Good Omens is a cult success novel written by both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. They worked together to write the book back in 1990. Neither author thought they were writing anything special but boy, were they wrong.
After its release, the book became a legendary international bestseller. So if you want to take a break from playing Intertops casino bonus and want to read a book, here is why I think you should read this one.
The book takes place during the late 1980s or late 1990s. It’s not explicitly stated. But the level of technology fits.
It follows a small cast of characters as they prepare for the apocalypse to happen. Not in the “build a bunker full of guns, canned beans, and toilet paper” but the “make sure the anti-Christ is born and raised to destroy the world” type of prepare.
There are a demon and an angel, both great friends, a witch hunter and a witch along with a small group of young children. All of them have their roles throughout the book and in the making of the apocalypse.
The Cast
Arguably the main characters of Good Omens are an angel and a demon. Their names are Aziraphale and Crowley respectively. Back in the old days at the creation of the world and universe, Aziraphale’s job was to hold the ever turning flaming sword at the gate of the garden of Eden, and Crowley’s job was to try and cause the humans to do something bad, like their own personal demon. Which is what he was.
Crowley convinces them to eat from the tree of forbidden knowledge of good and evil while Aziraphale gives away his flaming sword to the humans because they looked really cold.
Neither of them is really sure if they did the correct thing.
I told that story because if you look into it, it’s a great explanation of both characters that the authors tell at the beginning of the story.
You get pretty all the information you need about both character’s personalities at the beginning just from the first 2 and a half pages. This is honestly impressive and a great feat by both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
After the two otherworldly creatures, the next members of the cast are Newton Pulsifer who is a man who saw an ad in the paper and decided to become a witch hunter.
There’s Sergeant Shadwell who is Newton’s immediate superior, and the only other member, of the witch hunters’ army. He put the ad in the paper.
Then there’s Anathema Device, a “practical occultist” but mostly a witch.
There are of course a variety of other characters thrown out throughout the book. Including DEATH, Famine, War, and pollution. A hellhound named Dog along with a child named Adam Young. He happens to be the Anti Christ.
The Plot
To not spoil too much of the book it mostly follows Aziraphale and Crowley in the late 1980s to early 1990s as they have adapted to living in modern human society. They have made a deal over the centuries about how they treat each other.
Both of them need to either make bad stuff happen or have good stuff happen but neither of them mind which one of them does it as long as the correct one gets credit for it. It’s a useful system.
And every so often they get together to feed ducks at the park.
Both of them greatly enjoy living in the modern world. Aziraphale even gets to collect old books, his favorite hobby.
That all changes when Crowley is given and told to deliver the child anti-Christ to a hospital to be swapped with another kid. Some small shenanigans happen and the baby is swapped with the wrong child.
It takes eleven years for the underworld to realize they have no clue where the anti-Christ is and the apocalypse is due next Saturday around tea time.
When this realization happens it sparks an opportunity for both Aziraphale and Crowley, as neither of them really want the apocalypse to happen. They decide that they’re going to do their best to try and make sure then that the apocalypse doesn’t happen.
All the while a witch moves into a small suburban town and accidentally befriends the anti-Christ and convinces him that nuclear energy is destroying the world and gives him a magazine that teaches him that Tibetans are digging tunnels through the planet and that the Earth is hollow.
Summary
Both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman have an almost unique way of writing that you either really like or is simply not your cup of tea. This is why I can’t say whether or not you would personally find the book good.
That’s why I’m just going to tell you that if you found yourself curious, intrigued, or bemused by any of the seemingly random gibberish I spouted for the summary of the plot and characters then I highly suggest you either read Good Omens or one of Pratchett or Gaiman’s many other books.
There is the entire Discworld series, which is a fantasy series written by Terry Pratchett that takes place on a circular disc planet flying through space on the back of a turtle (The turtle, of course, is on the back of four elephants [who are in turn on the back of four more elephants {It’s elephants all the way down}]).
It’s an award-winning series for good reason.
Neil Gaiman has written some amazing novels too that should also be read. Such books you may have heard of but never knew the author of like Stardust or Coraline.
And if you really don’t like reading but now want to know what happens in this book you can just watch the BBC series that was made based on it in 2019. It even has David Tenant in it.
