Excerpt clip from the American Gods TV series adaptation

(3) NEIL GAIMAN –

AMERICAN GODS (2001)

“So do you have mighty bacchanals in her honour? Do you drink blood wine under the full moon while scarlet candles burn in silver candle holders? Do you step naked into the sea foam chanting ecstatically to your nameless goddess while the waves lick at your legs like the tongues of a thousand leopards?”

Neil Gaiman may be one of the most prominent living writers of fantasy, the literary (and suitably English) heir to J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis (both of whom were substantial influences on him). He may not be as iconic or prolific (or cinematic) as Stephen King, but the King himself has praised Gaiman as “a treasure house of story” and added that “we are lucky to have him in any medium”. And indeed we are. He is the fantasy writer that I would recommend to non-fantasy readers, because of his lyrical prose, his power of story and his sensibility of fantasy as ultimately the layers of story within our world.

My favorite Gaiman novel is American Gods, in some ways a reenactment of The Sandman mythos in the microcosm of a single novel, as well as its central themes of the power of belief and power of story.

It has one of my favorite protagonists of fantasy, Shadow Moon – who wants nothing more than to return to his wife and a job with his best friend after release from prison, but the gods have other plans for him. Literally.

SF & HORROR

Gaiman tends to stay on the fantasy side of the speculative fiction spectrum but does dabble in dark fantasy verging on horror.

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)