My mother bought me Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman as a gift to read in Florida. It had been recomended at the book store. At first I was skeptical. The premise of a parallel city below London in the sewer and Tube (subway) systems where a shadey world of magic exists seemed a little bit cheesy to me on first glance.
The praise on the front of the book compared the novel to a great list of authors and stories including Star Wars and Monty Python. I couldn't really understand how a fantasy story set in London could relate to scifi and I don't usually read books similar to Star Wars. I do, however, love Monty Python and so I found some hope for the words within. At the time I began to envision something akin to Space Balls. Turning over the back I found praise for Gaiman from Stephen King saying that he was a "treasurehouse of story." Altough I'm not a Stephen King fan it was reassuring to hear such praise from an acclaimed author.
So I opened up the book and began to read. What I found was that it really is a treasurehouse, but it is nothing like Star Wars and only vaguely like Monty Python. After reading it and some other works by Gaiman, I can only identify it as what it is - a masterpeice by Neil Gaiman. The words I read are pure magic and create one hell of a tale.
Gaiman crafts his world beautifully in the limited space of this short book. His "London Below" is filled with the things of dreams (and nightmares as one of the other comments on the book suggested.) It is a dark fantasy, but at the same time it manages to delight and amuse the reader. Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar, the best assassin duo in the undergroud, are terrifyingly brutal and yet can be darkly funny at times.
Although the plot line is simple it is a true page-turner. The interesting locations, novel concepts and characters drew me right into the world and dared me not to leave.
Uh I think you should take the "not" out of the last sentence maybe, if the way I understand that phrase is typically used is correct.