Terry Pratchett has long been my favourite author since 'Guards! Guards!' was loaned to me by my year 8 English teacher. I could ramble on about the Discworld series for hours but instead I have chosen to review 'Good Omens', the collaborative work of Mr Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
It's the end of the world... or at least, it will be. Doomsday is near, the Plan has been carried out and the antichrist walks the earth... he's a really nice kid though. The demon Crowley (Architect of the M25 no less) is disenchanted with his job and is depressed with the inevitability of the Earth's destruction, as contrary to Lucifer's will he actually rather likes it in one piece. Another that shares Crowley's interest is the angel Aziraphale, a long time friend of the demon; after all, if you're going to exist for all eternity it's good to have someone to talk to. The four horsemen are gathering (though one's not a man and they don't exactly go for horses anymore) and preparing for their ride.
The book is written with the twisted intellectual humour of Pratchett and tempered with Gaiman's more serious, darker style. There are many brilliant touches such as Pestilence's retirement from the four horsemen upon the invention of penicillin, his position taken up by the 'new boy' Pollution. The entire story is held together by 'The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch' (that's 'nice' as in precise) a book of prophecy so accurate it's almost useless. Once it's introduced you feel the inevitability of the world's occurrences bearing down on all of the characters involved, preparing you for the closing chapters.
The book thrives on dark humour throughout; I particularly recommend the part with Crowley's lead-lined safe as a piece of shining narrative brilliance, showing what two authors working together can achieve. As the plot is split between several characters it weaves the story though the minds of both human and divine characters giving the reader an inescapable view of the emerging apocalypse from different perspectives.
Personally I love Aziraphale as a character; as an angel he feels duty-bound to perform the acts required of him by his superiors but chooses the side of humanity through logical thinking and his own preference of the comforts that the Earth offers: tea being a major factor seeing as heaven doesn't do it ("Why does the earth man like dried leaves in boiled water?" ... quote from the wrong book entirely but it seemed appropriate).
Good Omens is a beautiful piece of work taking the Bible's text and translating it into a modern day narrative. I suspect I would have understood more of the jokes and references if I had more than the vague understanding of the Bible than I currently possess. If you're a fan of slightly black, intellectual humour or have read and enjoyed any Pratchett books before I cannot recommend this book enough.
My question: Do the Biblical references used in the book hamper the comedic effect of Good Omens in any way?
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3 comments:
I might go and read this- I've read 'Guards! Guards!' and 'Weird Sisters' and some of Neil Gaiman's comics, but that's it. Mrs.Davies will kill me for admitting that, by the way- she hates comics more than she hates sci-fi (you can imagine her opinion on sci-fi comics!).
Gaiman is about to take over writing duties on Dr Who from Russel T Davies, I'm given to understand. That promises to be interesting!
If you want a recommendation, by the way, try 'Jurgen' and its too sequals by James Branch Cabell. The title character goes on a bit of a cosmic journey and yet remains utterly humdrum throughout. My favourite bit is where he meets the devil, who tells him that they do marriages in hell but not divorces, as people tend to thank heaven once their divorce comes through and he can't really have that...
Though I would find Gaiman an interesing scriptwriter, Steven Moffat is the writer taking the helm of Doctor Who (he scripted the episodes 'The Empty Child', 'the Doctor Dances', the superb 'Blink' and most recently the 'Silence in The Library' two-parter).
I may seek out those books during my holiday but right now I'm positively devouring Dune by Frank Herbert.
Finally got round to reading it. I liked the invention and the relationship between the angel and the demon and what it says about the nature of Good and Evil and humanity's relationship with both. And some of the jokes are very good- although there's a bit of a Daily Mail conservatism and sentimentality there that I don't like, and the anti-Americanism is cheap and a bit irritating. I still like 'Guards! Guards!' best!
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