How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Very good
Advantages:
Incredibly inventive fun - and it's Neil Gaiman !
Disadvantages:
It won't be what you expected - it's Neil Gaiman !
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
The inimitable Neil Gaiman has his crowds of adoring fans, and it is to his credit that he still turns out a different kind of genre-defying book each time. While this book follows on from one of the characters in American Gods, it is by no means a sequel. It is much lighter in tone. Not many authors can pull off farce, set it in several different countries and cultures, and even genres, but Neil Gaiman manages to make it all look easy.
Anansi Boys is perhaps the least dark of his adult books, which is not to say that it is not dark. Gaiman understands the original essence of fairy tales and folk tales, and combines an edge of horror with an improbable yet plausible story. Gaiman does just enough of what you expect him to do to make the things he does that are unexepected all the more unexpected, as it were.
The plot is not easy to summarise, but it involves London, the US, the Caribbean, magic, dull offices, holidays from hell, excruciatingly embarrassing parents and annoying brothers - and we can all relate to most of those things (well, the last four at least).
This is not the sequel to American Gods you perhaps wanted. Let that go, and enjoy a fun ride through the apparently endless creativity of Gaiman's world. He has written the book he wanted to write - again. I'm jealous.
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