Never and nowhere

"...How many light-years can you live beyond what you call everyday life? And ultimately, how important is this construct of the ‘normal world’ that we have created? Neil Gaiman, however, has presented us with a highly charming alternative."

"...If there is a central theme to the book, it could be this: it is through the encounter with the Other that our own identity is given meaning. We become ourselves through the Other (in this sense, Emmanuel Levinas would be proud)."

"...In *Neverwhere*, Richard is reminiscent of Alice falling down the White Rabbit’s hole. Except that in Neil Gaiman’s underground city there are no playing-card soldiers, ox-headed turtles reciting little poems, or caterpillars smoking hookahs on mushrooms. Here there are gangs of sinister tramps – who look as though they’ve escaped from Dickens’s books – rats and pigeons carrying messages, underground carriages that expand and transform into medieval towers, professional assassins in ill-fitting black suits and deadly seductresses. And this bizarre world is ruled by noble factions that are at each other’s throats in a postmodern reimagining of medieval times.”

"..If you need a trip to the land of fantasy, Neil Gaiman is your guide. Urban fantasy at its best."

"What is remarkable about *Neverwhere* is that, with complete mastery of his craft, the author familiarises us with the language of the absurd, establishing it as logic."

"...The novel is dark and funny, in the same way that the author’s other works are dark and funny, but full of madness and that special magic reminiscent of a fairy tale. Or rather, it is a fairy tale, since Gaiman is nothing less than a storyteller, one of the best you will ever have the good fortune to read."

"...a ‘hidden’, underground London comes to the fore, a world beneath the world we know, metropolitan nightmares become reality, and fantasy literature claims its place alongside the great prose works of the age."

"...An adult’s return to childhood that will captivate you and leave you eagerly awaiting the sequel to this wonderful modern fairy tale, which the author has already announced and which will be called _The Seven Sisters_."

"...Neil Gaiman is a wonderful storyteller and I admire him not only for his imagination, but also for the way he manages to transport the reader through his narrative. In _Neverwhere_, he creates a fantastical world, keeping the reader in suspense in every chapter."

"...It would be no exaggeration to say that it is a model of contemporary writing, on the one hand with dialogue that is full of life and the necessary dose of humour where needed, and on the other with the composition and description of evocative images, scenes and characters. From both a literary and a technical perspective, it borders on perfection."

"...The world Gaiman has created may seem – and indeed be – harsh, but it is not without morality, courage and … humour. It is, in other words, a complete world, Under London, which proves to be rather more interesting than Over London."

"...although most of the books we write, buy, read and love, the overwhelming majority (most narratives), revolve around a single strand of the archetypal narrative path, 'Never and Nowhere' unfolds ―and with such ease that it leaves you speechless― across almost all of its branches."

"...With humour, narrative ease, and wordplay, Neil Gaiman constructs in *Neverwhere* a delirious and grotesque, dreamlike, just and unjust universe, which at first seems to be a reworking of *Alice in Wonderland* and then like a very good action and horror film."

"...Without a doubt, *Neverwhere* is one of the best books written by one of the finest authors of his generation and of today."

"...A place from which there is no return. It is a world that Neil Gaiman, one of the great contemporary voices of fantasy literature, has sculpted in minute detail, giving it depth (both literally and figuratively) and endowing it with meaning, substance and a realistic presence. In the book *Neverwhere* (original title *Neverwhere*), the British author creates a world of wonders beneath London."

"...Gaiman’s writing possesses a ritualistic style that at times draws on elements of pulp fiction and comics, and at others converses with the heavy shadow of a thriller, the twists and turns of adventure stories, and the playful mood of fantasy tales. If nothing else, one cannot help but admire Gaiman for the sheer scale of his narrative architecture. His extreme imagery in London Underground stations, on dimly lit streets and in deep-coloured arcades surpasses even the most creative capacity of a writer’s mind.”

– Dionysis Marinos, Eleftheria tou Tupou

"...Reading the scenes Gaiman has devised (for the scenes and imagery are wonderfully interwoven), one thinks of the world turned upside down, the upside-down and right-side-up versions of life. He himself, however, tells us […] the world of Neverwhere, however, is a world in which I would like to find myself again one day. He may be referring to the magic of writing, or he may be speaking literally."

"...Neverwhere is a fairy tale for grown-ups. It is a book that makes you sad when it ends, because you, the reader, just like Richard, do not want to leave Neverwhere and return to the Here and Now."