Neil Gaiman

 What's the next book?

For April, we're reading 'Stardust', by Neil Gaiman. 

Is he any good?

He's *incredibly* good. 

Okay, tell me about him.

Gaiman got his breakthrough with comic books. He wrote 'The Sandman' series (#29 on the NPR list) for DC comics. His writing attracted lots of good attention for its balance of humor and clever plotting. He co-wrote a book with Terry Pratchett (who wrote 'Small Gods' and the discworld series). This book is 'Good Omens' and Amazon has made a mini series of it. 

Has he done other works that have been made into TV and movies?

Oh, yes. 'Stardust', the book we're reading now, was published in 1999 and made into a movie in 2007. Everything that we're reading of his has been adapted into either movie or TV form. In addition, he's been a prolific guest writer for different series. He is well loved by the media and fans. The list of awards on his Wikipedia page requires you to scroll down a couple of times to get it all in. 

Do you have a favorite of his?

The very first Gaiman work that I read was 'American Gods' (#10 on the NPR list). It's fantastic. Just superb writing. I've since read half a dozen of his other works and enjoyed them all. I picked up 'Stardust' a couple of months ago when I had a gap in my reading schedule and finished it in about three days. As soon as I was done I wanted to put it in other people's hands so they could read it too. 

What can you say about it?

It's a fairy tale story, told in a fairy tale style. I've seen it described as a 'hot' story, in the same way that 'The Princess Bride' is and I think that's fair. While I don't think it would be bad to put this in the hands of a young reader, it's meant for adults. I don't want to get into details, because I don't want to spoil anything but I'll say that it's a lot of fun and I enjoyed it immensely.