (or, perhaps, possibility) where angels help build the master model that will some day become the universe.

How many times can you retell a story? If you are a long time fan of Neil Gaiman, you may have already listened to the radio play, which starred Brian Dennehey, or read the short story which is available in his anthology, Smoke and Mirrors. If you do it right, as it is done in this case, the answer is as many times as you want. When you experience this story in any medium, you are taken by the fact there are three mysteries. The main one, who murdered the angel Carasel and why, dominates the middle, while the framing story it is so carefully nested inside of makes us doubt the purity of our narrator's actions. What is it that he forgets, and what is the meaning of his memories later? Then, there is a greater mystery, unsolved by anyone as of yet...why the Lord allows the things he does to come to pass.

P. Craig Russell adapted the comic book script from the play and short story that Neil Gaiman originally wrote. He sticks very close to Neil's own words, and if he added or changed anything major, I did not notice it. He is skillful, knowing what to remove, how to take the words created for one medium and carefully bend them to another. His art is amazing, imaginative. The Silver City (as Heaven is called) is a beautiful, shimmering creation populated by creatures that are definitely their own beings. The panels beg and reward close study...the site gag with a sweltering man in a Santa suit, standing next to a sign "Be An Angel." made me smile, while the fierceness of Raguel made me a little afraid. People who study "Ramadan" (Sandman issue 50, a previous collaboration between Gaiman and Russell) for innovative panel layout will not be disappointed in this one. He works things very cleverly, including an act of sex (on earth) that I was wondering how he'd handle. He keeps it from being a gratuitous act (Gaiman is pretty good at keeping his short stories stripped bare....if it's in there, there's a reason) to being a scene that makes a very definite point about relationships, while perhaps creating the background for later actions. Russell manages to keep alive one of the minor themes of Neil's original work, the unreliability of memory. I am also impressed by the way Russell uses expressions, the way the characters move their arms, the way they stand, are all carefully used to create a world of meaning. Comics is not a medium where words can be used freely, every word must be measured as if it were gold on an assaying scale. He cuts a lot of unnecessary words, using every line of a person's --- or angel's body to show rather than tell.

As audacious as it is inventive, Murder Mysteries manages to tell a remarkable story in Heaven with out being disrespectful or foolish. It takes a delicate hand (or, in this case, hands) to muck around in some of the world's major religions, and Russell and Gaiman do it with style and tact.

Originally published: http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/jul_02.htm#cindylynn

Coraline and her family have just moved into a huge old house that has been subdivided into flats. One rainy day, out of boredom, she counts every door in the apartment, and explores behind each one. The fourteenth and the last door is locked, and when her mother opens it, they find that it is bricked up solid. Her mother says that it used to lead to the empty apartment next door. One day Coraline opens the door again to discover the bricks are gone, and the flat on the other side isn't so empty after all. It is inhabited by her other family and her other neighbors, creepy caricatures of their regular counterparts with black button eyes and pale doughy skin. The flat is just like the one she left, except her bedroom is filled with marvelous toys, wind up angels that fly and similar delights that Wednesday Addams herself might have asked for. Her other mother is a slimy sweet woman with strange hair and finger nails like blood tipped stilettos, and she wants Coraline to stay with her forever.

Advertised as "Neil Gaiman's first novel for children of all ages", it certainly lives up to its promise. When I was eight (the book cover says that is suitable for ages eight and up) I probably would have loved Coraline's adventures, completely unworried about the consequences of her actions. Now that I am older, and know that bad things do happen, I end up turning the pages a little more quickly, worried about our heroine despite myself. My page turnings are helped on by the prose which flows smoothly from page to page, and by the nifty occasional illustrations that act as teasers. Dave McKean did a marvelous these pen and ink illustrations, managing to convey an Edward Gorey feel with out subverting his own interesting style.

There will be the inevitable comparisons between Coraline and Alice in Wonderland. While in a way they are both on the other side of the looking glass/bricked up door/ warped reality adventures, I think this is a bit like comparing chocolate toffee to strawberries. They're both good, and they're both food, but they aren't the same thing. I also like Coraline as a character better. I suggested earlier that she seems unaware of the danger she is in...I don't think that is entirely true. I think she knows, but she is a practical young miss and realizes that she has no choice. That, combined with a child's faith that everything will work out, keeps her calm during the dangerous quest she soon finds herself taking part in. She's pleasant and just a little quirky, and I think children will want to be like her and adults will find her captivating. Also, if you're looking for a good book to read aloud, this one will suit beautifully. There are a lot of interesting character voices and cadence changes that will make this a fun read-aloud story.

Neil Gaiman is a master of creating worlds filled with an even mixture of the magical and the scary. Coraline is indeed a creepy and pleasurable read for anyone who has ever wondered what lay on the other side of the wall, what rats sing when you sleep, or what cats call themselves.

Originally published:
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/jul_02.htm#cindylynn