Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

This is a novel written by two very well-known authors back in 1990 when Terry Pratchett was sort of kicking about and no one really knew who Neil Gaiman was yet.  The fact that it’s still in print tells you something.  They've both written a great deal since.  Pratchett is probably best known for his Discworld novels for adults but he's also written some wonderful ones for the middle grades and several other novels that have little to nothing to do with Discworld.  Gaiman is probably best known for his Sandman series but also Coraline and Anansi Boys.

Good Omens is a tongue in cheek book about the Apocalypse.  The dedication itself is rather interesting.  “The authors would like to join the demon Crowley in dedicating this book to the memory of G.K. Chesterton.  A man who knew what was going on.”   I first read a story by Chesterton, one of his Father Brown mysteries, when I was taking a detective fiction class in college.  I was immediately taken with his style and the character.  Apparently, Gaiman and Pratchett also appreciated him.

There is a large cast of characters including God and the voice of God, various angels and fallen angels, the four horsepersons of the apocalypse, humans, the antichrist and “a full chorus of Tibetans, Aliens, Americans, Atlanteans, and other rare and strange Creatures of the Last Days.” 

The book begins by asserting that any theories about when the world was created are incorrect, it having actually been created within a quarter of an hour of 9:00 am on Sunday the 21^st of October, 4004 B.C., which means that the Earth is a Libra.  Okay then.

The main problem of the story is that the Apocalypse is coming and, of course, someone has misplaced the antichrist, owing to a double switch by Satanist nuns.   “The babies looked similar both being small, blotchy, and looking sort of, though not really, like Winston Churchill.”

I don't want to say too much, though at over four hundred pages, I could probably say quite a bit and still not say too much, but I'll stop here just the same.  If you have someone on your gift giving list who enjoys fantasy novels, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman are a fair bet, so why not start at the beginning and bring the two together?  I recommend this one.