Reviews

• Magic realism with a hint of misogyny

  Just like the TV version, or the author had magically materialized the image and the TV brought it to life, perfect. Added later: a pinch of misogyny considering the fate of female characters compared to their male counterparts. Written by a man after all. Does not conflict with the fact there were claims of sexual harassment against the author-true or not. Where there is fire,....

• Interesting

  I like the story, it links the current world with the gods bring by the people from the old world to the new world.

• 物語の世界観は魅力的だけど...

  最初の200ページは引き込まれますが、中盤がひたすら進行がノロく、これは流石に長いよ！と思いながら読んでました。 一応、最後にオチはつくので読後体験は悪くないです。ただ、著者の作品を初めて手に取るなら、墓場の少年かグッドオーメンズの方をおすすめします。

• Surprisingly good

  What a surprising great book. Of course not perfect, but what book is, still an amazing read which I highly recommend.

• terrible book terrible author

  terrible author. search online, he should be in prison also the book is pretty disgusting and mostly boring

• Disappointing read.

  The first 100 pages of this book are excellent. The beginning has a huge hook that really makes you want to know more about the protagonist, Shadow. Mr. Wednesday, the instigator of the plot throughout the book is a great character as are most of them memorable. However, it must be said that the middle of this book has no direction to the point at which some chapters can become quit boring. This novel could have easily lost 100 pages and become a much tighter story. I found myself reading certain sections of this book, wondering why Neil Gaiman's editor had not cut this section or that piece. It tended to ramble. The ending, however, was a good conclusion, if not a little predicatable. If you like weird and wonderful characters with well-written descriptive prose then this may be the book for you. But if you like your novels to cough up the goods at a quick rather than leisured pace then avoid.

• 神話オタには嬉しい一冊

  模範囚として三年間の服役を終え、愛する妻の元へ帰るはずの Shadow に悲報が届く。再会を目前にして、彼女が交通事故で死亡したというのだ。失意の中、我が家へと戻る途中の彼の前に、「Wednesday」と名乗る男が現れ、Shadow を助手として雇いたいと持ちかける。更に埋葬されたはずの妻が再び Shadow の前に姿を…。 「Wednesday」の正体はこの語源を知っていればすぐにわかるのですが、そういった説明は作中では明確にはされません。全体的に、北欧神話やエジプト神話・スラブ神話くらいは、読者が知っていることを前提に書かれているような感じです。知らなくても楽しめるのでしょうが、若干、意味不明の部分が残るかもしれません。 新旧の神々の戦いという題材のわりに、派手さはそれほどありません。ですが、現実と幻想が交錯する不思議な感じがとても魅力的な小説です。人間社会で地道に生計をたてる、しょぼくれた感じの古き神々がイイ味だしてます。また、小道具の使い方や、ちょっとしたエピソードの描写が非常に上手いと感じました。

• A big disappointment

  Bought it following the big hype train it rode on and ended up getting off half-way through the book. It was boring and practically non-engaging. The stories told are completely random and not very well inter-woven. It was definitely a waste of money.

