Adventures in the Dream Trade Review – The Booklist

The heart of this predominantly nonfiction collection by the author of the graphic novel series Sandman, the all-prose fantasies Neverwhere (1997) and Stardust (1998), and lots of first-rate fantasy short stories is a Web log about publishing and publicizing his big novel American Gods |BKL My 15 01|. Regardless of what one thought about that book, the log is amusing, informative about the nuts-and-bolts of bringing a book from typescript to buyers’ hands (signed by the author, yet!), and gratifying for the same reason that most of the shorter pieces here are: getting to know whom Gaiman admires among fellow fantasy, sf, and comics creators. Enthusiasm and humor are the key elements in the shorter stuff, which consists mostly of introductions to other writers and their books, gleaned from new editions and from such ephemeral sources as Readercon II Program Book (1999) and music-CD liners; genre fans will glean scads of reading recommendations from Gaiman’s entertaining endorsements. Handfuls of poems, song lyrics, and short-short stories round out an altogether delightful book.