Hello, Ratty

 So, I found a copy of Neil Gaimen's Neverwhere, which included the Author's Preferred Text. It's been a while since I last read it, but with a trip to London in a year, I felt like revisiting this rather dark and funny odyssey into London Below. (Also not, having been watching Doctor Who, I kept picturing David Tennant as Richard Mayhew.) 

For those who've never taken this journey, the story concerns one Richard Mayhew, a Scot moving to London, who gets mildly accosted by a crone before he leaves. As we return to him a few years later, he's working in Securities, engaged to charming social climber Jessica, and generally futzing about life. We get scenes intercut of a lady running from unknown assailants, until the plots converge outside a swanky French restaurant where Richard and Jessica are supposed to be entertaining her boss, Mr. Stockton. 

Richard, being a good sort, helps the injured woman who appeared in front of them rather than calling 999 as Jessica suggests. Which sets off a series of events Richard never would have imagined. The lady he saves in Lady Door of the House of Arch, part of the fantastical world of London Below, which has ties with London Above, but is kind of a satirical reflection thereof. Door's family was killed, and the assassins who did that are now after her. This would be Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar, darkly comical figures in their own right. 

Door asks Richard for help, which leads him to talk to a rat, up on a high rooftop, and down dark alleys to find the Marquis, who is a major deal maker in the Below. Indeed, he helps arrange to get Door a bodyguard at the next Floating Market. After they leave Richard's apartment, Richard discovers he no longer seems to exist in London Above. Indeed, Croup and Vandemar explain via telephone that this now means they will eventually let him taste his own liver. 

Richard, following nightmare scenes of having his landlord show his apartment with him in it, his office removed, and his ATM dispensing no money, winds up finding teh Rat Speakers, who eventually get him to the Floating Market in Knightsbridge. (Aka Harrod's of London, although the path in Below involves crossing Night's Bridge, where the night can take its toll.) 

He does eventually find Door and the Marquis, but they don't want him with them. Door eventually does take pity and add him to their retinue, which now includes the fabled Hunter, who has killed beasts in several Below cities. We hear of several duchys within the domain, and are told never to ask about the Shepherds of Shepherd's Bush. We do end up on the train domain of Earl's Court, to get to the British Museum to meet the Angle Islington. 

Eventually, Croup and Vandemar appear to inform them there is a traitor in their midst, and we do eventually see Richard become the hero. And learn the same lesson such heroes as Frodo and Caramon learned about how the Hero, upon returning home, may not be home anymore. 

Even after all these years, I still love this book.