Really? I have a question. I bought the serialized illustrated version as it came out, and that's the only edition I have. Were there differences in the text between that and the novel version?
I dont think so. The re-releases were an oversized thing (kinda like Alex Ross's DC things he did a few years back- Bats, Supes, WW, Shazam?)...to show off the superb Vess art. Charles Vess is a genius. I wrote him a few times at his GreenMan Press studio and ended up getting some tshirts and some signed Book of Night comix from Dark Horse. Those two guys go together like peas and carrots. The Midsummer Nights Dream Sandman issue, Snow Glass Apples, Book of Ballads and Sagas...I could go on and on. And Stadust!
I havent looked at the books in a long time to see if there was anything different, but I dont remeber anything missing or added. Seems like there was a foreward in the TPB from Karen Berger or Gaiman himself.
Oh, HEREis the wiki. I think I have the portfolio too. That was when I was in contact with Mr Vess, right before and right after the accident. I dont have (and never knew about) the all-text version. And, apparently theres a hardback with other Vess sketches...and I call myself a collector. LOL!
On the Sandman thing though, The Dream of a Thousand Cats is the one that blew me away and started the fever of getting every issue. Remember that one? Somewhere about issue #13-16 is where I started collecting (I had to pay crazy prices for the first 10 or so).
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I posted on March 26th of this year:
I'm a huge fan of Stephen King and my friends highly recommended American Gods to me so I finally picked it up yesterday at Barnes & Noble. I haven't gotten around to starting it yet, but from everything I've heard, it's very cool.
I just finished it last night. The twist ending completely caught me off guard! It was awesome! It also featured some of my personal favorite deities. Great book!
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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I read Anansi Boys a couple months ago. It is filled with cool little snippets like American Gods, though the ending was somewhat rushed.
I agree, the twist in American Gods was cool as all getout.
Yeah, the ending of American Gods was pretty sudden too. One minute you have no idea when (or if) the whole conflict is going to come to a head and then, in the space of about 20 pages, it's come and gone already. It could have used a little bit more foreshadowing, IMO, but it was still great.
Of course, this is coming from someone whose favorite author of all time is Stephen King, the master of foreshadowing.
I read Anansi Boys a couple months ago. It is filled with cool little snippets like American Gods, though the ending was somewhat rushed.
I agree, the twist in American Gods was cool as all getout.
Yeah, the ending of American Gods was pretty sudden too. One minute you have no idea when (or if) the whole conflict is going to come to a head and then, in the space of about 20 pages, it's come and gone already. It could have used a little bit more foreshadowing, IMO, but it was still great.
Of course, this is coming from someone whose favorite author of all time is Stephen King, the master of foreshadowing.
Stephen King, love him. Although i haven't read any since I finished the Dark Tower.
Gaiman, love him, especially his comics, but American Gods was great.
Anansi Boys is sitting on my night stand on deck after Un Lun Dun, plus I have more Mieville ordered, which I learned about in here.
I LOVE THIS PLACE.
We could all save a lot of money, and would probably be happy as pigs in s$$* if we just started trading books.
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Yeah—the all-text one is the one I was wondering about.
I have the hard cover illustrated and the paperback novel and I don't think there is a difference but I ended up reading the paperback so as to not ruin my illustrated version. Besides I kept getting distracted by all the awesome artwork. ;)
Chief Technical Officer
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Speaking of Neil... he wrote something for Paizo once. When we restarted Amazing Stories a few years ago, we had an idea for a column called 1,000 Words, where we'd give a piece of art to a writer, and then have them write exactly a thousand words based on the picture.
Well, we assigned Harlan Ellison to do a piece in Amazing Stories 603, but due to a miscommunication, he ended up writing only 200 words.
Fortunately, Neil came to the rescue with an 800-word introduction to Harlan's 200-word story. It begins with the sentence "Like you, I have no doubt, I cannot forget what I was doing the day that Harlan Ellison was killed," and goes on to tell the tale of how Harlan had spent nearly fifty years writing a two-million-word, 17-volume novel and then whittling it down to a mere 200 words in a tireless quest for perfection.
I liked Ananasi Boys quite a bit, but didn't care much for American Gods.
I assume there is more money in novels but I loved Sandman comics.
I don't know if anyone's mentioned it yet, but Good Omens is one of the funniest books I've ever read. I'm a huge fan of short stories, and Neil's "The Price" and "The Wedding Gift" are two of the best I've ever read.
Just tossing in my two cents...
IMO, you can't go wrong with a Gaiman piece. I liked Anansi Boys better than American Gods. How often is a sequel better than the original?
Anyway, I would recommend two books: Stardust and Smoke and Mirrors. The former got made into a movie (which I still haven't seen) and the latter is a collection of short stories. I liked it so much that I have it in hardcover and softcover. If you see it, and are an HP Lovecraft fan, check out "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar". If you like Gaiman, check out the volume. There's something there for everyone.
Gaiman's done a few other comics. Early works include "Black Orchid", which is really a decent story. If you like DC comics, try that one.
So, since I wrote in this, I've read American Gods and watched Stardust.
I wasn't completely pleased with American Gods. I had just finished reading a collection of Neil Gaiman's short stories, M is for Magic, and I think that kinda skewed my view on American Gods.
Parts of American Gods felt like short stories that were just kinda thrown into the mix, which didn't completely work for me. I'm also not a fan of having a book switch tenses, and then way he did in American Gods really didn't seem to fit at all.
However, all in all I enjoyed the story very much. I liked the ending. I liked the ending before the ending, too. And the ending before that one. It may have been a little sudden, but it totally worked for me.
I really liked Stardust, I only wished it was a PG movie instead of PG-13 so I'd let my 7-year old daughter watch it. But I loved Claire Danes and really enjoyed the great supporting characters, from Primus and his brothers on down.
And as for M is for Magic:
Neat book of short stories. He mentions in the forward of the book why he enjoys short stories, and you can see how those influences appear in his own stories.
There were some I liked more than others, but as a whole, reading the collection of short stories really brought me back to my jr. high school days when I was reading stories like that for the first time.
My favorite stories were Chivalry, Sunbird, and the Witch's Headstone. All of them were fun to read. Chivalry was just clever. Sunbird was one that made me feel like a young teenager reading John Carter of Mars for the first time. It just had a feel to it. And the Witch's Headstone just screams to tell you more. (And apparently he's written a yet-to-be-released novel from this story called The Graveyard Book.)
I haven't read or seen anything else by Neil Gaiman, but maybe I'll get around to another one of his books sometime.