GOOD OMENS by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

While some folks like to believe the world will end in 2012, and at least one preacher predicted it would happen (twice) in 2011, back in 1990 fantasy authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett collaborated on Good Omens, a religious apocalypse as influenced by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Monty Python as by the Bible.

The angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley have been around humanity since God kicked Adam and Eve out of Eden. The two have a sort of friendly animosity, working for opposite sides but meeting and chatting frequently. And when Crowley recieves the Antichrist, with instructions to swap him out for a regular baby, Aziraphale and Crowley decide they like humanity and don't want it destroyed, so they will work together to keep the child perfectly balanced between good and evil. Unfortunately, the Satanist nuns (yes, you read that right) wind up performing a three-child swap.

Jump ahead eleven years, and Aziraphale and Crowley have been focused on Warlock -- the wrong kid. Meanwhile Adam Young -- the actual Antichrist -- hangs out with his gang of three friends (the Them) and is having his powers manifest themselves. He also gets a pet hellhound that he names Dog.

There's the witch Anathema Device, whose ancestor wrote The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, the only book of 100% accurate predictions of the future. There's the somewhat nerdy witch hunter Newton Pulsifier, and his ancient and slightly mad superior Shadwell. And it wouldn't be an apocalypse without the Four Horsemen -- even if they're now riding motorcycles.

Good Omens is tremendously silly fun. Gaiman and Pratchett toy with a few deeper concepts (how deep does the divine, ineffable plan really go?) but are happy to have the silliness flow out, whether it's the ultimate game of phone tag or that any cassette tape left into a car for a few weeks automatically transforms into The Best of Queen. The characters are simple but effective: Crowley is cool and always planning, while the angelic Aziraphale is much more nerdy.
By contrast, the humans are less interesting (except for Shadwell's delusions of power), but the fun is really in the chase here, and Crowley and Aziraphale race to stop (well, find and then stop) the Antichrist. The writing has a deliciously witty style, and Good Omens will have you laughing from start to finish.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch
(who's proud to have a copy signed by Neil Gaiman)

Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman (2006)

Neil Gaiman is an eclectic writer, and this collection of short works illustrates his range. There are over thirty pieces in Fragile Things, fairly evenly split between poetry and short stories with a novella tossed in at the end. As is the case with large and eccentric collections, not everything will be to everyone's taste, but there will probably be something in the book for everyone.

Overall, the poetry is a little weak. Gaiman is a very evocative writer and while the poetry certainly has mood, it rarely seems to do much beyond setting a mood. Gaiman's great strength lies in plotting and in bringing mythology (or Ur-mythology) into a contemporary setting. Poetry is not a form which is conducive to elaborate, tight plotting; the poems, therefore, do not play to Gaiman's strengths.

The short stories are, on the whole, better than the poems. They run the gamut from pretty good to quite exceptional with side trips into funny on one side and disturbing on the other. The two best short stories in the book exemplify this. Harlequin Valentine is disturbing and excellent, while Sunbird is funny and excellent. Both have those elements of modernizing fantasy and myth that Gaiman does so well. A Study in Emerald is also quite good; it is a mishmash of Lovecraftian Cthulhu mythos and a Sherlock Holmes story and works well.

The final entry in the book is The Monarch of the Glen, a novella which revisits the world of American Gods. It is one of the best, if not the best, things in the book, showcasing everything Gaiman does well. Interesting characters, tight plotting, wonderful slightly odd settings and resonant images from old stories (in this case bits of Beowulf among others) transplanted into the 21st century with such skill that they do not seem out of place at all.

As I mentioned, such a diverse book is almost guaranteed to have some hits and some misses. There are more hits than misses in Fragile Things and several of the hits are bullseyes. For completists, it's a must have, for those unfamiliar with Gaiman's work, it would be a good way to get a sample of his various styles and some pointers toward further reading.

Overall Grade: B+ (with a few B-'s and a couple of A+'s)

Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman (2005)

Gaiman, like Tim Powers (reviewed elsewhere on this site), often writes about Ur-mythology, the underlying myths that ever culture seems to develop in some variation. Where Powers tends to develop cross-cultural parallels into a coherent whole, Gaiman delights in transporting ancient myth into the modern day. This was developed most fully perhaps in American Gods, but it is a trick utilized to splendid effect in Anansi Boys.

Gaiman returns to one of his favorite "characters," Anansi, the Ashanti spider-trickster god in Anansi Boys. Anansi, who often appears these days as an old black man in a sharp hat and yellow gloves, has died. (Sort of.) His son, Fat Charlie Nancy, unaware of his father's divine state learns about his heritage the hard way.

The book is a delirious romp across cultures, as well across the boundary between "reality" and "mythology," both in quotes since they both seem like rather flexible concepts in this book. Fat Charlie discovers love, a brother he didn't know he had and enemies of his father who have transferred their enmity. He gets into trouble, gets out of trouble, and gets into more trouble - all in the lovely prose of Neil Gaiman.

This is not a very serious book. It is much lighter in tone than most of Gaiman's work (with the notable exception of Good Omens), but that's not a bad thing at all. As Donald Wolfit said, "Dying is easy, comedy is hard." It's true in writing as well as in acting, and Gaiman shows that he can do funny fantasy as well as dark fantasy. And that's hard.

Overall Grade: B+