yes, after something of an accidental hiatus, back to having a look at what i have been reading. or, in the case of one, have been avoiding reading. hence the title, and the delay in this sort of post, look you see. so, some reading done, and as usual not just one novel (for i seldom read non-fiction), not as many as three or even five, but two.
it has indeed taken me somewhere just north of three (3) months to read these two, too. one would reasonably have thought i would have read more, and faster, what with my era of exile providing me, with theoretically being the key, more time of my own device. however, i did that thing where i found that i did not particularly care, at all, for one of them. in such cases common sense goes away, and for some reason i feel compelled to complete reading such a work, no matter how dire and dull it is.
as once was the "norm", then, a look at the two (2) what i read, followed by some brief, all important spoiler free comments on each. for those in a rush, or indeed for those who for some reason wish to know what i think of anything, yet this only in a brief, quasi executive summary way.
the really, really dull one was the dire American Gods by celebrated writer Neil Gaiman. basically it is completely borrowed and stolen stuff, made dull and complete sh!t, easily the biggest literary disappointment to have befallen me for around about one quarter of what you mortals know as a century. sh!t in an entirely different way was The Demon Club off of Scott Mariani. yes, another of them Ben Hope books what he does. ludicrously enjoyable reading, but sub par, below average stuff which carries the scent of "contractual obligation, this will do".
for those still reading who are not sure if they read on that some spoilers will come, here you go, mainly just for you a *** SPOILER WARNING *** thing. also, fans, advocates, disciples, fans and acolytes of this Neil Gaiman fellow would be well served to basically, and effectively, f*** off and f*** off now, for you will not like what you read here, and you shall get just all worked up and upset when you knew you would. rather just go and read more of what he does that you seem to think is so f*****g wonderful.
provenance of my copy? well, one (very good) friend suggests i have a bootleg edition of it, but i got it off of that The Works shop, for £3. the hook, appeal or reason for purchasing was a simple five word statement i saw in relation to some tv adaptation of it; "Gillian Anderson as David Bowie". that, to me, sounded amazing, but i thought no, rather let me read the book it is based on that see the adaptation.
can i do a plot summary for you? not easily/ basically some dude called Shadow gets released from prison, finds his world has gone, meets some dubious character, ends up working for him, has mysterious and mystical adventures. something like that.
where to begin picking the bones out of this one? i find it astonishing that a writer could take the admittedly tired yet always scope for interest themes on the go here, blatantly borrow things from other works and writers, and yet somehow serve up utter boredom. this novel, i suspect, would seem amazing if you had never, ever read or experienced any of the things what "inspired" the writer.
essentially what this novel does is take the line "and the people bowed and prayed to the neon gods they made" off of that song by Art Garfunkel and the short one whose name escapes me, liberally and extensively borrows from other works, those by Clive Barker in particular, to pad out a story, via being in some way "inspired" by the only cool scene out of the Jean Claude Van Damme film Cyborg and the last twenty minutes or so of the film of The Last Temptation Of Christ. for good measure he even manages to throw in a "midwest town" thing right from the world of Stephen King, and with doing so even pays homage to one of his usual plot devices.
taking that what others have done, mixing it up and throwing out something "new" is not always a bad thing. in the words of Bono, it's not what you steal, it's what you do with it. and Neil Gaiman makes a very, very dull thing indeed. easily the biggest disappointment in relation to fuss and fanfare over a novel since Clockers by Richard Price. that too, was all "oh it's brilliant", until you read it and realised that it took that novel somewhere north of 500 pages to labour to a minor point Tom Wolfe covered in a couple of paragraphs in Bonfire of The Vanities.
worst of all, it seems, is just how f*****g fragile and sensitive this Neil Gaiman apparently as. from that which i have seen (this and Trigger Effect or something), for some reason he feels the need to do an excessive, extensive intro to his works, and a whole chunk of sh!t about it at the end. i momentarily glanced at his concluding musings, and noted with interest how he appeared to be trying to generate some sort of controversy which simply was not there. he posed the question, for absolutely no one else would, "oh how dare i write of America when i am not American", or something. well, it's called fiction, d!ckhead, write what you like. he appears to sell enough to keep him in whatever life he has, and i doubt he shall lose any sleep over this, but no, i do not believe i will read any other works by Neil Gaiman. not directly, at least, as i would still hope to read Mr Barker and Mr King from time to time.
notes on the provenance of my copy? well, sure. it came from Tesco. whereas once you could buy a copy of The Sun and get a book for £2.50 and then put The Sun in recycling immediately, now they do it where you can buy a selected book for £3 if you buy it with a copy of the Daily Mail, and put Daily Mail in the recycling bin just after doing so. so, done. oh, sh!t, no, that's the next one off of Scott Mariani what i picked up having not even read this one. actually, this one was a gift, either at Christmas or my birthday, from the boys and my former, as in no longer considerably better half, etc. hence the exile and what have you. but, i suppose having said that, as and when i do read the next one, should i make it that far, i do not need to spend needless time on provenance, i can just refer anyone all that interested in such things to what i have put here. should save some time, and who knows what i will achieve with those moments.
i can have a go at the plot, i suppose. this is not the most ridiculous Ben Hope storyline, for it does not feature a massive laser being built to cut the world in half. but, you know, fairly close. some curious stranger manages to corner Ben Hope on a plane and instruct him to kill this one dude what cheeked him, or else all he knows will die. as it happens, the one dude is a former colleague of Ben's, and the reason for cheeking the bloke was that he saw (and filmed) a satanic ritual sacrifice and refused to work for them no more. off Ben goes to kill, hesitates, discovers and learns of this satanic cult gang thing, team up, off they go to rid the world of evil, etc, etc, etc.
reading any fiction, in particular (though) these sort of adventure things, requires a suspension of either belief or disbelief, whichever is right. a writer needs to meet reader half way, though, and make said suspension something they can do. quite a lot of this is just too ridiculous, though. an all powerful satanic cult is at risk of being exposed, and instead of using that power to wipe out the threat they decide to risk letting someone else know? also, that it takes less than an hour in the novel for Hope to work out where the chap is says that maybe this shady secret cult has power but no intelligence.
but still, ridiculously good, fun reading, really. preposterous, sure, but it doesn't pretend to be anything other than a thrilling tale to be read for fun. Scott Mariani, like many other writers, just has the book published for people to enjoy, without any need for essays before and after the actual novel.
overall, i am indeed glad to have read both. as painful and torturous as the Neil Gaiman one was, at least i know what he is all about now, and know also to avoid all future things bearing his name. for the Scott Mariani one, well, it very much did what it said on the box, so no complaints.
well, anyway. if i am lucky or fortunate, whatever i read next shall not get hidden away, meaning that it's actually enjoyable to read. going on the next one i have started, so far so good.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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