2/21/2014

Book Review: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett


Good Omens

Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

 
Good Omens is what happens when you cross Disney’s The Parent Trap with Rosemary’s Baby.
A comic mix-up by the black nuns at the birth of the Anti-Christ threatens to derail the prophesied Apocalypse, throwing the best laid plans of Heaven and Hell into turmoil.  As a result, the Anti-Christ is growing up in small, generic England as a regular little boy with a gang of four friends, a (very confused) Hell-Hound, and A Certain Charisma. Heaven and Hell are now racing to find Him and get Him back on track to bring about the end of the world; they’ve been preparing for this War for quite some time now and aren’t accepting any excuses.
As a result two unlikely beings, a demon named Crawley (“who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards”) and an angel named Aziraphale (part-time rare book dealer), are subsequently forced to work together.
However, they’ve grown to enjoy the status quo. After having spent millennia representing Heaven and Hell, Crawley and Aziraphale have learned that sometimes that the agents on the ground often have more in common with each other than the “people” they work for. They’ve also grown accustomed to their earthly pleasures like Queen and little coffee machines and digital watches and really cool cars.
Therefore Crawley and Aziraphale want to prevent the coming Apocalypse -- while giving their Superiors Above and Below the impression that they are Hell-bent on making it happen.
Good Omens is a collaborative story by two of fantasy’s towering personalities. Terry Pratchett is the genius mind behind the enormously successful (and beautifully ridiculous) fantasy satire series Discworld; and Neil Gaiman is the dark and dry creator of such hallowed works as The Sandman graphic novels.  Together they create a hilarious story with serious undertones that can appeal to all age groups – I recommend it.

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