29.1.16

"Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman


The End of the World is coming and two immortals (angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley, both on opposite sides) who for thousands of years knew each other as enemies-who-became-friends decide that it would really be a pity to destroy the world where they already feel so comfortable. So they both work on educational influence on a little boy who is supposed to grow into Antichrist - however, there was some comic baby switch in a hospital so the boy everybody predicted to be Antichrist is actually a perfectly ordinary boy and real Antichrist is someone else completely...

This is a collaboration between two writers - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman - although I can clearly feel much more of Pratchett in here. Gaiman obviously enjoyed this and both probably giggled and laughed a lot as they described all those zany characters. The novel actually sparks with a certain kooky humour which is very typical for Pratchett. For some reason I had never truly warmed up to him and after I did some serious soul searching why is it so (after all, he is a successful writer and had created the whole Pratchett universe of novels & characters) my conclusion is that it feels simply too silly for me - it is very funny at the times and yes, I found myself occasionally chuckling but perhaps I prefer my novels to have a little bit of darkness in them. Not that I believe that every book has to be life-affirming, thunder-and-lighting, carved-in-stone truth about life, sometimes its just fine to enjoy lighthearted literature for the sheer sake of escapism but in my opinion is that Pratchett takes this lightheartedness to extreme and it makes me feel like I'm reading children's books. To be honest, so far I read only two pieces by him and they didn't won me over or convince me that I should read some more, like for example I had with Gaiman. Now I had read three Gaiman novels one after the other so I think this was enough for time being - this collaboration cooled me off - it is time to switch the gears and read something completely different, either non fiction, history or Science Fiction. "Good Omens" was very fluffy and lighthearted so now I need something more substantial.

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