What draws me to the works of Neil
Gaiman? The only way I could answer that question, is by comparing the stories;
the characters; the worlds that Gaiman creates as a journey of flight. Lost within
the depths of a dream, wandering through the colorful uninhabited skies of
insight, I eagerly gaze down upon the myriad of places which have been constructed
by the pen of Neil Gaiman.
It all
began when I was 17, and I heard of a comic called The Sandman. Since one of my interests is literature, not only
novels and poetry, but comic books and graphic novels as well, I was quite intrigued
when I heard the vast amount of praise and hype this series was getting. It was
even held as “unprecedented and brilliant”, or at least that’s what one guy at
the comic store, where I had bought the first collection of the series, had
said about it. So, to satisfy my ever-increasing curiosity, I purchased the
first collection and began reading it.
From
the first issue, where the main protagonist, Dream, escapes his long
imprisonment and returns to his kingdom, which is in tatters from decades of
his absence, I was completely hooked. The character Dream was amazing, with his
dark gloomy overtones, and his journey to redeem his past indiscretions. He
brought a sense of amazement, that a character whose existence seemed endless,
had human qualities, and yet had all these abilities that were beyond our human
restrictions. Along with the complex and thought provoking stories, I was
mesmerized until the very last issue.
When I
finished the series, I felt a sense of wonder, yet a lingering desire still laid rumbling
within me. It felt as if the flight that had carried me away into a world so
strange and marvelous had brought me back into my own world. With the series
finished, I felt a sense of completion, but I yearned for more. After looking
up Gaiman on the internet, I quickly found other works of literature by him,
and these were in the form of novels.
The
first novel by Neil Gaiman that I read was American
Gods. As I began reading about an ex-con named Shadow and his adventures with
the odd old man Wednesday, I began to feel the same way as I did while reading The Sandman, A sense of flight. The
characters were deep, dark and complex.
Nothing seemed more epic than all the old gods that believers brought
with them while coming to America going to war against the new gods that were
in the forms of television, computers and other technology that have seemingly
consumed our attention. The side story involving the children of a Wisconsin
town going missing was also brilliant. Even though it was just a side story, it
was as attractive and luring as the main plot.
When I
finished the novel, I once again felt a sense of completion. But, as other
dedicated readers can attest to, there is always a desire to read more and I got my eager
hands on other novels such as Neverwhere, Coraline, and Stardust, as well as
collections of his short stories, Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things. Just as it is
returning to a favorite vacation spot year after year, I always find the same
emotions and the sense of flight when I read a piece of literature from Neil
Gaiman. With such powerful flights through worlds with new wonders and new
spectrums of unseen colors, I have traversed through the lands that were
created by Neil Gaiman and I am eagerly anticipating the creation of new worlds
as the construction of words and verses are being built and erected as I write
this. I have recently heard news that a sequel to American Gods is being written. I have no doubt that it will be as
amazing, if not better, than its predecessor, and I am eagerly awaiting its
completion and publication.
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