Odd and the Frost Giants (published in 2008) - Written by Neil Gaiman

Gaiman, master of fantasy and mythology, offers an endearing tale about hope conquering all odds, a tale about how one can overcome any obstacle despite one’ own shortcomings and inhibitions. The book was chosen for the UNESCO World Book Day (2008).
Odd, a Norse name meaning ‘the tip of the blade’- is a young boy; although the name is meant to bring him luck, Odd is far from knowing what the word means. He is fatherless, having lost his dad in a Viking sea -raid, when he was only ten years old. He is physically maimed when he has an accident with an axe while chopping down a tree- it leaves him lame in the right leg. But what is most endearing about Odd, is his smile.
His mother, who is Scottish, marries a rich widower - Eldred, who ill treats Odd at the slightest provocation, whilst his mother is preoccupied looking after her seven other step children. Winter arrives, cold and almost arctic, never ending, threatening the onset of spring. Odd seems to have had enough at home, and decides he must get away; he leaves his stepfather’s abode for his own father’s hut in the chilly woods. In the forest, he meets a bear (with its paw caught in a tree trunk),a fox and a crow- unaware that these are Norse gods trapped in the bodies of these creatures - Loki, Odin and Thor - trapped thus by Frost Giants (who is actually just one giant).




He learns from the animals, that the winter was going to last forever, unless the Frost Giant is defeated. Odd comes to know that the city of Asgard has been invaded by the giant, who deceived Loki , and took Thor’s hammer - thus granting him dominion over the city and the terrible prospect of an endless winter. Odd decides to help the gods, who lead him to Mimir’s Well, to gain more astuteness and insight; here he sees his past, even his parents’ lives, and the possibility of a great future. Avoiding unnecessary conflict and confrontation, Odd uses his natural flair for negotiation, transitioning from the timid character we meet in the beginning of the story to a more confident boy, standing up to face all odds with skill and stoicism. Even his mother is transformed, as she sees her son as an inspiration, and garners strength from her son’s new persona.
Throughout the book, we learn to respect the young twelve year old Odd for the character he displays despite the adversities he’s pitted against. Friendships are tested, mistrust and deceit abound, but our hero remains untouched. He practices forgiveness and moves own, without any excess emotional baggage to hinder his quest. The Goddess Freya bestows partial healing to his lame leg, and he grows taller, stronger, leaning on a carved staff, bequeathed to him by none other than Odin, the All –Father.
The story touches a number of themes that appeal to a reader- coping with physical disability, the loss of a parent to death or even remarriage, the sadness of not knowing love at an early age, gracefully accepting that there is a place for everyone under god’s sun, and giving people a second chance. A must read - Neil Gaiman’s best, most human, and touching tale thus far!

M is for Magic (A book by Neil Gaiman) - Published in 2007

The book is a compilation of short stories, written by Gaiman: ‘Short stories are tiny windows into other worlds and other minds and other dreams.’ He alludes to Saki, Harlan Ellison, John Collier and Ray Bradbury, all writers whom he adores and is influenced by; the ten stories have range, exploring Gaiman’s depth and style, imagination and passion as a writer.

1. The case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds (from Knave)
The story has characters from nursery rhymes, that beloved and fragile eggshell encased character Humpty-Dumpty, is a vicious extortionist in the tale, unlike the image we have of him from Mother Goose!
And Jill, actually the Queen of Hearts, gets a makeover, the woman of scarlet with myriad dark shades is a criminal par excellence, having gotten rid of HD, Cock Robinson and Dr. Foster – all for the four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie and the one who pecked her nose off - audaciously HD having photographed her sans snoot - reason enough in Nursery-land to bump someone off! A macabre read for a child!

2. Troll Bridge (from Smoke and Mirrors)
When steam engines became a thing of the past and railway tracks were uprooted, a young boy revels in childhood rituals - walking home from school, catching shrimp, colored rocks and whiling away time. And then he’s lost (but doesn’t seem to mind it!) – what makes it even more adventurous is his meeting with a troll - horrifying and threatening to eat him for having trespassed his bridge. But after promising to return when he’s older, the troll lets him by unscathed. When he’s fifteen, he returns, although unknowingly - with a girl, planning to do what teenagers would, unchaperoned, - and then, the troll freezes the girl into a zombie. This time the boy asks the troll to take the girl, he refuses (because she’s innocent) – he’d rather eat his life. Once again, the teenager appeals to the troll’s kindness and escapes.
Many years later, disillusioned, he returns, seeking the troll, who is surprised, even touched that he returned-and this time, he does eat his life, leaving the man, now a troll to haunt the greens under the bridge.

