[Books] Interworld

I'm a pretty big Neil Gaiman fan so when I saw Interworld at the new Fully Booked, I decided it was a worth a gamble. The inside cover described it as a science fiction piece - and interesting story about traversing the many dimensions and alternate realities by a single boy named Joey Harker. The book is a collaboration with Michael Reeves of television fame.

The book starts out feeling very simplistic - at times more like a young adult novel than anything else. Based on the Afterword, one has to factor in that this was meant as a TV pilot in some ways, however the complexity of some the concepts just went beyond what most studios could easily grasp, hence something harder to gamble on with audiences. Still, the book in itself is rather good and went along pretty fast for me - a very comfortable read.

What I like most about Interworld is their notion of multiple realities and possibilities - something I've tried tackling in my own writing before and even in the short story I'm working on. Sorry, my writing has taken a backseat to my reading - I feel the need to finish more of my books and gather ideas and inspiration. Interworld helped in that regard - it addresses a lot of the ideas I have as well about time travel.

Theoretically the concepts behind the story are pretty complex but in typical TV fashion the book tends to gloss over the details and keeps things grounded in terms the average reader (or viewer) can understand. This is why it felt like a young adult novel to me - this can be good or bad, depending on your tastes. However as the novel progressed I changed that opinion to it feeling more like a comic book - something I'd attribute to Gaiman more than anything. The concept behind the infinite Joeys reminds me a bit of the character Taysir from Magic famed, but this time in a science fiction setting.

Interworld is not going to change your mind about time travel and alternate worlds just yet - it may or may not inspire new things and new ideas. However it's a good read that remains to be very entertaining and well put-together, something anyone would appreciate if their even the slightest best inclined towards science fiction while not looking for something that requires knowledge of advanced physics at the same time.