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Originally Posted by docbungle
I liked Good Omens, however I think the rest of his stuff (other than comics) , especialy American Gods, is extremely overrated. He seems to me to be a low-level Clive Barker imitation, circa The Thief of Always / The Great and Secret Show. Reading his fiction feels like he is making it up as he goes along, struggling to make it mesh together at the end.
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Having also read Barker long before I first read Gaiman, I'm of the exact opposite opinion. Gaiman is to me the evolution of Barker. Having just finished Abarat, I feel this way even moreso. Barkers tales of fantasy satisfied the child in me, and reading them now, are sorely lacking for the adult. Gaiman manages to encaptivate the adult in me without disregarding the child that still exists.
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Originally Posted by dtheriault
I don't know anyone who thinks he's anything beyond a "good" writer which is unusual in the comic world.
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I also agree with Gaiman only being a "good" writer. His strength is not in the words he writes, but the worlds he creates. That said, only being "good" is leaps and bounds above most of the authors that get published.
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While I found American Gods to be one of the top books written over the last several years, a great deal of Gaimans prose work I do find lacking. Neverwhere was enjoyable but unspectacular, Stardust was a fun fairytale, Smoke and Mirrors had it's hits and misses. Several arcs in Sandman blew me away, while others left me feeling quite meh. All in all, he seems to be learning as he moves forward, which bodes well for his future.