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Summary: Fantasy noir, mystery thriller, social satire, and more
Review: "American Gods" is an interesting hybrid: fantasy by way of mythology, mystery thriller in the noir tradition, cultural and religious satire, and more. The risk any author takes in writing such a book is that devotees of each genre will protest the bastardization. Witness the scores of disappointed readers drawn to the book by the Hugo Award, who may have expected swordfights, elves, and aliens. Similarly, fans of Thomas Pynchon, who even gets an honorable nod in the book, may find Gaiman's noir style too lowbrow for their tastes, while readers of detective fiction may be repulsed by the book's supernatural elements.I think, however, that the book will fascinate and intrigue readers who dabble across the various genres to which Gaiman pays homage. The premise is inspired: the old gods brought to America by generations of arriving populations (from Native Americans to recent immigrants) have been rendered nearly moot and powerless by modern infatuation with the new gods--telephony, the Internet, transportation, television, etc. The two camps prepare for a final battle, and Shadow, still traumatized by his wife's betrayal and death, finds himself bafflingly caught up in the war plans. In an allegory, characterization is probably beside the point, but Gaiman still manages to infuse the imported gods with enough traits to make them distinctive and, more important, identifiable to anyone with a passing knowledge of mythology. He resurrects a few gods or legends who are so esoteric and forgotten that they survive as faint echoes of their former selves or, like the poor Queen of Sheba (remember her?), they meet an early demise. The new gods, just as appropriately, are as faceless, fleeting, and frivolous as the technologies they represent. Not a few readers have objected that Christianity gets barely a mention, but they've missed the book's most cleverly "hidden Indian": Shadow himself is the messiah-figure. The most obvious parallels are placed early on--he's in his early 30s, he's spent three years in the desert (prison) before embarking on his reluctant mission--and the parallels only multiply as the book progresses in ways I can't fairly divulge. (Watch for the role the goddess Easter plays in the book's climax.) Gaiman has a droll, dark sense of humor that livens up his prose. Along the way, he also effortlessly plants so many loose ends and subtle intimations that he surprises the reader with unexpected twists and forehead-slapping resolutions even after the main action of the book seems to have wound down. Like Shadow performing his coin tricks, Gaiman repeatedly distracts the reader with "obvious" revelations, only to unveil a secret hidden in the other hand. The story moves along so briskly, so imaginatively, and so wittily, that I raced through several sections, but the more I think about "American Gods," the more I realize I missed. I'll be pulling this one down from the shelf for a second stab in a couple of years.
Rating: 
Summary: In need of a good editing
Review: I went into this book with high expectations. I had just finished Coraline and Neverwhere and was amazed at Gaiman's skill. Especially in Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett). However, this book seemed to run on for far to long. About 3/4 the way through it really started to drag and I almost quit before finishing it. However, I struggled through. I can't say what I thought of the ending. It was certainly something I didn't expect, but I didn't find it satisfying for some reason. I think this book would have been helped considerably by finding a way to cut about 100 pages. However it's still an excellent book.
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Summary: And to think, I thought roadside attractions were stupid...
Review: I loved this book. Completely and utterly, without question adored it. Neil Gaiman has a way of writing his novels that makes you believe that he's really not writing them at all, that maybe he has a muse locked up in his room that he coaxes these stories from (you know what I mean if you've read Sandman, Dream Country). This is an elegant novel that reads at a steady pace through its entirety, whereas another novel like this would flounder about or die horribly about halfway through. I have a realtively long attention span, but if a book is slow-paced, I lose interest right away. With American Gods, I found myself not wanting to put it down. It was long, but certainly didn't feel like it. Gaiman's character development skills astound me- every single one of the characters felt as though they were alive. American Gods is a refreshing look at the heart of the United States- written by an Englishman no less! The novel has mystery, murder, legend, lore, cunning schemes, ghosts, and of course, gods. What more could you ask for?
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Summary: An Unwieldy Mess of Ideas and Scenes
Review: Having heard loads of good things about Gaiman's work, and this huge novel in particular, I decided to check out this story of the decline of "old" gods in the face of the "new" gods of technology. The notion that the power of gods is derived from belief in them is a fairly basic one, and forms the underlying framework for "the coming storm", where the old gods in America band together to fight the new ones. The premise here is that centuries of immigrants have brought their native gods to the shores of America, where, we are told, there were no gods. Gaiman uses a few flashbacks to show these gods in action, which are some of the most effective bits of writing in the book. But there are three main conceptual flaws in the premise. The first is that the American mainland was hardly a tabula rasa, there were plenty of Native American deities in place (Raven, Wolf, Turtle, etc.). Secondly, does that mean that there are multiple manifestations of deities-one per geographic location? If the Norse gods die off in America due to dwindling belief, does that mean they live on in Scandinavia? Thirdly, the book totally ignores the monotheistic traditions which dominate modern American belief, which seems like a massive cop-out by Gaiman. Of course, this is a work of fantasy, and one doesn't look for total realism-but these issues undermine the internal logic of the story. The story's protagonist is the cheesily names Shadow, who we meet right before he is released from prison. Upon his release, he is enlisted by the leader of the "old" gods, Wednesday, as a bodyguard. It's troubling that Shadow never seems that perturbed by Wednesday's creepy knowledge of his life, and it's one of the books central flaws that Shadow takes the most bizarre, X-Filesque events in stride, barely batting an eye. He's such a non-reactive character that it's a real struggle to care about him at all-which is a major problem as he is the center of the story. The two set out on Gaiman's attempt at that most traditional of American genres, the road movie/book, as they attempt to organize a coalition of old gods to do battle with the new ones. So, basically, the whole story is a buildup to this massive battle, which... Well, I won't give it away, but it's likely to disappoint many readers. More problematic is the pace, which is numbingly sedentary. The book drags on and on and on at a steady pace, only to culminate in the aforementioned non-climax. Along with these issues, readers who know their Norse pantheon will probably spot the book's big reveal well in advance (Shadow's prison buddy, Low Key and his boss Wednesday, bear names decodable by a child with an interest in Norse mythology). This is not to say there aren't portions that are well written and intriguing, but as a whole, the book is an unwieldy mess of ideas and scenes. Gaiman clearly has talent and imagination, but sustaining a narrative of this length appears beyond him at this point.
