Neil Gaiman is extremely popular among a large subset of science fiction fandom but an author I’d never really gotten into before. Another one of TS1’s holiday presents to me was his 2001 novel American Gods and, I have to say, I was quite enjoyed his quasi-realistic take on what would happen to our ancestor’s deities as they too emigrated to this hard cold land. Don’t take my word for it, though, since the book won several major awards:
- Hugo Award for Best SF/Fantasy Novel
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Bram Stoker Award for Best Horror Novel
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Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel
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Nebula Award for Best Novel
That’s pretty much a grand slam, eh? So of course there’s a sequel I need to find now.
What we have here is a story about a man named Shadow, his real name never really given, who meet on the day he’s released from prison. Which is actually two days ahead of schedule, because the love of his life, his wife Laura, has died in a car crash and the powers that be had some compassion. Or, more likely, other motives.
Shadow hooks up with Mr. Wednesday, a very strange man, to work as his driver, errand boy and muscle if needed. Mr. Wednesday, which both is and isn’t really his name, needs to be driven all over the United States for meetings with people as strange as he. People, like Wednesday, who are what’s left of the gods of our old countries after the folk who brought them to life with the power of their belief no longer really believe.
Gaiman put a lot of thought into who these gods would be in our day and age (con men, hookers, morticians) as well as what gods would arise from our modern beliefs (bankers, geeks, sui generis TV stars) and tells the tale of what would happen if the two groups felt the need to fight a winner take all battle.
Unpredictable, enjoyable, highly readable.
recommended
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