InterWorld by Neil Gaiman
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Book Reviews of InterWorld
Book Review: Debt of gratitude
Summary: 3 Stars
Don't the authors owe an large debt of gratitude to Diane Wynne Jones for this particular multiverse concept? Readers might prefer her Chrestomanci books.The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 1: Charmed Life / The Lives of Christopher ChantBook Review: Interesting concept, nothing special
Summary: 3 Stars
Although the basic idea was interesting (multiple versions of one character across the multi-verse banding together into an organization to fight evil), the book itself was only so-so - definitely not up to Mr. Gaiman's usual standards.Book Review: A book for pre-teens
Summary: 2 Stars
Neil Gaiman is one of those authors that you either love or... actually, i think everyone loves him. There are a lot of people (such as me) that will buy anything with Gaiman's name on it, even the constantly repackaged short stories that cause you to buy the same story three times
i bought this book thinking this was a Gaiman book. Which was dumb of me. This book isn't "Gaiman's InterWorld", it's Gaiman and Reaves' InterWorld, and my guess is that it's really Reaves' InterWorld. i've written quite a few short stories and screen plays and my own experience is that there is no such thing as a two-author story. If a book claims it had two authors, it normally means one person wrote the story and the other provided some ideas or acted as a sounding board. But having two authors influence the final product equally is nearly impossible - one author's style and vision inevitably takes over. i don't know Michael Reaves (other than knowing that he's a prolific writer of TV screenplays) but my guess is that this is his book. There's nothing here that feels like Gaiman. Nothing. That's not a bad thing - there are plenty of good authors - just understand that this probably isn't a Gaiman book
So is it good? i honestly don't know
i've learned that there are stories that appeal to people of all ages and stories that only appeal to a particular group. When she turned 10, Amber found a few of the latter. She loved them. Wanting to be able to talk to her about them, i read the books and utterly loathed them. They weren't bad books, they just didn't appeal to people out of their target audience
And that's what Interworld is. This might be a great book for pre-teens, but i don't think anyone else will like it. i personally hated it. i'm not sure why but i think it's because i've read too many books. There are no surprises in this story, no originality and no subtlety. Everything in the story is cliche. The bad guys are cartoonishly evil, the world is ridiculously polarized (witches vs. robots), the plot could have been generated with a computer playing madlib with a generic hero story template and every plot point is drawn in big crayola letters and highlighted in neon, a heavy handed treatment to make absolutely sure you know what's going on
It took me a while to realize that these are not bad things. At some point, you had never read a novel. You had read Pokey Little Puppy and Fox in Socks and at a certain age decided to tackle a novel. That's a hard transition. Much of what happens in an adult novel - the nuanced world views, subtle character interactions, assumptions of knowledge about the world - is hard to understand for someone new to novels. There is a need for stories that help readers make the transition. Starter novels. Novels with training wheels. And that's what InterWorld is
Many stories appeal to all ages. All of Neil Gaiman's children's stories are like that, most notably the juvenile novels Stardust and Coraline and the movie Mirror Mask. i can't name a single Gaiman kids story that wasn't enjoyable for adults (although the opposite is certainly not true). And that's part of why this novel doesn't feel like a Gaiman book. Even his Alice Cooper graphic novel, which was often criticized for being formulaic and cliche, had an unmistakable Gaiman feel to it. i don't think Neil Gaiman is capable of not writing in the style of Neil Gaiman. And this isn't a Gaiman book
So it's not a Gaiman book. Is it good? i truly don't know. i was offended by how bad it was, although if you imagine you're reading a script for a TV series pilot it feels more in place (TV shows, especially kids action shows, tend to be ham fisted and cliche). But i don't think i'm this book's audience. This was a one star book for me, but if you're a preteen who enjoys series like Warriors and The Death Gate Cycle, maybe you'll like InterWorld too. Wish i could tell you
Book Review: Interworld
Summary: 2 Stars
In "Good Omens" it was clear that this chapter was Neil Gaiman and that chapter was Terry Pratchett. With "InterWorld" there was no such clear distinction. Lacking obvious Gaiman-ness in the prose was a disappointment to me. However, his influence showed through clearly in the ideas and plot devices. Also, I didn't realize when I picked up "InterWorld" that it's more of a young adult novel. That's not always a setback, but here it was. The story didn't grab me so that I had to devour the book. It was interesting enough to keep reading, but not driving. When I read in the Afterword that it was originally meant as a description of a TV Series I had a better idea of where these two authors were coming from. I guess my main problem was that the descriptions and action did not seem very well fleshed out.