Good Omens review

In the popular show Supernatural, two brothers crisscross the country killing monsters and standing up to the powers of both Heaven and Hell. Throughout its thirteen seasons, its gained a fairly large (almost cult-like) following. Are fans drawn in by the biblical lore? The long cast of lovable characters?  Or the philosophical themes on human nature?

If you like Supernatural for these reasons, I’d like to introduce you to Good Omens, a book that takes all of these aspects and combines them with a narration that wouldn’t be out of place in the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events.

“Good Omens” is the result of the joint efforts of Neil Gaiman (Coraline, The Graveyard Book) and Terry Pratchett (the Discworld series). The story follows an angel and a demon- longtime friends with more in common with each other than their respective sides- as they try to prevent the apocalypse at the hands of the eleven-year-old antichrist.

And they fail in the most hilarious way imaginable.

Aziraphale is the angel, the representative for Heaven living on Earth who can’t resist doing good deeds. In the Beginning, we learn that he’d just given his (wicked awesome) flaming sword to Eve because it was raining and she was already expecting.

Crowley (whose name you may recognize if you watched Supernatural) is the representative for Hell. He’s described in the Beginning as “an angel who did not so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards” (and honestly, that line sold me on this book). Unlike most demons, he’s not particularly evil. Arguably, the worst thing he did in the story was threaten his houseplants into growing (they’re the most beautiful plants in London, and also the most terrified).

While these two are hailed as the heroes of the story, they’re absolutely useless at their jobs. In their first attempt to stop the apocalypse, they figure that if the antichrist has equal influences of good and evil, he’ll grow to be perfectly neutral. This leads them to spend eleven years influencing a kid, only to find out that he was not the antichrist at all. Seems there had been a mix up with the satanic nuns during the baby-switching at the hospital, and instead of going to an influential politician, the real antichrist ended up with a completely normal couple in the suburbs. And now there’s less than a week until Armageddon.

But their failures help to introduce the book’s major theme: that humans have more control over their own destinies than the powers of Heaven or Hell. Throughout the book, the true heroes of the story are revealed to be the large cast of humans.

This is first shown during the baby-switching spectacle as just the small slip-up of a satanic nun was enough to throw off Aziraphale and Crowley and turn eleven years’ worth of effort moot.

My biggest complaint with the book is that it takes quite a long time before most of the action occurs. If you’re looking for the fast-paced action of Supernatural, you won’t find it here. Most of the first half of the book is establishing the characters, and with such a large cast, it’s definitely needed. For impatient readers, it can be dull. But it does help to give the time for the audience to fall in love with the characters (which I guarantee you will) before throwing you into the action.

While it is a slow but engaging start, once the Apocalypse does begin, you’ll find yourself unable to put down this book.

If this looks like something you might like, you can find Good Omens in the WTHS IMC.

For those reading for the lore, you may also like Neil Gaiman’s comic series The Sandman, the story of The King of Dreams, the immortal denizen of the dreaming realm. It features the mythology and lore of many different cultures and takes place in the DC Comics Universe.

Moreover, if you’re reading for the humor, you could also try The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s another darkly comedic story of the end of the world, only this time, it’s because of aliens.

Both can be found in the WTHS IMC.