It's the end of the world as we know it! (Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman)

Member Name: FairyWBO

Product:	Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Date:	22/08/03 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hilarious

Disadvantages: Makes you get funny looks when reading it in public

I am a big Pratchett fan. I have all those silly discworld books on a shelf almost to themselves. I have some of the kiddy type ones he has written like Johnny and the Dead, and Truckers, but somehow this one seemed to slip by me, until recently :o)

I belong to Sci Fi & Fantasy Book Club... one of the World Books Group, and they had this as their first offer in their 25th birthday library collection for £5.... It is a hardback and as I do love my hardbacks (no smutty remarks please) I had to have it, to add to my shelf, and read of course :oP

It is a joint effort between Mr P and Neil Gaiman. It is not a Discworld book! You don't need to read anything else written by either author..... but you should! I have yet to find anything by Mr G but I am looking out for his stuff now I have read this book.

It is basically about the biggest mistake ever made.....

The Antichrist was handed over to the wrong family. Instead of growing up in an all powerful rich American family, he is bought up in a sleepy little village by a normal average everyday couple... and Armageddon is on its way and the representatives from heaven and hell are trying to sort things out. The Angel and Demon don't want really want Armageddon anyway as they have got rather fond of living on earth. They have been living here since the days of Adam and Eve.... The demon being the one that just happened to be a serpent at the time and got Eve to eat the apple (now called Crowley as I supposed Crawly wouldn't really have sounded right as a last name), and the angel being the one that handed Adam the burning sword when Adam left Eden's gates, which our angel was guarding at the time and now he works in a bookshop.

Even though these two work for opposite sides they get on well and often have debates about the meaning of it all, and neither will own up to Milton Keynes, but some other of lives mysteries are solved, like the M25 :o)

As Armagedd
on approaches the Hell Hound is sent out to our mild Antichrist, but instead of the muscly snarling drooling beast that he should be, he turns himself into a jack russel type mutt as that is what his master has always wanted as a pet. The boy himself is part of a gang of kids, known as The Others, that hang out in the local quarry and even though he has powers, has never really used them, apart from keeping his village pleasant and the weather always just right for the time of year!

Next come the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse..... Famine, War, Death and new boy Pollution. They don't have horses though, they have motorbikes and pick up a collection of bikers in a cafe who give themselves some really great names (one of which keeps changing as he thinks of things that are more annoying all the time).

While this is going on there is the Witchfinder General and his only remaining witchfinder underling. He lives down the hall from a prostitute which he is always calling names, but always accepts dinner from, when she leaves it outside his door! And there is of course the witch, well one of her distant relations was a witch and wrote a book of prophecies that have all come true so far and has been her families life work trying to understand what exactly they all meant.

Throw in some Tibetan monks popping up through tunnels, Aliens, Atlantis rising from the sea and a nuclear power station, and you have one of the funniest books I have read for a while.

You can sort of tell that these two had fun writing this book without reading the intro written by the two of them.

I found it hard to tell who wrote what, but then I am not familiar with Mr G's work, but I know my Pratchett and this wasn't quite as daft as his other stuff, but it was still daft in places. I like daft :oP

Many think that the ending is a bit lame, but I couldn't see how else it could end. I won't tell you what happens, as I don't
want to spoil the book for you as I highly recommend you read it if you like to smile (or even laugh out loud) every now and then :o)


Happy reading :o)

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