The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction

I didn't realize it was possibly to be simultaneously deeply self-indulgent and also selfless, but that's what we have here. I just can't in good conscience recommend this book. It's selections of introductions to other works, speeches, verbal introductions and other miscellany. Two objections stand out: firstly, few readers will be familiar with all of the works discussed (or even a majority). It's quite dull to read an introduction to a book that you have never read and don't have access to, quality of writing notwithstanding. Secondly, in general, a collection of essays always wants for strong editing, especially when the topics of the essays are overlapping. In one case this was done, but in the others there are numerous redundancies – sometimes entire paragraphs lifted from one to the other.

That said, if you look at this as an encyclopedia of Stuff Neil Gaiman Recommends, it becomes more useful – I know I will seek out several of the introduced books here.

Finally an extra star entirely for the moving essays about Diana Wynne Jones. I have long found their friendship extremely touching. Gaiman has never wavered in his admiration of her and even when his fame far outstripped hers he advocated for her.

It says a lot of good about Neil Gaiman that he used this fame-backed ploy to talk up his own favorite books, regardless of their own fame. Nonetheless, it is a fame-backed ploy.