Rating: 
Summary: An amazing concept... an amazing novel
Review: This was the firs Neil Gaiman book I've ever read. In fact, I confess I'd never heard of him before I picked this up, but I liked the opening chapter enough to buy it for way more than I should have. Oh, well.I enjoyed "American Gods" immensely. Neil Gaiman makes many terrific observations and jabs on a myriad of subjects, and with a menagerie of characters that are well-fleshed and not too one-sided. I enjoyed Czernobog more than anyone else in the book; his ongoing "deal" with Shadow was brilliantly conceived. The one plot point I was uncomfortable with was the fate of Shadow's wife... but no spoilers. "Uncomfortable with" doesn't mean "didn't enjoy", however, and I enjoyed every sentence. Packed with romance, mystery, religion, action, and an odd little gold coin, this book is truly a modern epic. Gaiman delivers wonderfully.
Rating: 
Summary: Well Written, but ....
Review: This is a well written story but I feel that he coped out. I like the premise of the story, but how can he talk about gods in America and not mention the Judeo / Christian God. Yeah these other gods, Odin, Loki, ..... have been forgotten and not worshipped, but what about the God that is. No matter if you are a Christian, Jew or atheist, this country is built on those Judeo Christian beliefs. Yet not even a page dedicated to God. Too controversial? Too much heat from people who would object to the idea that gods are created by man and not man created by god. I've never been one to think that man is the center of the universe (God help the universe if we are), but I feel Neil could have taken the next step and talk about all the American gods and GOD in general. None the less, it was a good read, just not a great read. My two cents worth.
Rating:
Summary: Good, could have been great
Review: What can I say about this book. Its good, but I can't help but feel it could have been so much better. I have no problem with the mechanics of the writing, those are all top notch. But the story itself could have been so much better. There are glimmers of what it could have been, but they fade quickly. Gaimen incorrectly thinks that Shadow is the most interesting character of the book. The real interesting characters are the gods. Gaimen should have let us into their existence more. What does a god feel when he is no longer believed in? How does he react? What are the motivations of these new gods? These are questions that are never truly answered. We get half hearted attempts, but nothing concrete. I'd recommend this book to someone to read. But I can't help but feel its missing something.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrific and beautiful
Review: Shadow is released after three years in prison, only to find that his wife has died in a car accident. On his way to the funeral, he meets a man who calls himself Wednesday and offers him employment. Shadow, his life shattered, accepts. This brings him into an ever more mysterious world, for Wednesday turns out to be one of the old gods in the New World. There is a battle coming between them and the new gods, the gods of the Internet and the television, and Wednesday is endeavoring to rally his side for this armageddon, with Shadow's help. Caught up in this conflict and being played as a pawn by both sides, Shadow tries to figure out right and wrong, and what his role should be-as contrasted with what Wednesday and the others want it to be. Saying much more would be giving too much away (and I may have gone too far already). Gaiman evokes this world with superb craftsmanship and skill, creating images that are sometimes horrific and sometimes hauntingly beautiful.
Rating: 
Summary: Just kept on waiting for the brilliance I expected...
Review: I know I am going to get railed with a 2 out of 133 or something for my unpopular opinon, but I think that Gaiman's novel was high on concept and potential but never took off.
I find all kinds of mythology interesting, and that is exactly what made me purchase this book and I think Gaiman did a good job of incorporating competeing mythologies into the novel. However, and I know that this is not the most eloquent way to put it, but the book just didn't do it for me. It really just felt like an airport book of the week, like Sidney Sheldon's "Doomsday Conspiracy" which took an interesting topic (at the time) and made an episode of All My Children out of it.
I think what it came down to for me was that I never beleived in any of the characters, especially Shadow, and I saw the twists coming from a mile away. I hate saying that, but it is true, the story was transparent.
I am not an avid fantasy reader, though I dabble in Sci Fi, so take that into account with my review, but over all, I was just waiting for a bang that never came.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and involving story of old gods on American soil
Review: American Gods is Neil Gaiman's big 2001 "American" fantasy. The central idea is an old chestnut -- that gods only live as long as they are believed in. Gaiman modifies this by tying gods to the land, in a sense, such that gods, or a version of them, move to America when people move there. But most of these old gods are near death -- few people believe in them anymore. They live on in rather diminished circumstances. The central character is a man named Shadow. The book opens as he is about to be released after three years in prison. Just days before his release, he learns that his wife has died in an automobile accident, and the prison authorities let him go early. On his way home, he meets a strange man called Mr. Wednesday (the significance of the name, and the man's glass eye, won't escape many people, I trust), who offers him a job. Shadow thinks he has a job waiting, but he soon finds out that his prospective employer has died. Shadow finds himself more or less pushed to taking Wednesday's job offer. Mostly this job consists of driving around while Wednesday tries to recruit other old gods to join him. It seems a battle for control of America is coming, between the old gods and the "new gods": the media, the internet, and suchlike. So we meet a number of nicely depicted gods from the various old countries: Anansi from Africa, Bast and Osiris and Anubis from Egypt, Czernobog from Russia; and so on. Some of the new gods begin to harass Wednesday and his associates, managing to capture Shadow a couple of times. And Shadow meets his dead wife as well, in the corrupting flesh, and she begs him to find a way to bring her back to life. We also get some interludes depicting the lives of some of the immigrants to America, as they bring their gods with them. A long middle section finds Shadow hanging out in an idyllic Wisconsin town, in the dead of winter. Though even there a dark mystery may lie behind the town's peacefulness. Finally the battle nears, and Shadow finds himself pushed to test his loyalty to Wednesday to the utmost, even into the land of the dead. He learns some important truths about his own identity, and he learns the real secret behind the coming battle. The story is resolved both cleverly and movingly. Shadow is both a character who grows during the action, and a character who pays a great price for his knowledge. The end manages to surprise, as well. I think this is one of the best SF/Fantasy books of the year. There may be a few structural loose ends, and also Gaiman pretty much entirely avoids confronting any of the Abrahamic faiths, which seems to me to leave a conceptual hole, but the book is still powerful and involving.
