Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, and is perhaps underrated by the world of "serious" literature. Perhaps because serious literature likes to distinguish itself from genre fiction, with wordplay, references and multi-layered meanings, de-focusing on story-telling. And Gaiman is, at his core, a story-teller, with many, many stories to tell.

His oeuvre of work is dark and funny occasionally, macabre and disturbing sometimes, and unusual and imaginative all the time. Gaiman works well in several mediums too - he is famous first and foremost for writing the Sandman comic, which ran for 75 issues and remains the only comic to ever have won a World Fantasy Award (issue #19, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"). Given that they have changed the rules to prevent another comic from ever doing so, it looks like it will be the only comic ever to win it.

The Sandman cemented Gaiman's reputation for dark, referential stories, with emphasis on creating ambiguity and forcing characters to confront their fears. He then produced a screenplay for a television series, Neverwhere, which was about London Below, the dark underbelly of London, where people who fall through the cracks go. Neverwhere was filmed, and later adapted into a novel.

Gaiman has written remarkably few prose novels. The ones he has though, are extremely successful. American Gods, written in 2001, about a man called Shadow who may or may not be the centre of a war between old gods and new gods, managed to collect about 50 separate mythologies and cultural settings into a single book. And it worked too - American Gods won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel. Gaiman later wrote a follow-up to American Gods called Anansi Boys. Besides these and Neverwhere, he has also written the children's book Coraline, Good Omens (a collaboration with Terry Pratchett), and 2 collections of short stories and poetry, Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things, as well as the illustrated novel (illustrated by Charles Vess) Stardust. His short story, A Study in Emerald, won the Hugo Award for best short story in 2004 (beautiful pdf copy available here), and showcases the kinds of twists, juxtapositions and allusions that characterise his work.

Stardust was made into a film released in 2007. Gaiman later co-wrote Beowulf with Roger Avary. It has been announced that Gaiman will write and direct a movie based on the Sandman's sister, Death, titled The High Cost of Living, based on the graphic novel of the same name.

Gaiman is currently writing The Graveyard Book, a slightly macabre version of the Jungle Book, set in a graveyard. The transposition is classic Neil Gaiman. Updates on his work can be found on his blog, which is highly recommended reading.