This looks like an unusual short story compilation, with credits from the master Neil Gaiman. Picked up from a book stall at...erm, I can't remember where I got this :(

(03/08/11) I may be wrong but this feels like something completely different, like a comic book in words, X-men crossed with The League of Fantastical Gentleman, a very British society of misfits. It could of course be a well established fantasy sub-genre?!

The book is made up of a number of short stories about 'temps', part-time members of the DPR (Department of Paranormal Resources), mostly with odd skills that mean they don't qualify as full-time 'superheroes'. For example the man who can turn into a frog, the boy who can appear invisible, or rather instantly forgettable etc. etc. Because of these 'skills' they are slight outcasts from society, misfits at best, mistrusted aliens at worst. I didn't really notice the different authors, maybe because Gaiman and Stewart created a very strong vision for this world to be populated by others? Very enjoyable, i'll look out for more like this, if its not unique...

I know this is going to be popular at today's Ipswich meet-up meet!

Picked up this morning at the monthly Ipswich meet. I looked at it vaguely before putting it down then, while putting it on the bookshelf, noticed the name Neil Gaiman on the cover. This, in addition to wholehearted recommendations from BookGroupMan and Samwise, persuaded me to take it home.

This is quite an unusual book and not really what I was expecting. Based on the cover and, perhaps on the strength of Gaiman's Good Omens partnership with Terry Pratchett, I was expecting something laugh out loud funny. In fact the humour was distinctly wry for the most part. The story Pitbull Brittan was the one which played for laughs the most but for me it was one of the least effective of the stories in the book. I felt that the best of these stories were the ones which explored some of the consequences of the existence of paranorms such as Someone to Watch Over Me, The Oedipus Effect, The Rose Garden and A Lonely Impulse. It appears that there is another collection of Temps short stories and I would definitely be interested in reading them.

Left on the bookshelf opposite the piano.