3. Don't ask Jack (from Smoke and Mirrors)
Some toys you buy off the counter, some are bequeathed - in the story, its Jack’s ornate box, never opened because it’s so valuable, and so an aura surrounds it, giving wind to many stories; the most circulated being that Jack was the guardian of Pandora’s box - he kept the evil from getting out.
But sometimes some kids do open the box, quietly, in the attic - and Jack comes out from the box, whispering things they’ll never forget. The children in the house grow up, one dead in the Great War, another in a mad house, the girls now old women, and all this while, Jack waits upstairs patiently for a child to come by - they never do.
Chilling and creepy, the story is great for a night time bed story -don’t look under the bed, and if you have   a box on the dresser, don’t you dare open it - Jack would know, he’s waiting…




4. How to sell the Ponti Bridge (from Imagine #24)
The American conman George Parker sold the Brooklyn Bridge twice a week, and repeatedly, for years, giving rise to the phrase “and if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.”
The Rogues’ Club is an exclusive intergalactic joint - the best in all the seven worlds, formed almost seventy thousand years ago (the bad guys have been around that long!)  in the Lost City of Carnadine. One evening, over conversations about past exploits and fine wine, a patron comments how classless it was when conmen tried to sell popular spots like the Ponti Bridge, to unsuspecting and susceptible tourists. That was low, even for accomplished fraudsters! The narrator comments that if at all the task was to be accomplished - the perpetrator would have no access to membership at this Club!
A suave man called Stoat cuts in politely, and tells all around that in fact - HE had gotten membership to The Rogues’ because he had sold the Ponti Bridge! He shares with them how he’d arrived penniless, and while listening to a tour guide at the bridge (studded with jewels) that Ponti wasn’t for sale, despite what scamsters were telling simple folk like them. That gave Stoat food for thought, and in his unctuous way, he sells the Bridge, bit by bit to jewelers of the city. Not revealing what the details were and what the consequences of his act were, Stoat leaves his audience wondering, and in wonder. The Rogues present feeling not so cad-like and clever anymore.

5. October in the chair (from Conjunctions)
October is chairing a meet of the twelve months, as they sit by a fire, sharing their experiences. Needless to say, October has the best story to tell. He narrates a tale about a little boy called Runt (here –a name, otherwise – a word meaning an undersized animal) , well that was his nickname, the only person who called him by his actual name Donald was his grandma. One day, Runt runs away from home, and befriends the ghost of a boy called ‘Dearly’. They have the best time- climbing trees and talking to each other. When it’s time to leave- Runt doesn’t want to, he’d rather die than go back to being a ‘runt’.
The story ends with Dearly showing Runt the farmhouse in the field of weeds, and as the ten year old stands by himself in the graveyard, he decides to go into the house, maybe hoping that he would be accepted as a ‘resident’ in the after life -yard, with Dearly for a friend. A jittery June asks what happened to him, but mild May entreats with  her not to ask, some things are better left unknown….I wonder, though…

6. (For Ray Bradbury) Chivalry  (from Smoke and Mirrors)
Genteel and aged Mrs. Whitaker purchases the Holy Grail from Oxfam, along with two Mills & Boons titles (which she’ll never read). The silver chalice would look wonderful on the , it mantelpiece.
And look wonderful – it does! Mrs. Greenberg, though, casts a jaundiced eye over it, proclaiming her son her son Myron had won a chalice like that for swimming- and unlike this one, his had his name engraved on it!
Social ritual over, the bell rings once more and Mrs. Whitaker opens the door to find a ‘knight in shining armor’, literally, at her doorstep. He introduces himself as Galaad, and that he is on a Right High and Noble Quest to find the Holy Grail- which is currently in her possession. The old lady asks him to leave when he requests that she give him the blessed chalice, refusing his offer for gold in exchange for it.
He returns again on Monday, and she asks him to help her out in the garden, he offers her the sword Balmung, she refuses, he leaves. On Tuesday, she gets him to help her with the boxes; he bears more gifts: the Philosopher’s stone, the  Egg of the Phoenix and lastly an apple carved out of a single ruby, the last would help her once more be youthful and live eternally.
She tut-tuts and tells the Knight to ‘put the apple away…you shouldn’t offer things like that to old ladies. It isn’t proper.’ Finally, she feels that the Stone and the  Egg were a fair exchange for the Grail, and sends Galaad away. On her next trip to Oxfam, she almost buys an old funny looking lamp- but decides not to, since there isn’t space on the mantelpiece for it.
Galaad still chivalrous after thousands of years, never once taking advantage of the Old Lady, who for her meager life, takes great pride in who she is and what her life has to offer. The best read  in the Book, so far!

