Neil Gaiman - American Gods
#CoSoBooks
American Gods is a the most mature book I've recommended so far. It is a full on rated R experience. Full stop. Expect sex, violence, swearing and all the other stuff that makes being an adult tolerable.
But don't let that warning scare you away, American Gods is a book that will stay with you long after you put it down. Gaiman has knack for putting an idea on paper in a way that you have an epiphany about it weeks, sometimes years later.
1/2
@Hobyrim Confession: I only made it half way through. I couldn't keep track of the characters and got lost time and again. It's a weird personal quirk of mine.
But, I still have the book and an determined to give it another go at some time.
@ChippySuave honestly if you watched the series it might help you.
American Gods almost requires you to have previous knowledge of Norse and Greek mythologies to keep the characters straight.
I dont fault you for it, I started it and stopped it like 3 times, but when it finally hooked me, it hooked me hard.
This is a book that both demands your undivided attention and your complete imagination.
There are easily 5 different stories being told at the same time.
@Hobyrim @ChippySuave
Have you read Norse Mythology as well?
I am thinking that that should be first, followed by AGs?
@Hobyrim @ChippySuave
BTW... I read them the other way round AGs first then NM... And I can see how flipping, makes sense...
LOVED AG... And also loved what I learned in NM...
@ChippySuave @Hobyrim
This is how I am with most of Neal Stephenson books... I start all ready to go... then due to what I consider a disjointed storytelling style, I can get lost in the mire of all of the disparate lines and characters...
I haven't seen the series yet as I don't have Showtime? (I think)... But a visual might help as Hoby says?
@InvaderGzim @ChippySuave @Hobyrim but you've read them all right?
@Klaatu_Veratta_Nectarine @ChippySuave @Hobyrim
Truthfully, I need to go back and start with Cryptonomicon and work forward from there again... That Baroque Cycle was what did him in for me back when...
Which bugged me because I loved SnowCrash and Diamond Age so much... But I was late to those as I only heard of them after the Internet became a thing... Small town WNY didn't breed too many book leads...
All of the Asimov books were the basis of my late youth as well... And then Heinlein...
@Klaatu_Veratta_Nectarine @ChippySuave @Hobyrim
At the time, I worked my real job in tech from M-F... and for my father Fnight-Sunday... And reading was what I did to keep occupied at the second job due to long stretches of being alone... but then also long stretches of continual interruption...
You can get pretty board pin chasing in an alley back when... and it can be loud and continual up and down...
VERY odd youth I lead... So many different jobs/hats...
What makes American Gods so good is the subversion of expected beliefs about religion in America. This isnt an examination of the usual ideas of Christianity, it's about that which gets left behind or forgotten as the American culture changes in ways that not even the gods truly understand.
Expect some truly imaginative and "WTF just happened!" moments.
Gods has a batcrap amazing ending.
The TV version on STARS is p. good, but it won't have this ending. Gods is one of Gaiman's best.
2/2