Old Friends and Familiar Places.

A good week ago, I was reading Monarch of the Glen, a short story by Neil Gaiman (yes, that man again!) in the back of his Fragile Things anthology. I often find Neil Gaiman's short stories to be very hit and miss, mainly because they tend to either be very experimental or go right over my head. But then some of them are wonderful, and strangely introspective of his life in a twisted mirror kind of way. I was extremely excited to read Monarch though, so it was not just any short story, it was a novella that tied into my most favourite of Gaiman's work, American Gods.

I was pondering if I should re-read American Gods first, immerse myself back into the world. Remind myself of the epic journey that Shadow takes through the realms of Gods and men. But I'd already read more books than I have in the past two years those last few weeks, and I felt that when I do get around to re-reading that novel, I want it to be unclouded by the haze of several other works. So I decided to just dive right in and hope that the years hadn't eroded all my knowledge of the world Gaiman had created and understanding of the characters. 

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. A few paragraphs in and it was like... The only way I can describe it is coming home. The narrative style was just as I remembered it, all the little quirks and ticks that made Shadow unique were instantly recognisable and I was right back into the great game of American Gods, looking at every character critically to decide if they were a God or if they were human. I wasn't just reading a story, I was enveloping myself in a world, wrapping it around me, and waving at the characters inside like they were old friends. As I read, the story of the book began to come back to me thick and fast, everything Shadow had been through to get to that point and when Mr. Wednesday made a surprise cameo? I was grinning from ear to ear. 

It was a surprise for me, but it was a pleasant one. 

You have to understand, I haven't read American Gods in years. I don't think I've read it since I was a teenager. By all rights it should be lost to me, a flickering flame in the back of my memory of something that I know I love but cannot properly define. But there was something about taking another step into this world, reading more adventures of a character I had come to love, that put me right back into that mindset and just brought it all back to me. And honestly, I think that is one of the many, incredible powers of fiction. Of these vast, and often underrated imaginative landscapes that we embroil ourselves in. 

When I thought about it further, I realised this was not as uncommon as I thought - It's just the gulf of time that made it remarkable. Every month we wait for a new issue of a comic book to land on the store shelves, ready to continue the brightly coloured (or black and grimy with the way modern comics are going!) adventures of our favourite characters, ever mindful of what went before. Every year we wait for a new series of our favourite TV shows, the characters as fresh as if they had never been away. When it comes to movies it can be years between each new adventure, and of course with so many hands involved there's a greater risk that we'll lose that special feeling thanks to a sub-par product, but when it all works out it's still wonderful. Then when getting onto books and games, the wait can be even longer. I remember willing Bioware to give the Mass Effect series as much time as they needed to make each game perfect, and I've become accustomed to waiting years for each new chapter of A Song of Ice and Fire but when they come? It's like I never left the Citadel or Westeros at all. 

I suppose one should never really underestimate the things you love, the things that you are invested in. You may think they're gone, but all it takes is one little push, and it'll be like they never went away. I wonder if I'll feel the same way with the upcoming American Gods TV show. But if not, I suppose Shadow is like so many of my old friends - Always at my fingertips, only instead of being a text message away, he's a mere page turn away.