Neverwhere

e evils that must be overcome, the soldiers that must fight the fight, quite the variety of strange characters that we never learn much about for good reason, and it has the protagonist tossed into an unwieldy world on his head, all of which are very much staples of the genre. But it does it with a sincerity, wryness, and involvement I think only Neil Gaiman could manage. He uses words wonderfully, the way they should be used when weaving an entirely different world - to stoke our imagination, our emotions, our empathy and our disgust. He uses words both to mean more than they can contain and to mean exactly what they mean, which - and I want to say this without a hint of pretentiousness whatsoever, no matter how cliche it may sound - makes his writing quite magical.

And that is why you should read this, and read Gaiman, even if you are weary of fantasy.