A Treasure For Gaiman Fans

When I picked up this novel I was half expecting a sequel to American Gods, but was happily surprised to find an altogether new cast of characters. While Anansi Boys is set in an universe similar to that of American Gods, the story and characters are wholly originally. Gaiman took his time introducing the characters and establishing the atmosphere in the exposition.  I had begun to wonder if there was going to be any action, but once certain characters made their appearance the plot gets much more interesting. The father-son and brother-brother themes that permeate much of the plot explored concepts of family I hadn't considered and genuinely found to contribute greatly to the depth of the story. The tempo never did pick up to what I expected, but there was enough going on to keep my attention.  As always my favorite aspect of Gaiman's work was the fantastic background setting of gods and mythology.  If you're a mythology buff, you won't regret picking up this book filled with a colorful pantheon of anthropomorphic. Also Neil does a spectacular job of creating sympathetic characters with  traits and plights of personality I could relate to.  Overall the book had a couple of slow points but I really had fun reading another Gaiman novel.