The first stories I read by Neil Gaiman were the Sandman stories (graphic novels). Then I read "Good Omens" (with Terry Pratchett as co-author). Last year Bernt bought "American Gods" and "Stardust", and I was hooked on Gaiman's world.
Tonight I finished "Anansi Boys", his latest novel. It's a great book, referencing Anansi, the African trickster god, found in American Gods.
One of Gaiman's greatest traits as a writer is the ability to paint pictures in your head, or just finding the right words to describe an emotion. My favorite quote is this: "and the beast made the noise of a cat being shampooed, a lonely wail of horror and outrage, of shame and defeat."
-This is not a happy sound...
When searching for this quote, I found a great article at http://comics.ign.com/articles/662/662494p1.html:
Comics in Context #108: Tyger! Tyger! Burning Bright
Wrapping-up Gaiman's Anansi Boys.
by Peter Sanderson
In this article, Sanderson discusses the relation between Anansi and Tiger, in more than one work of fiction. (The title of the article references William Blake's poem The Tyger!. (Yes, he spelled it with a Y.)) It's an interesting article.