The Olio Scholar Project: Neil Gaimon

Showing posts with label Neil Gaimon. Show all posts

Monday, October 10, 2011

The Big Finale: The year of the book...

My thirty-fifth year has come and gone. I've surpassed my goal of twenty-five books in a year and I am very pleased with how the the Olio Scholar project went. I read a variety of material and in the process changed my lifestyle, hopefully for the better. Reading is now an important part of my routine and looks to continue that way after this project fades away.

So what does my thirty-sixth year of life hold for the Olio Scholar project?

I plan to keep reading, although I don't have a set goal for the number of books I want to read this year. However, if don't reach at least twenty I will probably be disappointed. And please, visit the recommendations page and tell me what I should read next!
I plan on continuing the book reports. This blog shall continue to be my reading home; these reports are a good way to keep me motivated. However, If I do miss a book report every so often, don't criticize me too much.
I also plan to write some short stories this year to see how that works out. I have bits and pieces of inspiration laying around; a character here, a theme there, but no concrete story lines yet. I am a bit nervous about this goal actually. Considering how much work I put into these reports, constantly editing new drafts until it is satisfactory, I can only imagine how many iterations the stories will go through. And who knows if I will let anyone actually read them.

But enough about next year, it's the time we've all been waiting for: The first annual Olio Scholar Awards!

Best Novel

Winner: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Other Nominees:Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Huckleberry Finn is a classic in every sense of the word, Good Omens was one of the most clever and funny books I've recently read and Jane Eyre exceeded my expectations enough to be considered as a nominee. But when it comes down to it, this wasn't much of a competition. The Book Thief was an amazing book. There wasn't a day that went by for months after reading it in which I didn't think about this book.

Best Non-Fiction

Winner: The Forgotten 500 by Gregory A. Freeman
Other Nominees: The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

I didn't read many non-fiction books during this year, but of the two that I did read, I enjoyed the The Forgotten 500 a bit more. I guess war stories are more engaging than stories about linguists.

Best Novella

Winner: Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Other Nominees: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

In a surprising upset, Picture of Dorian Gray won out over A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I rated the former four stars while the latter got a full five. However, in the voting, I found that A Christmas Carol has its appeal around Christmas. Reading it in July doesn't carry the same weight whereas Picture of Dorian Gray can be read all throughout the year and therefore got the nod.

Best New (to me) Author

Winner: Neil Gaiman
Other Nominees: Kazuo Ishiguro, M.T. Anderson, Markus Zusak, Pramoedya Ananta Toer

I thought Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett was a great book. Although the writing style is obviously Terry Pratchett, there is an edge to the story that his other stories didn't have. I was interested in seeing what Neil Gaiman's own books were like. I started to research which books I should read and found out three things: one, that his Sandman comic series got critical accolades from both the comic and non-comic critics, two, his books were wildly imaginative, with memorable characters and well written, and three, he has a very large cult following. Well, after reading the entire Sandman series and The Graveyard book, I find myself part of the cult. I will definitely be reading more of his books. I also have him to thank for opening my eyes to the world of graphic novels. I realize now that the comic book world is made up of more than just super heroes and damsels in distress.

Best Short Story

Winner: "The Suicide Club" by Robert Louis Stevenson
Other Nominees: "Markheim" by Robert Louis Stevenson, "Thrawn Janet" by Robert Louis Stevenson

All of the short stories I read this year were packaged as part of the Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde book. The Suicide Club was by far my favorite story line. It is actually three stories following a Prince visiting a suicide club for an adrenaline rush. All of the other stories just didn't have the entertainment value of that series and it made for an easy win in this category. Please note, several of the individual Sandman comics could have been nominees in this category but I decided to keep each volume as an entity and not split them out.

Best Play

Winner: "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett
Other Nominees: None

I only read one play this year, so by default it is the winner. Maybe next year there will be more potential nominees.

Best Graphic Novel

Winner: "The Sandman Vol 8: World's End" by Neil Gaiman
Other Nominees: The Sandman Vol 3: Dream Country,The Sandman Vol 9: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman

While I enjoyed most of the Sandman volumes, I really enjoyed the volumes which were collections of one-off stories. Neil Gaiman's imagination really shined through in those particular comics. My favorite volume was World's End which was a collection inspired by Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The World's End is a Tavern/Inn where travelers from all over, including Fairies, Pixies, Humans, Immortals, et al. have to wait for a reality storm caused by Dream's depression to clear. To pass the time, they tell absolutely fabulous stories; many of which have other stories nested within them. The whole World's End volume was a treat to read.

To wrap things up, here is a list of everything I've read for fun this year. I've ordered them by my rating and within each rating category, I've tried to sort them again. However, it was very difficult to sort the remaining books as the criteria depends on what you are looking for in a book at any one time. For example, I have Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov rated as a four-star book, but also The Hot Rock by Donald Westlake. Would anyone say that The Hot Rock is at the same "level" as Lolita? No. But I was entertained by David Westlake's crime caper and thought that, for its genre, it deserved four stars.

Novels

Novellas

Short Stories

Non Fiction

Graphic Novels

Plays

Waiting for Godot by Samual Beckett (3.5 stars)

Friday, September 30, 2011

GRAPHIC NOVEL REPORT: The Sandman by Neil Gaiman

I have a secret.

The twenty-eight books that I've read this year are not the only things I've read. I was sneaking in some other material. "GASP!", you say. "What could you be reading to keep it secret from the six people who follow your blog?"

