At WorldCon this weekend, author Neil Gaiman previewed his latest novel, Anansi Boys, which is still in an early draft, for a rapt audience of nearly 500 fans. Gaiman's reading of the current version of the first chapter and parts of the second was well received, to say the least.

The novel, or at least the beginning of the novel, details the relationship between a character named Fat Charlie and his father, who appears to be the most supremely embarrassing of parents. Fat Charlie's father's idea of a good joke is apparently to tell Fat Charlie that all children who dress like their favorite president on Presidents' Day get a big bag of candy, even go so far as to help Fat Charlie create his William Howard Taft costume, and then send him off to school and his ultimate humiliation.

Though Fat Charlie has not spoken to his father in twenty years, he's now getting married, and his fiancee wants to invite his father to the wedding. Fat Charlie tries, and fails, to explain to her why that would not be such a good idea.

It's hard to say where the plot is headed based on the opening, but the inciting event appears to be the death of Fat Charlie's father and a subsequent revelation. I won't reveal the surprise here, even though it comes early in Chapter Two, because it is a wonderful turn when it comes. Suffice to say it was met with thunderous applause by the crowd.

Funnier than Gaiman's last two novels (Neverwhere and American Gods), Anansi Boys appears to be closer to the tone of his earlier collaboration with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens. The mix of humor, reality, and the supernatural seems to be dead-on.

Though it's still a year or two off, Anasi Boys is definitely a book to look forward to.