the end of the world... or is it?

So, I was in the book store a couple months ago trying to spend some of my birthday money. After grabbing arms full of poetry books and the novel I initially went in for, I asked the clerk if he had any Gaiman on hand. I love Gaiman (you might have noticed that by now) and am always looking to pick up books not yet in my collection. All they had in the store was Good Omens. I really didn't want Good Omens. It was humor. I have no sense of humor. It was a co-authored book. I just wanted Gaiman. But the saleguy was raving so highly about it that I couldn't just shove it back at him. It was only a couple of bucks. Maybe I could give it away as a Christmas gift?

Well, my husband noticed it that week and started reading it. He kept raving about how good it was. So I broke down and decided we could read it together. I like being read to, and he likes making funny voices. It works for us.

This book is so bizarre, I couldn't help but love it. The agents of Heaven and Hell, Aziraphale and Crowley, are oddly charming in their own weird, self-serving ways. They are what really make this book come alive. They've both become accustomed to living on earth and aren't ready to see it destroyed. Where is the logic in building a world only to destroy it two millennia later?

As the story goes, it is nearing the end of the world. The anti-christ is born at a hospital full of satanic nuns. There are two other babies born on this day. Needless to say, there is a mix up. The anti-christ was supposed to go home with some important American, but ends up staying over in England with a simple middle class family. Heaven and Hell are both completely unaware of this mistake. The only one who actually knows what happened has been dead for centuries. Agnes Nutter was a witch, but now she is dead. Agnes had a knack for remembering the future. She wrote the only book of prophecy that was actually dead accurate, The Nice And Accurate Prophecies Of Agnes Nutter. This book has since been passed down through her family and is now in the hands of Anathema Device, who can't really make out most of what Agnes meant in her prophecies till after the events happen.

Anyway, as the story goes, Crowley, the reptilian hellion, and Aziraphale, the bibliophilic angel, team up to try to stop the war between Heaven and Hell, which is meant to be the end of the world, from occurring. But first, they have to find the anti-christ. The anti-christ has grown up to be a normal, yet charismatic young boy living in a small town in England, but the Forces of Good and Evil are chasing after some spoiled American brat named Warlock.

I don't want to go into too much more detail. You'll love this story. It is such an odd take on the end of the world. Other notable characters include the Metatron (the voice of god) and the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse and their momentary companions, the Other Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, not to mention the Witchfinder Army.

You'll love these characters, Crowley and his Bentley, Aziraphale and his books, the Them. And you'll love the lighthearted take on angels, satanism, foreign cars, witchhunting and arranged (or prophesied) marriages. See what happens when the fate of the world is left in the hands of a normal twelve year old boy.

This is definitely a book worth reading. One worth sharing too :} I've decided to start reading more Terry Pratchett. Next on my list: Carpe Jugulum.... as soon as I finish Ellen Miller's Like Being Killed (definitely much more serious).