InterWorld by Neil Gaiman Summary and Reviews
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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: delightful sci-fi for children
Summary: 4 Stars
The story is like the beginning of something great. I wanted more. Apparently, it was meant to become an animation or film project but it never took off. That's a shame. I could read more stories about the Joes... It'd be great to see it to. Book Review: Not just for kids...
Summary: 5 Stars
I wasn't aware that this was a "young adult" book until I received it. No problem, since, as always, Neil Gaiman delights with clever story-telling and memorable characters. It is, perhaps, a somewhat quicker read due to being geared toward a younger, somewhat more distractable audience, but certainly not a disappointment by any means, and I would love to see futher adventures of the young Joey in his parallel worlds.
Book Review: Great read, great story, wonderful binding
Summary: 5 Stars
For those interested in getting into Neil Gaiman's literary and artistic world, Interworld is a great first choice. I personally have been reading Neil Gaiman's stories for years, and have loved everything I've come across. When I read Interworld, I found a richly described world, with he steps in between the others short and succinct. Essentially, the descriptive words that Gaiman uses so frequently in his stories can often confuse the average reader if they're not used to reading them. However, this book is a short story, perfectly designed to be an entry into Gaiman's world, and I loved every minute of it. If you're already a Gaiman fan, this is a great book to get, and if you don't know about Gaiman, this is an even better book to get started with.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