Good Reading: American Gods

American Gods can be considered as one of his top works and frankly, I made a mistake of starting to read it during my exams and almost paid for it, because this is the type of book you open and don’t stop until you are finished.

* Author – Neil Gaiman
* First Edition – 2001
* Genre – Fantasy

General Background

United States of America as we know it (or at least we think we do). Weird childhood, criminals, sex, gray daily life spiced up by accidents and weird situations in the local news… pretty much boring.

Unless you happen to become acquainted with an ancient god Odin, win a gold coin which will bring your dead wife (who passed away with another man’s junk in her mouth) back to life or find out that there are preparations for a battle of gods – Modern versus Ancient.

Gaiman succeeded in creating a world a lot of us desire – unpredictable, dark and ever changing. Even if you are a god, you can’t take everything for granted and live forever; the world just spins around too much.

Plot Summary

A man named Shadow is released from prison a few days early because of his wife’s death. He then accepts a job as a bodyguard for a charming man calling himself Mr. Wednesday – only to find out later on that he is the American reincarnation of Odin, the highest god.

When first settlers arrived to America, they brought their believes with them – and thus their magical creatures: gods, elves, dwarves… even succubi. However, these beings cannot exist without people believing in them, an as the faith weakens, it gives room for modern gods to arise – media, transportation, internet and so on.

The old ones don’t want to give up and the new ones want their slice of the pie – thus a great battle is being planned, especially after Odin gets killed. However, Shadow finds out that the only ones who would gain from such confrontation are Odin himself and Loki, the god of lies. He stops the battle and prevents Odin’s shadow to return.

There are also several subplots in the book:

* most of the main characters are depicted in a sexual scene
* Shadow finds out and convicts a kobold named Hinzelmann, who was sacrificing one child per year to keep his power up and protect a small local city

MPB Rating

* 9 out of 10

Make sure you have your diary empty before you decide to open American Gods. It is fluent, vernacular, mysterious, at times humorous and overall, stunning. A top work from a top novelist, nothing more needs to be said.

Thank you for reading!

By: Ondrej Dyrka

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