Rating: 
Summary: Wow!
Review: This is one of the most well written books I have ever read. Neil Gaiman has the ability to make characters that you love to hate and hate to love. He easily draws up mental landscapes and populates them with quirky and insanely human characters.
Rating:
Summary: Food for thought
Review: I really enjoyed this book, and I had a hard time putting it down. It made me think a lot about the nature of divinity, about the place of the old gods in the modern world (though I was disappointed not to see any of mine in the book), and about what kinds of things Americans seem to "worship" nowadays. The conversations I've had based on this book were quite interesting. So maybe as a novel it's not the best ever (though it's quite good), but as a starting point for pondering and conversation, it's superb.(Plus, Odin's conversation with the "Pagan" in the coffee shop was quite familiar to me, and good for a laugh.)
Rating: 
Summary: B O R I N G and Disgusting .... I threw it away!!
Review: I bought this book when it first came out. I was at the airport and I was travelling cross country and had lots of time on my hands. I gave this book a really good try but it was so incredibly boring, depressing, and frankly disgusting that I ended up throwing the book in a trashcan at the airport.. something I have never ever done. I didn't even want to pass it on to anyone in the event they might enjoy it even though I hadn't. It was just THAT bad. At the time I bought it, it hadn't won any awards. In fact, as I was browsing Amazon, I was shocked to see the rating this has book acquired. I just did not find a man consumed by a prostitute, in a very disturbing manner, all that entertaining (I won't describe it beyond that because I want to keep this review clean). It was, quite simply, gross. The story is depressing, too. Blech. It's just a loser. I am an avid reader and I treasure books. This was not worth the paper it was printed on.
Rating:
Summary: Rarely a story like this
Review: When I first started this book I had no idea what Gaiman's style was. So I had a very hard time getting over the very fictional and unreal events happening in what he painted as a very natural and real world. Now I realize this IS Gaiman and he uses his unique style to make some of the best stories. I call them stories because, when reading any of his writtings, you get the feel that someone is sitting down with you in conversation and has you spell struck with one heck of a story. Very unlike many novels these days.
Rating: 
Summary: An interresting Story
Review: American Gods is modern fantasy centered around many of the Old gods from various cultures and is an interresting story of what could happen in the New World when they are brought to America by followers in the pioneer days and then forgotten. It's a tale of beings trying to survive, and desperate for the worship which once made them strong, and how a human may be caught up in thier struggle. Shadow, the protoganist, finds himself caught up in a plot by Odin to bring on a war against the new gods of Telivision, Computers and thier minions. Events culminate into a battle. It did make me think about how important it is to honor the old gods today, something of a "what if we never gave them offerings?" what would happen to them? How would they cope? Fourtunatly, the old gods today are remembered, and given thier offerings by people who still follow the old ways today in the new world. I found the concept of the new gods of the information age to be interresting, however, I think this is another reminder to live deliberately, and to know how to use a technology properly. Computers have done more to help spread and gather those who follow the old ways than could have been done without them, so I personally would see computers not as a competing force, but as a tool which has been, and can be used to further the purposes of the Gods and Goddesses.
Rating:
Summary: A fun read; Good times
Review: As always the characters are what drive the story, and it was interesting enough to keep me reading with every free moment. As always, I love Gaiman's attention to the little details of mythology and history, and his compelling characters. However, you can tell what's coming down the road through the whole book if you've read any of his other work. It's worth the read though.
Rating:
Summary: A journey
Review: Absolutely delightful! Personally, this book goes in with my list of absolute favorites! This book is well on its way to becoming a classic for sure.....
Rating:
Summary: ridiculous and mostly boring
Review: I haven't finished reading this book yet, but I'm very close to the end, and so far I am NOT impressed. I think maybe Mr. Gaiman was overreaching when he wrote this book, and should have taken a step back and reconsidered things. I couldn't sum it up better than the reviewer who said, "slow pace and moderate characters;" don't read this book unless you're looking for a lot of nonsense. And how in the world did this book win the Hugo?
Rating: 
Summary: Decent, but NOT great...try Tim Powers instead
Review: I usually don't feel the need to write reviews (especially of works I did not particularly enjoy.This book is NOT great and it will NOT make you "think." The protaganist, named Shadow (something I found annoying for reasons I cannot explain), is a one-dimensional, walking plot coupon...he does little but whine and wander from one contrived meeting to the next. Stupidgenius6554 seems to equate disliking this book with stupidity. I emphatically disagree. Disliking this book is indicative of nothing more than good taste. The dialouge throughout is terrible, as are the ham-fisted exposition and the one-dimensional characters. The novel reads like a comic book without pictures. Gaiman tries to craft a modern fantasy that challenges the reader and for that I give him three stars. However, the flaws are, as I have mentioned, numerous and very damaging. Also, the entire feel of the novel is ground that has been well-traveled by truly great writers such as Tim Powers and his "steampunk" peers (all disciples of Philip K. Dick, the master of modern fantasy...see "The Man in the High Castle" among others). In short, as a novelist, Gaiman makes a great comic book writer.
Rating:
Summary: More than a Great Book
Review: I've read many reviews complaining about the pace and the one dimensional characters of American Gods and I'd have to disagree. I read this book last year and, frankly, it's one of the best books I've read in a long time. The pace is a little slow, sure, but really think about it, this book gets really involved, and if it didn't go a little slow, after you'd finished the book, you'd be sitting there thinking, "Ummm... what?" For, me this wasn't one of those books that you can eat up in a day or two and have the same regard for it. I read it over the span of two and a half weeks; each time I picked it up, I looked forward to a nice, relaxing/ not really that brain relaxing/ more like "Wow, that was awesome" at times, reading but I digress. This is the book that first introduced me to Gaiman, and after the read, I was hooked. To read this book, you have to understand that it's not just a thriller; it's also about the growth of the main character, Shadow. At the start of the story, he's very one dimensional (on purpose) and through out the story, he grows. Wednesday, another main character, completely surprised me in the end. This is not a book to just skim, each and every little side story is important in its own way. It's called imagery. Character background. Each of the side stories gives you a better understanding of the characters or the plot. I think the most fantastic thing about this book, is how every thing fits together at the end. It's very rare that one can find a writer who has the skills to straight forwardly start the story, then branch it into twenty different directions, bring it back in, branch it out again, and then tie it all up in a neat little package at the end. Neil Gaiman is either a total writing genius, or a messed up wacko with issues who enjoys entrancing and fascinating people while at the same time, disturbing and grossing them out. This is a great book, a classic (in its own demented way), and if a high school sophomore can understand and love this book --along with at least twenty other class mates--, then any one with an open (and maybe a little twisted) mind can also enjoy it. Seriously. It makes you think (oh no, thinking...)
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