The Medieval Worlds of Neil Gaiman: From Beowulf to Sleeping Beauty is a well written and considered analysis of Gaiman's oeuvre and how it relates to historical narrative storytelling by Shiloh Carroll. Released 27th Sept 2023 by The University of Iowa Press, it's 222 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats.
This -is- a moderately academically oriented book, from an academic press, by an intelligent and engaged author writing about.... writing. That being said, although it's a niche book on a relatively esoteric subject, it's eminently really readable, relevant, and fun.
The book is well annotated throughout, and Carroll manages to compare extant Neil Gaiman works to their historical background and set them in a framework, showing how they inform and are informed by disparate sources such as Beowulf, the Norrønt, Shakespeare, European fairy tale traditions, and more.
It's written with a lot more wit and humor than one generally sees in academic writing; as such, it will be appreciated by a wider readership including fans of NG, modern cinema, general fantasy, dark fantasy, speculative fiction, historical fiction, and more (even academics who are scandalized by the thought of anything that comes after Le Fanu will find interesting stuff here).
Five stars. Well worth acquisition by school or public library, writers, readers of spec. fic., Gaiman fans who also enjoy seeing how the machinery fits together, and readers who enjoy reading about writing. The chapter notes and annotations, bibliography, and index are likely worth the price of admission.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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