Neverwhere
The template for the hidden-city fantasy: London Below founded a whole urban-fantasy lineage (Rivers of London and its kin acknowledge the debt), and the book remains the standard Gaiman gateway.
Book Entry · Fantasy
What is Weaveworld about?
The Seerkind — magic-working people hunted near to extinction by humanity and by something worse, the Scourge — wove themselves and their places into a carpet for safekeeping, with human Custodians to guard it. The last Custodian dies in Liverpool, and the carpet enters probate: pursued by the exiled Seerkind witch Immacolata and her salesman ally Shadwell (whose jacket lining shows each buyer their heart's desire), defended by pigeon-fancier's son Cal Mooney and Suzanna Parrish, who unravel one corner and fall through. Barker's first full pivot from horror to epic fantasy keeps the horror toolkit — the Scourge's identity is a genuinely awesome reveal — while arguing his lifelong thesis: wonder is real, and forgetting it is the Fall.
Why it matters
The novel that established dark fantasy's modern epic register — Gaiman's generation acknowledges the debt — and Barker's bestselling proof that his imagination scaled beyond the abattoir.
Read next
American Gods
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Bram Stoker awards in one sweep — the codifying text of the gods-among-us genre — and a Starz television series besides.
The Sandman
The comic that won a World Fantasy Award ('A Midsummer Night's Dream', 1991) and made the medium's literary case for a generation; collected editions have never left print, and the 2022 Netflix series renewed the franchise.