Anansi Boys Audiobook By Neil Gaiman cover art

Anansi Boys

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Anansi Boys

By: Neil Gaiman
Narrated by: Lenny Henry
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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, a tale playful, profound, and rife with mayhem and mischief―one of ten classic Gaiman works repackaged with elegant original watercolor art by acclaimed artist Henry Sene Yee

When Fat Charlie’s dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie “Fat Charlie.” Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can’t shake that name, one of the many embarrassing “gifts” his father bestowed—before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie’s life. Because Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the stranger who appears on Charlie’s doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie.

Neil Gaiman journeys deep into myth to brings us a tale playful, profound, and rife with mayhem and mischief—an audacious and inspired story of family, luck, deceit, and an unusual legacy that illuminates the divine in our humanity. Not to mention a lime.

“Awesomely inventive.… When you take the free-fall plunge into a Neil Gaiman book, anything can happen and anything invariably does.” —Entertainment Weekly

©2005 Neil Gaiman; (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers Action & Adventure Contemporary Fairy Tales Fantasy Locus Award Paranormal & Urban Witty Scary

Featured Article: Dream Big—Meet the All-Star Cast of The Sandman: Act II


Immerse yourself in the world of The Sandman right now with an unforgettable audio experience. The star power alone is worth the price of admission—the cumulative amount of awards that have been won by the cast over the course of their careers is simply staggering. The cast features some of the most talented and esteemed actors working today. So let's dive right into the who's who of The Sandman: Act II.

Featured Article Dream Big Meet the All Star Cast of The Sandman Act II

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and More From Neil Gaiman

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Captivating Mythology • Humorous Storytelling • Exceptional Narration • Clever Plot Twists • Rich Cultural Folklore

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Anansi Boys is a wonderful book by a versatile and entertaining author, Neil Gaiman. But this review is about the book's reader--Lenny Henry, who is an absolutely amazing performer. I've listened to a lot of audiobooks and some very good readers, but Lenny Henry is head and shoulders above all the rest--including Jim Dale. His characterizations--of both males and females--are so good that you forget the reader and only hear the character. In this book, he does Caribbean, American, and several British accents, all utterly convincing. He also differentiates the characters beautifully. I rarely listen to an audiobook twice. This one is an exception.

Best audiobook reader ever

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After having just read American Gods and been totally submerged into a deep, dark ocean of bleakness, this book was like surfacing into a cool, clear pool of refreshing fun and frolic. Hard to believe anyone could have read the book better than Lenny Henry. It is not easy to impersonate various character voices in a book; it has to be even more difficult to convey their feelings and personalities. Few readers do even one of these well. Henry does both and seems to do so quite effortlessly. While a followup, Anansi Boys is not a sequel to American Gods. If you have not read Neil Gaiman this book along with Graveyard Story or Stardust might be a better place to start. Do not introduce yourself to NG with American Gods. While the latter could become your favorite NG, I doubt most would feel similarly.

Pure fun

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Anansi Boys follows a similar formula to Gaiman's American Gods: take characters from folklore and mythology (in this case, Afro-Caribbean) and put them into a modern setting. This book is more light-hearted than American Gods, though, and I found it more fun to read. If you don't get a laugh out of Gaiman's colorful conception of Anansi as a smooth-talking, fun-loving, and thoroughly incorrigible old man, or the ultra-cool, multi-talented, and equally irresponsible Spider, or the many lines of witty dialogue and description, you might not have a sense of humor. The story, which involves a shlumpy but decent-hearted office worker nicknamed Fat Charlie, who happens to be Anansi's son, making a wish that he comes to regret, and trying to rectify it with a bargain that he comes to regret even more, follows familiar folklore tropes, but it's charmingly well-excuted.

Possibly my favorite of Gaiman's books that I've read so far, but American Gods is enjoyable, too. However, I have to say that you're missing something if you merely *read* this novel -- Gaiman renders the characters with the color and storybook flair that they deserve, effortlessly switching between Caribbean, African-American, and British accents. Get it from audible (I found it on sale) or seek out the CD version.

Light-hearted fun, great in audio form

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As a recent member of the audible family, I've mostly been focusing on non-fiction. The dramatic possibilities inherent in non-fiction can be, shall we say, slight. I took a chance on this one, and what a winning gamble. The story starts a bit slowly, but the performance was amazing. The narrator (Lennie X?) provided terrific voices, accents, and characterizations, which only added to an already fun and engaging story. Normally, I ration these books out on my lunch time bike ride...but I gobbled up Anansi Boys greedily. Well worth your time if you're in the mood for a fun, funny take on Aesop's fables.

Outstanding!

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If you're a Gaiman fan you know he writes many different styles. This is comic fantasy, in the style of "Good Omens." There is some romance, that might appeal to "Stardust" fans. Combining the African spirit stories of the animal gods with the sensibilites of a BBC sit-com, Gaiman pulls off a neat trick in making the listener laugh, cry and feel child-like wonder in this rapid-moving tale of brothers trying to reconcile after the death of their father.

The narrator is wonderful, with voices that bring the nasty villains and the banal hero to life. He puts a movie in your head, and it's a fine one.

Wonderful Comic Fantasy

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