I Blame the Editor/Critique Group/Beta Readers

Many of you already know that I recently finished a novel by Neil Gaiman called Neverwhere, which I felt was incredible. As mentioned in my own review of the book, I stated that I was so impressed with Gaiman's writing that I was compelled to pickup another book by him, SOLELY on the fact that I felt his writing was good enough to impress me, no matter what the story was about. My choice: American Gods.

Let me first start out by saying that the characters in this story are great. The writing style is still nothing shy of awesome and the main plot line was intriguing. Here's where I have beef though, I never actually finished the book. I got about 400 pages into the nearly 600 page novel and felt like I was reading WAY too much unnecessary stuff. While it was still very well written, it was still unnecessary. I found myself skipping parts saying to myself, "does this really matter?" I skipped so many little sections, hoping to get back to the main plot and story, that I felt like it was distracting from my enjoyment of the book. Eventually, I closed it and decided I wouldn't finish it.

I blame the editors. In my opinion, an author has to tell a story. They use every skill possible and every trick to give us as best a picture of the story as we can imagine. Many times though, in our pursuit to tell the story, we give more information that really doesn't HAVE to be there. That's where the beta readers, critique groups and ultimately editor(s) come in. It's their job to find that unnecessary stuff and shave it until the best story is told without wasting any one's time. I feel like the editor banked on the fact that Gaiman's previous success was enough and that his story needed to be there in its entirety to achieve success.

Who knows... Maybe his original was 800 pages and the editor did cut it down, but if you ask me, I feel like the same story could have been told by cutting out 200 pages or so and it would have been so much more than what it is.

In the end, Gaiman's success as a writer cannot be denied. He has multiple novels and stories published, some of which have great literary awards attached, and I have nothing but respect for the guy. He definitely inspires me. If I could write half as well as him and sell even half as many novels, I'd consider myself a huge success, but I cannot give American Gods the recommendation that I gave Neverwhere. I blame those people involved in not catching Gaiman's over use of the human language! :P

The Short & Sweet of it

I finished my latest reading last night. I had been reading Neil Gaiman's novel, Neverwhere. First of all, I have to say that as a story, this novel was well done and enjoyable to a great degree. There were a few unanswered questions, though in a story this rich in fantasy, there's bound to be a few. More than anything, I was impressed with Gaiman's use of language and mastery of words. I am hard pressed to name another modern author who could stand toe to toe with Gaiman in the craft of writing. I cannot begin to tell you how excellent his descriptions were and how the metaphors and allusions were utterly powerful and beautiful.

I'd rather not go into specifics of the story itself, to avoid spoiling it for anyone interested in reading, so I'll just leave you with this:

Check it out, buy it, rent it, borrow it, READ IT. As a writer, I was blown away with examples of how to better hone my skills. As a reader, I was taken on an incredible journey through a fantasy world nearly missing from my life since my childhood days of hiding from monsters in my closet.
For the record, I was so impressed by his writing, I've decided to begin another book by Gaiman called American Gods. That is very rare for me to do. I typically will not go looking for other books by an author just because I liked a single book written by them. Maybe this is a testament to how well received Neverwhere was with me.