American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

I'm fascinated and impressed by authors who write broadly.  In my library we have Neil Gaiman titles in our picturebooks, early chapter books, children's fiction, teen fiction, adult fiction, and graphic novel collections.  I've worked my way through most of it, but have neglected some of his better known grown-up novels along the way.  

Last week I read American Gods, which has the calm, slow, winding kind of narrative that Gaiman readers may be accustomed to.  When Shadow is released from prison, he is recruited to work for a man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday.  Shadow fumbles along and discovers that Wednesday and his acquaintances are supernatural beings.  He can accept this, but it takes the whole novel for him to unravel what is happening behind the scenes, what his part is, and what he wants it to be.  Themes explored include identity, sacrifice, home, what it means to live and to die, and what it means to choose between the two.  

It's a pleasant read, but I'm far fonder of The Sandman and The Graveyard Book among Gaiman's works.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

This mash-up of an abridged Jane Austin original and new zombified content by Seth Grahame-Smith is silly, but not as over-the-top ridiculous as I had hoped it would be.  Abridging the original content shaves depth from the characters and themes and leaves the story feeling shallow.  This would be fine if the new elements made up for the loss, but  the Zombies tend to exist on the sidelines of the story and aren't given enough chance to run havoc with the tale.  I also would have like the story better if Elizabeth's nature had been consistent with Austen's original.  Grahame-Smith's Elizabeth has a crude and impolitely murderous streak that is at odds with the woman I was hoping to see, particularly as she could have been transformed into a kick-ass warrior without it.

Peter & Max (by Bill Willingham)

Peter & Max is the first grown-up novel I've read (or rather, finished)* in over a year.  It's written by my current favourite graphic novel author, Bill Willingham, and occurs in the world of his Fables comics.

The story can be read by the uninitiated and comes across quite well as a novel.  It begins with a brief historical lesson that brings readers up to date with the premise, then hops between the protagonists formative years and the present crisis those events set in motion.  As a reader of Willingham's comics, I found it fascinating that the tone, plot, pacing and dialogue all felt so very familiar.  I'd be curious to hear how non-Fables readers found the book.  I felt that the story itself wasn't as compelling as some of Willingham's previous plotlines, but I enjoyed the read nonetheless.  

* I started reading Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist after watching the fantastic Swedish movie, but found that my mind wasn't in a dark enough place to follow through with it at the time.