• Of Elephants and Maps

  Before I truly get started on my review of American Gods by Neil Gaiman, I should mention a few things. First off, I was struck in awe and wonderment at being able to read the works of such a master wordsmith. Neil Gaiman is a craftsman when it comes to words. His prose, while not overly flowery, has a depth of emotion and poetry that is a joy to read. Secondly, I benefitted greatly from a website that compiled and explained the mythology behind various gods and characters. If you decide to read this book, may I highly recommend bookmarking and referencing "Only The Gods Are Real?" [...] Trust me when I say you will appreciate the way Gaiman weaves metaphor and mythology so much MORE when you understand the stories he's drawing from. The way he describes the gods and the situations he places them in is nothing short of brilliant. American Gods is a really large elephant of a book. It's been a few days since I've finished reading this novel, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of the various concepts and layers. When I focus on one aspect of the book, the others seem to fade out of reach in my mind. They're still there, but slightly out of view. Then, as I shift my attention to another angle of the story, the original thought recedes and goes out of focus. I realize that they're all connected and inter-related, but being able to explain precisely how it all fits is a challenge that seems beyond my scope and ability. In the end, I've been left with a sense of enormity and magnificence, while still not managing to see the whole beast at once. So, then, let's look at the components separately, instead. +++American Gods is a story about a man named Shadow Moon.+++ Shadow Moon is a man who was sentenced to six years in jail and is due to be released early for good behavior after only serving three of them. A few days before he's to be freed, his life is shattered when he finds out that his wife has died in a car crash. On his way home, to attend his wife's funeral, he meets a man named Mr. Wednesday. Mr. Wednesday wants to hire him on as his bodyguard and all around errand boy. Originally, Shadow declines the offer, but Mr. Wednesday is insistent and eventually Shadow acquiesces- with a few stipulations. From the very beginning, Shadow can tell that things are not all as they seem. At first, he's reluctantly sucked into the events that unfold, but as things progress he becomes more willingly engaged. He comes to understand that there is a storm coming. There will be a great battle between old and new gods, and that Mr. Wednesday, who is really Odin in disguise, is at the heart of the events unfolding. Much like the skin of an elephant, this is perhaps the easiest aspect of the story to identify. It is roughened by age and elements and yet still manages to be intriguing and comforting. Even if all you wanted to do was read this book on the surface level, it would be an entertaining and pleasant read. +++American Gods is a story about the struggle between old and new.+++ Odin is the greatest Norse God, otherwise known as the All-Father. Immigrants brought the old gods from all over the world to America in their hearts and minds. Gods have come from China, Greece, India, Ireland, Egypt, and anywhere there were people who prayed and kept faith in a higher being. Slaves, paupers, peasants all brought them oversea and across land on their backs and then tethered them within America's borders through sacrifice and worship. As the people who believed in them stopped believing, or teaching the new generations, or as they began to die off, the power of the old gods faded. The old gods were left to fend for themselves and take what little bit they could from the mythology and stories that remained. They had to resort to lying, cheating, whoring and preying on the people as best they could for their existence. Their diminished power made way for new gods. The gods of credit cards and freeways, television and computers, internet and media, modernization and progress. What the new gods have not realized (or maybe they suspect and fear it's truth) is that everything is impermanent and their very existence is still inherently based off the belief that people instill in them. As time moves forward, they will find themselves in a similar situation as the old gods. The lingo may be different, but the function is the same. The new gods fear that there isn't enough room in the people's hearts and minds for all of them, and so want to kill off the old gods. +++American Gods is a story about religion and the role of gods in our society.+++ Gaiman delves into the roles that religion has played in all cultures around the world. At one point in the book, Mr. Wednesday says, "There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right." How can anybody say this isn't relevant to today's geopolitical situation? With so much unrest in the Middle East and the blooming of the Arab Spring? With Iran rushing to gain nuclear capabilities and threatening to wipe Israel off the map; Israel threatening to train their weapons on Iran in retaliation. With the ethnic cleansing and genocide in Sudan and the Darfur? Hasn't it always been the same throughout our history? These are relatively recent examples, but at any point in mankind's past, there is a religion being used as an excuse to wage war and commit murder on masses of people who are different and equally- fervently- calling themselves "right." Throughout humanity, gods have been thought of as, "a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms...a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers, and triumphs over all opposition." The vehicle used to express the idea of God (or gods) is through religion. Religions are, by definition, a metaphor. They are a means to relate the story and concept. At one point in the book religion is described as an operating system. However, if you were to boil any religion down to its base, you'd be left with the concept that, in essence, gods are ideas. Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, it's true, but they can be killed and, therefore, it is possible to kill a god. +++American Gods is a story about the American identity.+++ When Gaiman wrote this book, he'd been living in America for a few years and was trying to come to an understanding about our country's sense of identity. In his search, he takes the reader from Chicago to San Francisco to the smallest towns via back roads and kitschy tourist attractions. He addresses his findings and musing throughout the book and makes some very astute observations. Not exactly as a stranger, but not quite as an insider, either. At one point Mr. Wednesday mentions, "This is the only country in the world that worries about what it is." Which, in my own limited experience, is exactly true. Throughout our history we've fretted over the influx of a particular demographic. Long ago, it was the Irish, then the Chinese. We've fought ourselves bloody over slavery and civil rights and interned our Japanese. A more modern example may be the laws recently passed in Arizona, primarily focusing on Hispanics. Each era, we have questioned ourselves and what it means to be American. The ones who have been here longer wrap themselves in the flag and gorge themselves on apple pie, all the while tucking away their own immigrant ancestors. The fact is, nobody is American. Not originally. And, that is entirely the point. One of the things I'm most proud of is my family heritage. My mom is caucasian. Blonde haired and blue eyed, her family has been in America since the 1700s and originated from England (I think there may be a bit of Irish and French in the mix, as well.) My maternal lineage could be considered one of the oldest families in America and has so many branches it's nearly impossible to keep track of them all. In contrast, my dad is full blooded Thai and first generation American. It was my grandparents who immigrated back in the 1940s in order to attend university and eventually make lives for themselves. I love the fact that I am a combination of some of the oldest Americans and newest Americans. I feel like I am the true embodiment of what it means to be American because of these two aspects. It's helped me to have a greater appreciation for our immigrant nature and realized that everybody who comes to this country has had a hand in shaping it's heritage AND it's future. I consider myself to be very patriotic. I still get a lump in my throat when I hear the national anthem hit that high note of hope and aspiration. I still marvel at the brilliance of the fireworks on the Fourth of July. And I insist on representing my country as best as I can when I go traveling abroad; choosing not to hide behind a Canadian flag simply because I'm afraid people will think less of me because of my country's reputation and propensity for war. However, that's not to say that I haven't been critical of our government and foreign policies. That doesn't mean that I haven't marched and protested and written multiple letters to Congress. I think a major part of the American identity is the fact that we DO have a tendency towards self-reflection; of constantly looking in the mirror and asking, "Who are we?" Despite our disparate pasts, cultures, languages and religions, how do we manage to make this country (that doesn't seem like it should work) function and persist? Even as we question our heritage, our language, our "American-ness" we have some undefined quality that makes us distinguishable from any other country. +++American Gods is a story about an elephant.+++ Have you ever heard the story of the seven blind men in a room with an elephant? They are all asked to touch some part of the elephant and then to describe what it looks like. The first blind man touches the elephant's leg and says, "An elephant is like a pillar." The second blind man touches the elephant's tail and says, "No, an elephant is like a snake." A third blind man touches the elephant's trunk and says, "No, it's like a tree branch." The fourth blind man touches the elephant's ear and says, "An elephant is like a hand fan." And so on, down the line, each blind man grabs hold of a part of the elephant and declares what it is. In the end, they were all right, and yet...they were all wrong, as well. The fact was, the elephant was too large of a concept for any one man to grasp wholly. Some things are just larger than us and not meant to be fully understood. To fight over things we can't possibly know, such as what the exact parameters are in order to be defined as "American," or over the will of God and the rules of higher beings, is an exercise in futility, ignorance and arrogance. Such is the impression I'm left with after reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. +++Epilogue+++ At the risk of mixing metaphors, or adding to this already bloated review, I'll leave you with one final quote from the book that I hope will help illuminate what I think is the essence of this book. "One describes a tale best by telling the tale. You see? The way one describes a story, to oneself or the world, is by telling the story. It is a balancing act and it is a dream. The more accurate the map, the more it resembles the territory. The most accurate map possible would be the territory, and thus would be perfectly accurate and perfectly useless. The tale is the map that is the territory. You must remember this." - The Notebooks of Mr. Ibis. This is my version of a map. I've tried to make it as accurate as possible, but in the end it is incomplete and inaccurate- as all maps must be- in describing this book. The best that anyone can do would be to just read the novel and find themselves as enchanted as I was with the landscape of Gaiman's novel.

