Neverwhere: A Whole New London

Neil Gaiman is an incredible author who is always churning out something new and innovative. I've enjoyed much of his previous work, like Good Omens (co-authored with Terry Pratchett), The Graveyard Book, and Stardust, so I thought I'd give his 1996 novel Neverwhere a try. I was well into the book when a friend told me that it was actually a novelization of a TV series that Gaiman and Lenny Henry wrote for the BBC. I suppose I should now watch the series to see if it matches the fantastic world that the novel has created in my head.

Neverwhere tells the story of Richard Mayhew, a thoroughly ordinary London dweller with a decent job and a nagging fiance who suddenly discovers a completely different London. Late at night he stumbles across Door, an aristocratic Lady from the world of London Below, a city in the sewers of London that is composed of all the people who have been marginalized by London society and have literally "fallen through the cracks" into this world. Door is being chased by assassins and Richard unwittingly becomes a denizen of London Below when he stops to help her. What follows is your classic hero's quest, through a dark and mysterious world that turns Richard's perceptions of London upside down.

Gaiman has brilliantly distorted various locales and each page offers a new surprise and burst of literary invention. Knightsbridge in London Below features an eerily dark bridge where the Night might steal you away. Earl's Court is a subway car that only people from London Below can enter and is presided over by an actual Earl. The characters are also vivid fantasy creations, like Door who has the power to open anything (even an orange), the swashbuckling Marquis de Carabas who is just fulfilling a debt and may not be trustworthy, and the thoroughly fiendish Messieurs Croup and Vandemar who delight in torturing their victims and have a mysterious employer who keeps changing his mind about whether or not Door should be killed. 

Neverwhere is fast-paced, funny, wildly inventive, and supremely thrilling. It is an excellent fantasy novel for people who love the genre but don't have the time to delve into something with an extensive mythology. Also, BBC Radio 4 recently finished recording Neverwhere as a radio drama that will be released in six episodes early next year. With a cast list featuring actors like James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Sophie Okonedo, this is a project that's bound to be amazing. It's also further proof that this is a story worth telling in every imaginable format. So read Neverwhere (or watch it or listen to it) and discover the world of London Below.