Product Description

Richard Mayhew is a plain man with a good heart -- and an ordinary life that is changed forever on a day he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. From that moment forward he is propelled into a world he never dreamed existed -- a dark subculture flourish in abandoned subway stations and sewer tunnels below the city -- a world far stranger and more dangerous than the only one he has ever known...Richard Mayhew is a young businessman with a good heart and a dull job. When he stops one day to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk, his life is forever altered, for he finds himself propelled into an alternate reality that exists in a subterranean labyrinth of sewer canals and abandoned subway stations below the city. He has fallen through the cracks of reality and has landed somewhere different, somewhere that is Neverwhere.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #85732 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-01
• Released on: 1998-11-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.com
Neverwhere's protagonist, Richard Mayhew, learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished. He ceases to exist in the ordinary world of London Above, and joins a quest through the dark and dangerous London Below, a shadow city of lost and forgotten people, places, and times. His companions are Door, who is trying to find out who hired the assassins who murdered her family and why; the Marquis of Carabas, a trickster who trades services for very big favors; and Hunter, a mysterious lady who guards bodies and hunts only the biggest game. London Below is a wonderfully realized shadow world, and the story plunges through it like an express passing local stations, with plenty of action and a satisfying conclusion. The story is reminiscent of Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but Neil Gaiman's humor is much darker and his images sometimes truly horrific. Puns and allusions to everything from Paradise Lost to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz abound, but you can enjoy the book without getting all of them. Gaiman is definitely not just for graphic-novel fans anymore. --Nona Vero

From Library Journal
In his first full-length novel, Gaiman, the comic-book mastermind, brings his talents to the black-and-white world of books, eschewing the darkly elegant illustrations that are a trademark of his comics. However, this journey to yet another fantastical realm is full of haunting images just the same. The story revolves around Richard Mayhew, a bumbling young businessman, who is about to discover a new side of London after helping a wounded girl named Door. He is trapped in an alternate dimension, known as London Below, or the Underground. Once he steps into it, he finds that his normal life no longer exists. The only chance of getting his old life back is to accompany Door on a dangerous mission across the Underground. Like adults stumbling through the pages of a bizarre children's story, Gaiman's likable protagonists fight off the sinister villains of this nebulous underworld. Shards of the concrete world continually pierce the surreal surroundings, as Gaiman weaves a link between the two dimensions of London. Gaiman's gift for mixing the absurd with the frightful give this novel the feeling of a bedtime story with adult sophistication. Readers will find themselves as unable to escape this tale as the characters themselves. Highly recommended.?Erin Cassin, formerly with "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
The remarkable thing about this tape is that, from the first lines, it gives one a strong impression of darkness and dread. It's a novel based on a British TV series--a suspenseful and funny adventure tale of a nebbishy Londoner caught up in a nightmarish, magic world below ground. Neither the premise nor the plot is all that new and compelling. But the execution! First, there's the writing--the delicious witty sense of humor; the vivid, albeit broad, characterization; the delightful dialogue; the adroitly evoked black atmosphere. Then there's the performance--Gary Bakewell's charming Scottish accent, his sense of the book's architecture, his puckish treatment of the humor, his deft characterizations. Third, there's the production--Blakewell's narration judiciously punctuated by sound effects and music that perfectly reinforce his efforts. All in all, a delightful listen. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE's Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

Good but thin in spots
This was not the allegorical novel I thought it would be. It was more in the fantasy genre, a Harry Potter for adults. Once I realized that and just sat back to enjoy it as such, it was a good read. I'd actually read a sequel if one ever presented itself. Some of the character and world development is a bit thin for fantasy, though. I'd like Gaiman to spend some more time on this dark world and its inhabitants.

Neil Gaiman's Best Work !
I first became acquainted with Neil Gaiman by reading "Neverwhere". This is fantastic fantasy adventure. I could not put the book down. Anticipation and suspense keeps the reader deeply involved with character and eerie landscapes aptly painted by Gaiman. I've read several other Gaiman offerings, but, to date none approach the mastery of "Neverwhere".
"Neverwhere" is down to earth fantasy that will take you to unseen places and will hold you there until the very last word is read. Excellent !

A Magical Journey
Richard Mayhew was a young man in London. He had a rather ordinary life.....a job in securities, a fiancee that dragged him to lots of galleries, a rather plain little flat. Everything was remarkably ordinary. Until the night he found the girl lying on a sidewalk....bleeding. He was supposed to be having dinner with his fiance's boss, but the good Samaritan in him took over. He couldn't just leave this young girl. So against Jessica's wishes, he picked up the girl and took her home with him. And so began his troubles.....

The girl's name was Door, and she was an "Opener". She could open anything that was locked, open doors to anywhere, and travel to different places through them. And she was being hunted by a pair of assassins. Door's family was murdered and she was on the run, trying to not only stay alive, but find out why her family was killed. But because Richard helped her, his life was turned upside-down. He ceased to exist in London. People looked by him and didn't see him. His job was gone, his apartment rented to other people. He had become part of London Below....the part of London where people who have "fallen through the cracks" go. A magical place that is filled with murderers, beasts, hunters, and angels. A place where your friend can be your enemy and a favor owed is priceless. A place where people talk to rats and the darkness is deadly. And Richard has to navigate through the Underground to help Door in the hopes that he can get his old life back.

What more can I say than I loved this book!! Neil Gaiman is truly a master at what he does. And that is weaving a story. I don't seem to be able to write about him without gushing! Each page I read brought me one step closer to this magical world. The cast of characters was long, but truly unique. Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar were a couple of the scariest assassins ever to grace the pages of any novel. The Marquis de Carabas was arrogant and cunning....a shyster that traded favors, mostly to his own benefit. He was an enigma through most of the story and it was hard to see which team he was really playing for. The Angel Islington was beautiful and scary. And Richard. Richard grew up in this story and learned that he could do mighty things....for an ordinary kind of guy.

If you haven't read Neverwhere, I highly recommend it. It's funny, scary, fantastical and just an all-around exceptional read! It will probably go down as one of my favorite books!!