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juushikaTitle: Good Omens
Author: Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Published: Ace Books (Penguin Putnam Inc.), New York, 1990 (1996)
Pages: 368
Total pages: 10017
Text number: 30
Read for: my own enjoyment over Christmas break.
In brief: I asked for this book for Christmas because of my fondness of Neil Gaiman, but, in my humble opinion, it's not the best he's done. Good Omens is too pointlessly clever and amusing for its own good, and the over-emphasis on the blatantly funny means sacrificing sarcasm and even dark humor, to say nothing of meaning or point. I know this is a well-loved text, but it's not very well-loved by me, even if it's manageable, amusing read.
90% of this text is humor, which right off the batt is a problem for me—I have a very narrow, particular sense of humor and blatantly funny, wide-scale texts like these don't often appeal to me. That's a personal bias and obviously made it harder for me to truly enjoy this book. I will say, however, that even this humor worked for me some time, the it book is funny, even if it's not much else. There are some good one-liners and short dialogues (that I've seen quoted on the internet) that are undeniably amusing. The sarcasm, dark humor, and complex humor I expected from Gaiman is, however, entirely missing. There is no room to build it in such a light, funny book, which was a disappointment. This is not Gaiman as I know and love him.
The other drawback of the ever-present light humor is that the book is almost entirely lacking in depth—anything, really, other than that light humor. There is an attempt to include it—averting the apocalypse means accepting and embracing human nature, the way things are, and other goodness—but these touches seem and are last-minute, unsupported, and unnecessary. The meaning hangs on the end of the book without fitting in or seeming necessary.
I did real all of this, and enjoyed parts of it (the strength is in the characters, some of which are real personalities and a lot of fun to read about, and in the uneasy, joint relationship between the demon and the angel), but I wouldn't personally recommend this book, especially when Gaiman himself has written so much else that's definitely worth reading. I know I'm in the minority for that opinion, but there you go. I just didn't love this book very much.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Published: Ace Books (Penguin Putnam Inc.), New York, 1990 (1996)
Pages: 368
Total pages: 10017
Text number: 30
Read for: my own enjoyment over Christmas break.
In brief: I asked for this book for Christmas because of my fondness of Neil Gaiman, but, in my humble opinion, it's not the best he's done. Good Omens is too pointlessly clever and amusing for its own good, and the over-emphasis on the blatantly funny means sacrificing sarcasm and even dark humor, to say nothing of meaning or point. I know this is a well-loved text, but it's not very well-loved by me, even if it's manageable, amusing read.
90% of this text is humor, which right off the batt is a problem for me—I have a very narrow, particular sense of humor and blatantly funny, wide-scale texts like these don't often appeal to me. That's a personal bias and obviously made it harder for me to truly enjoy this book. I will say, however, that even this humor worked for me some time, the it book is funny, even if it's not much else. There are some good one-liners and short dialogues (that I've seen quoted on the internet) that are undeniably amusing. The sarcasm, dark humor, and complex humor I expected from Gaiman is, however, entirely missing. There is no room to build it in such a light, funny book, which was a disappointment. This is not Gaiman as I know and love him.
The other drawback of the ever-present light humor is that the book is almost entirely lacking in depth—anything, really, other than that light humor. There is an attempt to include it—averting the apocalypse means accepting and embracing human nature, the way things are, and other goodness—but these touches seem and are last-minute, unsupported, and unnecessary. The meaning hangs on the end of the book without fitting in or seeming necessary.
I did real all of this, and enjoyed parts of it (the strength is in the characters, some of which are real personalities and a lot of fun to read about, and in the uneasy, joint relationship between the demon and the angel), but I wouldn't personally recommend this book, especially when Gaiman himself has written so much else that's definitely worth reading. I know I'm in the minority for that opinion, but there you go. I just didn't love this book very much.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
