Just finished reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

Good Omens is a story about the Apocalypse.  The end of the world is, quite literally, nigh.  In fact life as we currently know it will cease next week!  At least that would be the case if a bunch of bungling satanic nuns hadn’t made a major faux pas when transferring the son of the anti-christ with that of a newly born child. I won’t elaborate further on the plot.

This book has a very generous helping of great characters but in particular Crowley and Aziraphale.  Crowley is a fallen angel, put upon earth to tempt us humans into wrong doing – although in fairness he doesn’t seem to work terribly hard at it and seems to be of the opinion that we’re doing reasonably well unassisted.  Aziraphale is an angel, trying to protect us from demons.  These two characters have spent so long on earth that not only have they become ambivalent towards each other but they actually like the world just as it is and are not in any rush to see it’s demise.  On top of these two we have the four riders of the apocalypse to contend with, a bunch of kids living in a small village and getting up to all sorts of antics a descendent of Agnes the Witch and a couple of witch hunters.  Yes, the characters are very colourful and entertaining indeed.

I did like this book.  I liked the setting, I liked the alternative take on the end of the world, the bungling demons and nuns and I thought the humour was brilliant.  However, and I don’t really know why, I didn’t love it.  And, I’m struggling to understand why.  I do think it was very readable and would have no hesitation in recommending it to fans of both these authors but I think I probably wasn’t in the right mood – I’m more in the mood for dark and creepy fantasy at the moment.  So, maybe I’ll revisit this again at a point in the future when I’m of a mind to have a good laugh.  I could also put it down to the fact that my first Gaiman read was Neverwhere – which I was totally in love with so I probably went into this with that sort of expectation.

On the whole, Good Omens was a Good Read.

Good Omens