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Good Omens

Good Omens

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Omens
Review: A great ride threw Doomsday. Its a cross between The Hitcher's Guide to the Galaxy and the Omen. One of the best books put out by Terry Pratchett.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: OK, But Not Very Funny
Review: "Good Omens", which occurs mainly in the UK, follows a dozen or so eccentric characters as they all prepare for Armageddon. The book starts on a Wednesday and edges slowly toward Saturday, the day in which the world will end. It's up to two angels--well, one angel (Aziraphale, who is also a part-time book dealer) and one demon (Crowley, "who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards")--to try and sway the 11-year-old Antichrist (Adam Young) to one respective side--either Heaven's or Hell's.

There are so many characters and mini plots in this book, it's hard to get attached to just one, but my favorite would have to be Witchfinder Sergeant Shadwell. He was an absolute kook and, at times, very funny. The rest of the book is amusing and entertaining at parts, but it wasn't as funny as I had expected. Probably the two humorous bits that do come to mind are the author biographies and the caveat on one of the first few pages: "Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your own home."

"Good Omens" was also, in my opinion, too long and verbose and could have had 100 pages or so removed and still have served its purpose. This isn't a book I'd necessarily recommend, but if you're an avid fan of one or both of the writers, then you might like this sci fi spoof on the Apocalypse. And for those who did enjoy the book, you'll be happy to know "Good Omens" is being made into a movie sometime next year.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This book will make you smarter!
Review: It really will. We laugh when new connections are made in the brain, when ideas that are so dissimilar as to have never been connected are introduced. And Good Omens is just full of these kinds of weird and wonderful connections. Gaiman and Pratchett are both brilliantly funny and have no trouble throwing us meaty bones throughout the novel. Yes, it is absurd and often ridiculous, but it is also nicely salt and peppered with very astute observations which are funny simply because they are so very true, but usually ignored as conditioning and familiarity get in the way of objectivity. This is just a very, very, funny book, so funny that at times I had difficulty reading as I was laughing so hard. I figure, if a book makes you laugh out loud when you are alone, then it has to be very funny indeed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Funny Stuff
Review: This book is one of few books to actually have me laughing out loud. Even the funniest of books, just made me chukle on the inside.

You've probably read enough about the plot so I'll keep this brief: It's the end of the world. Satanic nuns misplace the antichrist, and the representatives of heavan and hell don't really want the war. So... a bunch of funny stuff happens.

I loved this book, and I think anyone who's in for a good laugh will too. It's funny without resorting to all the toilet humor and stuff that I'm used to from Austin Powers and such.
My only warning is that those who don't have a sense of humor (or at least a sense of humor about their religion) will find it offensive. It doens't really mock relligion, but some people don't think humor has a place in religion.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is the best book in the world!!
Review: There is no more to say. If you're going to buy one book this year and read only one book from now until the time you die, this book should be it. If you don't feel like you're going to crack a rib because you're laughing so hard while reading this book then you have No sense of humour!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Omens Schmomens
Review: I'm not exactly sure how one goes about writing a book with someone else, but it sure as heckfire worked with these two authors. I wouldn't be surprised if some might think this book slightly blasphemous or sacreligious, but me? I think it's startlingly, humorously, perfectly irreverent. These two authors managed to write a book about the very thing my parents have obssessed over to the point of instilling fear in me as a child and made it a matter to laugh at. I doubt many people would say this, but it's been very beneficial to my life...to laugh at that which "ought not be laughed at". As Martha Stewart might say, "It's a good thing."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: coooooollll....
Review: This book was hilarious! I'm not going to go over the plot, because everyone else has already, but I will say I absolutely love the ending. I think that that alone is worth reading the book for.

