Reader reviews

• angelajmaher

  (5/5)

  Perfectly wacky and highly entertaining!
• toobusyreading

  (4/5)

  Good vs. Evil is a common enough trope in writing, but it is rarely so entertaining. Angels and demons can become friends of sort. And the devil's spawn might turn out to be not quite as planned. But what a waste of a vintage Bentley.I started watching the video on Amazon Prime, but I'm afraid I'm a better reader & listener than I am a watcher so I gave up on the video and borrowed the ebook. (I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to video.) The book was delightful. And “The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch” were remarkable prescient when given the right interpretation. The characters were not exactly normal, one might even go so far as to say a bit eccentric, and the book was highly entertaining. Gaiman and Prachett make a great writing team.
• othemts

  (4/5)

  Several years ago, I read Good Omens, and hearing the buzz about the new tv series adaptation, I thought it was worth revisiting this book in audio format, charmingly narrated by Martin Jarvis.  This was the first book I read by either author at the time of my previous reading.  It is no less than a satirical fantasy about the Apocalypse.  More specifically, satire of the religious beliefs around the End Times mixed with satire about quirky, middle-class English life (the biggest flaw of this book is that it can get bogged down in the "quirky, middle-class English life" bit, past the point of being funny).The main characters of the book are the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley, who have formed a partnership over the eons due to their both liking humanity for their own reasons, and thus wishing to avoid the end of the world.  Early in the novel, the son of Satan is born, and due to a mix-up by the Satanic nuns at the hospital, the baby is mixed up with another baby.  11 years later, when the Apocalypse is too begin, the child groomed to be an Anti-Christ is an ordinary boy, while Satan's actual son is Adam Young of the Oxfordshire village of Lower Tadfield.The plot shifts among  several characters. Aziraphale and Crowley trying to sort out the mix-up without getting in trouble with their Higher Ups (and Lower Downs, I suppose for Crowley?). Adam and his gang of friends Them get into esoteric mischief as Adam becomes aware of his powers.  Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - War, Death, Famine, and Pollution (who took over from Pestilence after the invention of penicillin) assemble and ride, picking up some Hell's Angels along the way who give themselves names of things that annoy them. And Anathema Device is a witch who knows everything that will happen because she is the descendant of Agnes Nutter, a 17th century witch who wrote a book of accurate, but highly specific predictions. She is brought together with Newton Pulsifer, a nerdy bloke who seems to stumble into becoming one of the last Witchfinders for a paycheck.A lot of it's corny, and as I've said, sometimes the jokes are belabored.  Nonetheless, it's a clever and funny work of two of the great fantasy writers of our age.My original review from 2004:A very silly book about the Apocalypse run amok. Sometimes the tongue-in-cheek writing style got a bit annoying, but there were always some clever bits to redeem it. While mostly a parody of Apocalyptical legend, there is also a strong undertone about good & evil and faith in a higher being. For all the comic cynicism, the message about God here is surprisingly positive.Favorite Passages:It is said that the Devil has all the best tunes. This is broadly true. But Heaven has the best choreographersCrowley thought for a bit. "You must have had records," he said. "There are always records. Everyone has records these days." He glanced proudly at Aziraphale. "It was one of my better ideas."(As someone who works in archives and records management, I'm particularly amused that a demon invented records.)The small alien walked past the car."C02 level up 0.5 percent," it rasped, giving him a meaningful look. "You do know you could find yourself charged with being a dominant species while under the influence of impulse-driven consumerism, don't you?"
• moniquesnyman-1

  (5/5)

  Well, it's that time again... You know, the time when the end of the world is nigh and stuff. Yeah. But this time we have Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's version of it to enjoy, and boy is it an enjoyable, hilarious journey. I loved this book from beginning to end, reading snippets to my husband as I went to make him laugh, too.
  
  Truthfully, I just wanted to read the book before the TV series started, but I simply can't believe why I hadn't picked up this gem before. It's really the best of two legendary authors captured in one book.
  
  I LOVED IT!
• sharonmariabidwell

  (5/5)

  A reread of a classic (because I’m awaiting the DVD release so I can see Amazon’s adaptation starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen) by two outstanding authors who are also my favourite writers. This story displays both their talents, creating a meld of the sublime and ridiculous in all the right ways. Any fan of Douglas Adams would do well to pick up this story. The world would be a poorer place without this collaboration. Pure magic.
• tytania-2

  (4/5)

  A crazy slouch towards Armageddon. I'd say it was more Pratchett than Gaiman. The jokes just never stop.It was long and rambly, with a cast of characters to match. There were some I loved every time they appeared (Crowley, Aziraphale, Anathema - her name alone has to make you love her). At the other end were some that I really found repulsive, and disliked whenever they got airtime (Shadwell). I wasn't crazy about Newt. As for the kids, they were good kid characters, but being American with little exposure to Britain, I just couldn't reconcile those heavy accents (and ideas) coming out of children's mouths. E.g., "I don't see what's so triffic about creating people as people, and then gettin' upset 'cos they act like people..." This is the 11-year-old Antichrist speaking. To me it just sounds like Andy Capp or one of those dimwitted Python characters.Yes, the Antichrist; so anyway - the purported plot of the book is that the Antichrist comes to earth but gets switched at birth, and grows up without the proper diabolical "training." So he just turns out to be a boy with a few superpowers, and isn't really evil at all.Meanwhile what happened to the baby who got the training? I'm not sure. If he turned up again at all, it was extremely rarely. So I thought this was going to be a big "switched at birth", "nature vs. nurture" kind of subplot, but it wasn't so much.Then there were the Four [Motorcycle] Riders of the apocalypse. I read in the afterward that this was Gaiman's main contribution. Those portions are a little less jokey, but I don't know, things just didn't really come together. Everything was just kind of wacky.If you like Terry Pratchett, I think you'll love it. if you're looking for more Gaiman, I don't really see it.