Customer Reviews

Interworld

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First, a caveat: I am 26 years old and therefore am clearly not within the 9-12 demographic for which this book is intended. Perhaps it is unfair to ask that young adult novels stand up to the scrutiny of adult readers. However, Gaiman is a first-rate talent and I think that it is fair to expect his writing to stand up to such age-independent works as the later Harry Potter novels, Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy, or Mieville's Un Lun Dun.

InterWorld has an amazing premise: Joey Harker, a completely unremarkable teenager, gets caught up in a conflict that spans the infinite worlds of the multiverse in an epic conflict between magic and science. Even if I hadn't been a Gaiman fan, I would have picked up this novel based simply on the brilliance of the set up.

Unfortunately, InterWorld consistently fails to deliver. Joey lacks any compelling characteristics of a great protagonist; he seems, in fact, to be a rather dull and unintelligent teenager. This is true even after his transformation from a normal kid into a major player in this epic conflict; he never moves beyond one-dimension. Especially disappointing is the missed opportunity of interesting interaction between many alternate versions of the same character. Despite the (literally) infinite potential of the multiverse, neither the magical HEX nor the technological Binary, nor anything in between, is fleshed out enough to be really interesting. This is especially true of the Binary side, which gets shafted in favor of a climax devoted entirely to the HEX side of the equation.

Perhaps most disappointing, the quality of the writing is decidedly inferior. Anyone familiar with Gaiman can vouch for the magical quality of his prose. Stardust, for example, is written in language that any literate 9-12 year old would understand and appreciate, yet positively sings with lyrical elegance. In comparison, InterWorld feels plodding and clumsy. Even with the device of the first person narrator, which provides plenty of opportunity for a conversational style in the mode of a modern teenage boy, the result is inappropriately formal, or else clunky in that no teenager actually speaks in such a way. Simply put: InterWorld doesn't feel like Gaiman at all. It is much more in the mode of Reaves' Star Wars novels.

To be fair, InterWorld is a fast-paced story based on a brilliant premise that bridges the science-fiction/fantasy gap. It is an easy read, and it is enjoyable enough for what it is. However, given that this story spent the last decade on the backburner while Gaiman and Reaves worked on other projects, I can't help but think that they should have left it there.

Neil Gaiman is well known for his fantasy novels and graphic novels and lately has gained quite a bit of status, especially since Stardust is due to hit theaters soon. According to the Afterword, this part SF, part Fantasy story was written by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves years ago and then shelved away out of lack of interest. What so often happens when authors gain fame and attention happened in this case, a story that generated no interest before and couldn't find a publisher is dusted off and given life on the bookstore shelf.

Joey Harker is nothing special, or so he thinks. If anything his ability to get lost in his own house is downright embarrassing. But then one day he manages take a wrong turn and winds up in another dimension. The ability to walk through worlds is a special one, and there are forces that intend to use Joey for their own ends. The only safety for Joey is an army . . . of himself. But saving the universe is a tough business and it's not so easy for one boy to turn into a hero overnight. Before he comes into his own, Joey has a lot of growing up to do. It's a fascinating idea: an army crafted between dimensions out of self preservation. It's also a really quick read. At only 233 pages, the story has to keep moving pretty quickly in order to wrap up before the book cover closes. This tale has much in common with superhero storylines and feels almost comic-book like in nature, despite the text storyline. This isn't too surprising given that Gaiman is well known for his Sandman graphic novels and Reaves is an award-winning television writer who worked on Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles.

Overall, I'd say the book isn't bad--particularly for something that was dusted off from storage. But while the world building is fascinating, the plotting tends to be way too simplistic and clichéd. Even the target audience for this novel (9-12 year-olds) is going to be familiar with some of these plot elements: Joey's friendship with a "dangerous" creature from in-between that becomes a sort of pet and sidekick, the crochety, never-a-nice-word to anybody leader, and the reluctant hero heading out to rescue his friends in a do or die situation after he's been kicked to the curb. So, if someone's looking for originality in the storyline, they may be a bit disappointed. Still, the story isn't dead in the water, and there's some fascinating glimpses and ideas to be had, but it could have been much stronger--both writers are capable of better plotting. Likewise, there isn't much time for characterization in the brief adventure tale and most of the cast gets the short end of a stick on description. We get glimpses, but no time to really get to know most of them. My biggest complaint is that things go at a comfortable pace in the beginning--introducing Joey and his teacher and his first World Walk. Then everything starts to run a bit too quickly once we get to the Interworld base. Joey goes from being rescued to being a recruit at a very sudden pace and the entire part of the story that takes place at the Interworld school feels glossed over. It would have been interesting to spend more time on that part and expand the growth of Joey from clueless victim who gets others killed to heroic teammate who saves the day.

