The Neil Gaiman at the End of the Universe  by Arvind Ethan David is a half hour long audio play available as an Audible Original, –so not technically a book review, — narrated by Neil Gaiman and Jewel Staite, and it is absolutely delightful. It kicked my ass out of a rut I was in.

In it, Gaiman awakes on a space station to life support systems failing, and is able to repair it—discovering that he must therefore be an astronaut. He is isolated with only his AI computer and no memories.  He is able to determine from the AI that he is named Neil Gaiman and upon searching who that person is he discovers a prolific fantasy author from centuries before who has an apparent fascination with Gods and ‘seemingly unending comic book series’. Gaiman questions if he is this Gaiman somehow hundreds of years old or a contemporary person named for this Gaiman, to which the AI responds that it would rather not say.

Gaiman spends some time depressed about the apparent space mission he is on, which he has no memory of, discovering that he has had some brain damage resulting from the prior issues with life support systems.

Several weeks go by with the Neil Gaiman at the end of the universe in a depression, growing a beard and eating cheese out of a tube.

Then, after some time, he is compelled to start reading the books of this supposed Neil Gaiman fellow, not to try and determine who he is but to pass the time. (He is not a fan of Morpheus trapped in his bubble).

Gaiman, space-Gaiman, concludes that the point of Gaiman, the writer-Gaiman’s books, are the characters. Not the plots. After a few weeks of reading, emerging himself in characters, he finds himself no longer depressed or alone. He begins to repair the space station.

I won’t tell you act III.

Gaiman’s vocal performance as Gaiman is compelling; clearly he’s a man who reads aloud quite a lot but he’s a competent actor for which I don’t think he gets enough recognition. He also doesn’t flinch or cringe away from anything he might have to do in the service of telling a story. 

Which is perfect—as this is a story about self awareness and the importance of identity, self, and stories.

If you can find your way to it, it’s a great half hour to spend. Arvind Ethan David constructed a wonderful, meta story on the psychology of self.