Good Omens [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

"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!

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.