The Ocean at the End of the Lane
by Neil Gaiman · first published 2013
60% recommend40% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short, atmospheric fantasy about a childhood encounter with the uncanny. Its prose is beautiful and its emotional pull is strong, making it an easy, targeted read to get reading going.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy. Forty years earl
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…start with something light and perhaps... generic. Like a Dan Brown book. (and I know opinions vary wildly) Even a smaller book that might be more targeted as a children's book such as Neil Gaiman's 'Ocean at the end of the lane' are perfectly fine to get something going. Not everything will engage you, but making it easier for yourself to get started and enjoy some reading time is all it takes to enrich yourself. (which is perhaps…
on “Ask HN: Are books worth it?” ↗Lexicon - Max Barry. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman. Channel Skin - Jeff Noon. The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter. The Difference Engine - William Gibson.
on “Ask HN: Sci-Fi novels?” ↗…briefly. Works quite well. Very detailed on day-to-day trench warfare and medicine at the front. Michael Frayn, Noises Off. A funny short play, very meta, not as good as his "Democracy". Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Better than his two long novels of the 2000s. A self-contained fairy tale, fun to read and well-written, but not beyond that. Gaiman's unsurpassed masterpiece, to me, is still The Sandman. Michael Swansick,…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗A pair of books I’d recommend for 2024, which I didn’t get the chance to reread this year, would be: - The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Gaiman), which is beautiful in a way I can’t quite describe - Century Rain (Reynolds), which is best described as a hard boiled 1930’s noir hard science fiction novel. Books I read this year which…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2023 and recommend for 2024” ↗1. The Ocean at the End Of The Lane - Neil Gaiman 2. Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie 3. The January Dancer/Up Jim River/In The Lion's Mouth/On The Razor's Edge - Michael Flynn 4. Ghost Spin - Chris Moriarity
on “Ask HN: What was the best book you read in 2013?” ↗…9/10 The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes 8/10 The Last Question - Asimov - 9/10 The Magic of Thinking Big - 6/10 The catcher in the Rye 8/10 Models 7/10 High Fidelity - Nick Hornby 8/10 The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman 7/10 The Surrender Experiment - 10/10 Untethered Soul - 9/10 The Autobiography of a Yogi - 7/10 Raja Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda - 7/10 Something Fresh, something new - 7/10 Karma Yoga…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗Ocean at the End of the Lane is a great 2nd to read if you enjoyed Neverwhere! I was also listening to Evan Doorbell’s telephone tapes [1] as I read Exploding the Phone, which was super interesting because you can see the events…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2023 and recommend for 2024” ↗…know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world." Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane
on “Adults are Obsolete Children” ↗…Fundamentalist 9/10 The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes 8/10 The Last Question - Asimov - 9/10 The Magic of Thinking Big - 6/10 The catcher in the Rye 8/10 Models 7/10 High Fidelity - Nick Hornby 8/10 The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman 7/10 The Surrender Experiment - 10/10 Untethered Soul - 9/10 The Autobiography of a Yogi - 7/10 Raja Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda - 7/10 Something Fresh, something new - 7/10 Karma Yoga -…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗…internet than anything else in my life. I was exposed to things I had no right knowing (it's a wedding band). I'm thankful. I haven't kept up over the years. This feels eerily like a scene from Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Things I saw first on SA: - Micro transactions - Paid membership for content - Fail whale (2000 -> 5000 concurrent users) - Image macros - Let's play videos - Moderation policies on racism, etc.…
on “Richard ‘Lowtax’ Kyanka, founder of Something Awful, has died” ↗What do you mean by that? I just finished Stardust and The Ocean At The End Of The Lane and his writing was quite lovely - but he was going for the fairy tale vibe with those books.
on “Show HN: Top Fantasy Reads – Fantasy books Reddit is reading” ↗