7. The price  (from Smoke and Mirrors)
Perhaps the best read on Halloween’s, The Price tells of a Black Cat that is adopted by  the Author’s family, it is well cared for and loved. However, much to the bewilderment of the couple, Black Cat is always found wounded and bleeding each morning. With its best interest at heart, the narrator thinks it might help  if the cat were locked in the basement, far from harm’s way; strange things, bad things start to happen to the family, and the lady of the house, intuitively asks the husband to let the cat out of the
basement - she had commented on its arrival that it was a ‘person.’ Curious and concerned to find out who or what is harming the pet, the narrator stays awake all night- and discovers that the Devil, in guise of a woman, nearly mutilates the Black Cat, who puts up a fight and sends the Devil packing.
Realizing then that the cat is actually protecting his family, the narrator makes a decision to keep it, although guilty for The Price he expects it to pay….creepy.

8. How to talk to girls at parties (from Fragile Things)
The title is most suggestive and narrates the travails of Enn, whose only experience with the fairer sex is mums discussing politics and poetry, and the three girls he’s kissed. Understandably envious of Vic, his pal who has a way with women, Enn follows him around like a woebegone pup waiting for a treat. When it’s his turn to finally meet someone, Gaiman sets up an encounter with ‘alien women’ who want to fertilize him with a memetic virus transmitted verbally , in the form of a poem-such that the entire human race will be transformed. This alien-girl called Triolet sings him a poem, believing that if he hears it, it will change him. The story may have meant to thrill, but actually grosses you out and one can understand when Vic throws up after an encounter with a girl, who was also an extraterrestrial creature. Best avoided.

9. Sunbird (from Noisy Outlaws)
Augustus TwoFeathers McCoy, Professor Mandalay, Virginia Boote, Jackie Newhouse and Zebediah Crawcrustle are looking for something new to sink their teeth into - literally. The five are members of an epicurean club and have tried everything - from the exotic to the bizarre - and are raring, hungry for more. Mammoths, sloths, fruit bat, panda - have all traveled through their entrails.
And then they lament the fact that Man is no longer on the menu - served after electrocution (this is  getting more gut churning and sick) , thankfully they aren’t after man-meat, but instead decide to travel to Cairo to hunt the elusive Sunbird (Phoenix).
The Sunbird is set to come to Earth when the planet is closest to the Sun, and as the beauteous creature floats down, it is soon served on a platter to the five - who devour it with gusto. No sooner had they finished eating,  their innards feel like they are being set ablaze, and as they burn to white ash, a new generation of birds is born, a man who rises from the ashes like a Phoenix and a young girl…bizarre, avoidable.

10. The witch's headstone (from Dark Alchemy: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy)
Nobody ‘Bod’ Owens, the human creature among the dead, decides to crossover to unconsecrated ground - to where the Witch’s Headstone was supposed to be; she seems a likeable creature, helpful and kind.
Going to great lengths to steal a snakestone, then selling it to a corrupt trader Abanazer, Bod tries his level best to ensure that Lizzie gets her headstone - she healed his broken leg, after all!
When Abanazer  and his goon try and rough him up, Lizzie comes to his rescue, saving him from the kidnappers. Although his guardian Silas is upset that he’s been absconding without anyone knowing, the man-ghost-vampire like creature understands why Bod did what he did.
The story is an excerpt from the Graveyard Book, elaborated for effect for a short, separate story.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Written by Neil Gaiman - Published in 2013

“I liked myths. They weren’t adult stories and they weren’t children’s stories. They were better than that. They just were.”
Amid the hurried lives we lead - weddings and funerals are the punctuated pauses in between when we can recollect that which was, and how it used to be. The anonymous character we meet in the first chapter wanders away from a funeral, to a lane where he once lived, more than thirty years ago; he meanders to the end of the lane where his friend once lived, here he stops by a duck pond -
‘Lettie Hempstock’s ocean.
I remembered that, and, remembering that, I remembered everything.’
The first of the memories we encounter begin with the poignant 7th birthday party – it would ring a bell in most minds, weren’t you nervous at that age –that you’d throw a party to which no one came? However, displaying surprising maturity for a seven year old - the child never tries to find out why no one turned up –“I did not need to ask them. They were not my friends, after all. They were just the people I went to school with.”
Like some quiet reticent kids, he has books for friends, and a cat called Fluffy. They were inseparable, the cat made up for the absence of human friends in the child’s life. But one day, the young person is introduced to death by the tragic loss of Fluffy (as a child many a reader would be reminded of how he was told ‘Rover’s in doggy-heaven’). And the opal miner in check shirt and thick pale gold chain thought he would make up for the loss of the beloved feline by getting a replacement - a ginger cat called Monster. The ill tempered cat lived with the child for a week, a week in which the memory of Fluffy may have felt betrayed by the angry substitute, yet the kid stoically continues to withhold his sorrow and dismay from the world outside (‘I wanted to cry for my kitten, but I could not do that if anyone else was there and watching me.’), after all - he still had a cat!




