Rating: 
Summary: First book guaranteed to make my best-of-2003 list
Review: Neil Gaiman, American Gods (Harper, 2001)It is hard to tell, from the Gaiman resources on the net, exactly how many novels for adults Gaiman has written on his own. Two? Three? More? In any case, Gaiman spent the five years between his novel Neverwhere and this one very constructively, it would seem. All the many flaws of Neverwhere have disappeared, and we are left with a stunning achievement, perhaps the first (horror? fantasy? What is this, anyway?) novel of its ilk that can be called truly original since Kathe Koja unleashed The Cipher upon us over a decade ago. Shadow is a man just into his thirties who's spent the last three years in prison. He's released a couple of days early thanks to the death of his wife. While flying home to attend her funeral, Shadow meets a man who calls himself Mister Wednesday. Wednesday tells Shadow a storm is coming, the offers him a job. Things are all downhill from there. Well-drawn characters, a perfect pace, plots and subplots by the score, red herrings, masterful clue-dropping, double-crosses, triple-crosses, and of course, a plethora of gods, brought to America on the heels of their believers and left to be abandoned. The prose is more readable than that in Neverwhere, which was also a pleasant surprise; this one feels like it needs to be a movie, not like it was written from a movie script (which, in essence, Neverwhere was). There's nothing wrong with the book, save a minor editorial glitch (a barefoot Shadow at one point reaches down and takes off his shoes). It's somewhat ironic, but ultimately understandable, that a book that goes to the heart of America so well was written by a British author. As one of the other characters observes to Shadow early on in the book, no other country spends as much time looking for its soul as America. Perhaps we're better off letting others look for it. Gaiman has certainly done a more than capable job at finding it. The first of the year's reads to be a shoo-in for the top 25 of 2003. **** ½
Rating: 
Summary: Imaginative
Review: Gaimen is progressing as an author very nicely. Where he lacks in style he more than makes up for with an imaginative storyline and interesting characters. Not a classic in literature, but a very entertaining and fun read. I would recommend it anyone interested in suspending reality for a while.
Rating: 
Summary: How could this book win the Hugo?
Review: This book was waste of time. I read the first 210 pages and felt cheated. I kept waiting for the plot to develop and it never came close. How in the world did it win the Hugo? I may never read another Hugo winner.
Rating:
Summary: I could not put it down
Review: I feel this is an excellent book, perhaps the best I read this year. Gaiman takes an outlandish idea and runs with it, and it's actually a very interesting idea--when people came to America, did their gods come with them? Where are they now? Gaiman's plot is gripping, his characters crisp, likeable and (even in their most incredible moments) believable. It's smart, it's entertaining, it's even hard to describe. I would definitely take time to read this book. A word of advice, should you give American Gods a try: for maximum pleasure, trust Neil Gaiman. When a character says something that doesn't make sense, trust him. When the plot takes an odd meander away from the central storyline, trust him. If you think this book might be a little too weird for you a few chapters in, or that you're not really following everything, trust him. He doesn't spoon-feed you everything, and I think my favorite part of the book is the way you are gradually given more and more pieces of the plot, more clues to who characters are and how things will turn out in the end. Don't worry, pay attention, and enjoy. Lately I find myself rereading certain bits to see how all the details tie together in the end. Since reading American Gods, I've recommended it to everyone I know. And now I'm asking YOU to trust me. It is good, honest. ;)
Rating:
Summary: My kind of Gaiman
Review: I read good things and I read bad things about this book and I've read it twice myself. I read indictments such as "weak writing" and "meanders" regarding American Gods and I just don't get it. Almost every word and every line in this tale is just as it needs to be; this is truly a marvelous piece of storytelling, one that has held me a willing captive on two occasions now, and I have no doubt that the same will happen once again somewhere down the road.
Rating: 
Summary: Good and bad
Review: Neil Gaiman has an original and interesting writing style, but this book meanders around. The pay off is not there. It's not worth the ride. Anti-climatic. Do not waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: Weird, Literate, Charming
Review: Neil Gaiman is awesome. He has a clean, crisp command of language and an economy of style...but best of all is his fertile, off-the-wall imagination! You will catch references to Joseph Campell, Carl Jung, Bradbury and Gods know who else, here. I'm usually a pulp horror junkie (Shannon and his 2002 "Night of the Beast" for example) but this is literate and involving stuff that you don't have to feel a little embarassed to be caught reading on your lunch break at work. Glad I finally got around to reading the sucker. Kudos to Gaiman! Well worth your money.
Rating:
Summary: weak writing and messy editing
Review: i was excited about this book when it first came out. i'm a big fan of gaiman's graphic novels and i thought that 'american gods' would launch him securely onto the stage of great sci-fi / fantasy authors. the book starts off well. the main characters are evocatively developed and the hints about the upcoming war between the gods are intriguing. the problem with the book is that it's basically a road trip novel. a trip that gaiman obviously took himelf. because of this, he's too anxious to get to the next location so he can reveal some new facet of americana which, as a brit, he must find incredibly exotic. the effect is a rushed travelogue that eventually takes center stage over the main characters. this book reads like it was hard to write. it reads like it suffered from endless revisions and endless edits. the result is impressively stiched together - but it's still stitched together. ['are we living in an age where sex and horror are the new gods?' - frankie goes to hollywood, 1984]
Rating:
Summary: Not a bit of "light" reading by any means...
Review: I think that this book is good. I think that Neil Gaiman is a talented writer, and his style is unique and lyrical in its own right. As the title states, the gods of old are alive and kicking on American soil. Some are swindlers, some are prostitutes and some are crazy. Any person who has a basic knowledge of folklore and stories will recognize them and their avatars. Norse, Egyptian and Hindi gods are spread out within the pages of this book, and it is quite easy to recognize and define them. We meet leprechauns and spiders and techo-punks as well.
The philosophy of Mr. Gaiman is borrowed from and earlier piece of writing that states--in effect--that all the theological choices and platforms were borrowed from other cultures that brought their dieties here. As the modern world enroaches upon the territory of the spiritual, the gods have been thrown away and new ones are taking thier place.
No longer do people pray to the gods of old and worship them as they used to, now the world is in the thrall of another, more powerful, pantheon. Credit cards, television and technology have replaced Odin, Asanzi and Anubis as the chosen powers that be.
This is more of a moral fable, a cautionary tale spun with great amounts of intrigue and suspense. Some of the plot threads are a little loose, but they are snapped into place and woven tightly into the tapestry by the end of the novel. All in all, this novel is a great work of fiction, but be warned, it takes a little bit of work to get through this novel. That is why the rating is at 4 stars. I don't like the fact that I had to "work" to get through this novel, sometimes it really was a chore to read. But the book is still good. I have never read a book by Neil Gaiman before, and I think that with the close of this one, I will give a little more thought to his other novels...and a few of them might even find their way onto my bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Curious, and very entertaining
Review: I loved this book. The whole concept is fascinatng. When early immigrants came to this country from overseas, they brought the gods of their myths and folklore with them, and those gods are living among us. Some of them even getting into bar room brawls and the like. This book had me alternately laughing out loud and scratching my head wondering what kind of mind had created this book. (I have since read other Gaiman novels, and now I understand completely.) The end may have been mildly lackluster, but still I found it to be a provocative, absorbing, and very worthwhile read.
| 
