Book Review of the Day: While in Pennsylvania, I managed to finish Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. It's based on a BBC miniseries that Gaiman also wrote, which I haven't seen, but, given the BBC's track record, I'm sure is positively atrocious.

The good news is, the book isn't. It's dark humor done well--sort of Douglas Adams meets Lewis Carroll meets Edgar Allen Poe.

The plot's pretty typical British fare--an everyman gets caught up in a world he doesn't really understand, but is far more interesting than his real life. He spends all his time wanting to get back, while a bigger story happens around him. In this case, the world he doesn't understand is right under his nose--the world of the people we don't see who live around, above, and below London. It's populated by strange and sundry characters--you get the idea.

It really is dark, and it really is fun, which makes for an interesting sweet-and-sour combination. As in most of these types of books, you never really care about the viewpoint character, but the people who surround him are every bit as well-drawn and interesting as you'd hope they'd be, and I did come to care about a couple of them quite a bit.

Overall, if the Poe-Adams-Carroll comparison appeals to you, check this one out. If not, you'll probably want to find something else.