Gaiman draws on his own (and somewhat macabre) childhood memory of the loss of his parents’ car - in the book, the child discovers the car is stolen, and when the police get it back, he rushes to retrieve his copy of SMASH! with Batman, only to find it lodged under the corpse of the man who stole the car, and chose to then die in it. Upon further discovery, he learns it was the opal miner, who left a note:
 “To all my friends,
“Am so sorry it was not like I meant to and hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me for I cannot forgive myself.”
What was that again about black cats crossing one’s path?
Despite that very disturbing turn of events, the child finds a friend, not a book or an animal - but an apple cheeked, red-brown hair, gray-blue eyed girl from Hempstock farm (which was in the great Domesday Book survey executed for William the Conqueror in 1086), who gave him warm porridge with blackberry jam, and then led him to her ‘ocean’, gave him a  sixpence coin from the gut of  a dead fish (for luck), and  memories to last a lifetime.
The opal miner’s unhappy spirit  comes to haunt the street - and since he had loved money enough to steal it from his friends - his ghost starts to haunt people with ‘money trouble’, including the young boy.
The child is elated he has a handsome twenty five pounds inheritance, and coins dug up from his garden - but he wakes up choking in the night - a silver coin lodged in his throat. Lettie all knows grandmother, who was there ‘the day the moon came’, tells him the coin is new, although the date suggests it’s older. Lettie and ‘Him’ embark on an adventure to ‘Bind it, close its ways, send it back to sleep.” It - the opal miner’s spirit.
With instructions from Lettie to never let go of her hand, and the promise that she would protect him - the two are confronted by giant worms, gray raggedy creatures with nothing in them, and when they return - something is lodged in his foot. He sits in the bathroom, tugging into the hole with a pair of tweezers, and pulls out a dark and light gray, pink-streaked worm, which he lets go in the bath plug hole.
The worm makes a comeback in the form of Ursula, the housekeeper, who takes over his entire life, endearing herself to his family, to the extent; his father almost drowns him in the bath tub as she stands by watching. Most days, he’s trying to get away from Ursula’s prying eyes, and finally he manages to escape to the Hempstock Farm-where Granny Hempstock asks Ursula to return, she of course puts up a fight, but is killed by ‘varmints’ –who then want to kill the boy, because Ursula’s heart is still lodged in his foot. Lettie though, sacrifices her life, and saves him from death.  Her mother wades into the pond, with Lettie’s limp body in her arms, and she is finally laid to rest in her watery abode.
While still leading the obscure life of a child, he finds a black kitten with ‘unusual eyes’, and names her ‘Ocean’. When he came to, in the present, the boy was left with no memory of his escapades - and believes Lettie migrated to Australia; as he sat , freshly arrived from  his trip down memory lane, old Mrs. Hempstock pays him a visit. She tells him Lettie is still healing, not yet ready to awaken. As he leaves, he is peaceful, and his memories fade into the past.
Neil Gaiman’s wife Amanda “doesn’t really like fantasy”, so the modest 178-page turner novella for adults is a brilliant “memory meets magic” work of fiction – worth the eight year wait! The Master of Myth creates a melting pot of the supernatural, horror and allegory- the obsession we have with money and power, the deceit that permeates our lives, are underlying themes of the tale. The book has debuted at no.1 at the New York Times Best Seller List.

Anansi Boys - A book by Neil Gaiman - Published in 2005

“The Dreamer awakes

The shadow goes by

The tale I have told you,

That tale is a lie.

But listen to me,

Bright maiden, proud youth

The tale is a lie;

What it tells is the truth.” ― Traditional folktale ending

“ANANSI”- the spider…miniscule, tiny, deadly. The Anansi (Nanzi, for short, and in our story-Nancy) lives in Florida, father to Fat Charlie, his accountant son, who craves the freedom to step out of his father’s shadow, maintaining the physical distance by living in South London.

Nancy Sr. (whom we last met in American Boys) is quite the ladies man, and whilst charming buxom members of the fairer sex one evening in a karaoke bar - he comes to a sticky end. 

Nancy Jr. - Fat Charlie travels to Florida to dispense with his filial duties, and is told by Mrs. Callyanne Higgler, a family friend that late Nancy Sr. was actually the reincarnation of the West African spider god Anansi. And before Charlie can start to believe he maybe endowed with some of the magical qualities his father had- the lady dampens his spirits and tells him of his spider-brother-Spider. In a drunken stupor, Charlie whispers to a lil’ arachnid he’d love a visit from his sibling.

