Neverwhere: A Novel (written by Neil Gaiman) - published in 1996

“The trouble with girls is they’re a mystery,
Something about ‘em puzzles me
Spend my whole life tryin’ to figure out
Just what them girls are all about…”
What man doesn’t wish to be the knight in shining armor - saving the damsel in distress? Exactly what Richard Mayhew does, except that his fiancée Jessica is in tow as well, warning him not to; and to make matters worse, the rescued damsel-Door, bloodied and wounded implores him to extend to her another favor - find her friend Marquis de Carabas, who would help her escape the fate that awaits her in the guise of two ruthless assassins - Mr. Croup and Mr.Vandemar.
So precisely why is Door in trouble? Her parents were killed in London Below, and her bid to escape brings her to London Above. She possesses the inherent gift of opening other things, besides just doors. The fox-like Croup and the animal devouring wolfish Vandemar are on her heels, to subject her to the same fate as her family.
Richard is paid a visit by Messrs. Croup & Vandemar, showing him a  picture of their ‘sister’ Door, whom they would like to take back to mother; sensible Richard denies her presence, and on their way, the duo hear Jessica break Richard’s heart and their engagement. As if it couldn’t be more infernal - Richard is now invisible, homeless and jobless.
In search of Door (who, by the by, has disappeared in smoke), Richard travels to London Below, to the kingdom of the Rat Speakers, and the Floating Market, where he finally finds Door, who is conducting a recruitment drive for prospective bodyguards. Finally, the position goes to Hunter, and the three (Door, the Marquis and Hunter) get Richard to join them on their journey to the Earl’s Court-the Earl would direct them to the Angel of Islington - guardian  angel of London Below.


The Marquis, a swashbuckling, suave, smooth Puss in Boots type of chap has been a loyal friend of Door’s deceased family. Along with him, they all travel to the Court, although he has to leave mid way owing to irreconcilable differences with the Earl. Meanwhile, the Earl directs them to the British Museum, to find the Angelus statue, which paves the way to the Angel. Once they meet, the Angel promises to reveal the identity of the killers of Door’s family. However, she must first salvage the inimitable key from the Black Friars, the other residents of London Below.
On the other hand, the Marquis strikes a deal with Messrs. Croup & Vandemar – that in exchange for a priceless T’ang Dynasty figurine, they would disclose the mystery of the murder of Door’s family. While the Marquis lives up to his word, unfortunately, the wolves in sheep’s clothing- Croup & Vandemar- don’t; ending in the tragic end of the brave Marquis.
On the other hand, Door, Richard and Hunter are on their way to the Black Friars, where the three face a test each-Door wins the test of intellect, Richard- the test of character and Hunter, the test of strength. This success results in them getting the key.
The Devil in the plot is the Angel, closely following on his devious trail, Hunter. Both of them want to use Door’s powers for their own gain - he to have dominion over all the angels, and Hunter to slay the Beast. But all’s well that ends well - everything evil is carefully dispensed, and Richard returns to London Above-more confident, yet longing for London Below.
Neil Gaiman’s penchant for fantasy has yet again drawn readers, young and old alike, to enjoy yet another spiraling and thrilling story about worlds unknown. The Book is also a drama series on TV, starring Clive Russell and Laura Fraser. Gaiman has outdone himself with the Book- a modern day fairy tale of opulent magnitude, is what the reader should expect. He is also the author of the Graveyard Book, American Gods and the comic series The Sandman. Gaiman is the first writer to win both the Carnegie and Newberry medals for The Graveyard Book (2008).

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.

Novel - The Positronic Man (published in 1992) - Written by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov is one of the most famous authors of science fiction, but he is not just a writer of science fiction. He wrote on a number of subjects, and was the author of a large number of science books, not only fiction. Asimov had an interesting life, born in the late 1919, or early 1920 in Russia and then his parents moved to the United States when he was only 3 years old. His moved to the Brooklyn area of New York, and that is where he grew up. He started writing for science fiction magazines at an early age, and was soon making a good going out of these. He also grew up in a age where there was worries about science and inventions, with the Frankenstein complex riding high on the minds of people, especially about the concept of robots (which were not a reality at that point of time). He enunciated over a period of time, the concept of the 3 Laws of robotics, which was a theory about the construction of robots such that they would always be subservient to humans, and would not act in a way that would be out of control. And then he went ahead and wrote stories where there were robots who were unusual, and in some cases, the robots had some tweak where they could be a danger.
The novels and short stories by Asimov were not only science fiction in the classical sense, but they actually talked about societies in the future, whether these be societies living in a cave scenario, people who have never seen the sun and would be frightened to go outside; or there were stories about a society which lives under 3 suns, and has never seen night, so what happens when there is a specific time when all of the suns go down and suddenly the society is faced with night that it has not seen in thousands of years (this was the premise of the book, Nightfall). Asimov also wrote a series of books set way in the future, which formed the Foundation series, another of the series of books for which Asimov is famous.




