Good Omens

WHAT
The coming of judgment day seen through the eyes of Pratchett and Gaiman. So every paragraph is ether an excuse for witty sarcasm humor or it describes an ethereal concept as a real person. Although there are some good parts, it is an inconsistent book. I'm not a fan of Gaiman's style and Pratchett isn't very funny here. Material for great quotes though.

SYNOPSIS

(some events described here are not very precise, they just sum up what I remember of the book)

The story follows the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley, adversaries in the grand battle of heaven and hell but “friends” for lack of better company. Stuck on Earth since the beginning of time, obviously six thousands years ago, they have been the agents of their respective factions, both carrying out a mission to lead humanity to they're inescapable doom. But of course, through different means, since Heaven being all good and sorts and Hell being the evil ones! :-)

Crowley begins his existence in this world in the form of a snake, and does not accept the blame he, and also mankind for that fact, is given for the whole “apple eating” fiasco. I mean, it was placed so right in front of them an all. You would expect it to be somewhere more inaccessible no?

Aziraphale is the angel responsible for safeguarding Adam and Eve. When they are banned from Eden, he lands them his Mighty Angelical Fire Sword... for warmth and protection from boars and such. How could he predict that man would use it to cause harm and destruction to the world?

Crowley is portrayed as a cool kind of demon. Riding his black Bentley, using his magical powers to get anything he needs, like free gas and the like. He would rather cause a massive traffic jam to piss people off then to apply physical pain.

Through the centuries many evil deeds have been attributed to him, like the Inquisition, but he claims not to be responsible for most of them. He was just sort of there when it happened. In fact he though Aziraphale was the one responsible for that, and so did the angel though Crowley caused it. Either way, both their superiors gave them credit for it.

Aziraphale is the clumsy, inadequate, book worm character. He is more of a secondary character to Crowley.

The main plot revolves around the birth of the Antichrist, and what they both should do about it. Neither one wants to see the world destroyed, they grew quite found of it. So they take upon themselves to raise the child, in an attempt to prevent him from becoming a murderous genocidal evil monster and be just a regular Joe.

Things get problematic when they found out too late that they have been mentoring the wrong child. The story then revolves around them finding the real one, who meanwhile have been leading a fairly ordinary existence as an 11 years old leader of a gang of miscreant children, whose greatest misdeeds involves things like chasing down cats and not going to bed when they are told.

Meanwhile, the four horsemen have been summoned and they are gathering towards the boy. Also the hosts of the Great Witch Army, composed entirely of an old men and a young apprentice, is called to track him down. Unbeknownst to each other, both factions have that army in they're speed dial. Also, the descendant of Agnes Nutter is trying to find her lost book of accurate predictions, in order to understand what is happening to the world. Ancient continents have risen, fish are falling from the sky, aliens are coming to Earth with a message of reproach for they high pollution levels.

ANALYSIS

My synopsis reflects my opinions. The book's angel parts are blend, the Antichrist boy named Adam subplot was uninteresting, Gaiman's horseman was pretty much his usual work but more watered down. This is also among Pratchett's early works, which did not have the quality of Small Gods and other of his books.

Crowley was the best character.

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OH GLORIOUS DAY! Found a understandable reader! It is the Martin Jarvis version, I can't remember which was the other one, don't think it was Stephen Briggs. I just remember that pleasant “I'm trying to whistle and eat as I talk” tick British accent.


PREVIOUS REVIEW of Aug 08, 2011
I'm sorry, but this book is just not to my taste. I love the authors, but the writing and humor are just TOO BRITISH! I listened it through audiobook and the reader had a thick accent as well, which just made it much worst.

I just read a few chapters, maybe 1/3 of the book. Even so, I'm including in my list as a reminder to myself