I was cheating on my "word-books" with some comic books. That's right, I read graphic novels. I read the entire Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman. You might remember Neil from such book reports as The Graveyard Book and Good Omens with Terry Pratchett. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

Neil's written hundreds of comics throughout the years, but his most famous comic series was The Sandman. It was a serial comic which ran monthly from 1988 to 1996 totaling seventy-five issues.

The Sandman series revolves around Morpheus, the King of Dreams. Morpheus rules over everyone's dreams and is one of the seven 'Endless'. They are not gods, they are older than them. The Endless are Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Despair, Desire, and Delirium (who used to be Delight)

Morpheus the Dream Lord

The series is broken up into ten graphic novels (over 2000 total pages!). A couple of the graphic novels are a collection of one-off stories, but most of them are dedicated to one story-arc in the series.

Preludes and Nocturnes

The Doll's House

Dream Country

Season of Mists

A Game of You

Fables and Reflections

Brief Lives

Worlds' End <my personal favorite >

The Kindly Ones

The Wake

There is also bonus novel which came out in 2003 which dedicates one story to each of the Endless.

Endless Nights

The series starts off when a rich eccentric recluse who doesn't want to die finds a way to summon the Endless and capture them. Trying to live forever he summons Death, but gets Dream instead. After eighty years, Dream finally escapes to find that he is weakened and his kingdom is crumbling.

After Dream gets his kingdom back in working order, the story line evolves away from Morpheus as the main character. Instead, he takes a back seat to other characters and stories. These comics show how much influence Dream has in our waking world. Dream has been around from the beginning, behind only Destiny and Death and he has seen it all. Love, hate, power and greed all start with a Dream.

I really enjoyed these comics. There is an element of horror in the series (especially in the beginning), but each comic was infused with mythology and folklore. Some story lines were better than others obviously; there will be natural up's and down's to a series this long, but Neil Gaiman is such a great story teller that the realm of Dreams really comes alive.

The Sandman is proof that comics have evolved away from the standard super-hero/villain template from our childhood. These are deep stories with real character development. After I finished this series, I started researching the genre a bit more. There is a whole world out there of well regarded, non-superman/batman comics out there that piqued my interest and I will definitely be adding them into my rotation.

Friday, February 18, 2011

BOOK REPORT: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Title: The Graveyard Book

Author: Neil Gaiman

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars ( loved it)

Back-cover Description
It takes a graveyard to raise a child. Nobody Owens , known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neitherthe world of the living or the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy -- an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack-- who has already killed Bod's family.

My Thoughts
The Graveyard Book is a fabulously entertaining, not-so-standard coming-of-age story about a boy (standard) being raised in an old, no longer used, graveyard by the ghosts buried there (not-standard). This story is listed as "Young Adult" or "Children's" but I don't think Neil designed it that way, he just set out to write a great story that just happened to be accessible to most age groups.

Most of Neil's writing have a dark edge to it, and The Graveyard Book is no different; it is set in a graveyard and death is a not-so-subtle theme throughout, starting off with the murder of Bod's family and continuing with the community of souls who help raise him. However, the myriad souls which adopt Bod, who range from a roman statesman, a few aristocrats, some well respected craftsmen and teachers, and others give Bod a diverse and somewhat normal upbringing.

We've learned from Harry Potter and other young adult stories, death doesn't need to be omitted from young adult books if addressed properly,by not dancing around it and allowing the characters to deal with it. and Neil definitely balances this topic expertly. The Graveyard Book is an expertly written, clever, and fun story that no one should miss.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

BOOK REPORT: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Title: Good Omens:

The Nice and Accurate Prophecies

of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Author: Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ( Excellent and Funny )

Backcover Description

The world will end on Saturday. Next Saturday. Just before dinner, according toThe Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies written in 1655. The armies of Good and Evil are amassing and everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist.

My Thoughts

"You can't be certain that what's happening right now isn't exactly right, from an ineffable point of view"

When I mentioned my reading project to my gaming group, the consensus was that I needed to read Good Omens if I hadn't already. Now, I've read 4 or 5 Pratchett books previously, and anyone who has read any of his books knows how funny and clever he is. His writing is simply a delight to read. It keeps you smiling, sometimes laughing out loud, and will make you think at times as well.

For those not familiar with Neil Gaimon, he got his start as a graphic novelist, with The Sandman Series being the most famous, and then expanded into other writing forms. He wrote the books Stardust and Coraline from which successful movies were made and has a host of other Fiction and Young Adult Fiction in his portfolio.

You can tell that Terry Pratchett had much to do with the prose and style of the book. That same wit is there, but Neil Gaiman brought a darker subject (how do you get darker than the soon to arrive Armageddon) that adds depth to the writing.

This book was EXTREMELY well done. The story and characters of Good Omens are great. As the back-cover description outlines, the Armageddon is on its way and the two main characters, an Angel named Aziraphale and a demon named Crowley, who are actually good friends, are reluctant players in the ineffable divine plan. The four horsemen ride motorcycles with plague being replaced with pollution since the advent of vaccines. There are witches and witch-hunters and the Anti-Christ who was misplaced at birth and is being raised in the suburbs.

"You do know you could find yourself charged with being a dominant species while under the influence of impulse driven consumerism, don't you?"

I don't want to go too much more into the plot, but I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting a light-hearted, funny read that is ineffably great.