InterWorld by Neil Gaiman Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of InterWorld
Book Review: Gaiman does sci-fi
Summary: 4 Stars
"Interworld" is what you could describe as a "lost" Neil Gaiman. It's a collaboration with American author Michael Reaves that the two were hoping could translate into a television series. When TV producers weren't picking up on the idea, Neil and Michael decided to sit down together in the 90's and write it as a short novel. The book was shelved and gathered dust for several years due to a lack of interest from publishers. In 2007, "Interworld" finally surfaced into the published world, no doubt aided by Gaiman's unstoppable and still-growing popularity.
Interworld is told in a first-person narrative by a teenager named Joey Harker. Joey's a somewhat shy teenager living in a small town in the Midwest. One day he and his classmates go on an unconventional school trip organized by his eccentric teacher. Joey ends up wandering away and stepping into another dimension. Then things get really weird. He meets several copies of his own bodies, who are living in alternate versions of his world. He also ends up in the middle of an Interworld battle between the forces of good and evil. Getting back home is the least of Joey's problems right now, first he must battle the arch nemesis bent on destroying peace in the "Altaworld".
It was clear when I started reading this novel that the target audience is for teens and young teens. The book's written in a very straightforward style, is only 240 pages of large print and in many ways reads like a comic book. Does that mean adults wouldn't enjoy it as well? Of course not. This is great escapist reading no matter what your age. Even though it's short in length this novel creates a very dense world of imagination, of parallel universes and time warps and other far-out concepts that fans of Gaiman's work are no doubt used to.
If I were to say there's one fault with this novel, I'd say that the imagination factor runs a little too wild. Yes, it's Science Fiction but it's sci-fi related to a boy's world on earth and as far-fetched as the idea of parallel worlds is, what's even more far-fetched are all the other outrageous things that seemingly happen arbitrarily through the story. Multiverse? Binary? Altaworld? I admit a lot of this stuff flew right over my head. But in the end this remains a very enjoyable read, both for fans of Gaiman and sci-fi in general. It reminded me of a cross between Robert Heinlen's "Glory Road" and Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game". Short, swift, enjoyable and definitely a recommended read.
Book Review: Great potential... but somehow fails to deliver
Summary: 3 Stars
Technically, Neil Gaiman is a gifted writer.
When I read Stardust I got immersed in a magical and literarily flawless world: the feel of the novel, the richness of the plot and the technique convinced me that I was reading a masterpiece.
Now, with InterWorld the same feeling appeared: I felt like reading a plot created with a streak of genius.
However, this interesting, innovative and nicely constructed plot fails to deliver a consistent novel. Characters are shallow and some elements result definitely trite (not as far as in Eragon, but the clichès stick anyway).
As in most children's fiction, the Hero's Journey is carbon copied, but this time I felt that the plot could have given up to five hundred pages of adventure and character development. Gaiman and Reaves might have seen this novel as a step towards other projects, but their decision to convert the idea into a novel should have yielded better and deeper results.
Book Review: Great read
Summary: 4 Stars
The book is well written, like anything else by Neil Gaiman.
I recommend it.
Book 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: 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.