In one of his short stories "The Bicentennial Man", Asimov wrote about a robot who was different from the other robots of that time. A small modification in the robot had causes this robot to almost have an individuality, and the family that owns that robot was fairly rich and liberal, and encouraged him, almost as a member of the family. Because the robot, Andrew, had some unique artistic skills, he was able to make money out of these skills, and starts to display some properties related to emotion, something that robots were deemed incapable of, properties that seemed to differentiate humans from robots. However, this was not easy; there were many challenges from society, even members of the family could only accept part of his desires. Even the corporation that made him, U.S. Robotics, is puzzled over what gave him this creativity, but they are not comfortable with his quest for getting rights, and even change the structure of their robots to prevent his kind of occurrence.
By now, Andrew has rights, but wants the ultimate right, the right to be recognized like a human being; and for that right, in the end, he makes the ultimate sacrifice; he takes the right to die like humans do. Towards this end, over a period of time, he has replaced many of his body parts with organic parts to gain even more acceptance.

Novel - The Hammer of God - Written by Arthur C Clarke (published in 1992)

Arthur C Clarke was one of the most eminent writers in the field of science fiction. I have been a fan of both Clarke and Asimov for a long time and have read many of their books, admiring many of them for their futuristic view of society, and of trying to draw visions of what the society of the future will look like, not only on the earth, but in other environments as well. For example, the Rama series takes the culture that gets established in a large alien cylindrical spaceship (and such an environment is not easy to think about). Arthur C Clarke was most famous for his work along with Stanley Kubrick on the incredible 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was written as a novel, and was also made into a fascinating movie.
Arthur C Clarke grew up as a boy in England, and then served through the Second World War in the Royal Air Force in the radar area, and left the service after the war to join King's College in London. He also was the Chairman of the British interplanetary service for 2 terms till 1953, but it was even before this time period, in the period just after the war had ended that he postulated the idea of the stationary geosynchronous orbit being ideal for placing of telecommunications satellites and in his honor, this orbit is named after him. He also wrote more about space flight and the rockets that would be used. He is now most famous for the 2001 inspired series, and for the Rama series, both of which won a lot of awards. In 1956, Clarke moved to Sri Lanka, inspired by his interest in scuba diving.




The Hammer of God is a novel set in the future,  where a large asteroid is heading for earth, destined to become a killer of humanity. The asteroid is called Kali, and is detected by a program called Spaceguard, meant to protect the earth by deflecting an asteroid, not through the huge explosives that you see in movies called Deep Impact or Armageddon, but instead by placing a huge amount of fuel on the asteriod along with a rocket that would change the course of the asteroid by a small amount on a regular basis, but this course correction over the many weeks would change the trajectory of the asteroid enough to cause it miss the earth (this is one of the measures that are being investigated to prevent the earth from being hit by large asteroids). Of course, this would also be because the novel projects an earth which has rid itself of nuclear weapons.
The spacecraft which is spearheading this mission is called Goliath, meant to be in space along with a sister ship called Titan (located on opposite sides of the earth) - and the creation of this program was also created only after a tragedy happened to one of the advocated of the program. However, this simple program was meant to fail, since, there was a new religion on earth, conveniently called Chrislam (a combination of Christmas and Islam), which believed that God's purpose was not be opposed, and if a asteroid was meant to destroy the earth, so bet it. This would not mean the end of humanity, since there were settlements on the moon and on mars, but it would be an awful calamity; hence, they caused the destruction of the fuel tanks that would have caused the asteroid to change its course. What happens next ? Can the Goliath prevent the asteroid from hitting the earth and destroying all life ?

Novel - Prelude to Foundation (published in 1988) - Written by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was one of the most prominent writers of science fiction; but he was not just a writer of science fiction, but wrote a lot about science and other subjects, writing a large number of books overall. He was born in the Soviet Union in late 1919 (or early 1920) and moved to the United States with his family when he was just 3 years old and settled in the Brooklyn area of New York. In the United States, at an early age he became fascinated with science fiction and was selling his stories to magazines when he was as young as 19. He continued writing books and articles for the rest of his life, finally dying at the age of 72 in 1992.
He is now mostly known for the books dealing with Robotics (primarily his enunciation of The 3 laws of robotics; which were meant to provide a rulebook for robots so that they would remain under human control) and for his Foundation Trilogy. The Foundation Trilogy was a series of 3 books that described a future galaxy under the control of a Galactic Empire which is decaying, but only one man believes that he knows this. This man is Hari Seldon, who finally created the science of psychohistory, which would enable the foretelling of the future of large groups of people. The idea of Hari Seldon was to prevent the 30,000 years of turmoil and conflict that would emerge at the end of the Galactic Empire and through the creation of 2 Foundations, change this 30,000 year period to a 1,000 year period at which a Second Galactic Empire will create peace in the galaxy.