While there are deaths in this book and some gruesome threats to the protagonists, there isn't as much actual grisly death in the story and it does have a happy ending for the most part. The story will probably work best for young teens and mature preteens who enjoy the kind of blended SF and Fantasy that is found in superhero comics. It's a quick read and therefore may appeal to those who dislike longer works or endless series. For older teens and readers who have cut their eyeteeth on Gaiman's longer fiction, this may be a bit of a disappointment and it might be one to borrow from the library before buying to see if it's worth it. For those who enjoy this and want to find more Neil Gaiman books to read, check out Neverwhere and Stardust. And for other adventures in SF and Fantasy, check out Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins and Mister Monday by Garth Nix.

Happy Reading! ^_^ Shanshad

Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves are both award winning writers. They also both rose to prominence outside the novel arena. Gaiman scripted the SANDMAN comic series that lasted 75 issues plus specials. Since that time he's gone on to script many other things, including novels, television shows, short stories, movie scripts, and continued working in the comics arena. His work for Marvel Comics to create the 1602 universe when heroes similar to the present-day Spiderman, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, etc rose at 300 years ago has rightfully garnered a lot of attention. He also helped flesh out the mythos of the comics industry's best-selling title, SPAWN.

Michael Reaves has written many television cartoon scripts, including BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES, GHOSTBUSTERS, and others. He's also written short stories and novels.

According to the notes in the latest book they have out together, INTERWORLD, they got the idea for the book about ten years ago. Reaves joined Gaiman at his house and they sat down and wrote the book together. The idea had originally started out as a pitch for the television people. Since they had trouble explaining the concept to television executives, they came up with the idea of writing a short novel about it. Even after the novels written, television wasn't prepared to make a series.

Last year, the manuscript was given fresh life when it was shown around to some prospective publishers. Almost immediately, the book was greenlit for publication.

I enjoy a lot of Neil Gaiman's work. His comics are great, his short stories haunt, and his novels are generally burst out loud laughing or truly epic. Sometimes both.

I've read some of Reaves's books, but I'm not as familiar with his work. He seems to create some interesting worlds and some interesting characters.

When I heard about INTERWORLD, the premise sounded truly exciting. Imagine a boy, Joey Harker, who could literally run into several of his alternate selves on parallel worlds. I figured immediately that the book had kind of a SLIDERS or Marvel Comics EXILES feel. I had a lot of hopes for the book.

After getting the book in the mail today, I sat down and read it. It's an easy read. The prose just sails right along. And the story is simple. In fact, it's a little too simple compared to what I was expecting. Granted that the book was written with a nine to twelve year old audience in mind, there was a lot of concentration on the architecture of the nothingness that stretched between the worlds. And not enough focus on real character development or even a plot. Both of those turn out simple as well.

I know the juvenile crowd will probably appreciate that, but this is the same market that has been reading Harry Potter books that were 1000 pages long with convoluted and heavily articulated plots.

Still, this is Gaiman and there are flashes of brilliance as well as true emotion throughout. When he talks about his teacher Dimas, he sounds so true I couldn't help but wonder if Gaiman or Reaves really had a teacher like that. The "class assignments" were terrific, and found myself wishing for more of those.

The book moves at high speed once it gets up and going, which is really very quickly. However Joey tends to be left on his own through much of the book. He always seems to be leaving people behind and not making any true and lasting friendships for a long time. In fact, the story was depressing there for awhile because everybody he met seem to die. Including himself.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the book. I wish there had been more. But it felt like an interesting cross between a Heinlein juvenile, an early Andre Norton adventure, and Roger Zelazny's Amber series. INTERWORLD is a quick read with plenty of zip and provides a host of ideas with lots of action.

Neil Gaiman is one of those authors that you either love or... actually, i think everyone loves him. There are a lot of people (such as me) that will buy anything with Gaiman's name on it, even the constantly repackaged short stories that cause you to buy the same story three times

i bought this book thinking this was a Gaiman book. Which was dumb of me. This book isn't "Gaiman's InterWorld", it's Gaiman and Reaves' InterWorld, and my guess is that it's really Reaves' InterWorld. i've written quite a few short stories and screen plays and my own experience is that there is no such thing as a two-author story. If a book claims it had two authors, it normally means one person wrote the story and the other provided some ideas or acted as a sounding board. But having two authors influence the final product equally is nearly impossible - one author's style and vision inevitably takes over. i don't know Michael Reaves (other than knowing that he's a prolific writer of TV screenplays) but my guess is that this is his book. There's nothing here that feels like Gaiman. Nothing. That's not a bad thing - there are plenty of good authors - just understand that this probably isn't a Gaiman book