In the morning Spider pays a visit, stepping in and out through an old picture. The swashbuckling, suave sibling is saddened and shocked to hear of their father’s demise. That evening, the two brothers drown their sorrows in a pub, and the next morning, as Charlie misses work, nursing a hangover, Spider appears in his guise at work. Here he pushes back the rug to see the dirt beneath it; the Messrs. Graham Coat Agency has been embezzling funds galore. He also discovers his brother’s lovely fiancée Rose Noah.
Performing his duties to the T, Spider sheds light on the financial irregularities at the Agency, and in order to get him out of the way, a fat cheque and holiday are planned. Off course this is a case of mistaken identity, doppelgänger gone bad. Fed up, Charlie travels once more to Orlando, to seek Mrs. Higgler’s help - she leads him to her friend, who, with some abracadabra-meets-bibbity-babbity-boo black magic, gets him to travel back in time - where he confronts creatures unwilling to help him, thanks to Nancy Sr. being such a cad and what not.
Finally, Bird Woman agrees to help in exchange for the Anansi bloodline. On the other hand, Maeve Livingstone, a harassed client of the Agency confronts Grahame with regard to her late husband’s swindled royalties, threatening to sue him. The wily serpent agrees to return the money, and as the poor woman is about to leave - he kills her mercilessly, hiding the body in a closet. The woman haunts the Agency, and refuses to go into the afterlife unless she is able to get her hands on Grahame Coats. She even meets the ghost of Anansi, who teaches her to use cleverness and skill instead of strength, to get what she wants.
Charlie is arrested for fraudulent financial practices and Spider tells the truth about himself - she is inconsolable and unforgiving. She sails away on a cruise with her mother, when she chances upon Grahame, and the pair is kidnapped by him, imprisoned in his basement. Spider is now aware that the constant attacks on his person have something to do with Charlie - he spirits him out in guise of his attorney Mr.Merryman, to Skopsie, where they reach the conclusion that they both stand to lose if the Anansi bloodline is compromised.
Charlie is freed from prison, and he helps recover Maeve’s body; he seeks Mrs. Higgler’s help to solve his travails, but is directed to Mrs. Dunwiddy who explains how she hexed him, that Spider and Charlie are two sides of the same coin. This charges Charlie to seek his ‘other half’, restores his tongue and the bloodline. However, Grahame is taken over by the fearsome Tiger, who plots to kill Rosie, thus getting even with Spider. But Anansi and Maeve get the better of him, and he is eliminated in the real world.
Charlie, heady with success, still at the beginning of Time, with the aid of Spider, shuts Grahame Coats and Tiger in a cave, sealing their fates. Coats  is now renamed “Stoats”, in keeping with his weasel - like nature. Charlie relinquishes all emotional ties with Rose, and she marries Spider - they have no children, an act of rebellion to antagonize his mother-in-law; Charlie finds a soul mate in Daisy Day, a policewoman he met at the pub, they have a son Marcus. Meanwhile, old Anansi looks on from beyond with approval at his offspring.
Neil Gaiman’s pen successfully blends fantasy with myriad shades of reality, lending an air of veracity. The Author has to his credit over twenty fantasy novels and short stories. He is known for his connotative and indirect approach in writing, most of his works are monomyths, where the hero is transported from this world to the next, where he, dauntless and unafraid, battles forces beyond his control.
The Book won the Locus, Mythopoeic, YALSA ALEX, and British Fantasy Awards in 2006. It has also been adapted as a radio play for the BBC World Service.

Book - American Gods (an award winning book by Neil Gaiman) - Published in 2001

‘So God created man in His own image’…that gods and humans dwell together - is the theme of Gaiman’s 2001 Hugo and Nebula  Award winning novel American Gods. But as the ages progress, faith diminished, and although they’re around, our unbelief clouds our vision, and they remain as yet, unseen. The tale begins with Shadow Moon being freed from prison, where he spent three years with Low Key Lyesmith, his fellow prisoner. His plans of spending a cushy life with Laura, since his pal Robbie Burton had promised him a job at his gym; but Fate had other plans, and a summon to the warden’s office throws him into an abyss - his wife and best friend are killed in an accident.
He takes up an offer to be bodyguard for one Mr. Wednesday (an incarnation of the Norse god Odin)- a man who mysteriously knows more about Shadow than he had ever told anyone. Mr. Wednesday is raising an army – finding humans who have god-like qualities, Americans who may be manifestations of Norse gods - to wage war against the modern demons that have taken over the world, such as the Internet and technological advances in the fields of media and transport. Shadow meets many such gods – Mr. Nancy (Anansi) and Mad Sweeney, the latter gifts him a gold coin that brings back Laura as a revenant.




