You may have recently been watching the television adaption of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. It's been well received by just about everyone. It's easy to see why: it's well written, well made, and well cast, which is saying something when Lovejoy's one of the two leads. But as good as the adaption is it's not as good as the book. Because adaption's rarely are, what with the blunting of imagination and all.
The novel, originally released in 2001, is the book that turned Neil Gaiman from an acclaimed comic book writer into the swaggering rock star of popular fantasy that he is today. Don't hold that against it though. It's a highly enjoyable book. The popular word to describe it these days would probably be "epic" but that's mostly become a synonym for "long", which doesn't really tell you anything especially useful. So I'll go with more useful adjectives and tell you that it's a funny, inventive, and clever novel. It explores its ideas thoroughly without ever becoming repetitive, boring, slow, or repetitive.
It's those ideas that set the novel apart and take it from being good to being one of this century's first classic fantasy works. The central idea is that there's a war taking place with the future of the United States up for grabs (still topical even now, right?). On the one side are the modern gods who have risen to prominence in the New World, the likes of Media, Technology, and Highways, led by Mr World, who is a personification of America's paranoia and obsession with conspiracy. Opposing them are the gods that people took with them from their old countries, mostly comprised of half-forgotten European and African deities who have had to adapt and evolve as America has developed and evolved. I shan't spoil who rallies them. The eventual reveal of their identity isn't especially well hidden but is worth experiencing spoiler free if you can manage it (good luck with that TV adaption about).
All of which makes it sound like the book is about war and fighting. It isn't at all. The ideological conflict is a backdrop Gaiman uses for examining and toying with the nature of belief, focusing mostly but not exclusively on the contemporary United States of America. Gaiman's message is very much one of remembering and respecting the past, appreciating what you have, small communities triumphing over the faceless corporations, and so on. Which, while it may seem trite, is not the worst sort of world to strive for. Nor is it the worst sort of subtext to be presented with in a novel.
Of course the main reason I like American Gods is because it's an engaging fantasy novel written by someone who knows their subject matter, has something worthwhile to say, and knows how to say it. It does clever things with a diverse cast of characters from stories that are centuries old. It is, as already mentioned, one of the first classic fantasy novels to be written this century and one that you owe it to yourself to read.
Dave
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