Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimain)

I recently found out these two amazing, wacky writers collaborated on a book together. I had to wait until Christmas before I could finally get my sticky hands on it. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter. You can’t say that doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a corker.

It’s about the dawning of the apocalypse, a demon and an angel who would really prefer the apocalypse didn’t happen because they like Earth very much thank you, the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse are riding once more.
Oh, and someone misplaced the Antichrist…

It’s full to the brim of references to the M25 being the demon’s handiwork, the angel is a rare books collector who pretends to be a book dealer, all cassettes turning into Queen albums after a fortnight and other peculiar humour. It’s full of my kind of humour, and I spent minimum of half the book snorting out loud. The Dog has a voice, the Bikers are actually on the back of motorbikes, all characters are comic and sometimes it really is just all about timing.

I’m incredibly worried I will give something away in my effusions about this book, trying to be vague is not working in my favour. I find it so much easier to write long reviews for books I didn’t enjoy so much. It is every bit as ridiculous as you would imagine an Apocalypse book written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It’s bizarre, it has references all over the place, it has witty characters and it was just a recipe for a good book!

Good Omens is the most bizarrely entertaining book I have ever read, made more entertaining by the fact that in my head it’s narrated by Stephen Fry, Crowley(Demon) is Mark Shepherd and Aziraphale (Angel) is Matt Smith (neither of them fit the physical descriptions at all, but the voices!). Amazon are doing an adaptation of Good Omens with David Tennant as Crowley, and Michael Sheen as Aziraphale, which will well worth watching if it’s half as good as this book.