As they try to unite the forces of the Old Gods from Chicago, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin, they are met with reluctance and lack of enthusiasm; just about ten of them agree to fight for the cause. Shadow meets the guardian goddesses - Zorya and the dark god - Czernobog, who refuses to help Odin. The ‘New Gods’ take advantage of this disparity and abduct Shadow, who is rescued by Laura.
Odin hides Shadow in a funeral parlor with Egyptian gods and later at Lakeside - a town that remains whilst others around it perish and turn into ghost towns, however, the children of the town seem to disappear, too many, too often. However, since they travel so much, he cannot really find out more, this added to the fact that he is still being chased by the minions of the New Gods, who blame him for the death of one of their own (actually killed by Laura).
Sadly, Mr. Wednesday is killed and Shadow follows him into the afterlife, himself dying. Whilst in strange purgatory, Shadow learns he is Wednesday’s son. Meanwhile Low Key Lyesmith, his cellmate, is actually a player in this whole gods vs gods mess - and now is responsible for Odin’s death, ensuring that he is at the helm of all the other deities.
An apocalyptic battle begins, and Shadow reaches just in time to drive sense into the Old and New gods; he appeals to their good senses, which having prevailed, prevent a climactic end of the world war from happening. Odin’s spirit departs, as do those of the other gods, who deem America unfit for gods (!).Low Key is impaled by Laura, whose battle with purgatory ends with Shadow taking back the golden coin Sweeney gave him.
When Shadow returns to Lakeside, he is able to solve the mystery of the missing children – who were in fact abducted by Hinzlemann, an ancient Germanic god. Hinzlemann sanctified and sheltered the community, making it thrive notwithstanding the adversities that curse the other communities around - all this in exchange for the unconscionable surrender of their children. Shadow puts an end to the evil Hinzlemann, aware that his act endangers the very existence of the town.
Shadow travels to Iceland, meeting the actual Odin, giving him Wednesday’s glass eye for a keepsake. He once more flips a coin to choose his fate, but walks away before seeing it fall to the ground. In keeping with the tradition of fantasy, mythology and monomyth, Gaiman once more creates a gripping tale - which leaves you feeling a little subdued and somewhat blue in the end, for not just America, the gods of every other country have diminished in stature, thanks to the Colossus-like rise of Technology.

Novel - Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in 1990)

Apocalypse, Kal Yuga, Qayamat, Anti-Christ, well, I’m creeped plenty! Thankfully Good Omens: …. is anything but; it is typically “Gaimanesque” with Prachett’s wit thrown in for good measure. Most of Gaiman’s works are considered part of the genre of fantasy; but unlike many of his novels- this would appeal to young adolescents and adults. In an Age of Goblets of Fire and Fellowships of Rings, this would easily pass off as another magical fantasy-but it has religious connotations, unbeknownst to many young readers, so therefore, it is a good read for an older age group.
The End, by any other name would still mean Grim Reapers, avatars of raging gods, death, sorrow, war et al. When the Gates of Eden were shut tight to the world, the Angel Aziraphale (keeper of Eden, now the proprietor of a book shop) and the serpent, who personified Lucifer, now called Crowley (distortion-crawly, for the snake was cursed to crawl on its belly, but now happily ensconced in a 1926 Bentley) - are left on Earth, and loving this state, all play, no work. They are almost friendly, not the adversaries they set out to be over six millennia!
Suddenly, their peaceful coexistence is threatened by the birth of the Anti Christ. Very “The Omen” in its initial approach, including the nuns at the hospital who switch babies, this spoof of the original actually leaves you in splits (yeah sure, the end of the world is an obsession extraordinaire, but why not laugh about it once in a while instead of having mass-Wacko style prognostications and Heaven’s Gate’s arsenic-cyanide laced corpses paving the way to doomsday?). Over a drunken  lunch (post feeding the ducks) - the two share their apprehensions regarding Armageddon, how can they stop a good thing from coming to an end?
Adam Young, the character fashioned a lot like William, the bratty yet angelic boy from Richard Crompton’s book “Just William the Anti Christ”, is the guy they’re after, a refreshingly innocent eleven-year old, naïve towards his own unholy powers. And when he does use these powers- the race is on to find him, and the Four Horsemen (from the Book of Revelations) go a-hunting, relying on the prophecies of Agnes Nutter, 17C prophetess and witch, owned by Anathema Device her niece.


