Another thing I really, really appreciated was the absence of love stories in London Below, because not many writers would have abstained from making Door and Richard fall in love.
The story: Richard Mayhew moved to London (from Scotland I think) and after three years he had a job, friends at the work place and a beautiful girlfriend, until one day he met a girl on the street: Door. She was hurt, bleeding, pleading for help but refusing to go to a hospital, so Richard left Jessica where she was (making her so angry she broke the engagement) and took Door to his apartment to help her. This act of kindness changed his life.
She was in trouble, two cutthroats were after her: Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar, who reminded me so much of Mr Pin and Mr Tulip from Terry Pratchett's The Truth :-p
She asked a pigeon to bring a message from her to the marquis de Carabas, and he sent a rat with a reply, and Richard went to meet him: "he wore a huge dandyish black coat that was not quite a frock coat nor exactly a trench coat, and high black boots, and beneath his coat, raggedy clothes. His eyes burned white in an extremely dark face. And he grinned white teeth, momentarily, as if at a private joke of his own, and bowed to Richard and said 'De Carabas, at your service' ".
The marquis then went up a roof to Old Bailey, to give him a silver box to keep safe, and only later on, step by step, we learn what was in it. Old Bailey used it to bring him back, and further on the marquis asked Hunter: "do you keep your life hidden anywhere, Hunter?", so there you have it, why he did indeed die and yet he came back and is now very much alive :-)
Door and the marquis go away, but now Richard doesn't belong to his own world anymore, it's like he doesn't exist, people don't see him or remember him, and machines don't accept his pin number, so he was forced to look for Door for an explanation and possibly some help. A beggar, one of the very few people that live in both worlds, helped him enter London Below. The first people he met there were not friendly, but luckily Master Longtail recognized him from having met him in his apartment when "I threw the remote control at it" and ordered the Rat-speakers to get him safe to the Floating Market and Anaesthesia is to get him there, by crossing Night's Bridge where she bravely defended him against Varney (soon to be late-Varney) "the best bravo and guard in the underside" and "the best since Hunter's day" : in his own words. The Night takes her, so that's the last we see of her, poor girl, she was so nice. At the market Richard swaps his handkerchief for informations and finds Door and the marquis auditioning for a bodyguard. Varney would have been hired but Hunter's back, so she gets the job, and every fool reader is relieved, believing it to be a good thing, and it was, up to a point. Door had found her father's diary hidden in his study, telling her to go to the angel Islington (there's an Angel Station in Islington, of course) and to trust him, and anyone who thought: 'how could he hide it? He had no time to do it before he was killed!' will find a suitable answer.
They have to separate for a while. Door and Richard go to Islington and drink his Atlantis wine, then go on another little adventure to procure the key Islington asked them for, then go to the next market to get what they need, sure of meeting the marquis there.
Meanwhile, the marquis went to meet Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar, and I wonder if Gaiman tried to make us suspect that he was a traitor, there. I never did, I just waited to see what would happen.
They exchanged a few words then he tried to escape but was caught and tortured and finally killed. He did it on purpose, to discover who was behind all this, because people are not careful with their words when they are about to kill you or after they have killed you.
There's a piece about him that reads "the marquis de Carabas was not a good man, and he knew himself well enough to be perfectly certain that he was not a brave man. He had long since decided that the world, Above or Below, was a place that wished to be deceived, and to this end, he had named himself from a lie in a fairytale, and created himself - his clothes, his manner, his carriage - as a grand joke", and also Lord Portico's words to his daughter: "he's a fraud and a cheat and possibly even something of a monster. If you're ever in trouble, go to him. He will protect you, girl. He has to"
So, his throat ultimately cut, he was thrown in the sewer. He was found, brought to the market, bought by Old Bailey and brought on a roof, than revived using the silver box (and the egg inside). He tried to go back to the market to meet them, but they were gone already. They should have waited for him, they didn't even worry. Anyway, he followed them. He was in time to save Richard from Lamia, the velvet Richard himself had hired as a guide and that now was sucking his warmth and his life out of him. The marquis forced her to give it back, then warned her: "go near him again and I'll come by day to your cavern while you sleep and I'll burn it to the ground" which he didn't have to do. His debt to Lord Portico who once saved his life binds him to take care and protect her , not him, and certainly not in the future. Okay he may not be a good man, but he's not a bad man either, and I didn't like that a few minutes later Richard thought of him as a mad bastard.
