Review # 4: "Goods Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

To begin, I must say that I was really excited to begin reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.  It came highly recommended to me by friends and from Tumblr, so needless to say I held some pretty high expectations as I opened the book for the first time.  Now, I have finished the book (after an embarrassingly long period of time) and though I wouldn't say that I am disappointed, my  thoughts and feelings about this novel are a lot more conflicted than I thought they would be.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, tells the story of Armageddon, that is, the final battle between good and evil in which the Earth is destroyed, as told in Revelations in The Bible.  Unfortunately for me, I have not read Revelations and was only vaguely familiar with the vast number of scriptural references and parodies which form the backbone of the novel.  As a result, the overwhelming impression that Good Omens gave me was it was all one big inside joke--that is, I could tell something really funny and clever was happening, but couldn't understand it.  This, of course, is all my own doing and I do not hold it against the authors in any way; I simply need to find myself a bible and then find time for a reread.

In spite of my pitiful lack of knowledge of Christian mythology, I quite enjoyed Good Omens.  On the back cover, a review from The New York Times calls it "a direct descendant of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and I totally agree.  Just like Hitchhiker's, Omens uses the absurd to and the otherworldly to reveal some aspect of humanity.  I particularly liked the characterization of Aziraphale, an angel, and Crowley, an angel "who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards," who show that the border between 'good' and 'evil' is more ambiguous than scripture would lead us to believe.  In general, I was completely fascinated by Aziraphale and Crowley and just wanted to read more about their 6,000 year friendship and less about the lives of the book's many, colourfully-named minor characters.

On top of having a really great theme and interesting main characters, Good Omens is just a really hilarious book.  In general, the narrative moves very quickly, and it's imperative to pay attention in order to keep up with the web of subplots built around the large cast of minor characters, however, I can assure you that the authors find enough time to fit in enough brilliant jokes to keep you giggling the whole way.  Like Hitchhiker's, Omens is a chance to take a look at humanity from a different angle and to have a good laugh at ourselves.

So, in conclusion, I really look forward to re-reading this book and, in the mean time, I need to brush up on my Christian mythology and find out whether the rumors of a possible BBC mini-series based on the book are true (I sincerely hope so!)

Genre: Fantasy Fiction
Recommended To: Fans of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and John Milton's Paradise Lost or anyone looking for an amusing summer book that isn't pure fluff.
Rating: 8.5/10
Favourite Quotes: "He couldn't see why people made such a fuss about people eating their silly old fruit anyway, but life would be a lot less fun if they didn't.  And there was never an apple, in Adam's opinion, that wasn't worth the trouble you got into for eating it."