With characters that are human (it’s just their names which aren’t!), the Book does take a funny look at a serious matter that has been the preoccupation of our race -  from the Mayans to  present day doomsday-prophets.
Does the world end? Are the good guys taken up in Rapture? Read the book- it’s the only way you’ll ever know! Although stopping the world from going up in smoke isn’t such a bad idea-after all, Earth has its share of innumerable ‘first grade’ musicians, hell only two and Crowley doesn’t want to hear them play on his way out! Neil Gaiman, originally from England (no doubt from where he got his influences of druids, witches and fairies), lives in the US. He has authored many books for children such as Stardust (a major motion picture starring the likes of Peter O’Toole and Michelle Pfeiffer), Frost Giants, and picture books like Blueberry Girl.
Terry Prachett, actually Sir Terence David John Prachett is a British novelist and creator of the Discworld –a series of forty books. The recipient of the coveted Carnegie Medal for his work The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents in 2001, he has a penchant for black fedoras! He lives in the UK.
Gaiman and Prachett met way back in 1985, and got together to write Good Omens… in 1988.According to Gaiman, “I felt like a journeyman working alongside a master-craftsman in some medieval guild.” Exploring their commonalities, the Book is a labor of friendship and a synergy of common talents.
The Book has been nominated twice in 1991 – for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for the Best Fantasy Novel. It won the FantLab’s Book of the Year Award in 2012.

The Graveyard Book (written by Neil Gaiman) - Published in 2008

"How Nobody Came To The Graveyard"- seems an unnecessary statement of the obvious (NOBODY, really, would like to come to the graveyard!) - until realization sneaks up on you and you learn that Nobody is a toddler - who crawled away from the House of Horrors when  his former abode had been  tragically turned thus by ‘the man Jack’ - a cold blooded assassin from a dark secret society , the Jack of All Trades.
The toddler scrambles away, through wisps of mist and creatures lurking in the dark, to a place all living beings dread- the graveyard. Unbeknownst to the hapless child, the ghost of his mother pleads with the residents of God’s Acre, to help the toddler. The couple  – a picture of ghoulish marital bliss for over two hundred and fifty years (!) – embrace the child as their own, especially since they had none when they were alive.
But like all human traits, the nasty ones we take to our graves, and the arrival of Nobody causes a tussle- should he stay (he isn’t a ghost and has human needs, after all), if he does,  does he get Freedom of the Graveyard? Although they seemed happy to have him, his ghoulish foster parents were exactly that- ghouls, and they seemed clueless as far as their new ward was concerned. And so, Silas (aptly named, for his name means ‘Of the Forest’, or here the graveyard, an equally desolate space), a mysterious creature, is deputed the task for providing for Nobody’s earthly needs.

While they still debated the violation of their macabre space by this little mass of life, the Angel of Death silences every doubt of theirs by appealing to the altruistic side of their otherwise believed to be ‘dead’ conscience. And so- Nobody stays, oblivious to the fate his family met or the strange turn of events that will now alter the course of his life forever!
As ‘Bod’ grows (everyone has a nickname!), he starts to wonder what lies beyond those rusty iron gates, and why is it that though Silas can wander about wherever he wills- Bod ,   must stay put, acquiescing to the fact that this is his domain? Whilst here, Silas and Mr. Pennyworth offer him an education; from the alphabets to reading out loud (Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in The Hat).
So it is one day, as he sits practicing his reading and writing, that he chances upon his first human- Scarlet Amber Perkins, whose parents are most intriguing and interesting- they let her play in the cemetery! And like Alice in the Rabbit Hole, they go inside the hill, to get to the barrow where the oldest member of the graveyard, even older than Caius the Roman, is believed to be buried- returning somewhat disappointed.
The fourth chapter, which was intended to be the first, was also published as a short story in 2008, winning the coveted Locus Award. In it, eight year old Bod defies his foster parents’ diktat to never go there, to the Potter’s Field (the graveyard by another name).Here the souls of ‘sad people’ (not bad) wandered under a pall. But along with them, there also wandered the ghosts of witches. So his second escapade gets him to meet E.H- a 500 year old ‘witch’ Liza Hempstock.
Amidst all the excitement of exploring dark places and meeting wonderful characters, it’s time now for our Bod, aged ten- to have his first dance. So he’s all spruced up, and dances with Liza, and even the Lady Grey who promises that one day he will get to ride her magnificent steed!
When Bod is eleven, Silas tells him of how he came to be at the Graveyard, and that now since he is alive, he must do whatever he can, and so much to Silas’s surprise- he chooses to go to school! But after a few days and narrow escapes, it is decided, for his own good, that he must stay in the graveyard! (most kids would love to have that option!)
As the years progress, Bod remains unaware of Jack- who still has a score to settle and isn’t resting till he sees him dead! In a fancy room, all the men called ‘Jack’ want the killer Jack to get cracking on the case, ‘You had time (TEN years).Now, you just have a deadline.’
Words that ring with foreboding – for outside all human realm, there are powers that govern the lives we lead; we unknowingly are drawn to our fate. Thus, when Scarlet returns with best intentions to solve the mystery of Bod’s family’s tragic end, and when she introduces him to Mr. Jay Frost (historian), his doom is almost certain, for the man is actually Jack!
As the tale draws to a close, Bod starts to lose the powers he has- he cannot see in the dark, nor fade in and out. Everyone including the Owens seem strangely distant and Silas urges him to go forth into the  a world, with a new passport, a wallet with some money in it, and the assurance that when Bod calls on him, he will come.
Finally, Nobody Owens is ready to be a ‘somebody’ in the world-as he wishes his and mother goodbye, and shares his dreams with her, she bids him adieu with a song she  sang for him , as a toddler:
‘Sleep until you waken
When you’re grown you’ll see the world
If I’m not mistaken….leave no path untaken.’
So, Bod leaves his home of so many years, to be amongst his own, before the day he is finally laid to rest: “But between now and then, there was Life; and Bod walked into it with his eyes and his heart wide open.”
Set in another world, almost, the story leaves you fuzzy and warm, longing for a cuppa and more news of young Bod’s escapades in the world of humans- and if school was anything to go by, then things are surely going to get tougher!
A must read for every child, but only after every mom and dad have read the Book! It’ll just make bed time story telling a whole new experience- maybe scary at first (don’t kids just love a good ghost story?), but also the kind that solicits a slight warm tug at your heart strings as your lil’ one cuddles closer, and wants more, feeling nice he’s got daddy and she’s got mommy by their side, poor Bod!
And if a kid’s word isn’t good enough, there’s a whole list of accolades and critical acclaim the Book has received, including a Walt Disney movie offer! The Carnegie Medal, the Hugo award, Newberry Medal - between the years 2009 and 2010.

