Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

God, this was intelligent. God, this was funny. God, this was well-plotted. God, this was the Apocalypse.

I suppose I should say more. Here goes:

Crowley, the snake who initially tempts Eve in the Garden of Eden, decides, along with the angel who initially watched over them, that the human race isn't all that bad. Though the Apocalypse is on them, complete with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding Harleys and a switched-at-birth Antichrist who doesn't realize that he's the Antichrist, perhaps the world shouldn't end after all.

Crowley is an intensely cool character, neither completely bad nor completely good. He takes his job of condemning souls to Hell not too seriously, for he realized a couple centuries ago that human beings faced with enough daily aggravations could condemn themselves.

The angel Arizaphale, I believe his name was, runs a bookstore collecting rare books and, most aptly, prophecy Bibles. (This and the footnotes in the book are the funniest, most "Hitchhiker's Guide" moments in it.) Arizaphale realized that human beings should be allowed to continue on in order to keep making art.

So the two team up with witches, parents and other veddy British personalities to save the world from its supposed end.

This is very funny.

Bad news. The Apocalypse is coming. Soon. Luckily, Heaven and Hell have left the business with the Anti-Christ in the hands of Crowley and Aziraphale, demon and angel respectively. Now they have misplaced the Anti-Christ and pretty much decided they really like humanity a lot more than their either of their bosses.

In the first edition, the full title of this book was "The Nice & Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch." "Nice," in this context, meaning precisely correct. Agnes saw it all coming, from her being burned alive as a witch to the air force base where Armageddon will begin ("Peas is our professiune."). Agnes, her descendant, Anathema, the Four Horseman - Horsepersons - and the Other Four Horseman (a different chapter of Hell's Angels); it all comes together with the serried ranks of angels and demons gathered overhead.

Yes, this is an hysterically funny book. A satire and a parody, it lampoons everything in sight. From Elvis sightings to televangelists to the destruction of all intelligent life ("nothing left but dust and fundamentalists."), little escapes the scathing wit of Gaiman and Pratchett.

Of course the demon, Crowley, drives a 1926 Bentley. Of course any tape left in its glove box for more than two weeks turns into something by Queen. Of course the flaming sword used by War is delivered to her by International Express.

And what happens to the telephone solicitor, Lisa Morrow? Come on now, you secretly thought all telephone solicitors deserved it, right?

In the tradition of Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain, the satire makes a point. That point may be unpalatable to the religiously inflexible, or to those whose sense of righteousness hampers their sense of humor. Critics of Swift and Twain would find much to criticize in Good Omens. But Pratchett and Gaiman demonstrate that we don't need Heaven or Hell to have Good and Evil in the world; we have all we need in ourselves. It's the humanity of Adam Young, the Adversary, the Angel of the Bottomless Pit, etc., it's his human-ness that ultimately makes all the difference.

Don't read this book in bed; you'll keep your spouse awake, laughing out loud. But there's nothing else bad that can be said about it. Ineffability may be beyond our understanding, but humor, even humor in the face of the End of the World, we can understand.

Try this book. I will predict, with Agnes, you'll like it.

I once lent this book to I don't remember who, never got it back - but I wasn't angry. I was actually GLAD that somebody else obviously loved it as much as I do.

well, the thing is, everything has been said. I just read all the reviews, and was glad to see I'm not the only one who loved the horsepersons of the apocalypse. But I think old Agnes Nutter (witch), the delivery guy and Thou-shalt-not-commit-adultery Pulsifer deserve at least some honorary mention. I mean, all the characters are hilarious! Pratchett and Gaiman know where it's at! They answer fundamental questions, like

...what happens when a US-tv preacher actually meets a real archangel?

...how can answering machines help a fallen angel in his fight against the dukes of hell?

... who is responsible for Milton Keynes?

... what does the hellhound look like?

... what's the plan behind London transport?

And for those who compare this to Douglas Adams' hitch-hikers series: you are clueless. I mean, you might as well state that Finnegan's Wake was inferior to Mickey Mouse, or that Bach's concertos don't quite live up to "Cats" .

Good Omens has genuine esprit. Intellectuals can enjoy it. But my 86-year old, working class, staunchly catholic grandma enjoyed it, too.

Try to beat that.

So: read it!

I once had the fortune to attend a lecture held by Terry Pratchett. That was before I read "Good Omens" (back then, I only knes his discworld books). If I ever meet him again, I'll buy him all the banana daiquiries he asks for.

A couple years ago we did a lot of driving during vacation. My wife read this book to me while I drove, and the kids (11 & 6) listened in. (Soon after vacation, we got a second black cat. As we already had one named Aleister, this one got named Aziraphale. She's sitting on my lap, begging for attenion right now!)

This is a comedy of errors about the eschaton, the Antichrist, and Armageddon. My wife & I grew up taking the Apocalypse quite seriously. That served only to make this book funnier. Our children, who couldn't tell an antichrist from an anti-Chrystler, found the book entertaining as well.

Fast read. Lots of fun. If you've read all of Douglas Adams' books and are hungering for more, this is the book for you! You might consider following it with Terry Prachett's Small Gods.

(If you enjoyed this review, please leave positive feedback. To see more of my reviews, click on the "about me" link above. Thanks!)

"Good Omens" is one of the funniest books I have ever had the good fortune to find on a library search engine, and that's something considering that I've read nearly all of Mr. Pratchett's wonderful Discworld novels. I especially enjoyed how, in usual PTerry style, the story had several plots going at once that are constantly interrupted by each other but that somehow all come together in the end. Crowley and Aziraphale are just about the coolest demon/angel team I've ever heard of, the Them were fabulous "kid" characters, and of course our four horsemen (excuse me--horsePEOPLE) made their few cameo appearances quite hilarious. (I'm a little prejudiced when it comes to this area--DEATH has always been my favorite Pratchett character and I was absolutely thrilled when I read the "Cast List" and found Him on it) Anyone who loves to laugh at human nature and of course at the Book of Revelations will find "Good Omens" to be a great read. Terry and Neil, you should get together more often! ^_^