Good Omens

It was a nice day. 

All the days had been nice. There had been rather more than seven of them so far, and rain hadn't been invented yet. But clouds massing east of Eden suggested that the first thunderstorm was on its way, and it was going to be a big one....

... Thunder growled among the hills. The animals, freshly named, cowered from the storm.

Far away, in the dripping woods, something bright and fiery flickered among the trees.

It was going to be a stormy night.

~~~~~~~

Good Omens, an apparently very well-loved novel first published in 1990 that I hadn't heard of until the year 2019. WHY DID IT TAKE NEARLY 30 YEARS FOR ME TO DISCOVER THIS MASTERPIECE?!?! Neil Gaiman's talent for story-telling is amazing enough on its own but throw in Terry Pratchett to make this dynamic duo? There's no way this book COULDN'T be good. The first apocalyptic story I've read that made me laugh out loud.

This book tells the story of the last days of Earth before The End Times, predicted centuries ago in the Book of Revelation. An Angel that likes his books and the blundering of humanity, a Demon that prefers good music and no rules. Both knowing that when the end of the world arrives, the lives they lead will change drastically. The only way to ensure the survival of the world they've come to love is to team up and find the Anti-Christ before either of their respective sides can use him as a weapon.

There were so many things to enjoy about this book it's hard to choose what to talk about. I think one of the main things was how accurate Gaiman and Pratchett were on how kids behave, talk, and think. Adam (the Anti-Christ who doesn't know he's the Anti-Christ) and his group of friends (called the Them) roam around the town, getting into trouble and brain-storming ways to save/rule the world. One minute deciding to hunt down any witches wanting to do their community wrong and practicing their "torture" on younger siblings, the next deciding maybe witches aren't a bad thing if it meant not having to sit in a pew every Sunday and deciding instead to focus their efforts on saving the whales, finding the Lost City of Atlantis, and brainstorming ways to make their bully, Greasy Johnson, suffer. It took me back to the days where playing "pretend" never really felt like pretending. (My cousin and I made pretty good Pirates back in the day).

What suprised me about this book was how relevant some of the current events and issues of humanity are, even today, nearly 30 years later. The human capacity for violence is a major focus. There's a part in the novel where Crowly, the Demon, states that Demons barely have to do anything to humans anymore because the things that humans due to each other are horrifying enough. The constant struggle of sexism is another big theme. The issue of female employers/leaders struggling to be taken seriously by their male counterparts and employees/teammates. Something that, unfortunately, we still struggle with today. Pollution and the sad state of our environement was one of the most constant themes in this book as Pollution was one of the four bikers of the apocalypse (replacing Pestilence as one of the retired Four Horsemen). How much more relevant could that topic be? Maybe if we cleaned up our act back when this book was published we would have a lot less work in front of us today.

The one and only thing that I didn't like about this book was the resolution. It just seemed way too fast and honestly I'm confused as to what even happened. There was so much build up to this big "END OF THE WORLD" day but it felt like the actual end was barely a paragraph. Admittedly, this book was definitely more about the journey than the destination but the end still just felt a little too rushed. 

There's so many amazing, funny, exciting, and relevant things in this book but if I say anymore I'll spoil the whole story and I definitely think this is one you guys will have to read on your own to see how awesome it is. And don't worry, it may be about Angels and Demons but to be honest there's really not a whole lot of focus on religion in this story. It's fictional literature meant for fun and enjoyment and anyone that thinks otherwise needs to learn what FICTION is and chill for a minute.

I, for one, am excited to start streaming the show on Amazon Prime and relive this story all over again.

This book was definitely 5 stars for me! It's one of those un-put-downable books.