Review: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Cover via Amazon

·  Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages

·  Publisher: Ace (May 1, 1996)

·  Language: English

·  ISBN-10: 0441003257

·  ISBN-13: 978-0441003259

 genre: humorous fantasy,

Synopsis:

The end of the world a.k.a Armageddon is finally scheduled. The evil against the good, global cataclysms, wars, famine, the Moon looking like blood and so on. In order to do it right the son of Satan has to be born and brought up among humans. A demon called Anthony Crowley, working more closely than he should with an angel called Aziraphale, is supposed to ensure the boy goes to the right, influential American family ( a kind of parody of a very old thriller “The Omen”). Things get tangled up because of his clumsiness, one chattering nun, an ordinary Englishman expecting his first newborn baby and a bunch of other strange events. While both Heaven and Hell are in a race to make sure he does what THEY want the devil’s spawn ends up being named Adam (not Damien or Warlock or anything evil) and happens to be raised in a provincial British town by ordinary lower middle class people. It is not exactly something good for his devilishness or the plans of the mighty forces above and below. Even his hell hound turns into an innocuous mongrel who loves chasing cats. The four riders of Apocalypse have obtained their orders though and are determined to carry them out. What will happen to all these people? Will anybody be able to locate the boy and start the end of the world properly? Perhaps a witch or two will come in handy; them and some witchfinders, their natural enemies…and an unusual book with deadly precise prophecies, written by the late Agnes Nutter.

What I liked:

The book should be entitled “Plethora of Chuckles”.

It was a scream from begining to the end, as fast-paced as you would like, and the characters were surprisingly well-rounded for such a light read. Crowley was presented as an intensely cool character, neither completely bad nor completely good. He has realized a couple centuries ago that human beings faced with enough daily aggravations could condemn themselves so he takes it easy now. Aziraphale, an angel and part-time rare book dealer, was his perfect partner in good and bad deeds.

 I was even more impressed with the way Gaiman/Pratchett handled religion, a very delicate issue. They got their laughs without slipping into mockery or trying to disprove anything. It's all to easy for a non-religious author to take the side of hell. That doesn't happen here. Also an in-depth insight into religious matters is not needed to enjoy the book; all you need is a sense of humor, a knowledge of the most basic points of Christian theology/culture and the basic knowledge of Queen songs, the favourite pop band of Crowley.

What I didn’t like:

The romance between the younger witch, Anathema, and poor young Newt, the witch-finder private, was a bit boring and superficial compared to the rest of the book but believe me it is really a minor quibble.

Final verdict:

Without a doubt, one of the funniest books that I have ever read – I strongly recommend it!

A bonus

The best summary I could find - enjoy!

New poem of the month content - check it out!

I've chosen two short winter poems by Emily Dickinson to accompany us this month - you can find them on my "Poem of the month" page linked here. Enjoy!

Teaser Tuesday, 4 January

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Here are the rules: Grab your current read. Open to a random (or not so random) page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) Share the title & author, too, so that other Teaser Tuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week comes from "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - the review I am planning to write soon! Meanwhile enjoy this short excerpt:

They followed verse 24, which in the King James version reads:
"So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming
sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life," and read:
25 And the Lord spake unto the Angel that guarded the eastern gate, saying Where is the flaming
sword which was given unto thee?
26 And the Angel said, I had it here only a moment ago, I must have put it down some where, forget
my own head next.
27 And the Lord did not ask him again.

Cover of Good Omens

Silent Sunday, 2 January

For all followers and visitors around...

Review: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Hardcover: 528 pages

Publisher: Doubleday Books; First Edition edition (September 15, 2009)

Language: English

Cover of The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, No. 3)

ISBN-10: 0385504225

ISBN-13: 978-0385504225

Genre: Dan Brown, everything else would be an undeserved compliment.

Synopsis:

Robert Langdon is invited at short notice by his wealthy Masonic friend, Peter Salomon, to Washington DC - allegedly to deliver a lecture about the symbolism of the capital of the USA in the Smithsonian Institution. When he arrives there, though, there is no conference, no guests and, most importantly, no Peter to greet him, only a weirdo who phones him shortly after the landing and claims he has orchestrated a spurious event because he needs Langdon to decipher some code and help him to unlock an "ancient portal". A severed human hand found by the security officers, probably Peter’s, the first clue to the secret, doesn’t bode well. The CIA (why them, not FBI?) is already sniffing around making the situation even worse. What’s happened? Will Langdon manage to solve several codes, one inside another, under huge stress and within given 24 hours? Will he save the abducted friend, his attractive sister Katherine, the Masons and most probably the world (or at least the North America)? You bet.