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Summary: Gaiman should stick with comics
Review: This book gets an incredible amount of praise on Amazon and elsewhere, and the reason why is beyond me. Neil Gaiman is certainly a very literate writer of comics. In fact, over the past 15 years or so, he gave the comic medium a degree of culture and style. This ability, unfortunately, is not present in his novels. Strangely, the SANDMAN comic, written for a medium that is usually dismissed as children's fare, is much more intellectual than his novels, which contain much adult fare (sex, blood, violence, etc.) but are hardly constructed on an adult reading level. Gaiman's basic premise definitely got my attention: the last showdown between the gods of old civilization and the so-called gods of modern America. Sounds great... in fact, the whole plot of the novel is a lot of fun. The problem is that it is carried out in such an amateurish and lackluster fashion. Gaiman incorporates many tired standards into this novel to further the plot, give foreshadowing, or whatever. He of all people should know better! I knew I was in for a questionable read in the first chapter of the book by this classic and wholly original bit of foreshadowing: "There's a storm coming". Ooooooh, how dark, and how mysterious. It didn't send shivers down my spine, but it sure did make my stomach turn. Why not just start the novel with "It was a dark and stormy night"? Let's face it: Gaiman works wonders with comics, but his novels are second-rate.
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Summary: oh, god... more bad writing
Review: Yet another work whose premise is great, but is very poorly executed. This book joins the millions of other failed attempts at something truly good. Character development is terrible and clumsy. I could say a lot more, but end the end I would just have to say that I would not recommend this book.
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Summary: Journeys with Shadow and Gaiman
Review: That's really how I felt while reading this book. I felt that Gaiman had seized my attention and taken me on a wonderfully twisty and mysterious journey. The stances Gaiman takes in this book are original and elegant--his characters complex and beautiful. Shadow and Wednesday, in particular, seized me, but I was also captivated by Town (working for the opposition) and Laura (Shadow's late wife). Gaiman makes you care about the fates of all those in his epic, and no one in his novel is sketched. Even bit players seem whole and real. This captivating, original novel is a must-read. Enjoy the journey.
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Summary: Holy Wednesday!
Review: I gave this book five stars, but then, I have always been a sucker for mythology. If you don't think that myths are the greatest thing since sliced bread, don't even bother. If you are not interested in gods, goddesses, deities, etc--and, I have to admit, unless you have some very basic background in mythology, particularly in Nordic myths--you will likely get lost in it. This is how it goes: two days before Shadow is set to get out of prison, he is told that his beloved wife, Laura, has been killed in a car accident. Flying home for her funeral, Shadow meets Wednesday, who invites him to work for him--and does not truly take "no" for an answer. Eventually, Shadow accepts and begins following Wednesday around the country, running his errands and witnessing a number of bizarre meetings. Wednesday, on his part, is on a mission to gather up the support of various American Gods (i.e. European pagan deities, Asian gods, Nordic ones, Slavic ones, Indian ones...) in the incoming fight against the gods of the new age, the gods of technology. In the meantime, Shadow's late wife Laura is not so late... as of late, and quite desirous of seeing her beloved husband safe through Wednesday's tangled web of activities. And so on, and so forth. Long, long book. Good book. Well-written, wittily and sexily--but that's Gaiman for you. Excellent book. That said, let me repeat my earlier warning: don't read it if you don't like myths. You will never get through it. On the other hand, if you DO like myths, this is the book for you--I learned a TON of new mythology information from it. Not to mention how great it feels when you actually recognize a god in whatever makeup he's wearing.
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Summary: Quantity not Quality
Review: Unlike Gaiman, I'll keep my comments brief. His plot and storyline could have easily been condensed into a 50-page novella. The characters are one-dimensional and hollow. Much of his scenes and descriptions are filler. Gaiman could argue that gee whiz, that's the whole ironic, clever point! Still, it doesn't take 500+ pages to do that. By the way Neil, in case you didn't know, dream sequences are quite cliche these days.
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Summary: This thing won a Hugo?
Review: This guy must really be in good with Worldcon voters! Just exactly where is the Science-Fiction element in this mass media indulgence that reads like a Stephen King novel from the 80's ? It is entertaining but certainly not for SF fans.
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