What do an epicurean angel, a Mafia-esque demon, the great-great-great-great-great-grandaughter of a witch, the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of a witchfinder, a medium slash an “intimate care and relaxation” professional, an Antichrist, the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse, a delivery man, satanic nuns, Tibetans, Americans, and aliens have in common?

Yes, they can only assemble in one and one book alone! 

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

A reader note: If the introduction hasn’t already clarified this already, this book is a humorous take on the coming of the End Times and can be considered mildly offensive for people with whom (mild) religious satire doesn’t sit well. But that’s the beauty of reading nowadays: you can always pick another book to read. 

A Spoiler-free Summary:

It’s been 6000 years since the Earth was born, and the time has come for Armageddon. (For those who don’t know what it means, that’s when Heaven and Hell will finally duke it out to see who comes out on top, with the teeny-weeny casualty being the entirety of humanity.) But the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley, who have been on Earth since day one and fallen in love with the planet, can’t stomach this apocalyptic scenario. Instead, they make a pact: instead of Crowley rearing the Antichrist alone (who, by the way, is the son of Satan and whom Crowley has to exert a demonic influence over), Aziraphale will also help bring him up, thereby counterbalancing the forces of good and evil influencing the Antichrist.

Much to Aziraphale’s dismay, however, Heaven turns out to be as hell-bent on war as Hell is. And to both Aziraphale’s and Crowley’s dismay, the Antichrist they have been carefully balancing each other’s influence on turns out to be, well, not the Antichrist. Apparently, the real son of Satan was swapped for another child 11 years back, and this baby swap would set off a chain of bizarre events that may ultimately still result in Armageddon.

Personal Opinion:

As a person who rarely ever watches movies and TV series (mainly because Prime is not available in my country, and I’m just too frugal to subscribe to Netflix), I somehow wound up watching the Good Omens TV series first before reading the book (on a piracy website, if you must know). For this reason, I will make certain comparisons between the book and the film version, but the spotlight will still be on the book. And now, let’s dive in!

+) Pro – Wackiness at its best: The authors know their book is positively zany, and they revel in it. If any comparison is to be made at all, people often compare it with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (I, sadly, haven’t read the book, but you and I get the point). I was seconds away from choking to death when “nuanced” scenes are paused to explain how two characters can’t interpret the same wink more differently. I can assure you that this is one of the most funniest and weirdest books available, and if it doesn’t sound so, blame my review-writing skills instead. Look up the book, read its first ten pages, and you will get what I mean!

+) Pro – Memorable characters: The book has a vast and extremely diverse cast. The major characters (there are probably 10 of them – when I write “vast”, I mean it) are surprisingly well developed despite the little space divided among them. I didn’t question any of their arcs, for character developments were handled perfectly. 

+) Pro – Again, wacky but satisfactory plot: If the various storylines may seem disparate in the beginning and the middle, I can assure you that they converge in the most satisfying manner in the end. Also, the authors frequently added ludicrous (in a positive way) footnotes and half-a-paragraph-long details in brackets that can only further boost reader enjoyment.

-) Con – Fragmented focus on characters: Despite just praising character development 5 seconds ago, as any human consuming any cultural product, I’m bound to have favorite characters, who, in this case, are Aziraphale and Crowley. Don’t get me wrong, the other characters (especially Mr. Shadwell and Madame Tracy) are incredibly funny and enjoyable too, but the downside of the book’s sheer scale of characters is that readers don’t meet their favorite characters again until after something like 80 pages – which is a lot for a 474-page book.

The series, meanwhile, has a stronger focus on the angel and demon. Then again, it might be because I saw the TV series first and then had the same expectations for the book. 

-) Con – Sometimes dated jokes, references, and perceptions for modern readers: Written in 1990 and released to much hearty and uproarious laughter, the book is bound to contain jokes that fall flat for many modern readers. I do see that every joke would have been unbearably funny had I been born 30 years earlier, but I wasn’t, so the jokes were generally hit or miss for me. The book also uses the f-word and other now-unacceptable derogatory words for the LGBTQ+ community, but I believe that as with any cultural product, Good Omens must be considered within the context of its time. Perhaps it should be preserved as it is, to remind readers that even as recently as the 1990s, bigotry against sexual identities was still widespread.

And that is all for Good Omens! Frankly, I intended every review to contain 3 pros and 3 cons, but that I couldn’t think of the third con should be considered a testament to the awesomeness of the book itself. In all honesty, I prefer the TV series (specifically the first season), but the book version certainly has its ineffably wonderful charm.