Rating:
Summary: A contender in many rings, for many reasons
Review: Where to start, is the pressing question. The mythology is superb. I'd recommend this novel most to someone with some versing in the classics and folklore, some basic ability to play a rousing good game of Spot the God. One of the coolest little moments was discovering that Mr. Wednesday had a glass eye ... You can see echoes in American Gods of a grand hero tale, an epic journey to an 'Other World', and you can see the grubby corners and edgy soul of a great American road novel. Not Kerouac or Nabokov; Gaiman grasps his own voice, and with success. It feels natural to have yellowing motels, small towns & trailer parks alongside ancient deities, divine trickery, and a grand battle. (Though I feel rather shortchanged in the way Gaiman concluded the whole climactic god-battle scene. It's more a book about the journey than the destination, one supposes.) Having read some of his previous work, I think that with this novel he has reached this point where his curious, sharp prose, peculiar and rich bits of humor, and breezes of mortal insight come to a balance even more fruitful than his other material. No wonder I finished this in less than two days. Even Harlan Ellison liked it. Read Smoke & Mirrors, his short fiction collection, and if you enjoyed it, then eat this up with ... /divine/ pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Put It Down!!
Review: I first read Neil Gaiman in the Sandman comics from DC (seems like that was ages ago). In American Gods, Neil draws you into a magical and utterly engrossing tale! Funny, poignant and a true masterpiece! If you like Neil's previous work or stories that mix fantasy and present day, you'll love this book! Even if you don't like this genre you will enjoy this one!
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but needs some editing
Review: I'm a huge Neil Gaiman fan and enjoyed this novel, but after reading his earlier novels, short stories, Sandman and other works I found that this novel often walked over ground he's covered better elsewhere. Some of Gaiman's vignettes work better in the context of a serial (such as Sandman) than a novel. Much of this novel reads like a road diary of a foreign traveller visiting the US for the first time. Most of the conversations are in cars, airports, motels and fast food joints. If you like travelogs you'll like this book, but after a while you feel like you've been travelling for a very long time without actually getting anywhere. The novel is divided into three main sections. The setup is excellent. Gaiman is one of the best at drawing a reader in. The second section remains entertaining but Gaiman's interest seems to wander and he throws in several stand-alone pieces that might have worked better as short stories as they don't effectively advance the plot and instead disrupt any sense of suspense that might have been building. The final section ties up most of the loose ends but a bit too abruptly and neatly. Again, it seemed like Gaiman was losing interest or being pressured by his publisher to wrap this up and get on with it. Granted, it is difficult to offer much closure in a world where death has very little sense of finality. Given a tighter focus and more aggressive editing this novel might have worked better. Gaiman is capable of working at a higher intellectual and emotional level than he presents here. To experience Gaiman at the height of his powers read "Stardust" (the original edition illustrated by Charles Vess) or the Sandman series. Still, his prose is a delight to read and his sense of whimsy is delightful. I look forward to reading Neil Gaiman as he matures as a novelist.
Rating:
Summary: Overwrought Greatness
Review: American Gods has the hints of a great novel hidden under too many pages and too many words. It has an original story at its center, but so many subplots and unecessary character arcs that it becomes easy to lose interest in the narrative. This is a book which, unfortunately, should have been a hundred pages trimmer. Gaiman brings us another one of his wonderfully imaginative plots; here, we have a tribe of old gods, all of them forgotten by American citizens, many of them dying or fading away. And then you have the new gods, the Wall-Street gods, the dot-com gods, the city gods, the ones that are powerful and presently active. But these gods also fear; today's people forget quickly and changes their taste often. A god can disappear in not time. And thus, a war is forming between the old gods and the new gods. And at the center of this war is Shadow, an ex-con human who is brought into all this madness against his own will and who will become a key character in the threatening war. The plot per se is interesting. But Gaiman often forgets what the main tale is. Instead, he often gets lost in subplots and unnecessary story arcs that leads us nowhere. Often, you have sections of great suspense and thrills followed by twenty or thirty pages of nothing. Nothing at all. Reading this book can often get quite tiresome. And I was disppointed that this book doesn't hold as much cynicism, wit and irony as other, better Gaiman books do. I am a huge fan of Neverwhere and Stardust; both books were highly imaginative and both books had this strange sense of dark humour that just amazed me. Those books were purely magical. There isn't much of that to be found in American Gods. The story is a bit dry and empty at its center. Gaiman tried to write an American novel, when what he should have done is keep on doing with what he does best; British fantasy (if such a genre does exist). This is an epic book which has too many words and too many pages. And it's too bad, because within those 470 pages, you have a very good story which is dying to come out. It's just never really given the chance to do so properly.
| 
