Rating: 
Summary: The One Gaiman Book
Review: I dare you not to like it! Finally, a Neil Gaiman book that rivals even his masterpiece THE SANDMAN. Dark, twisted, poignant: AMERICAN GODS is a journey through the world's largest melting pot of history & culture. & what a trip! Rare is the author (& his tale!) who can take you so far that what you see in paper comes to life & moves you. If you are to read only one post-SANDMAN novel of Gaiman's, let it be this.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but standard Gaiman
Review: Gaiman is an excellent storyteller, but a curiously afflicted writer. He seems to have a single dominant thread that runs through his work, and perhaps I'm only frustrated with it because I'm not from the UK. That thread is this: his protagonist always seems to get shoved, manipulated or dragged around in the story without ever exhibiting much control. Like in this book: eventually it becomes clear that Shadow is the hero because of his remarkable capabilities, but emotionally and mentally, he remains passive, directionless and often -- whether literally or figuratively -- completely in the dark.I like Gaiman's work, and I understand how writers write themselves "into" their work, but I can't imagine that someone as successful and well-regarded as Neil Gaiman is as big a zero as most of his main characters seem to be.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: I like Gaiman's writing quite a lot and this is the first time I've seen his Sandman style of mixing massive myths with everyday life. Great book. Actually good enough that I bought the audiotape of AG for my wife and I to listen to on a long car trip. Sooner or later, I'll get her into Sandman....
Rating:
Summary: Excellent audiobook
Review: I have to commute two and a half hours a day and audiobooks really help. This is by far the best one I've heard yet. The story is superbly written (the book edition has excellent reviews) and George Guidall is amazing in the reading of the book. I will probably buy more audiobooks just because of his excellent pace, pronunciation and character depictions. Read the book reviews for opinions on the story and if you like to make your commute disappear into thin air... buy this audiobook!
Rating:
Summary: A Gripping and Involving Tale
Review: Since everyone else has summarized the plot for you -- the ancient gods are alive and not so well in America, and competing with the new gods of consumerist society, and trouble is a-coming -- I'll just stick to the mechanics, This is a beautifully plotted and written book, free of loose ends, and surprisingly well constructed at every turn. It's full of surprises, and you get to feel the identities of all the characters, whether real or 'imaginary.' Maybe it takes a while for the central character, Shadow, to become real, but then, that's probably the idea. I'd vote this the best sci-fi I've read since Cryptonomicon...It would make a great movie
Rating:
Summary: Myths, Dreams and the Road Trip
Review: Neil Gaiman is one of the most creative forces in literature today. His latest novel combines the art of storytelling, mythology, and a love of grift. Shadow has just been released from prison only to have his life fall apart. His wife is dead, and his job gone. Then the world goes on end when he meets a very pecular man named Wednesday with a job offer.
Enlisted to the side of old gods Shadow travels America to help Wednesday recruit gods for the coming storm. Along the way he meets characters of all shapes and psychosis. He also learns about his past. The journey is the destination.
Rating:
Summary: Shadow faces the coming storm of the gods in America
Review: "American Gods" is something of a misnomer as a title since this is more acurately a story about "Gods in America," most of whom immigrated to the new world as their followers trekked across the oceans to come here. Most of this is news to Shadow, the main character in Neil Gaiman's novel, who learns his wife, Laura, has been killed in a car crash just as he was about to get out of prison. But if you remember one thing about this novel it is that there are no accidents, nothing is coincidence, and everything has meaning. Shadow, who has a modest talent for doing coin tricks, becomes the employee of a strange being who goes under the name of Wednesday and is warned by everyone he meets or dreams about that a storm is coming. Soon it becomes clear that this is not an allegorical statement, but that there is a coming battle between the "new" gods and the more ancient variety of deity. Ultimately the sum of the parts of "American Gods" is not greater than the whole, and when the war of the gods ends with a whimper instead of a bang, it is an unsatisfying climax as is the resolution of Shadow's relationship with his dead wife, Laura. Gaiman has actually done too good of a job on his research of the ancients gods, so that it becomes difficult to tell whose rules apply; are we dealing primarily with Norse mythology here or is there a more general set of rules that apply? I am sure some academic can explain it all to us, but do not ask me and while I do not expect to be able to guess where Gaiman is going with his story, I do want to feel that this story is more than slight of hand or some type of con game. The best part of the ending was the truth of the quiet little town of Lakeside; again, the pieces fall into place, this time with a more satisfying sense of conclusion. "American Gods," despite its problems, most of which can be forgiven since Gaiman is clearly trying to construct an epic, is an interesting tale, well told. Michael Crichton talked about a paradigm shift in "Jurassic Park," arguing that science no long produces truth; Gaiman touches upon this, but without really developing the new paradigm (and its attendant gods) in significant detail. However, through out the novel Gaiman's characters consistently captivate us even when the story becomes obscured. In the end, "American Gods" is a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Neil Gaiman is ALWAYS worth reading
