Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys

Pros: Wonderful prose, characters, pretty much everything

Cons: a couple of the coincidences, a couple things (deliberately, probably) unclear.

The Bottom Line: The bottom line has a long lost brother too!

Review: I was so excited to see Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys on the list of available books, because I've always been a big fan. Gaiman's prose always makes me want to write. I don't mean this in the "I could have done better than that" way, but instead ...

Pros: Great characters, highly original

Cons: Takes a while to get started

The Bottom Line: You've never read anything like this, I assure you.

Review: Fat Charlie Nancy was a grown man stuck with a boy’s nickname that never lifted. When word of his eccentric father’s demise gets back to him, Charlie must travel to Florida to settle the estate. It is there that he not only learns that he had a brother ...

Pros: Fun dialogue and prose, humorous characters, British sarcasm, better than American Gods

Cons: Plot not strong - character driven

The Bottom Line: This is Gaiman at his best. If you like him, you'll love this. This story is a trickster myth; don't expect it to appeal to the rational.

Review: Anansi is an African trickster god that was also transplanted among the Caribbean islands, even making it into American folk stories where he was metamorphosed into the B'rer Rabbit tales. In fact, we are assured by the author, all stories are really ...

Pros:  Understandable characters
Imaginative use of world mythologies.
Wonderful storytelling novel

Cons: Slow at points
Some cliche/hackneyed situations

The Bottom Line:

It would definitely be worth buying if you're after Gaiman's portrayal of myth and fantasy, but if you prefer thrills and plot-twists, you might want to borrow it instead. 

Review: When I picked up this novel I was half expecting a sequel to American Gods, but was happily surprised to find an altogether new cast of characters. While Anansi Boys is set in an universe similar to that of American Gods, the story and ...