Hunter betrays Door handing her to Croup and Vandemar, then she dies trying to kill the Beast of London, which Richard manages to finish off under her instructions. They reach Door and all three are chained. Islington wants her to release him from his prison, opening the door to Heaven where he wants to become the only master, but instead Door opens a door to "as far away as I could send him. Halfway across space and time" where Croup and Vandemar go also. Now Door is safe and her family's death has been avenged, the marquis has repaid his debt and Richard manages to go back to his old life thanks to the key. Once there he happily finds his old life: his job with a big promotion, a better apartment and his friend Gary. He meets Jessica but realizes it is definitely over. She asks: "did you meet someone?" and "he hesitated. He thought of Lamia and Hunter and Anaesthesia and even Door but none of them were someones in the way that she meant. 'No, no one else' he said. And then, realizing it was true as he said it 'I've just changed, that's all'"
I loved this bit. And I love that till the end Richard remembered Anaesthesia.
After all he went through, this life is now plain and boring, so he uses the knife Hunter gave him to draw a door on a wall and call out for someone and then he waits. After a little while:
"there was a man standing in the doorway, with his arms folded theatrically. He stood there until he was certain that Richard had seen him, and then he yawned hugely, covering his mouth with a dark hand. The marquis de Carabas raised an eyebrow. 'Well?' he said irritably. 'Are you coming?'. Richard stared at him for a heartbeat. Then Richard nodded, without trusting himself to speak, and stood up. And they walked away together through the hole in the wall, back into the darkness, leaving nothing behind them, not even the doorway"
It was lovely to have the last image with the marquis :-)
One of the things I love about how it's written, is that there aren't too many descriptions. London Below gets more or less the same amount as London Above; it would have easily fallen into a mockery had he lost too many words in describing every little thing. The 'silver-box-insurance' for example: we learn as we go on as much as we need to know, and there's no need for more. Why doesn't everyone do that, can everyone do it, how did he put his life away inside an egg... these things aren't important, not really. We get as many descriptions and explanations as we need to picture the scene and understand it, but not too much as to become boring or ridiculous. I really enjoyed it and I'd like very much to read its sequel (I think Door has a sister still alive somewhere..) if ever he should fancy the idea of writing it :-)
She was in trouble, two cutthroats were after her: Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar, who reminded me so much of Mr Pin and Mr Tulip from Terry Pratchett's The Truth :-p
She asked a pigeon to bring a message from her to the marquis de Carabas, and he sent a rat with a reply, and Richard went to meet him: "he wore a huge dandyish black coat that was not quite a frock coat nor exactly a trench coat, and high black boots, and beneath his coat, raggedy clothes. His eyes burned white in an extremely dark face. And he grinned white teeth, momentarily, as if at a private joke of his own, and bowed to Richard and said 'De Carabas, at your service' ".
The marquis then went up a roof to Old Bailey, to give him a silver box to keep safe, and only later on, step by step, we learn what was in it. Old Bailey used it to bring him back, and further on the marquis asked Hunter: "do you keep your life hidden anywhere, Hunter?", so there you have it, why he did indeed die and yet he came back and is now very much alive :-)
Door and the marquis go away, but now Richard doesn't belong to his own world anymore, it's like he doesn't exist, people don't see him or remember him, and machines don't accept his pin number, so he was forced to look for Door for an explanation and possibly some help. A beggar, one of the very few people that live in both worlds, helped him enter London Below. The first people he met there were not friendly, but luckily Master Longtail recognized him from having met him in his apartment when "I threw the remote control at it" and ordered the Rat-speakers to get him safe to the Floating Market and Anaesthesia is to get him there, by crossing Night's Bridge where she bravely defended him against Varney (soon to be late-Varney) "the best bravo and guard in the underside" and "the best since Hunter's day" : in his own words. The Night takes her, so that's the last we see of her, poor girl, she was so nice. At the market Richard swaps his handkerchief for informations and finds Door and the marquis auditioning for a bodyguard. Varney would have been hired but Hunter's back, so she gets the job, and every fool reader is relieved, believing it to be a good thing, and it was, up to a point. Door had found her father's diary hidden in his study, telling her to go to the angel Islington (there's an Angel Station in Islington, of course) and to trust him, and anyone who thought: 'how could he hide it? He had no time to do it before he was killed!' will find a suitable answer.
