- Mass Market Paperback: 412 pages
- Publisher: HarperTorch; Reprint edition (Dec 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060853980
- ISBN-13: 978-0060853983
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.9 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (122 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 421,927 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Good Omens
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Pratchett (of Discworld fame) and Gaiman (of Sandman fame) may seem an unlikely combination, but the topic (Armageddon) of this fast-paced novel is old hat to both. Pratchett's wackiness collaborates with Gaiman's morbid humour; the result is a humanist delight to be savoured and read again and again. You see, there was a bit of a mix-up when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they've long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them. The minor characters along the way (Famine makes an appearance as diet crazes, no-calorie food and anorexia epidemics) are as much fun as the story as a whole, which adds up to one of those rare books which is enormous fun to read the first time, and the second time, and the third time.…
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A Superbly funny book. Pratchett and Gaiman are the most hilariously sinister team since Jekyll and Hyde. If this is Armageddon, count me in"
-"James Herbert"
"GOOD OMENS is frequently hilarious, littered with funny footnotes and eccentric characters. It's also humane, intelligent, suspenseful, and fully equipped with a chorus of 'Tibetans, Aliens, American, Atlanteans and other rare and strange creatures of the Last Days.' If the end is near, Pratchett and Gaiman will take us there in style"
-"Locus"
"Wickedly funny"
-"Time Out"
"Hilarious Pratchett magic tempered by Neil Gaiman's dark steely style; who could ask for a better combination?"
-"Fear"
"Not quite as sinster as the authors' photo"
-"The Times" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
-"James Herbert"
"GOOD OMENS is frequently hilarious, littered with funny footnotes and eccentric characters. It's also humane, intelligent, suspenseful, and fully equipped with a chorus of 'Tibetans, Aliens, American, Atlanteans and other rare and strange creatures of the Last Days.' If the end is near, Pratchett and Gaiman will take us there in style"
-"Locus"
"Wickedly funny"
-"Time Out"
"Hilarious Pratchett magic tempered by Neil Gaiman's dark steely style; who could ask for a better combination?"
-"Fear"
"Not quite as sinster as the authors' photo"
-"The Times" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If I were to say that, even now, nearly 15 years after I first read it, this book is still one of my favourite reads ever, you will probably get some idea of the direction this review will go. Just imagine, if William Friedkin had made a film of the Just William books - that's what this book is like.
The mix of Pratchett and Gaiman is pretty much flawless, with all the sparky wordplay and fun of the former mixed with the mordant, grim wit of the latter. Put together they spark, like Crowley and Aziriphale, even though they really shouldn't.
The highlights are too numerous and fine to count, but it's a good sign when there's a laugh on almost every page and even the footnotes are a riot; the beginning of the book is a prime example, the Earth's a Libra indeed...
I think this is probably one of those books that everyone should read at some point or other and one that is filled with a great deal of love and a sense of fun about the genre and characters it parodies so relentlessly.
The mix of Pratchett and Gaiman is pretty much flawless, with all the sparky wordplay and fun of the former mixed with the mordant, grim wit of the latter. Put together they spark, like Crowley and Aziriphale, even though they really shouldn't.
The highlights are too numerous and fine to count, but it's a good sign when there's a laugh on almost every page and even the footnotes are a riot; the beginning of the book is a prime example, the Earth's a Libra indeed...
I think this is probably one of those books that everyone should read at some point or other and one that is filled with a great deal of love and a sense of fun about the genre and characters it parodies so relentlessly.
36 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I love this book! The first time I came across it, it was hidden in a corner in a bookstore. It cried out to me. I had to take it home. I laughed so hard that I cried, more than once. I loved it so much I gave it away. Which is an extraordinarily difficult thing for me to do. But it wanted to be shared, and I can't deny a book its destiny. My brain, however, is not so capable of release. I had to buy it again. And read it over and over and over. Until I gave it to my boyfriend, before we were dating. And still, I read it at his house. When he forgot and gave it back to me, I cruelly didn't correct him. (It came back to me! It must be fate!) Now, there's a new edition out, with comments by the authors. I have to go get it.
