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Neil Gaiman working on NEVERWHERE II (finally!)


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Neil Gaiman has confirmed that he his currently working on a sequel to *Neverwhere*, his 1997 novel based on the BBC TV mini-series he developed with British comedian Lenny Henry.

Gaiman has been easing back into the Neverwhere world for the last few years. There was a major BBC radio adaptation starring James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer and Christopher Lee in 2013, followed by a spin-off novella, *How the Marquis Got His Coat Back*, the following year. This in turn was adapted for BBC Radio last year. The novel will revolve around the Seven Sisters (as previously hinted by Gaiman) but will also focus on refugees, presumably arriving in London Below from some external conflict. He was inspired by his work last year with the UNHCR in the Syrian reugee camps in Jordan.

Gaiman is also currently writing the Good Omens TV series for the BBC and Amazon, and a big-budget adaptation of his novel American Gods starts airing on Starz in the US in April.

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4 minutes ago, Nasty LongRider said:

This is good news!  Not having heard of the How the Marquis Got His Coat Back novella, would anyone know where it might be found? I'd love to read it. 

In the Rogues anthology.

I'm happy to hear this, I loved Neverwhere and the whole world of London Below was fascinating and full of possibilities so it will be nice to see some of them explored

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22 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

In the Rogues anthology.

I'm happy to hear this, I loved Neverwhere and the whole world of London Below was fascinating and full of possibilities so it will be nice to see some of them explored

Thank you, I'll look for it.  :D

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25 minutes ago, Nasty LongRider said:

Thank you, I'll look for it.  :D

This one. It features The Rogue Prince by GRRM. I actually enjoyed the whole anthology, moreso than Dangerous Women, which is the one I had read not long before Rogues.

 

Gaiman is a very busy man these days. Good news of course since he seems to maintain quality with quantity.

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11 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

This one. It features The Rogue Prince by GRRM. I actually enjoyed the whole anthology, moreso than Dangerous Women, which is the one I had read not long before Rogues.

 

Gaiman is a very busy man these days. Good news of course since he seems to maintain quality with quantity.

I checked and my library has a copy on hand so will pick this up tonight.  Has a Daniel Abraham story in it too, goody.  London Below is an interesting and mysterious place and the Seven Sisters should provide lots of adventures. 

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10 hours ago, Nasty LongRider said:

This is good news!  Not having heard of the How the Marquis Got His Coat Back novella, would anyone know where it might be found? I'd love to read it. 

As well as being in the Rogues anthology Helena, it's also available as a stand-alone book.

I read things in the wrong order and read How The Marquis Got His Coat Back in the anthology before reading Neverwhere (which I mainly read because I liked the short story). I thought it worked well even for someone not familiar with the world.

I did think after reading Neverwhere that the world did feel like it had potential for more stories, so I'm looking forward to the sequel. I suppose since there's a finite number of Underground stations to provide puns for locations and character names it couldn't go on indefinitely but he could probably get a few more books worth of material it before running out.

Since Neverwhere was all about the overlooked people at the margins of the society incorporating a refugee storyline seems like it could work well.

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incorporating refugees into the premise of "neverwhere" seems a really good idea. Although this will clearly be his most fantastical work to date given the UK only begrudgingly lets in a handul of children. Although I shouldn't rule out that Gaiman has taken this into consideration and will be writing about illegal refugees we have ignored to the point we don't see them.

If it had been set in the "jungle" of Paris it could have been fascinating and miserable.

7 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I enjoyed Neverwhere.  I'll read the Sequel.  I really want the third shadow short story and the sequel to American Gods.

you'd think American gods would be higher up the list in terms of giving the show more material but I guess Gaiman isn't in it for the money any more. Plus, he might be happy to let things play out in the show and then turn it into a novel. I think Neverwhere in itself is a good example of how he isn't too fussed about what order or medium his stories come out in.

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8 hours ago, williamjm said:

I did think after reading Neverwhere that the world did feel like it had potential for more stories, so I'm looking forward to the sequel. I suppose since there's a finite number of Underground stations to provide puns for locations and character names it couldn't go on indefinitely but he could probably get a few more books worth of material it before running out.

Since Neverwhere was all about the overlooked people at the margins of the society incorporating a refugee storyline seems like it could work well.

As Aaronovitch tried to get 5+ books (not good, but not completely terrible either) out of a poor fusion of "London below" and "London Goddesses", I'd hope that a superior writer like Gaiman will manage to get one more good book out of the original setting although I agree that Neverwhere felt quite complete.

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This is a change from the interview a few months ago in which he said he would finally be writing his American Gods sequel, especially in light of the AG series having started. I was certainly more interested in that.

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On 17/02/2017 at 10:21 AM, Calibandar said:

This is a change from the interview a few months ago in which he said he would finally be writing his American Gods sequel, especially in light of the AG series having started. I was certainly more interested in that.

The American Gods TV series will apparently take 3 seasons to cover the novel and will then cover Anansi Boys, so Gaiman likely figures he has a couple of years to write the AG sequel. Assuming The Seven Sisters is a short(ish) novel like American Gods, I can't imagine it will take very long to write.

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18 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

While Neverwhere isn't my favorite Vandemar and Croup are among my favorite villains of all time.

This comment alone inspired my weekend re-read. Needed a change of pace after an extended dive into my long-term Malazan re-read. They've a bit of Erikson's great dialogue between a unique duo, don't they? Perhaps a bit over the top, but it's still great fun.

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20 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

While Neverwhere isn't my favorite Vandemar and Croup are among my favorite villains of all time.



There seems to be a special talent among British fantasy writers of creating that kind of bad guy duo. Vandemar and Croup, Goss and Subby, Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip... I'm sure there's more but those spring to mind.

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