Good Omens is a collaboration between Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, the literary equivalent of Xena and Hercules having
a baby together; the world is ending, the Antichrist has been born onto the Earth, time is ticking down to the final confrontation between Heaven and Hell and, as with most general elections, though it’s hard to predict which side will triumph the outcome is certain; The complete obliteration of both the planet and mankind.
Trouble is that certain personalities have become rather attached to the place, the aforementioned human race for example, and Messrs Crowley and Aziraphale, a devil and an angel who have formed an unlikely friendship during the centuries of their mutual assignment to the Earth. Together they conspire to prevent the war from coming about, while all about them (and frequently due to their presence) the world is going madde.
As for what I have to say about it, Jesus, where should I begin? As far as I’m concerned literacy should be taught to every child exclusively for the purpose of expanding this book’s potential reading audience. It’s dark and sharp and spleen-rupturingly funny, and all the characters are fantastic and the story is absorbing and complex and far more meaningful than comedy should ever be allowed to be. The way all the different threads of plot are woven together is masterful, each of the characters has a part to play at the climax of events and no-one is unaffected in the aftermath. The two
author’s
styles blend together beautifully, and there’s hours of fun to be had trying to guess which parts came from Pratchett and which from Gaiman, some little moments stand out, marked clearly by the signature styles of one author or the other, but much of the novel could easily have come from either one of them.
In summary; Good Omens = Bible Mk.II, read it or be damned to an eternity in the blazing pits of hell.