Tor is featuring previews of the new collection Dangerous Women - edited by G.R.R. M. and Gardner Dozois and featuring stories from a number of authors including: Jim Butcher, Diane Gabaldon and G.R.R.M.

OK, I'm now halfway through Midnight Blue-Light Special (I loved Discount Armageddon), and loving this one too, and now I REALLY want Guillermo del Toro to turn the Verity Price books into a cable series. Like he isn't busy enough already (he had SIX upcoming things according to IMDB, although one was a rumored Hellboy 3).

I just finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and I was talking about it, and Neil Gaiman in general, with a friend who had never read any of his books. What would you guys recommend as a good first Gaiman? I love American Gods, but it's so fucking dense. And Anansi Boys comes better after American Gods, IMO.

What about Neverwhere?

That was my first Gaiman, and it's a decent gateway. American Gods was the first novel of his I really loved, but you're right that it's sort of daunting, and that Anansi Boys is a great complement to it.

Maybe Coraline ? It's also pretty simple, and I think it's more solid than Stardust.

Or The Graveyard Book.

P-C, Amy -- have you read The Ocean at the End of the Lane? Because it's quick and accessible as hell. I almost feel like telling her to start with that.

She's no slouch in the brains department, so it's not like American Gods will kill her, but it is so frigging dense. (True story: the first time I read it, I didn't see the Low-Key reveal coming. At all. And when it did, I smacked my forehead. And then the *second* time I read it, a few years or more had passed, and I 100% forgot about the whole Low-Key dealio. And once again, the reveal caught me by surprise, which made me smack my forehead even harder, because I ALREADY KNEW ABOUT IT but just plain forgot.)

I haven't read it yet, Steph. I have a bunch of Gaiman to read that I haven't gotten to yet -- I've only actually read Coraline, The Graveyard Book and the beginning of Stardust.

Edited to make sense.

Or The Graveyard Book.

Ooh, yes.

P-C, Amy -- have you read The Ocean at the End of the Lane? Because it's quick and accessible as hell. I almost feel like telling her to start with that.

I have, and, yeah, it's really short and also a pretty good introduction. "Here is Neil Gaiman. He will fuck you up and make your skin crawl."

True story: the first time I read it, I didn't see the Low-Key reveal coming.

Steph, about halfway through the book, I actually texted my friend wondering when the hell So-and-So would show up, and she laughed her ass off. And just recently I looked at the first page and IT IS SO BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS STEPH HOW THE FUCK DID ANY OF US MISS IT.

IT IS SO BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS STEPH HOW THE FUCK DID ANY OF US MISS IT.

TWICE.

Neverwhere was also my first Gaiman. It's especially good for Anglophiles.