Review: First: Neil Gaiman on his worst day is still a good ten times better than almost every other writer I've ever encountered. This book was riveting and a delight to read. Gaiman is the type of wordsmith you're willing to follow even before you've quite figured out where he's going. That said, there was a niggling dissatisfaction for me in this book. One of the things I've always admired most about his novels, both graphic and print, is the way that every detail, no matter how seemingly arbitrary, always winds up being not only relevant to the ultimate conclusion but absolutely integral. To watch the way everything just falls exactly into place is to witness a genius in action, and makes his work intensely enjoyable. I missed that here, that attention -- there *are* details that are dropped, elements that are rushed, characters who are just the slightest bit unessential. It's a good book, a beautifully written and imaginatively plotted read, but I'm *spoiled* by Gaiman's gifts -- I'm not seeing that greatness. Despite the title and despite what the plot is obviously trying to do, this is still a very English novel -- which is not a bad thing at all, unless you're overtly trying to write one about the *American* character/spirit. It's a quality to the novel that's hard to put your finger on. Maybe the way subtle Briticisms creep in, like supposed Midwesterners going "I'll stop a minute," instead of "I'll stay a minute" or "I'll stick around." A slight "stiff-upper-lip," reserved quality to the main character, Shadow -- which might keep some readers from fully engaging with him. Or, how certain characters speak in a way that doesn't quite match the background they're assigned. There's something that never quite gels -- America is a place where people who left a world behind came (and come) together and (over generations) turned (and turn) into an entirely new thing (and not always a pretty thing, but this is not the place to debate whether that new thing is good or bad). AMERICAN GODS seems to capture the spirit of journey without ever arriving at or analyzing the end result. While the "Coming to America" segments were all beautifully and powerfully written, the effect is still one of stranger-in-a-strange-land, an aspect of Americanness, true, but only one aspect. Gaiman sets out to illuminate "the soul of America" -- but only non-Americans would think that he's succeeded here, or would find familiarity. Perhaps the subject was simply too large for a single novel. (Although I'll say Julian Barnes did a phenomenal job fitting a similar theme into one book -- though a different genre -- in the allegory "ENGLAND, ENGLAND.") It's an esoteric point. It would be fun to explore further but I'm running out of space. And I feel a little guilty even picking these nits! He's GAIMAN after all -- he can do no wrong... it's only that when he's a little bit less right than usual, you really notice. Four stars for loyalty...
Rating: 
Summary: Way too long
Review: Loved his other stuff but this is way to weird and way to drawn out.
Rating:
Summary: The joy is in the journey
Review: I have read all of Gaiman's novels, as well as the Sandman graphic novels. I'm a fan of urban fantasy, and, needless to say, I'm a fan of Gaiman's work. I was especially anxious to read American Gods because a good portion of the story takes place in my home state, Wisconsin (home of snow, ice and Culver's custard.) I was not, generally speaking, disapppointed. American Gods has everything I like about Gaiman's stories. The story opens with Shadow, the protagonist, being released from prison a week early to attend his wife's funeral. Shadow is a big man, strong in both stature and integrity. On his way home, he meets Mr. Wednesday, who offers Shadow a job as bodyguard. The pair travels the American heartland, drumming up support for a coming spiritual war. Along the way they meet a host of unlikely characters, includ and thugs with names like Mr. Town, Mr. Street, Mr. Woods and Mr. World. And not least among this cast of extremely interesting characters is Laura, Shadow's deceased wife who spends most of the book bailing Shadow out of tight situations. And rotting. I docked the book 1 star because, in my opinion, the ending fizzled. Also, interspersed through the book were short stories that were removed from the main storyline. These were a nice break between chapters, and offered insight to 'the coming war' in other parts of the nation. For some reason, these stories stopped about 1/3 of the way through the book, and I sort of missed them. In summary, I think that American Gods was a far stronger effort than the last book of his I read, Stardust, but not as good as Neverwhere, or Sandman.
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