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by russellbeattie 2314 days ago
Oof! I'm sorry, but Neil Gaiman's writing is... unpleasant. Purposefully so. A lot of people seem to like this, but I'm definitely not one of them.
3 comments

What do you mean by that? I just finished Stardust and The Ocean At The End Of The Lane and his writing was quite lovely - but he was going for the fairy tale vibe with those books.
I have a similar, possibly identical complaint about American Gods. Reading American Gods made it clear that Neil Gaiman is very clever (intelligent, tricky plotting) and, independently, a great writer (good with words).

But his tastes are different from mine. There are sections of American Gods that are much too vulgar/crass/obscene/whatever for my taste.

This is also why I never read the sequel to Lies of Locke Lamora.

You find Scott Lynch crass and obscene? It's been a while since I finished those books but that doesn't ring a bell.

Do you mean metaphorically like a crass analogy or like full of swear words? The former would bother me much more than the latter tbh , especially since we're following orphan street urchins - seems in character almost.

In the case of Lies of Locke Lamora, the book is full of swear words.

That's not true of American Gods. The problem is the same, but the details are different.

Hate to break it to you, but life is full of swear words also.
I adore Gaiman's writing.

On the other hand I like Pratchett even more, but did not like Good Omens.

I've heard that a lot of people found "American Gods" tedious, but I've always been into Norse mythology, so it hit a sweet spot for me.

Could you describe what you find unpleasant about it? I'm not the biggest Gaiman fan but that's not the criticism I associate with him.