Prelude to Foundation was a book that Asimov wrote long after he had written the original Foundation Trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation), these 3 having been written in the early 1950's, and then Asimov wrote 2 more books called Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth in 1982 and 1986. However, Prelude to Foundation was supposed to be a prequel, providing more detail about Hari Seldon and his background, and also about his growth of the study of psychohistory, how he developed it. The books does not have any ground-breaking revelations, it just shows how Hari Seldon moved to different parts of Trantor while trying to figure out how to develop psychohistory.
The book starts with Seldon presenting a paper concerning the basics of psychohistory and how it could be used. This brings him to the attention of the emperor Cleon I, but when Hari cannot promise instant revelations, Cleon dismisses him. And then he meets the people who will be most significant to him - he meets a reporter called Chetter Hummin, who scares Hari by claiming that the all powerful first minister Eto Demerzel is trying to catch him, and he needs to escape. Chetter then introduces him to Dors Venabili (his future wife) and they start on a run through the different sections of the planet, with different societies, on the run from Eto while Hari is trying to determine a section of society that can form the base for his research. He moves through different sections of Trantor in his flight, meeting very different societies, and even ending up with a powerful sector that is forever looking to replace the emperor. Who is Eto, why is Chetter helping him ? All of these are powerful questions for which Hari Seldon gets answers at the end of the novel.

Novel - Robots and Empire - A book by Isaac Asimov (published in 1985)

Isaac Asimov was a prolific writer of books, which included both science fiction and non-fiction science related books. Over the years, he has become extremely famous for the numerous science fiction novels he wrote, and the way he wrote about societies of the future. His societies of the future have a certain tinge of familiarity with the society that we can see now, but he also showcases societies which seem extremely warped in terms of how they operate (especially when you see the societies that he has described in the Spacer worlds).
Asimov was born in Russia and moved at a very early age to the US and settled down in the Brooklyn area of New York. Although he was associated with different universities including Columbia and Boston University and even spent some time in the army (having been drafted), his heart was always in writing. He became a contributor to the famous science fiction magazines of the time, and also moved into writing science rather than science fiction. Isaac Asimov is most famous for the series of short stories and novels he wrote on Robots (and played his part in removing the Frankenstein complex about Robots through his Three Laws of Robotics - although the development of military robots seems totally contrary to these law of robots and seems more fueled towards the Terminator kind of world).
He also wrote a series of books that are collectively known as the Foundation Series (the first three of which came in the early 1950's and the remainder were written after a period of 30 years). They explore a period in which the massive Galactic Empire that has kept peace in the Galaxy is decaying and will eventually die, causing a prolonged period of anarchy and a scientist attempts to reduce this time period to a much smaller interval.

The novel is the 4th novel in the series, starting with the The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, and The Robots of Dawn. The main difference between these 3 novels and this one is the non-presence of the team of Elijab Baley and his humanoid robotic partner, R. Daneel Olivaw. The time period is set around 2 centuries after the previous novel, which means that Elijab Baley is no longer on the scene, having died as per human timelines. However, the lady he met in 2 of the previous novels, Gladia Delmarre, is still alive since she is a spacer and spacers have developed a much longer lifeline than that of humans.
But there has been a great transition in the overall balance of power in the galaxy. In the time of Elijah, the spacers were very powerful while earth was a much weaker source of power. However, the movement started by Elijah and a few others and supported by the faction of spacers led by Dr. Han Fastolfe, who wanted the settlement of the galaxy to be done by humans rather than using humanoid robots, grew wings and the humans started spreading outwards, outpacing the spacer worlds and using the huge population of earth to settle new worlds.
Even though Dr. Fastolfe had died, his enemies were still in place and could not digest what was happening, and were not able to withstand the increasing number of worlds being populated by human settlers. They want to destroy Earth in a way that is not traced back to the spacers and they believe that this will ensure that earth is not able to achieve its aims. In all this, is present a descendant of Elijah Baley, called Daneel Giskard Baley, who is part of these groups of settlers. He wants the help of Gladia for help in figuring out why her now abandoned planet of Solaria is destroying spaceships that land there, and also wants to recover the robots that are now there, apparently without any owners. Gladia decides to help, and gets Giskard and Daneel (with their super strength) as companions.
The former opponent of Dr. Fastolfe, Kelden Amadiro has got a new supporter and helper, Levular Mandamus. Till now, Giskard has been able to use his telepathic powers to stop all efforts by Amadiro to stop earth, and now he and Daneel have to proceed on their most difficult fight as yet, the effort to stop Amadiro and Mandamus from destroying earth through an increase in radioactivity (the net result of which was displayed in a mostly radioactive earth, in Pebble in the Sky). However, while trying to stay in line with the Three Laws of Robotics while trying to stop these 2 is a big challenge, and Asimov tries to get more inventive, trying to create a Zeroth law of Robotics, which places humanity above individual humans, but this effort places a huge impact on the minds of the robots and causes a breakup of the minds of Giskard. And the earth does become radioactive, but not in a few years, but over the next 150 years.
Asimov tried to use this novel to link his robotic series with his Foundation series, using Daneel in the last of the Foundation series and also introducing the worlds of the spacers as dead worlds.