So is it good? i honestly don't know

i've learned that there are stories that appeal to people of all ages and stories that only appeal to a particular group. When she turned 10, Amber found a few of the latter. She loved them. Wanting to be able to talk to her about them, i read the books and utterly loathed them. They weren't bad books, they just didn't appeal to people out of their target audience

And that's what Interworld is. This might be a great book for pre-teens, but i don't think anyone else will like it. i personally hated it. i'm not sure why but i think it's because i've read too many books. There are no surprises in this story, no originality and no subtlety. Everything in the story is cliche. The bad guys are cartoonishly evil, the world is ridiculously polarized (witches vs. robots), the plot could have been generated with a computer playing madlib with a generic hero story template and every plot point is drawn in big crayola letters and highlighted in neon, a heavy handed treatment to make absolutely sure you know what's going on

It took me a while to realize that these are not bad things. At some point, you had never read a novel. You had read Pokey Little Puppy and Fox in Socks and at a certain age decided to tackle a novel. That's a hard transition. Much of what happens in an adult novel - the nuanced world views, subtle character interactions, assumptions of knowledge about the world - is hard to understand for someone new to novels. There is a need for stories that help readers make the transition. Starter novels. Novels with training wheels. And that's what InterWorld is

Many stories appeal to all ages. All of Neil Gaiman's children's stories are like that, most notably the juvenile novels Stardust and Coraline and the movie Mirror Mask. i can't name a single Gaiman kids story that wasn't enjoyable for adults (although the opposite is certainly not true). And that's part of why this novel doesn't feel like a Gaiman book. Even his Alice Cooper graphic novel, which was often criticized for being formulaic and cliche, had an unmistakable Gaiman feel to it. i don't think Neil Gaiman is capable of not writing in the style of Neil Gaiman. And this isn't a Gaiman book

So it's not a Gaiman book. Is it good? i truly don't know. i was offended by how bad it was, although if you imagine you're reading a script for a TV series pilot it feels more in place (TV shows, especially kids action shows, tend to be ham fisted and cliche). But i don't think i'm this book's audience. This was a one star book for me, but if you're a preteen who enjoys series like Warriors and The Death Gate Cycle, maybe you'll like InterWorld too. Wish i could tell you

Wow! The story was smart, exciting, and there's a part with the protagonist, Joey and his mom that got me a bit choked up. A real page turner, I found I was saying to myself, "just one more page, and one more, and...

A thoroughly satisfying sci-fi adventure, with a touch of Spielberg film (without the sappy music). Great character development, incredible worlds, and something lacking in many films today: unbelievably horrible and hate-able villains. So bad you could smell them. Bravo!

Make no mistake, I'm a keen Neil Gaiman fan - happily lapping up his children's books like 'M is For Magic' when I run out of his more adult works to read, but this novel failed to impress me, even with its cinematic leanings.

It starts promisingly enough, introducing us to a literal average Joe(y Harker) the kind of boy who gets lost in his own house. This provides quite a nice contrast to a power he wields which he discovers quite by accident when he wanders into the Interworld...

From that point on, the story degenerates into run-of-the-mill Hollywood sci-fi fare with a cast of predictable allies and villains who look like they were loaned off the set of 'Hellboy' or 'X-Men'.

The moralistic fable of a boy who learns to face up to his fears to answer a higher call to save his world and countless other worlds in the Altiverse together with versions of himself in these parallel dimensions should appeal to a young reader.

However to this overaged reader, lines like 'All I could think of was that scene from a hundred different horror movies, in which someone who's been possessed has a moment of sanity and pleads, "Kill Me!" ' give me the goosebumps, and not of the nice variety.

Gaiman is one of my favorite writers. This middle-grade level book was good, but not as interesting as others he has done such as Coraline.

The premise is fine - a series of parallel worlds with two warring societies, one magical and one technical, working their way from opposite ends of the "arc" of worlds, each trying to take control. The protagonist and his counterparts from the parallel worlds are in the middle, trying to maintain the balance.

It is never explained why or how the protagonist and his ilk have the power to walk between these worlds. The protagonist resolves most of the issues through last minute aid from other sources or by accident, not his own efforts, which doesn't seem to be a good example in this reading age level.