If you like Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy, then you'll love this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: please, i'm not mad.. this book is * just* over the top!
Review: i should have seen it coming...

put two wacky british writers... and what do you get? only the most hilarious, totally wicked, astoundingly mind-boggling adventure ever to be written!

amazingly i've only known gaiman recently, since his book "american gods" made such a big hullabaloo; and i've only heard of pratchett and seen his books in the stores, never actually reading any of it. "good omens" is actually my first formal introduction to both of the writers, and if this book is any indication, it is good omens indeed...

the story of the coming of the anticrist is very important in christiandom, and i admit it takes a lot of imagination (and caustic humor) to make the ages-old prophesy work in such a bizarre setting. there's crawley (aka the snake-demon-thingie that tempted eve in eden) who drives around london in a 1926 bentley as the rep of hell and aziraphale (the angel and rep of heaven) who also happens to be a rare book dealer. much to their chagrin, they found that both actually *liked* each other and also *humans* in general! throw in a couple of bungling witchfinders, the important book called "the nice and accurate prophesies of agnes nutter", her descendent (ditto a witch), a 'painted jezebel', some tibetan monks, the lost continent of atlantis, aliens, nuclear reactors and anything else you can find in the colorful landscape called the isle of britain, a good dose of cynical humor, stir together and you will get "good omens".

never have i read anything quite close to this book. pratchett and gaiman are a great team, their ideas blending nicely to make such a complicated plot stay focused and eliminate the hair-tearing episodes that usually accompany books of a lesser pedigree. i can only shake my head at the wacky anecdotes and the portrayal of certain characters in amazement.

definitely one of the best books around... try not to give your neighbors a heart attack with your shouts of uncontrolled laughter while reading this book, okay?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The end of the world... as it should happen
Review: Quite possibly the funniest account of the Apocalypse ever written. If you can buy into the idea that the Spawn of Satan gets mixed up in a baby-switching caper, that the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse are not only alive and well, but among other capers marketing their own diet foods, and that the outcome of the eternal struggle between Good and Evil boils down to an angel and a devil who have more in common than they have different (including an appreciation of the good restaurants in London's West End) - then this book's for you.

I have owned three copies of "Good Omens" up until now, and I have always passed them on, with the stipulation that the recipient do the same when they finished it. It's that sort of book- if it resonates with you, you'll want everyone you know to read it. If it doesn't, give it to somebody else just to get rid of it. Either way, you'll be doing somebody a favor.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Revelations revealed anew
Review: Following the last item read by my book club (The Screwtape Letters), I simply had to read Good Omens again. Read both!

The Apocalypse: so many treatises have been written, from John of Patmos to "Left Behind". None quite get around to addressing the apocalyptic impact on the rest of the universe: So what's an Angel to do, after It is All Over? Really, when it's all said and done, it's just bad for business, this End of the World.

There aren't quite any heroes, as we follow the tale of an angel and demon, who have developed quite a good working relationship since that whole Eden scandal. Both are stunned to realize that everything they enjoy here on Earth (bookstores, Bentleys) is about to come to a screeching halt in 11 years, when the Anti-Christ comes into his Power. So, they wait at the birthday party when the Hell-hound is due to arrive as a sort of present from the powers below. And the dog doesn't arrive. Um ... if this isn't the Antichrist ... ?

Overwhelming wit and satire. And things that one (at least this one) doesn't often contemplate: so what do demons discuss at their regular staff meetings?

A completely light-hearted look at the End of the World As We Know It. Or is it light-hearted?

Through the demon's part of the story, the authors have modernized the picture of evil. Crawley, the demon, shakes his head and is constantly annoyed at the 14th century minds of demons who think lacivious thoughts are the fulcrum of mortal temptation to sin. Crawley is a modern chap: he ties up the entire London phone system for 45 minutes at lunch and just watches the horrors perpetrated by man upon his fellow man spread out like ripples on a pond.

Like the advice of Screwtape to his nephew, damnation is just handing the humans enough rope. They'll do all the hard work for you.

While Good Omens is almost incessantly funny, do not let the humor distract you from a vital point: if we cling to old ideas of the Apocalypse, we'll never see It coming.


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