I'm obsessed. It's unhealthy. I know. Come join me. It's the best apocalypse you'll ever survive.
Crowley and Aziraphale have been locked in the battle between good and evil since, well, at least the beginning of time. In fact, it's been so long that it's become more of a debate then a battle. Actually more of a conversation. Aziraphale is an angel, and part-time rare bookseller. It's a front; he really collects the books for himself. Crowley is sort of a fallen angel; well, as the book says "an angel who did not so much fall as saunter vaguely downward". So he's a demon, ish. Mostly he's an instigator. These two have been enemies for so long that they've become pretty good friends.
But that's all going to end. Everything is going to end. Next Saturday. That's when the apocalypse has been scheduled for. The final battle between good and evil. What's an angel, or demon, to do when it comes time to end the world, but they really don't want to?
The apocalypse is aided and thwarted, alternately, by angels, demons, and an assortment of other ridiculous, hilarious, pitiful characters. Newton Pulsifer, Witchfinder, armed with a stickpin. Anathema Device, Witch and owner of the only accurate book of prophecy to ever be written, until she lost it. Agnes Nutter, author of said book, semi-illiterate, or maybe just a really bad speller, and dead. The Chattering Order of St. Beryl, satanic nuns who really just like to wear black. Dog, who was, or is, or should have been a hellhound. Adam, the anti-christ, depending on how the day goes. There's a lot more, but I don't want to ruin the fun. Let's just say that good, evil, and prophecy are all ideas that leave a lot of room for interpretation. And I'll never leave music in my car for too long again.
Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman
I'm obsessed. It's unhealthy. I know. Come join me. It's the best apocalypse you'll ever survive.
Crowley and Aziraphale have been locked in the battle between good and evil since, well, at least the beginning of time. In fact, it's been so long that it's become more of a debate then a battle. Actually more of a conversation. Aziraphale is an angel, and part-time rare bookseller. It's a front; he really collects the books for himself. Crowley is sort of a fallen angel; well, as the book says "an angel who did not so much fall as saunter vaguely downward". So he's a demon, ish. Mostly he's an instigator. These two have been enemies for so long that they've become pretty good friends.
But that's all going to end. Everything is going to end. Next Saturday. That's when the apocalypse has been scheduled for. The final battle between good and evil. What's an angel, or demon, to do when it comes time to end the world, but they really don't want to?
The apocalypse is aided and thwarted, alternately, by angels, demons, and an assortment of other ridiculous, hilarious, pitiful characters. Newton Pulsifer, Witchfinder, armed with a stickpin. Anathema Device, Witch and owner of the only accurate book of prophecy to ever be written, until she lost it. Agnes Nutter, author of said book, semi-illiterate, or maybe just a really bad speller, and dead. The Chattering Order of St. Beryl, satanic nuns who really just like to wear black. Dog, who was, or is, or should have been a hellhound. Adam, the anti-christ, depending on how the day goes. There's a lot more, but I don't want to ruin the fun. Let's just say that good, evil, and prophecy are all ideas that leave a lot of room for interpretation. And I'll never leave music in my car for too long again.
Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Good Omens"... The title says it all, doesn't it? If you haven't read this tome of magnificence, do so on the double. You won't regret it. If you're an avid fan of the pragmatic comic fantasy and sci-fi genre (as am I), into Douglas Adams, Tom Holt, Spike Milligan, the Goons, Monty Python, Red Dwarf, and just about everything else, you'll absolutely and undeniably enjoy this novel. It's co-authored by the infintesimally gifted Neil Gaiman, but is more of a scintillating rip-snorting effort of Pratchettian humour. It isn't Pterry's best, contrary to popular belief, that much coveted award has to be given to "Small Gods" (see my review of it), but "Good Omens" is nevertheless a refreshing, hilarious, insightful, cynical look at life, the universe, everything, and quite appropriately, witchfinding. "Good Omens" is...well, let's put it like this: it is a novel that, as Terry Gilliam says, is a children's story, and it's about the Antichrist. Funnily enough, the Antichrist is a nice comic-book dwelling young man named Adam, who has been displaced on planet Earth, Tadfield, to bring about the much-prepared Apocalypse. Unfortunately, Adam doesn't particularly enthuse upon this concept. He's not demonic, he's not angelic, he's only human, and that's the way it is. Meanwhile, Aziraphale the bookshop-proprietor and angel on the side, and Crowley, the serpent of the Garden of Eden and anti-Freddy Mercury enthusist, are having too good a time of it to let the world see its end, and so they go about relocating the Antichrist, and halt the Day of Reckoning after they finish off a round of pints. Meanwhile, Anathema Device, great granddaughter of Agnes Nutter, the only truly accurate prophet to the wavering future, is attempting to decipher her ancestor's prophesies...but she loses the book. Ah-oh. Meanwhile, Newton Pulsifer (Latin derivative: PULSION = the act or action of pushing, eg. giving, and PULSIFY = leguminous vegetable, eg. peas; literally the 'Giver of Peas/Peace')has been employed as a Witchfinder, meets the lovable rogue Shadwell, and Madame Tracy, and all these characters start the ball rolling... "Good Omens" is saturated in hilarious gags, frequently funny footnotes, eccentric characterisations, and brilliant satiric observations of how humanity has not got to grips on reality. "Good Omens" is a very funny, theological and philosophical book exploiting the reader to our only Salvation. It does not poke fun at Jesus, nor God, but merely the closed train of thought that Heaven and Hell are as disorganized as this or any other world. "Good Omens" is a riot. Some of the lines are so utterly brilliant and memorable they simply adhere to your head ("What?" <"I said we burn faggots." <"Alright!")And some of the scenes are so hysteric and historic, they will never die ("I want to be Really Cool People" for example). It's certainly a good thing that "Good Omens" is going to be filmed by Terry Gilliam, because I have no doubt that if he does it accurately, it will be his greatest work yet. Lovely stuff!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
not so fun
Normally I would like this kind of book so may be I was in the wrong frame of mind but I found most of the book irrelevant or not needed for the story. Read more
Published 14 days ago by Lawsy
Surprisingly good
I have read many Terry Pratchett but until this I had not read any Neil Gaiman books. I will now be looking to read some Neil Gaiman after this. Read more
Published 22 days ago by Travelingstudent
Good Omens good job
Have been waiting for this on kindle since I bought one. A favourite Pratchett book ever since I read disc world.
Published 24 days ago by Taffman
Read this years ago and loaned it out
Glad I could get a replacement with the original cover and now I'm enjoying it all over again and this time I won't be loaning it out :)
Published 28 days ago by M. McKay
Just about the best book ever written
I have lost count of the times I have read this book from cover to cover. My copy has fallen apart so I bought it for my Kindle, although I will miss having to pick up the pages... Read more
Published 1 month ago by suzie p
Good Omens
This book is absolutely brilliant. I've read it 3 or 4 times in paperback and decided to have a copy on my Kindle. Typical Pratchett and Gaiman humour
Published 1 month ago by ajkinny
Funny, funny, funuy
A great collaboration between two excellent authors has produced a very well written, funny and entertaining story. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Welsh Guy
Hilarious book!
This book is simply magnificent! Possibly the funniest book I have ever read. The combination of Pratchett and Gaiman works better than I thought before reading the book,... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Jan Patrik Sahlstrøm
Less would have been so much more
I'd heard many good things (also many bad things but I rarely listen to those) about this book and was really looking forward to it and, at first, it didn't disappoint. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Book Critic
Not sure about this one!
I was a bit mystified by this. After reading the rave reviews I was looking forward to a real treat. Unfortunately it was a bit of an effort to finish it. Read more
Published 3 months ago by mbubbles27
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