Laugh Your Way To Hell (Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman)

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Product:	Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Date:	05/03/02 (200 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hilarious Content, Ingenious Realistic Characters, Language Flows

Disadvantages: Not For The Fundamentalists

Good Omen's is the ingenious retelling of the apocalypse. The brilliance grows form the collaboration between aspired novel writers Pratchett's and Gaiman. The fear of the arrival of the prophesised Antichrist Adam has forced second-rate angel Aziraphale and second-rate demon Crowley to work together in order to save humanity. The hilarious plot entwines the characters in a network of advanced and detailed comprehension.


The manner that Pratchett and Gaiman evolve the individual characters into people that you can relate with is brilliance, and not only makes for hilarious reading but a more exciting and enjoyable occasion. Turning, holy, mythical characters into everyday peoples are a major part of the novel Good Omens. Pratchett and Gaiman did not want to simply retell the apocalypse but instead wanted to add some spice and energy into the symbolic tale.


And there was Another. He was in the square in Kumbolaland. And he was in the restaurants. And he was in the fish, and in the air, and in the barrels of weedkiller. He was on the roads, and in houses, and in palaces, and in hovels.

The Three Horseman and One Woman of the apocalypse; the unconventional outlook on the end of the world is just pushed against the boundaries a little further. Scarlett the arms dealer turned newspaper journalist, Mr. White the expert in the area of toxic spills and nuclear reactions and in addition Sable is a best selling diet expert, critical of restaurants.


Adam is the antichrist. Switched at birth by Sister Mary Loquacious of the Chattering Order, Adam is brought up in a family to witch he was not initially intended. Brought up as an ordinary child, the prospect of being an antichrist is ridiculous even to air, but even still; Adam is unwilling to participate in anyone's ineffable plan.


The Enemy, of course. But an enemy for six thousand years now, which made him sort of a friend.

This is the reaso
ning behind Aziraphale and Crowley relationship. The hilarious couple have divided the towns of England up as so not to disturb or irritate each other. Although from completely differing and contrasting backgrounds, their history and understanding of each other has drawn the two together for many millennia. Demon and angel are the unlikely collaboration, they often look out for each other; they organise watching shifts between each other in order to keep on top of their duties and basically are not friends but associates. Understanding each other, the prospect of Armageddon entwines the two beings into rushing to conclude Armageddon before mankind is threatened with demise.


Neil Gaiman is the writer who dreamed up the concept of Good Omens. His anticipation as a writer to venture into new frontiers truly elevates Good Omens. The content of the novella is obstruct and always enthralling. But without the humour of Pratchett the collaboration would be withered. In this sense Good Omens draws the best entities and essences from both artists. Laden with Pratchett's hilarious footnotes and Gaiman's intriguing master plan for a novel; Good Omens excels in its genre.


The surprising and ingenious aspect of Good Omens is the way and fashion that it can be appreciated. There is a spectrum of ways to acknowledge and conclude the brilliance of Good Omens. One can choose to read the novel for fun, ignoring the myth and religious insights behind it; or alternatively, one can choose to explore the different layers and banks of the novel. For me personally, I found that the social, and mythological significance of Good Omens was a quenching antidote to my thirst for a masterpiece novel. In areas of the book, Good Omens will have dreaming of Aziraphale and Crowley; wondering of their latest escapades, virtually inventing your own imaginary novel. This is something like I have never experienced and it is the real beauty of Good Omens.



I've never really understood or accepted how a novel or any book could be truly funny. Imagine, letters of a blank page having you in hysterics. Whimpering in your seat, gasping for air and begging for the novel to recluse in humour. Now, no longer imagine; Good Omens is this very book, a book that I can't imagine any recreation on film doing it fair justice. It's one of those novels that the beauty of it is so closely merged in the paper to which it was printed that retracting it would be a crime against the author.

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