Finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman today, and, as many books I read recently, it was awesome. It's the tale of Richard Mayhew who gets stuck in London Below, a basically twisted through time and space copy of London situated below the Old City divided up in baronies and fiefdoms tied to old underground stations.

One evening, as Richard and his fiancé Jessica are on their way to a restaurant, they come across a young woman lying on the street, bleeding. It is Door, fled from London Below, the only survivor of the murder of her family. Richard decides to help her, against Jessica's wishes who breaks off the engagement. Richard takes Door home to help her. Once there, Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar ring the bell, they're looking for Door. Richard denies her being there and when C&V barge in and look through the apartment, she is indeed not there.

After Croup and Vandemar leave, Door comes back and the next day, with help from Marquis de Carabas, they return to London Below. Richard goes with them for a bit before he returns above ground. He then finds that people don't really see him anymore. At his work they don't recognise him, his apartment is being shown to another couple and Jessica also doesn't recognise him.

He manages to get back Below and finds Door and the Marquis again. They then set of on a quest of sorts together after they hire Hunter as their bodyguard. Richard goes along because there's nothing else he can do and this may be the only way for him to go back. Door comes to find out who killed her family, the Marquis helps to settle a debt to Door's family while Hunter goes with them to so she can eventually slay the Beast of London.

The book is a very entertaining and grips you from just a few pages in. The world building of London Below is excellent, a perfect mix of (semi-)standard fantasy city and weird, twisted modern day London. Richard makes a good main character who doesn't know what he's getting himself into but stumbles on nonetheless because it's the only thing he can do. Door is wonderfully charming and the Marquis... He's intriguing from the beginning and he sets you on the wrong foot on multiple occasions. I found Hunter less fleshed out but she doesn't speak a lot either, she more or less just is, at least  until near the end of the book. The final plot twist then, was not unexpected but felt a bit off.


2009 (so far)
01. Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear - A Companion to Wolves
02. P. Nowee - Arendsoog. Vogelvrij {Eagle-Eye Outlaw} [Dutch]
03. Maggie Tallerman - Understanding Syntax (translated into Dutch and edited for Dutch students by Jan-Wouter Zwart) [Dutch] [school]
04. Hanneke Houtkoop & Tom Koole - Taal in Actie. Hoe Mensen Communiceren met Taal {Language in Action. How People Communicate with Language} [Dutch] [school]
05. Erica van Boven & Gillis Dorleijn - Literair Mechaniek. Inleiding tot de Analyse van Verhalen en Gedichten. {Literary Mechanics. Introduction to the Analysis of Stories and Poetry.} [Dutch] [school]

06. Star Trek: DS9 - Relaunch 1-5 - Twist of Faith (S.D. Perry, David Weddle & Jeffrey Lang, Keith R.A. DeCandido)
07. Esther Verhoef - Alles te Verliezen {Everything to Loose} [Dutch] [School]
08. Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game [re-read, it's been years :)]
09. Robert J. Sawyer - Hominids
10. Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere