Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens is a standalone novel. Ever since Adam and Eve committed the Original Sin (eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil), war between the armies of Heaven and Hell have been inevitable. Over countless centuries, each side quietly amassed a formidable force, lying in wait for the time to obliterate the opposing side, waiting for the Apocalypse. Now, the signs of the End Days are approaching with everyone eager for all the pieces to fall into place, except for two supernatural entities. A sarcastic demon and a fussy angel have come to enjoy living among humans and aren’t excited to see the world destroyed.
This book has a huge cast of characters and alternates between all of them to build the story. Since there are far too many to talk about individually, I’ll pick my two favorite leads and write about them.
Out of all the characters, my favorite is Crawley, so I’ll talk about him first. Crawley is a caustic demon with a sense of humor. He has walked among humans for six thousand years witnessing all sorts of failures and successes. He has seen humanity’s darkest and most merciful moments and occasionally. Witnessing how humanity can be more evil then Hell, yet kinder than Heaven, he decides that he likes humans, especially since they invented his coveted black Bentley.
Aziraphale is a close second and a wonderful foil to Crawley. This fussy angel is an excessive book hoarder with almost every book of prophecies in existence. He is overly conscious of his actions towards humans and consistently tries to do good. This causes him to develop a fondness for humanity, short-comings and all, and he is not eager to see their demise. Good Omens is a fun book. Written by two British authors, this book tells the story of the Apocalypse (in manner that is apparently convincing enough for some people to believe it). This story became a cult classic, loved by fans around the world, but it isn’t without short-comings, the most glaring of which is the pacing.
The book starts off with a delightfully sarcastic sense of humor that makes the book interesting and engaging despite its slow pacing.
Unfortunately, while the plot progresses steadily, the humor does not. The humor dries up midway through the book, making the slow, methodical plot endlessly boring. This snore-fest is brought on by a variety of factors. One is that many of the jokes appeal to a British audience and probably just flew over my head. That is no fault of the writers, but simply a disappointment for me who was expecting laugh through the entire book. The other factor was the characters. As mentioned previously, there is a huge cast of characters that alternates narration throughout the entire book. If you happen to be like me and only like a few characters, the portions with other narrators are tedious. If you happen to love all the characters (the eleven year old children and their inane ranting), this book will be pleasant the entire way through.
The book finally speeds up toward the end as everything collides for a fun and fantastic finale. The humor is back at full force and all the characters become significantly more interesting just before the book comes to a close. Overall, the book is a slow burn and is probably more enjoyable is short chunks, rather than devouring the entire thing in a couple days.
Stepping outside the realm of the story, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman take the time to impart some deep wisdom on the human condition. The story neither glorifies Heaven not Hell, instead choosing to favor humans and their ever-evolving emotions. Humans are capable of both the most monstrous form of evil and the kindest form of mercy. They don’t necessarily need Heaven or Hell to influence their actions or interfere in their behavior to insight massive atrocities and unparalleled compassion. And maybe, they’re better off having both Heaven and Hell, good and evil, around. At the very least, it makes things more interesting.