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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/474059.Good_Omens?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Good Omens" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51260A22YKL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/474059.Good_Omens?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Good Omens</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1654.Terry_Pratchett">Terry Pratchett</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3789921?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars Wow, WHAT a fantastic book! Hilarious, hilarious, hilarious--this is the modern thinking man's (and woman's ^^) absolute book of delights! This book had me laughing my head off from page 1 all the way to the end, and it still had room to give us some worthwhile philosophical ideas. 
 
 Gaiman and Pratchett are not just masterful writers with fantastic writing styles and wit like you wouldn't believe, the parodic archetypes they take to be their personae dramatis are both so dead-on perfect and hilarious in their stereotypes and STILL manage to take on a life and shape of their own. 
 
 So, the story starts off back in the Garden of Eden, the evening after Adam and Eve's Fall. The serpent, Crawly (who, dissatisfied with Adam's creativity, changes his name to Crowley =P) is chatting with the angelic Guardian of the East Gate, Aziraphale, who is fretting over whether it was all right to give away his flaming sword to the wretched human couple as they were herded out of Eden ("well, they looked so cold, and she's expecting already, so..." ^^). Both are wondering if they've done the right (or, in Crowley's case, the wrong) thing and Crowley, musing about why God would put the tree of forbidden fruit directly in the path of the humans if he truly meant them not to partake of it, says joking, "Wouldn't it be funny if we both got it wrong? Maybe I did the *right* thing and you did the *wrong* thing. Wouldn't that be funny?" To which Aziraphale says stiffly, "No, not really."
 
 So begins a centuries-long friendship(ish) between the demon and angel, who are both assigned the same "beat" on earth (England =P). When 1999 rolls around and they are both summoned to do their parts in the ending of the world at the coming of the Antichrist so that Heaven and Hell can have their final duke-out, both decide they like earth and would rather not destroy it, thank you, and do their best to influence the child (whom Lucifer sends to be raised on earth) to be completely neither good nor bad in hopes that this will lead him to call off the war. 
 
 Naturally, due to several comedic intervensions like 3 golden-haired babies being born in the same hospital on the same night, Crowley and Aziraphale end up coaching the wrong child, and it's a mad race for everyone to find the real Antichrist (who is, by then, a rambunctious 11-year-old boy in Lower Tadfield, England) by the Judgment Day. Unsurprisingly, madness of the funniest order ensues. :)
 
 I really take my hat off to our sharp-witted authors for managing to present the gray-toned (and, on ocassion, utterly topsy-turvy) moral make-up of all their characters, despite how connoted figures like angels, devils, and the Antichrist are in our minds. They make use of parodic oxymorons enough to put even a narrower-minded reader at ease in accepting the ultimately good (or perhaps, humanly good) actions of certain "diabolical" characters in the end. ^^ 
 
 As you can probably guess, I loved this book the way I haven't loved a book in years, and I HIGHLY recommend it to all! ::huggles Crowley and Aziraphale to death:: ^____^
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/157205?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Su Mon's review
rating:

recommended for: Every intelligent human being with a sense of humor
status: Read in August, 2007

Wow, WHAT a fantastic book! Hilarious, hilarious, hilarious--this is the modern thinking man's (and woman's ^^) absolute book of delights! This book had me laughing my head off from page 1 all the way to the end, and it still had room to give us some worthwhile philosophical ideas.

Gaiman and Pratchett are not just masterful writers with fantastic writing styles and wit like you wouldn't believe, the parodic archetypes they take to be their personae dramatis are both so dead-on perfect and hilarious in their stereotypes and STILL manage to take on a life and shape of their own.

So, the story starts off back in the Garden of Eden, the evening after Adam and Eve's Fall. The serpent, Crawly (who, dissatisfied with Adam's creativity, changes his name to Crowley =P) is chatting with the angelic Guardian of the East Gate, Aziraphale, who is fretting over whether it was all right to give away his flaming sword to the wretched human couple as they were herded out of Eden ("well, t...more Wow, WHAT a fantastic book! Hilarious, hilarious, hilarious--this is the modern thinking man's (and woman's ^^) absolute book of delights! This book had me laughing my head off from page 1 all the way to the end, and it still had room to give us some worthwhile philosophical ideas.

Gaiman and Pratchett are not just masterful writers with fantastic writing styles and wit like you wouldn't believe, the parodic archetypes they take to be their personae dramatis are both so dead-on perfect and hilarious in their stereotypes and STILL manage to take on a life and shape of their own.

So, the story starts off back in the Garden of Eden, the evening after Adam and Eve's Fall. The serpent, Crawly (who, dissatisfied with Adam's creativity, changes his name to Crowley =P) is chatting with the angelic Guardian of the East Gate, Aziraphale, who is fretting over whether it was all right to give away his flaming sword to the wretched human couple as they were herded out of Eden ("well, they looked so cold, and she's expecting already, so..." ^^). Both are wondering if they've done the right (or, in Crowley's case, the wrong) thing and Crowley, musing about why God would put the tree of forbidden fruit directly in the path of the humans if he truly meant them not to partake of it, says joking, "Wouldn't it be funny if we both got it wrong? Maybe I did the *right* thing and you did the *wrong* thing. Wouldn't that be funny?" To which Aziraphale says stiffly, "No, not really."

So begins a centuries-long friendship(ish) between the demon and angel, who are both assigned the same "beat" on earth (England =P). When 1999 rolls around and they are both summoned to do their parts in the ending of the world at the coming of the Antichrist so that Heaven and Hell can have their final duke-out, both decide they like earth and would rather not destroy it, thank you, and do their best to influence the child (whom Lucifer sends to be raised on earth) to be completely neither good nor bad in hopes that this will lead him to call off the war.

Naturally, due to several comedic intervensions like 3 golden-haired babies being born in the same hospital on the same night, Crowley and Aziraphale end up coaching the wrong child, and it's a mad race for everyone to find the real Antichrist (who is, by then, a rambunctious 11-year-old boy in Lower Tadfield, England) by the Judgment Day. Unsurprisingly, madness of the funniest order ensues. :)

I really take my hat off to our sharp-witted authors for managing to present the gray-toned (and, on ocassion, utterly topsy-turvy) moral make-up of all their characters, despite how connoted figures like angels, devils, and the Antichrist are in our minds. They make use of parodic oxymorons enough to put even a narrower-minded reader at ease in accepting the ultimately good (or perhaps, humanly good) actions of certain "diabolical" characters in the end. ^^

As you can probably guess, I loved this book the way I haven't loved a book in years, and I HIGHLY recommend it to all! ::huggles Crowley and Aziraphale to death:: ^____^...less

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