Ebook The Ocean at the End of the Lane A Novel Neil Gaiman 9780062459367 Books
Download As PDF : The Ocean at the End of the Lane A Novel Neil Gaiman 9780062459367 Books
"A novel about the truths—some wonderful, some terrible—that children know and adults do not.” —Time Magazine
“They say you cannot go home again, and that is as true as a knife . . .”
A man returns to the site of his childhood home where, years before, he knew a girl named Lettie Hempstock who showed him the most marvelous, dangerous, and outrageous things, but when he gets there he learns that nothing is as he remembered.
Wondrous, imaginative, impossible, and at times deeply scary, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is classic Neil Gaiman and has captured the hearts of readers everywhere.
Ebook The Ocean at the End of the Lane A Novel Neil Gaiman 9780062459367 Books
"Dear, dear how I've loved this book. After a long hiatus from reading novels, I picked this one up on the basis of others' reviews. It was everything that I could have asked for in a fantasy novel: a diverse set of compelling characters, a sense of mystery and doom, emotional connection, a sense of history intertwining with the present. Clearly a modern classic and, though it is set in America, a work that plays with the idea of interweaving history, fantasy, and action in a way that is reminiscent of the the classics of the fantasy genre. A beautiful book and a world and vision that I hope Gaiman continues to explore for years to come."
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The Ocean at the End of the Lane A Novel Neil Gaiman 9780062459367 Books Reviews :
The Ocean at the End of the Lane A Novel Neil Gaiman 9780062459367 Books Reviews
- This is the 10th anniversary edition that I'm reviewing, which means that there should be 10 years worth of reviews already, and anyone who is a Neil Gaiman fan will have already read it.
That said, here goes it an old idea that you've seen before in a couple of Star Trek episodes and who knows elsewhere the Greek gods or some other gods (in this case, pretty much all gods, in any pantheon that ever existed) are (or were) real! They derive their power from being worshiped, and only die if they are forgotten.
The twist believers bring their gods with them when they emigrate. We have old world gods in the new world. New gods don't get along with the old ones, and a conflict ensues.
We follow one individual, Shadow, who isn't himself a god, but who might be employed by one, on journeys to various odd locations in the U.S. which are focal points of power. Not knowing much lore, he nevertheless has to do his best to fulfill his employer's missions, feeling his way through potential dangers and political intrigue. - Interesting at the beginning but within first fifty pages I got lost, didn't know which direction the story was going. The novel has some interesting chapters scattered in between the main story but I got disappointed that they turned out to be independent stories with no connection to the main story. Some of the description of the so called gods, their clothing, their looks and the dietary habits was nauseating. Because of so many rave reviews I completed the novel and the question that I had in my mind 'what's the point?' remained unanswered.
- Dear, dear how I've loved this book. After a long hiatus from reading novels, I picked this one up on the basis of others' reviews. It was everything that I could have asked for in a fantasy novel a diverse set of compelling characters, a sense of mystery and doom, emotional connection, a sense of history intertwining with the present. Clearly a modern classic and, though it is set in America, a work that plays with the idea of interweaving history, fantasy, and action in a way that is reminiscent of the the classics of the fantasy genre. A beautiful book and a world and vision that I hope Gaiman continues to explore for years to come.
- Right up front I should admit, I'd never heard of Neil Gaiman before I read an enthusiastic newspaper review about this book and decided to preorder it a few days ago. Last night, it was wirelessly delivered to my and this morning, I picked it up and started reading. Almost instantly, I was so absorbed and lost in the storytelling experience that I didn't do anything else until I finished it a few hours later.
It's a short book; it's enchanting; it's very well written...definitely top-quality fantasy literature. I'm not a fan of fantasy literature, but this book swept me away into such a delightful and fascinating series of incredible adventures--or should I say misadventures--that I could not pull myself away. The author is correct to warn that this is not a fable for children...the reality is far too stark and dark, and there are definitely some adult themes.
"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" is a tale about a lonely bookish seven-year old whose life takes a terrifying turn into a dark and creepy reality. The child is never named, but in recent interviews, the author admits that this child is very much like he was at that age. The child lives in the lovely English countryside of Sussex--the same environment where the author grew up. And like Gaiman, the child is wise, responsible, and moral beyond his years. The parents are blithely confident that nothing bad could happen to their brilliant bookish son in such a bucolic setting. But of course, bad things can, and do happen, especially to the pure and innocent...
The parents have no idea that the Hempstocks--an eleven-year-old girl, her mother, and grandmother--who live by a pond at the end of the lane, are really a group of immortals who play at being human. Our seven-year-old child makes friends with the girl, Lettie Hempstock, and she introduces him to the pond, which is really an ocean. Eventually, our narrator and Lettie take a trip into a higher plain of reality that is entered somehow through the property owned by the Hempstocks, and so begins a series of remarkable misadventures with unforeseen consequences.
This novel is a heroic tale about the age-old battle between childhood innocence and mythic forces. The book will charm you, fill you with awe, make you feel on edge, surprise you, and make you want to keep on reading no mater what important obligations you might have waiting for you to accomplish.
Since finishing the book this afternoon, I was so curious about this fine writer that I started doing research into his life, philosophy, and writing. It seems that in prepublication interviews, Gaiman says that he's prouder of this particular work than anything else he's ever written...and, as I learned today, this is an author who has had an insanely prolific career spanning blockbuster successes across a large number of different creative media. He says he's put an enormous amount of effort into writing and rewriting this book in order to get the tone, words, and dramatic focus just right. A number of critics have already said they consider this work to be as close to sterling literary fiction as Gaiman is ever likely to get.
Indeed, I was very impressed. For me, this work is, without doubt, first-rate fantasy and escapist fiction...and very fine literature, as well. It delivers a highly imaginative, fabulous and fascinating fable that envelops, and attempts to explain, everything in the space-time continuum. Yes, it's that ambitious! It had me hooked from the first to the last page. Simply put it is an incredible gem of a novel. - As the title of this review clearly states, I saw the TV series before I read this book, in fact I did not know this book existed and I was quite certain that it would not be a book I would enjoy reading, after all, the series revealed all the secrets.
Well I was wrong this book is full of highways and byways, I touched in the series treatment and in fact has more depth than those eight epidodes could ever dream of and although it never got to the end of the book, in fact it did not even make it to the House on the Rock, the series was an excellent way for me to pick up something that I should have read years ago.
The characters all fully drawn, the plot is well paced and the author is true to his premise throughout, which for me anyhow make this a five star book. When archetypes are needed they are used and used with a deliciously ironic effect. This is the sort of book I could put down and come back to, until of course I received the final chapters. Although the ending is foreshadowed more than once, and I will not spoil any else's enjoyment of this book by pointing it out, I was caught up in the narrative that I could not suspend my disbelief for long enough to puzzle it out. Although I look forward to another season of American Gods, knowing what I know now, will certainly allow me to cast a more critical eye on the transformation of this delightful adventure to the small screen, and I expect great things from the screen writers as they weave the rest of this tale into their streaming video offering.