The other main problem I had is the whole theme is balance, yet other than a minor skirmish the only real conflict comes from the magical side, not the technical side. And in their efforts to stop the magical side, it seems to me that would have tipped the scales far toward the technical society.

It was an easy, enjoyable read, but lacking some of the plot intricacies that I expect from Gaimain, and even at this age level the audience should also expect.

I'm a fan of Niel Gaiman specifically and of science fiction generally, so _Interworld_ was a natural choice. The premise is brilliant: each decision made creates an alternate universe, like tributaries off a river. These multiple universes create a spectrum like a bow: at one end are universes dominated primarily by science (where the universe wants you to act a certain way); at the other end, those dominated by magic (where you can will the universe to act a certain way.) Most universes fall somewhere along the bulgy middle somewhere between the two extremes. Amongst these multiple universes is a struggle between two powers at either end of the spectrum, each seeking to dominate the entire "altiverse" (as Gaiman refers to the infinite number of alternate universes.)

Helping to maintain the balance across the "altiverse" is Joey Harker - and an infinite number of variations of him from the infinite number of other universes - an individual with the unique ability to cross between universes, and thereby thwart the efforts of one side ("Hex" from the magical end of the spectrum) or the other ("Binary" from the scientific end of the spectrum.) To compliate matters, both Hex and the Binaries want and use Joeys (or Jay, or Jai or whatever he may be called from whatever other universe he is from) to power their crafts to similarly cross between universes and thereby conquor them and bring them under their dominion.

A pity, then, that with such a wonderful premise the protagonist is such a dud. Time and again young Joey Harker shows himself to be selfish, silly, short-sighted and generally a knuckle-head that I had a difficult time not only relating to, but having any shred of sympathy for. In this respect, I echo what many other reviewers have written: this is very much unlike Gaiman. To be fair, the book is marketed (and perhaps targeted towards?) a younger set of readers; in this respect, perhaps, Joey may be much more like the teens the book is aimed at than myself. This would certainly explain my lukewarm feelings about the book. Nonetheless, I am sure that Gaiman fans will overlook these misgivings and enjoy his storytelling nonetheless.

This was my first Neil Gaiman book, and despite the praise he is receiving, it may end up being my last. This book was very poor. The characterisation was rough, the scenes were largely derivative and poorly thought through. It was writing on a level I expect I could have produced myself when 11 years old at school (and I don't consider myself a great writer!)

One scene sticks out in this regard. When the protagonist leaves his family and is confronted by his mother but must leave anyway - that scene just does not work. Not at all! It was more a case of forcing the character through a sequence of events so as to get them in the right place for a final showdown.

And then there is the whole other world thing that begged a rich and imaginative outworking, but left you feeling like all the action was happening in an empty space. The world was under-described, and there was no sense of wonder at the immensity of the creation being passed through.

It seems this book was written as a very quick fun project, rightly shelved but at some point dusted down and polished up. But it would have been better to rewrite it from the start than just to knock it into shape where the name of the author would get it published. This is one that should have hit the reject pile instead

I personally consider Neil Gaiman to be one of the more talented living writers at this time, and a major inspiration to myself. His books Neverwhere, Anansi Boys, and American Gods are not only exquisitely written, but brilliantly original. The story of this book looked like it had some real potential when I read the back cover, however I was sadly disappointed with the book once I read it.

I went through several stages as I began to read InterWorld. To give some scale, though, this progression took place in about the first thirty pages. 1) This is pretty good too (while thinking about Gaiman's works as a whole). 2) It's definitely not going to be his best, but it'll still be an okay minor work. 3) He is really off his game with his writing in this one - definitely not going to recommend this to anybody. Then finally I reached stage four: this book is not very good. In fact it is rather poor.

I did go on to finish the book, but I never reverted from stage four.

As can be gathered from all this, the book is simply poorly written. It reads like an above average 10th grader who has just seen a sci-fi movie sat down and wrote an immediately inspired story combined with his subconscious memories of the Magic Treehouse Series. I do not know what happened with this book, but it is at the opposite extreme of quality from those previous three books I have already mentioned. Maybe it has to do with the author he co-wrote the book with, I don't know, but whatever the case, this is simply a poor read and not worth anyone's time.

I have, however, decided to give the book two stars. I did this only because of my respect for Gaiman as a writer, and I really do think that had the story been written well it possibly could have gone somewhere. I can only hope he'll think back on this story one day and it will spark some new original idea that will turn into a novel of equal quality to his wonderful three (American Gods, Neverwhere, and Anansi Boys). As far as any benefit that can be gained to the average reader from taking the time to read InterWorld, well, there is pretty much none. I cannot recommend it.