They have to separate for a while. Door and Richard go to Islington and drink his Atlantis wine, then go on another little adventure to procure the key Islington asked them for, then go to the next market to get what they need, sure of meeting the marquis there.
Meanwhile, the marquis went to meet Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar, and I wonder if Gaiman tried to make us suspect that he was a traitor, there. I never did, I just waited to see what would happen.
They exchanged a few words then he tried to escape but was caught and tortured and finally killed. He did it on purpose, to discover who was behind all this, because people are not careful with their words when they are about to kill you or after they have killed you.
There's a piece about him that reads "the marquis de Carabas was not a good man, and he knew himself well enough to be perfectly certain that he was not a brave man. He had long since decided that the world, Above or Below, was a place that wished to be deceived, and to this end, he had named himself from a lie in a fairytale, and created himself - his clothes, his manner, his carriage - as a grand joke", and also Lord Portico's words to his daughter: "he's a fraud and a cheat and possibly even something of a monster. If you're ever in trouble, go to him. He will protect you, girl. He has to"
So, his throat ultimately cut, he was thrown in the sewer. He was found, brought to the market, bought by Old Bailey and brought on a roof, than revived using the silver box (and the egg inside). He tried to go back to the market to meet them, but they were gone already. They should have waited for him, they didn't even worry. Anyway, he followed them. He was in time to save Richard from Lamia, the velvet Richard himself had hired as a guide and that now was sucking his warmth and his life out of him. The marquis forced her to give it back, then warned her: "go near him again and I'll come by day to your cavern while you sleep and I'll burn it to the ground" which he didn't have to do. His debt to Lord Portico who once saved his life binds him to take care and protect her , not him, and certainly not in the future. Okay he may not be a good man, but he's not a bad man either, and I didn't like that a few minutes later Richard thought of him as a mad bastard.
Hunter betrays Door handing her to Croup and Vandemar, then she dies trying to kill the Beast of London, which Richard manages to finish off under her instructions. They reach Door and all three are chained. Islington wants her to release him from his prison, opening the door to Heaven where he wants to become the only master, but instead Door opens a door to "as far away as I could send him. Halfway across space and time" where Croup and Vandemar go also. Now Door is safe and her family's death has been avenged, the marquis has repaid his debt and Richard manages to go back to his old life thanks to the key. Once there he happily finds his old life: his job with a big promotion, a better apartment and his friend Gary. He meets Jessica but realizes it is definitely over. She asks: "did you meet someone?" and "he hesitated. He thought of Lamia and Hunter and Anaesthesia and even Door but none of them were someones in the way that she meant. 'No, no one else' he said. And then, realizing it was true as he said it 'I've just changed, that's all'"
I loved this bit. And I love that till the end Richard remembered Anaesthesia.
After all he went through, this life is now plain and boring, so he uses the knife Hunter gave him to draw a door on a wall and call out for someone and then he waits. After a little while:
"there was a man standing in the doorway, with his arms folded theatrically. He stood there until he was certain that Richard had seen him, and then he yawned hugely, covering his mouth with a dark hand. The marquis de Carabas raised an eyebrow. 'Well?' he said irritably. 'Are you coming?'. Richard stared at him for a heartbeat. Then Richard nodded, without trusting himself to speak, and stood up. And they walked away together through the hole in the wall, back into the darkness, leaving nothing behind them, not even the doorway"
It was lovely to have the last image with the marquis :-)
One of the things I love about how it's written, is that there aren't too many descriptions. London Below gets more or less the same amount as London Above; it would have easily fallen into a mockery had he lost too many words in describing every little thing. The 'silver-box-insurance' for example: we learn as we go on as much as we need to know, and there's no need for more. Why doesn't everyone do that, can everyone do it, how did he put his life away inside an egg... these things aren't important, not really. We get as many descriptions and explanations as we need to picture the scene and understand it, but not too much as to become boring or ridiculous. I really enjoyed it and I'd like very much to read its sequel (I think Door has a sister still alive somewhere..) if ever he should fancy the idea of writing it :-)
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