Marisa and I have been reading a lot on the trip and we started thinking that book reviews might be a nice way to share a bit more of our experience with everyone. We both brought our kindles which has been a huge boon. I’m still on the fence when it comes to ‘real’ books versus digital books but it’s hard to argue with the convenience of traveling with an e-reader. I’ve read 6 or 7 books up to now and I can’t imagine how much of a pain it would be to carry them all around, or to search out places to buy new ones as I finished them. It’s possible that I’m missing out on some essential travel experience by avoiding the adventure of finding book stores in each city. Some might also say that with our two kindles, the Chromebook, and my smartphone, we’ve crossed some kind of Rubicon of reliance on digital devices. I say ‘phooey’ to that! It’s the 21st century, and I’ll be danged if I don’t take advantage of it. Besides, books are heavy.

The first book I wanted to mention (though not the first book I read) is Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane which just came out a few months ago. Neil Gaiman is probably best known for his comic Sandman, published in the late 80s and 90s, which focuses on the life of Dream, one of a number of anthropomorphic representations of various elements of the human experience (his siblings are Destiny, Death, Destruction, Delirium, Desire, and Despair). The other book of his that I’ve read is American Gods, which is about how the gods that humans have worshiped over the centuries are faring in the modern era. All of his work has a strong fantasy element in it but also tend to be set in modern times. Neverwhere is another of his works that I haven’t read but follow the same trend.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane fits in nicely with his other work. It isn’t quite as fantastic as Sandman but the core of the story revolves around some relatively crazy stuff. I don’t want to give anything away as far as the plot goes but I can say that he reveals just enough about the more fantastic elements in the story to make it interesting. I was a bit frustrated, though, since the plot line never quite delves as deeply into the world he creates as much as I would have liked. I prefer my universes to be fleshed out, fully built and explained. The plot line of Ocean feels a bit like a geometric tangent, just barely scraping against the edge of a circle full of cool ideas and interesting stories. It felt more like a one-shot comic book story than a complete novel. All of this is fine, but for some reason I was expecting and then hoping for more. One aspect that I enjoyed was how he treats the experience of remembering one’s childhood from the perspective of adulthood. It’s a recurring element of Ocean and it adds another layer to the story that enhances it’s fantasy qualities.

I feel safe recommending this book to anyone that enjoys some light-ish modern fantasy with teensy touch of horror. There are some tense moments in the book that keep it interesting, the characters are memorable, and the whole theme of ‘childhood memories’ provides a feeling of reminiscence that I think most people can relate to.