American Gods, or how Neil Gaiman kept me awake until indecent hours.
Well, it hadn't happened for a while, probably not since the Dark Tower days, but yesterday night I was missing a hundred and fifty pages of American Gods, figured I was going to read half a chapter and then I closed the light at four A.M. when I was also supposed to be up at a decent hour this morning. Mh, scratch it, I think it beats the record because I never stayed up until four A.M. until now, the best I had done was two and a half.
Also, I managed not to skim to the last page before I arrived there, which is totally a literary pet peeve of mine of which I should definitely get rid. Buut, anyway, on to the book.
I had bought it in the first place because I love the Sandman comics something fierce and I was curious to see how Neil Gaiman was as a writer and I have to say that if you buy the premise (that immigrants brought their gods with them to America only to forget them and that said gods have incarnations and exist) and aren't very easily grossed out by some kind of very gore parts or sex which isn't really explicit but verges on it, it was excellent.
Of course in the second you don't buy the premise the whole thing doesn't stand up, but I thought it was intriguing and I loved the story. It was actually fun to see how the gods were reincarnated and I ended up researching quite a lot because there were more than one I was completely oblivious about. It was good enough that I knew all the Egyptian ones but anyway.
The whole plot was IMHO brilliantly set up and I enjoyed the mixing up of genres a lot (you know, road trip, detective story, fantasy, historical and stuff); I also really liked the writing style so it was all good. I read a few reviews after finishing it where someone said it was difficult to care for the characters, but I personally liked more or less all of them and I found myself caring about most. Well, I sort of grew a major crush on the protagonist even if he isn't the usual kind of character I grow literary crushes on, but well, guess everyone has to go out of the box once in a while ;)
The only flaw I can think about is that in order to get everything one should read some comprehensive basics of ancient religions from each continent before starting since I missed who half of the gods were and got it only after researching them this morning and in some points it could get confusing because of that, but apart from it I really enjoyed it. Also, and I don't really see it as a flaw, you could see that the author comes from comic books since there's definitely a Sandman-worthy imagery. I also think that there were some Sandman characters here and there but I wouldn't know the translation of the names. But hey, I absolutely love Sandman and I've been reading comics since forever so I guess it just sits well with me. Overall, I really can't complain about the sleep I lost over it last night and I thought it was brilliant and excellent within its genre. I guess I'll check out either Stardust or Neverwhere when I'm finished with some stuff I should have read ages ago.
Now, I'll pay my respects to Mr. King next, won't take more than three days anyway, and then start with the Chabon one which I should have read before American Gods but then I ended up putting it last. Though I really should learn to read at some sane hours of the day.
Also, I managed not to skim to the last page before I arrived there, which is totally a literary pet peeve of mine of which I should definitely get rid. Buut, anyway, on to the book.
I had bought it in the first place because I love the Sandman comics something fierce and I was curious to see how Neil Gaiman was as a writer and I have to say that if you buy the premise (that immigrants brought their gods with them to America only to forget them and that said gods have incarnations and exist) and aren't very easily grossed out by some kind of very gore parts or sex which isn't really explicit but verges on it, it was excellent.
Of course in the second you don't buy the premise the whole thing doesn't stand up, but I thought it was intriguing and I loved the story. It was actually fun to see how the gods were reincarnated and I ended up researching quite a lot because there were more than one I was completely oblivious about. It was good enough that I knew all the Egyptian ones but anyway.
The whole plot was IMHO brilliantly set up and I enjoyed the mixing up of genres a lot (you know, road trip, detective story, fantasy, historical and stuff); I also really liked the writing style so it was all good. I read a few reviews after finishing it where someone said it was difficult to care for the characters, but I personally liked more or less all of them and I found myself caring about most. Well, I sort of grew a major crush on the protagonist even if he isn't the usual kind of character I grow literary crushes on, but well, guess everyone has to go out of the box once in a while ;)
The only flaw I can think about is that in order to get everything one should read some comprehensive basics of ancient religions from each continent before starting since I missed who half of the gods were and got it only after researching them this morning and in some points it could get confusing because of that, but apart from it I really enjoyed it. Also, and I don't really see it as a flaw, you could see that the author comes from comic books since there's definitely a Sandman-worthy imagery. I also think that there were some Sandman characters here and there but I wouldn't know the translation of the names. But hey, I absolutely love Sandman and I've been reading comics since forever so I guess it just sits well with me. Overall, I really can't complain about the sleep I lost over it last night and I thought it was brilliant and excellent within its genre. I guess I'll check out either Stardust or Neverwhere when I'm finished with some stuff I should have read ages ago.
Now, I'll pay my respects to Mr. King next, won't take more than three days anyway, and then start with the Chabon one which I should have read before American Gods but then I ended up putting it last. Though I really should learn to read at some sane hours of the day.