Good Omens

At last, Jonas and Bebs returned my book.

I'm such a slow reader. I bought this book in October last year, but I'm still on chapter 3. So far 5 people have borrowed and read it since then.

I am a huge fan of Neil Gaiman, ever since I first read his famous comic novel, The Sandman. I've been collecting his books ever since. He naturally blurs the lines between fantasy, literature, mythology, dreams and reality, and the way he weaves words into imaginative stories have always fascinated me. Though most of his work seems have some dark Tim Burton-ish overtones, amazingly this novel does not.

You can easily tell you're reading a Gaiman book just by knowing the characters and the cultural references to mythology, biblical icons and rock and roll. But Pratchett's humor jumps out of the pages as well.

Chapter 3 palang yan hah! Hehe!

The back cover says:

There is a distinct hint of Armageddon in the air.

According to "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch" (recorded, thankfully, in 1655, "before" she blew up her entire village and all its inhabitants, who had gathered to watch her burn), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact.

So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse are revving up their mighty hogs and hitting the road, and the world's last two remaining witch-finders are getting ready to fight the good fight, armed with awkwardly antiquated instructions and stick pins. Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. . . . Right. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan.

Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon -- each of whom has lived among Earth's mortals for many millennia and has grown rather fond of the lifestyle -- are not particularly looking forward to the coming Rapture. If Crowley and Aziraphale are going to stop it from happening, they've got to find and kill the Antichrist (which is a shame, as he's a really nice kid). There's just one glitch: someone seems to have misplaced him. . . .

First published in 1990, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's brilliantly dark and screamingly funny take on humankind's final judgment is back -- and just in time -- in a new hardcover edition (which includes an introduction by the authors, comments by each about the other, and answers to some still-burning questions about their wildly popular collaborative effort) that the devout and the damned alike will surely cherish until the end of all things.

More details

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
By Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
Published by William Morrow, 2006
ISBN 0060853964, 9780060853969
384 pages