Book Review: Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
So I just finished reading the very very famous (I think?) Good Omens, co-written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
My Rating: 4.2/5.
Back Blurb: According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing. Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon - both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle - are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist...
My Opinionz: I've kind of been resisting the hype about this book for a good long while, but then I finally caved. I thought, why not. However, even before opening the book I had pre-formed certain opinions about it, which mostly stemmed from what I knew about the authors.
Terry Pratchett is famous for his Discworld series, of which I've only read a couple of books (the first two). The third one is sitting on my shelf, and the reason I didn't rush off to read it immediately when I bought it six months ago was that Terry Pratchett was just okay for me. This may be simply because these books were the first for him, and he's gotten loads better since, but as far as I'm concerned, only about 5% of what I've read by him (and what he seems to think is funny) is actually funny. The rest falls somewhere between neutral and stupid, with a side dosage of totally contrived. So seeing his name on the cover of this book really didn't do anything good for me. Rather, I just thought, 'Oh boy, another attempt at funny that I will completely not get.'
On the other hand, Neil Gaiman seems to be rather brilliant, though I've only ever read one book by him, which was Stardust, and which I recommend to anyone and everyone. Stardust has, for me, such a beautiful simplicity about it that it really touches me, and I was so so glad to have gotten to read it. Unfortunately, most other Gaiman's books aren't really the sort that I read.. I don't enjoy urban settings unless maybe they're being made fun of. But in any case, having read only Stardust I was prepared to say that Gaiman is someone I would invest in. In particular, he seems to have a really good feeling for the sort of naive, simple thoughts that a person regularly thinks, the sort of bewilderment people sometimes experience when faced with the world, or (in the case of Tristran) with women, etc. And I really liked that.
So my conclusion was that, if Neil Gaiman managed to put some style into Terry Pratchett, to sift through his humour to find the 5% that's genuinely funny, then this book would be worth reading indeed. So, well, I decided to have faith and picked it up.
I would not say that Good Omens is funny. Funny, to me, means that the books makes me chuckle, or laugh. This - didn't, so much. Maybe once or twice. What it is, however, is witty, and the wit is oh so sharp. Armageddon cast into the new millennium was really something, and Gaiman's version of the Four Horsemen definitely absolutely made my day. (I say it's Gaiman's cuz at the end of the book there was a little breakdown of who wrote what.) And the book had style. It flowed, and fit together, and everywhere you could definitely see Pratchett's humour (the good kind), and Gaiman's great insight into people. I also enjoyed having to stop and think a little bit once in a while, to have to make some connections myself. Plus, the cast of characters was absolutely amazing (Crawly aka Crowley is definitely my type of demon), and throughout the action there is little tiny quirky Pratchett humour that subtly (well, really, not so subtly) critiques the modern world and really, ultimately, makes you think. Plus, the ineffable plan is, well... ineffable.
So in conclusion.. I did enjoy this book, it definitely rose above my expectations, and the only reason I don't give it a 5/5 is because I didn't love it, for no reason other than that it's not the type of book you love; it's the type of book you admire.
My Rating: 4.2/5.
Back Blurb: According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing. Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon - both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle - are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist...
My Opinionz: I've kind of been resisting the hype about this book for a good long while, but then I finally caved. I thought, why not. However, even before opening the book I had pre-formed certain opinions about it, which mostly stemmed from what I knew about the authors.
Terry Pratchett is famous for his Discworld series, of which I've only read a couple of books (the first two). The third one is sitting on my shelf, and the reason I didn't rush off to read it immediately when I bought it six months ago was that Terry Pratchett was just okay for me. This may be simply because these books were the first for him, and he's gotten loads better since, but as far as I'm concerned, only about 5% of what I've read by him (and what he seems to think is funny) is actually funny. The rest falls somewhere between neutral and stupid, with a side dosage of totally contrived. So seeing his name on the cover of this book really didn't do anything good for me. Rather, I just thought, 'Oh boy, another attempt at funny that I will completely not get.'
On the other hand, Neil Gaiman seems to be rather brilliant, though I've only ever read one book by him, which was Stardust, and which I recommend to anyone and everyone. Stardust has, for me, such a beautiful simplicity about it that it really touches me, and I was so so glad to have gotten to read it. Unfortunately, most other Gaiman's books aren't really the sort that I read.. I don't enjoy urban settings unless maybe they're being made fun of. But in any case, having read only Stardust I was prepared to say that Gaiman is someone I would invest in. In particular, he seems to have a really good feeling for the sort of naive, simple thoughts that a person regularly thinks, the sort of bewilderment people sometimes experience when faced with the world, or (in the case of Tristran) with women, etc. And I really liked that.
So my conclusion was that, if Neil Gaiman managed to put some style into Terry Pratchett, to sift through his humour to find the 5% that's genuinely funny, then this book would be worth reading indeed. So, well, I decided to have faith and picked it up.
I would not say that Good Omens is funny. Funny, to me, means that the books makes me chuckle, or laugh. This - didn't, so much. Maybe once or twice. What it is, however, is witty, and the wit is oh so sharp. Armageddon cast into the new millennium was really something, and Gaiman's version of the Four Horsemen definitely absolutely made my day. (I say it's Gaiman's cuz at the end of the book there was a little breakdown of who wrote what.) And the book had style. It flowed, and fit together, and everywhere you could definitely see Pratchett's humour (the good kind), and Gaiman's great insight into people. I also enjoyed having to stop and think a little bit once in a while, to have to make some connections myself. Plus, the cast of characters was absolutely amazing (Crawly aka Crowley is definitely my type of demon), and throughout the action there is little tiny quirky Pratchett humour that subtly (well, really, not so subtly) critiques the modern world and really, ultimately, makes you think. Plus, the ineffable plan is, well... ineffable.
So in conclusion.. I did enjoy this book, it definitely rose above my expectations, and the only reason I don't give it a 5/5 is because I didn't love it, for no reason other than that it's not the type of book you love; it's the type of book you admire.