Neverwhere

Executive Summary: I enjoyed this, but not as much as [b:American Gods 30165203 American Gods Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462924585s/30165203.jpg 1970226]. I think the big difference was the main character.Audiobook: I'm generally not a huge fan of audiobooks read by the author, but [a:Neil Gaiman 1221698 Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg] does a solid job here. He's a storyteller, so he's good at reading a story, especially one of his own. That said, I might have preferred an actual narrator with voices, etc. Still I'd say that audio's not a bad choice by any means.Full ReviewI've owned the ebook of this for awhile, but my reading time is very limited and I own hundreds of unread ebooks at this point. So when I got the audio as well, I finally got around to pick it up.Neil Gaiman seems to have a cult-like following on Goodreads. He's super popular. I've read a few of his books (I think this is maybe the 4th or 5th?), and I've enjoyed them but I haven't been rushing out to read all his stuff.This is a bit strange for me because I actually watched the TV miniseries (I think it was made in the 90s) as well as reading the “sequel” novella [b:How the Marquis Got His Coat Back 26699591 How the Marquis Got His Coat Back Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442860194s/26699591.jpg 42096629] in an anthology collection I read before reading the book. That's very unlike me. I'm usually a big book before TV/Film and chronological reading order person.So I knew what to expect coming in, although I had forgotten many of the plot points as it's been a few years since I watched the series. I found things a bit slow to get started. In particular because I don't like Richard that much. Many of the things he did/said made me anxious/agitated. His life was just so disorganized that I wanted to yell at him to get his shit together.I did warm up to him as the series went on. Thankfully all the supporting characters are pretty great/memorable. I also really loved the world building. I've read another series ([b:Something from the Nightside 155421 Something from the Nightside (Nightside, #1) Simon R. Green https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1354812342s/155421.jpg 150023]) about a secret/magical London underbelly and I think Gaiman probably does the better job.There are a lot of similarities for me to [b:American Gods 30165203 American Gods Neil Gaiman https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462924585s/30165203.jpg 1970226], which remains my favorite of the Gaiman books I've read. I think Shadow is a far more likeable protagonist which helps. It probably also helps me that I'm more familiar with the American setting than I am with the London series.I believe there has been an announcement that Gaiman is working/will work on a proper sequel novel and if that proves to be true that might be the first book of his I pick up at release time. Otherwise his work remains something I'm interested in checking out when I have time but not really top of the pile.