Neverwhere: A Novel

2003, by Neil Gaiman, paperback

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

1990, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, paperback, from the library

Making Money

2007, by Terry Pratchett, hardback, from the library

You should know

Bit by bit, I’m trying to increase my geek cred.

So?

Fantasy, satire, subtle cultural references, and British humor packaged for export. Yeah, I’m a fan. It’s taken me a while to get into the works of these two authors, but I’m chipping away at their works. When I got a chance to get my hands on a copy of Good Omens, I was in.

From the top: Neverwhere is the story of a normal, unremarkable man who wakes up in a fascinating world of London Below, that he had never noticed. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, his primary goal is getting back to his normal life. Meanwhile, he has to help a young lady named Door protect herself and find out what happened to her slain family. Good guys, bad guys, and morally ambiguous guys add excitement to their quest.

Good Omens is about the end of the world. At least, it’s supposed to be. An angel, a demon, and the Antichrist are all too human for the good of the Almighty’s Plan, so nothing happens quite the way it’s supposed to – or does it? That depends on whether you can interpret the titular prophesies, as a young witch and clueless witch hunter attempt to do.

Making Money is the sequel to Going Postal, featuring the return of semi-reformed con man Moist von Lipwig. Having successfully revitalized the Post Office by inventing postage stamps, Moist is now faced with the charge of saving the Bank – which he sets out to do by inventing paper money and going off the gold standard. He also has to negotiate with necromancers and save Golems while protecting himself from a spoiled, wealthy family, one of whose members is convinced he’s turning into Lord Vetinari.

Good times.

Rating

Check them out
Now, if you find you don’t like either Gaiman or Pratchett, of course you’ll want to avoid these novels; they are good examples of each author’s style. And Making Money might be easier to follow if you read Going Postal first. But overall, all three of these books were good, entertaining reads that I’m happy to recommend.

The rest of the Internet

The Wikipedia page for Neverwhere.
Neil Gaiman’s website.
A review at CNN.com.
A Neverwherereading guide from HarperCollins.
More Neverwhere questions at BookBlog.
A positive review from Heather at Beside the Norm.
The Good Omens Wikipedia page.
The Good Omens Lexicon is a guide to all the characters, places, and objects in the novel.
Good Omens in under a minute.
Philip Carlsson at Wonderful Comics analyzes Good Omens.
What character from Good Omens are you? (I'm Aziraphale)
Macshaggy at Shaggy Logic was not thrilled with Good Omens.
An enthusiastic review of Good Omens at Wanderlust.
Crawley and Aziraphale's New Year's Resolutions.
The Making Money Wikipedia page.
Corey Doctorow at Boing Boing reviews Making Money.
The Wikipedia pages for Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
If you haven't already heard: the recent bad news about Pratchett (open note to Matt: here's a chance to bone up on a Great while he's still producing).

Awesome link of the week

The Daily Puppy has become my go-to site at the end of the day. Each day, the site features a series of photos of an adorable puppy – many different breeds are represented, as are designer mixes and proper mutts. Chris has repeatedly expressed his desire to steal Savannah Mae, although I have to admit to a bias towards Elton and Peanut. If it's been a rough day, nothing cheers you up like a puppy.

Shattered Glass

2003, On VHS, taped off Movies on Demand

You should know

I’ve taken two classes at NYU with Adam Penenberg, the reporter who broke the Glass case. He has told the story repeatedly, so I knew it well before I saw the movie. We studied Glass’s “Jukt Micronics” story in Penenberg’s Press Ethics class (you can find my own class blog entries at that link).

So?

The movie opens with information about the New Republic and a voiceover by the Stephen Glass character, who gives decent but cynical advice to a class of high school students. We then watch Glass devolve from the savvy prodigy he appears to be into the hysterical mess he becomes upon getting caught. In the process, he overworks himself and cuts corners to make himself look better. He charms his coworkers, rallying their support so that when the truth comes to a head, they blame their editor for having a vendetta against Glass. Office politics make it easy for Glass to get away with things, and a brand-new form of media – online reporting – is what ultimately brings him down.

Rating

Worth a rental
To be honest, I’m glad I wasn’t aware of this movie when it was in theaters; I don’t think I would have paid $10 to watch it. Since I knew the whole story going in, I found Stephen Glass to be less a tragic-but-sympathetic character and more a smarmy, manipulative jerk. Also, Penenberg is not fully developed; time constraints obviously don’t allow it, but it still would have been interesting to see more of the reporter I know show through (and Steve Zahn looks nothing like Penenberg)

While we’re on the topic of Steve Zahn, his character and Peter Sarsgaard’s looked way too similar. It was, at times, too hard to tell who was yelling at Glass.

It was fun to see Anakin Skywalker kiss up to Chief Wiggum (or Apu, or Moe, or Comic Book Guy, or pretty much anyone else in Springfield).

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. You may enjoy it more if you don’t know the whole story before the film starts. But if you don’t, I highly recommend researching it after you see the movie. It’s a good story, and deserved to be a movie. This movie, though, was never a blockbuster, and that seems right.

The rest of the Internet

The official Shattered Glass website.
Rotten Tomatoes gave it good ratings.