The Phantom Rickshaw and other Eerie Tales (Published in 1888) - Written by Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling, a Nobel laureate was born in India to a vivacious Alice Kipling and sculptor Painter, John Kipling. His works range from poems, to children's books. Rudyard was a English language writer whose prose is peppered with colloquial usage and languages mainly from India which opens a window to the prevailing culture and customs of the time. His children's stories are the most endured classics of the time and his short stories are the most sought after. Many of his works are deemed to be controversial as the time progressed. Rudyard Kipling was the product of an imperial India where imperialism under Queen Victoria was at its heights. His poems like White Mans burden are often sited as a clarion call for the imperialist and has been criticized by subsequent humanist. But a s an youngest Nobel Prize recipient for English Language, the place for Kipling in human history cannot be discounted and his prose and poems enthuse millions even today. Kipling died in 1936 in London and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
This book brings together the four widely appreciated short stories of Rudyard Kipling. These deal with the supernatural beings who haunt the real world because of their unrequited passion. The exotic, powerful and extravagant descriptions of the places, passions and people brings goose-pimples to the reader. These stories may not scare you like many other horror tales, but the eerie feeling it brings cannot be taken away.



The first story is about a Phantom Rickshaw. Jack repudiates the love of Mrs Wessington after a brief affair and gets engaged to the young Kitty Mannerling. Mrs Wessington continue to plead with him to come back to her and he spurns her. Eventually to his relief she dies with a broken heart. Soon Jack sees phantoms bearing her on her old rickshaw towards him and these visions drive him mad. His engagement is broken and he is wanders as a lunatic still pursued by the ghost.
The second story is “My Own True Ghost Story” in which the narrator comes across the ghost of a billiard playing ghost of an engineer in a dak bunglow in Katmal.
The third story is “The Strange Ride of Morowbie Jukes” which tells the story of Englishman Morowbie Jukes who gets trapped in a lepers colony while pursuing the dogs. He cannot escape from the colony as it is surrounded by quick sand with a lone snipper picking out escapees across the river. He is taken care of Gunga Dass who is a ruthless Brahmin trapped like him. He gets a note from an Englishman's corpse giving the means to escape the quicksand. Jukes an Gunga Dass plan to escape under the cover of the dark. But Gunga Dass who has murdered the Englishman strikes Jukes and escapes alone. But Jukes wakes up to find himself safe with a boy who rescued him making the experience very surreal.
The last story is "The Man Who could be King” and is one of most famous story of the lot. The narrator helps two fortune seekers Dravot and Carnahan to find the map to Kafiristan, where they plan to be king. Later he meets Carnahan who tells him about their violent adventure of ambition, riches, power and horror where Dravot is killed. Carnahan is carrying his head with the crown and ultimately dies a lunatic.
Scary, fascinating narrative which keeps you looking behind your back.