InterWorld by Neil Gaiman & Michael Reaves

InterWorld was never supposed to be a book. It was supposed to be a fun Television adventure. When Gaiman and Reaves shopped the idea to all the big name TV execs and got turned down, they decided to write it out as a book in the simplest terms possible - you know, so even suits could understand it...

Then they shopped it again.

The suits still couldn't get a grasp on the concept of a multiverse, and multiple versions of the same boy being able to traverse all of these worlds.

I guess the idea that Science versus Magic was too steep for them to grasp. Or that all these 'Joeys' would run around trying to keep the worlds in balance between the two warring ideologies.

The TV Execs screwed up.

After being turned down again even with this presentation, Gaiman and Reaves, geniuses that they are, said well WTF... let's just publish the damned book then.

And publish they did. Since InterWorld was written to the level of TV Execs, it went straight into the Young Adults section of their various lists of books. That amuses me no end, I'll tell ya.

Do not let the fact that this is a YA book keep you from snatching it right up. Like Gaiman's other 'Young Adult' books, this one is no slouch for adults. It is brilliant, entertaining, and will make you think a bit.

Gaiman and Reaves work very well together. Reaves may not be as well known in the book world as Gaiman is, but he is very well known as a writer for TV and movies. He won an Emmy Award for Best Writing and Story editing for his work on Batman: The Animated Series; 1992-93.

They should both win some sort of award for InterWorld as well. I'm sure those TV execs are banging their heads on their desks as I type this... and I hope Gaiman & Reaves reamed Dreamworld hard for the Big Bucks when they bought the rights to the story a decade later...