• een mooi eposch

  Tja Neil Gaiman schrijft natuurlijk goede boeken. Ook dit is er weer 1 van. Een origineel verhaal dat je meeneemt in een wereld van goden. De kip en ei vraag komt uitvoerig naar voren. Eigenlijk zou dit verplichte kost moeten zijn in een les over kritisch denken. De serie is uiteraard ook een aanrader.

• A must-read for anyone who likes fantasy with a literary edge

  I long been a believer that "genre fiction" can be just as meaningful and well-written as some of the more obviously literary novels, and this book, (which I first read around ten years ago but re-read from cover to cover recently) is a perfect example of the concept. The storyline is utterly compelling, with well-developed, memorable characters and some well-handled twists. The basic premise is an intriguing one. All gods and similar mythological creatures are real, created out of people's belief in them. As waves of explorers and immigrants have come to America over the centuries, they've brought their gods with them, but with little belief left in Thor or leprechauns or whatever, they are mostly eking out a fragile existence on the fringes of society, as con artists or prostitutes or physical labourers. At the same time, new gods are coming into being - gods of the internet, of electricity, of cars etc, and having far more success. That rather bizarre set-up is handled well and believably, and both old and new gods are fun to read about. If you like mythology (and I love it) you'll have lots of fun trying to work out who some of the more obscure characters are based on, and making frequent trips to wikipedia. Gaiman has clearly done his research. Despite all the Gods drifting around and the fantastical nature of some scenes, much of the plot and the setting is very realistic, even gritty. The main character is a seemingly ordinary man called Shadow, who becomes embroiled in the old gods' plot to regain their power and prestige, after a meeting with a Mr Wednesday, whose real identity readers with a passing knowledge of myths can probably take a guess at. Shadow starts the novel in prison for bank robbery, and the prison scenes and later fights and interrogations would not be out of place in something like The Wire. This is urban fantasy at it's most urban, with a definite adult feel. Sometimes, the plot is full of action and revelation. At other points, however, it becomes slow and meditative, which seems quite unusual for a novel of this kind. Shadow spends large parts of the middle section hiding out in an oddly perfect snow-covered town in the north of America. This section could easily have dragged, but my interest in the character and the quality of the writing kept me engaged, and I ultimately felt the book was better for being willing to slow down. It gave it a real epic quality. Beyond the plot though, there are allsorts of big questions being explored. Why does every society have gods? What role do they fulfil in the human psyche? What is the nature of belief? What does it mean to be American? How does it feel to leave one country and culture behind and join another. They are the sort of questions you'd normally expect to be dealt with in a deadly serious Big Novel, but actually feel fresher viewed through this prism of gods and adventures. It's helped by the fact that Gaiman's writing style is consistently strong, and would actually translate perfectly to something less fantastical. Finally, one of my favourite things about the book is the way the main storyline is intercut with both stories of random gods' everyday lives in modern America (I was particularly intrigued by the Queen of Sheba) and stories of the people who came to America and brought their gods with them. Of the latter, the standout was a story of an African woman brought to America as a slave, bringing some voodoo type gods with her. In one chapter, it honestly delivers the most powerful reminder of how horrific slavery was that I've ever read. Most of the others are lighter, but still fascinating. In conclusion, I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone that likes intelligent fantasy, as well as some people who think fantasy isn't really for them. Gaiman's one of my favourite authors, and this is probably his best book and a wonderful introduction to his style.

• Awesome

  Love the series

• Good book

  A great book.

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