What I liked:

Dan Brown undeniably did a lot of research for this book. It doesn’t mean he got every single fact correct, but you no longer can find such huge and quite disarming in their naiveté mistakes as those of the notorious DaVinci Code (e.g. the Merovingians founded Paris – gah!) and have field day with them when writing your review. The Lost Symbol focuses on new territory, specifically the world of Freemasons and the science of Noetics, and I found it quite original. Overall the book certainly makes for riveting reading as you follow the twists and turns of the story. As long as you don’t think too much about it. Preferably not at all.

What I didn’t like:

Oh dear, where to start…ok, my head first - horns are already there, red-hot and sharp…tail is properly groomed and waxed…hooves - well- polished.  ;) Good.

Speaking more seriously I have failed so far to find a way to switch my thinking off while reading Dan Brown’s books. It is bad. Here are the lamentable results.

If you have read any other Dan Brown book you can claim you’ve read all his books as you will know very well what to expect – formulaic, somewhat predictable, and simplistic narration. Perhaps the author has a "Dan Brown Story Template" on his PC and just runs on autopilot when writing?

 When it comes to the plot of The Lost Symbol the situation is almost tragic - there is no real cohesion, many of the chapters are just short paragraphs, the novel reads as if it wasn't edited at all.  It almost appears as if the author decided to write a B class movie script instead a novel: plenty of action, not much sense. Apart from that the story really takes a while to find its momentum. The early chapters are cluttered with info but do we need to be told ALL of it at once right at the beginning ?

The characters, as usual, are really laughably cardboard- flat. For a Harvard Professor with a specialty in Symbolism Robert Langdon is becoming more and more ignorant repeating in every novel his own words and trite formulas over and over again. The mystery code he solved this time was childish to say the least of it. The baddie called Mal’ach lacks any psychological depth and his back story had as many holes as a broken sieve (but we get the full description of  his almost super human strength, his tattoos and a spray tan that covers them instead – truly classy and fascinating stuff). We are also presented with a 4"9 Japanese woman who is the head of the CIA but  has a remarkable degree of ignorance of history and generally doesn’t seem to be intelligent at all - just sadistic and boorish. Right. That’s a typical Dan Brown's CIA director for you.

Finally Katherine, the Noetics scientist, and her associate, Trish. Katherine is rich, slender and attractive so she survives the most gruesome assaults  and even lands several times in the oh- so-fine-desirable-and-manly arms of Mr Langdon. Trish, although younger, is plump, not so attractive and not so rich so she is murdered…no comment (it could have been an expletive).

Let me end these complaints by saying that Soganlik is a district of Kartal/Istanbul not the name of a prison. A nice and respectable district with hotels and little shops. Do the Turks even have a Soganlik prison? Perhaps but I couldn’t find it – there were plenty of other names of Turkish prisons but not this one. I am hardly surprised, though. Mr. Dan Brown when oh when you (or your editor) will finally discover the fantastic possibilities of the Google search engine?

The final verdict:

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I read this book because my fellow blogger reviewed it and found it to be not so bad. Unfortunately I was underwhelmed by it as usual. I am not a fan of Mr. Brown and it seems I will never be. If you like childish conspiracy theories, Masonic rituals, symbolism, founding fathers' philosophy, knowledge of the ancients and Noetics then maybe you'll enjoy his novels but remember we are speaking about a seriously dumbed down version of many otherwise interesting theories and events. In my very humble opinion there are many better positions dealing with them.

Thougthful Thursday, 30 December

 

What does a New Year mean to you? Is it an important occasion or just a date? Do you see the point of celebrating it? Is it a new beginning, a day as usual, a nice holiday, or simply some free time to enjoy with  your family and/or friends? Do you go to a party or do you stay at home watching tv? Do you make New Year's resolutions? Do you really intend to keep them?

Here are some quotes I chosen for this topic:

Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve.  Middle age is when you're forced to.  ~Bill Vaughn

Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits.  ~Author Unknown

New Year's Day is every man's birthday.  ~Charles Lamb

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.Benjamin Franklin

New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions. ~Mark Twain

 

I would love to know your opinion - do share!