It may not have escaped folks' notice...

...that I've been going through a bit of a Neverwhere phase lately.

I forget exactly how it all started, but some time in the run-up to Christmas last year I was sorting through some old video tapes (if anyone remembers them..?) and found my old off-air recording of the programme, and decided that it really was high time that I replace it with a DVD. I also around the same time decided to upgrade my copy of the novel(isation? I'm never quite sure) to the Author's Preferred Text version, and I think it must have been at that point that I discovered there was a 10-CD audiobook version thereof as well as the dead tree version, so I sensibly put that on my Amazon wish list and received it for Christmas. And then, not to the best of my knowledge in any way inspired by any of the aforementioned activity, Dirk Maggs got together a crack team of top notch actors in a recording studio somewhere far far away (actually, most likely London) to record a six-episode radio dramatisation. And so, not counting the dead tree version (I've got enough books to be working my way through right now), I find myself with three versions - audiobook, radio, and DVD - to, erm, experience.

I'm starting with the audiobook, on the basis that I actually started listening to it back over the end of December/start of January. After a few-months hiatus, I've picked up more or less where I left off, only with the whole thing on my iPad playing through the car stereo. I've found that listening to audiobooks and radio dramas while I'm driving is something I can cope with in a multitasking sense, and having it on iPad means I circumvent the problem where I drive over one of the many potholes in our corner of the three counties and the CD skips appallingly. The only catch is that sometimes the radio will kick in with a traffic report and I have to quickly switch back to the iPad input. (I could just switch off the automatic traffic alert thing, but I'm not honestly sure how to do that).

I'm enjoying it immensely - it's not only written by Mr. Gaiman, it's also read by him, and as well as a wonderfully poetic writing style he also has a captivating vocal delivery. I'd describe his tones as mellifluous were it not for the fact that I'm not entirely sure that means what I think it means, so I'll just say his tones might be mellifluous. It more than compensates for the Americanisms in the text (diaper? Trash? Stockton will be here momentarily? Tch. Tish and, indeed, pish...)

Anyway, the thing is - yes, all that rambling was leading up to something - I realised something rather terrible. You see, a few years ago one of my friends, blazingskies, invited a bunch of folks to her pad for the watching of the DVD of Neverwhere. I've just had a trawl through my (and indeed her) LJ and worked out that it was in August 2008. That's not the terrible thing. The terrible thing is that I've managed to forget large chunks of the plot, including really fundamental stuff like who the heck Vandemar and Croup are working for. Also, I thought Door and RichardRichardMayhewDick met Islington somewhere near the end rather than in the middle (mind you, there might be something that happens near the end...or there might not). But, y'know...it was less than five years ago. I shouldn't have forgotten it like that, should I? (And yes, I could just Wiki it, but that's not the point.)

Oh well. The adventure in London Below continues.