The End is Nigh (Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman)

Member Name: Pingu

Product:	Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Date:	18/09/00 (9 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see above

Disadvantages: no sequel

Good Omens is easily the funniest book I have ever read - and I've read a lot of funny books; this one even surpasses the Discworld series. It's about the Anti-Christ, who is a little boy, called Adam, living with a perfectly normal family and totally unaware that he is the spawn of Satan. In fact, the idea is not that he is evil and wants to destroy the whole world. Quite the opposite. He is actually very, very good, and is so disappointed with the world that he wishes it could be done all over. He fantasises, in a very lads' gang type of way, about how he would order the world, and which bits he would give to which mates, unaware that, because of who he is, his fantasising has the power to create reality.

Throw in a lot of other interested parties - Arazafael the angel; Crowley, a devil who rather likes some of the comforts of earth life; a witch with a book of prophecies regarding the apocalypse; and the four motorcyclists of the apocalypse, who realise too late that they don't figure in the Bible - and the whole thing suddenly becomes the funniest thing you will ever read. The wit is simply stunning; perhaps the freshness of a new challenge freed up Pratchett's invention, because this is way beyond the humour of the Discworld (although it pains me to admit it).

Of course there is the obligatory philosophical side - are we born evil or made evil; are our actions predetermined or can we choose our own course etc. But even then, the philosophy is milked for humour.

You simply have to read this book if you never read anything else ever.

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