eBook, 465 pages
Published April 22, 2019 by Dark Horse Books.
The storm was coming....
Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place.
On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose, accepts.
But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild …
The storm was coming....
Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place.
On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose, accepts.
But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter -- all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does.
Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined.
All around them a storm of epic proportions threatens to break. Soon Shadow and Wednesday will be swept up into a conflict as old as humanity itself. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought -- and the prize is the very soul of America.
As unsettling as it is exhilarating, American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. Magnificently told, this work of literary magic will haunt the reader far beyond the final page.
The story is easier to follow than in volume 1. The drawings are superb and the story gets ever more interesting. A very fine adaption.
It's hard to define what shelves American Gods fits onto. It's a modern fairy tale of sorts, that in stretches reminded me a bit of a Stephen King tale of small-town America and the horrors beneath the surface.
Our protagonist is Shadow, a big guy who is waiting for release from prison so he can rejoin his wife Laura. A day before he was due to be released, his wife dies in a car crash together with his best friend, and Shadow ends up having nowhere to go. This is when the mysterious Mr. Wednesday shows up to offer Shadow a job as his associate. Soon, Shadow is mixed up in a mysterious war between old gods, who have come to America in the past and who now face annihilation because no one worships them anymore, and the new gods, like Media, Internet, and the like. Mr. Wednesday is Odin …
It's hard to define what shelves American Gods fits onto. It's a modern fairy tale of sorts, that in stretches reminded me a bit of a Stephen King tale of small-town America and the horrors beneath the surface.
Our protagonist is Shadow, a big guy who is waiting for release from prison so he can rejoin his wife Laura. A day before he was due to be released, his wife dies in a car crash together with his best friend, and Shadow ends up having nowhere to go. This is when the mysterious Mr. Wednesday shows up to offer Shadow a job as his associate. Soon, Shadow is mixed up in a mysterious war between old gods, who have come to America in the past and who now face annihilation because no one worships them anymore, and the new gods, like Media, Internet, and the like. Mr. Wednesday is Odin Allfather, trying to mobilize the old gods.
In the end, it turns out that Shadow can decide this war, but it's a long trip until then.
My favorite part were probably the interludes, the stories of how all those different gods, afrits, spirits, ended up in America, brought by Vikings, Irish, African slaves etc. Loved them. My favorite gods were probably Mr. Ibis and Mr. Jaquel, and their kitty Bast.
A very enjoyable novel, it sometimes felt a touch too plodding, too aimless, with very little going on. For a good amount of time, Shadow is living in a small town called Lakeside, and very little, other than character development, is happening. I also felt that there was great potential for more tension, for more horrors, to leave more impact on me as reader. Maybe I am too much of a Stephen King fan.
I'm slowly learning that my appreciation for Neil Gaiman lies solely with the Sandman graphic novels. Although similar in theme, American Gods does not deliver the goods in the same way. I can't explain what it is I'm missing, but halfway through the story, reading is more of a chore than it is an enjoyment.
Perhaps in a shorter format this would've worked...
I'm slowly learning that my appreciation for Neil Gaiman lies solely with the Sandman graphic novels. Although similar in theme, American Gods does not deliver the goods in the same way. I can't explain what it is I'm missing, but halfway through the story, reading is more of a chore than it is an enjoyment.
Perhaps in a shorter format this would've worked...
