Okay, I'm a hopeless bookworm, so there might be many of these type posts from me... fair warning, lol.
I'm about 40 pages away from finishing American Gods, and that book kicks so much ass it's not even funny. I've read Gaiman's Sandman series and loved it - but this is the first actual novel by him that I've read.
I read Flowers in the Attic and part of Petals on the Wind, but that's as far into the series that I got.. that was many many years ago...
Okay, American Gods is about this guy Shadow. At the beginning of the book, he's about to get out of prison (he's in for assault, if i remember correctly), and is looking forward to seeing his wife again. He's got a job lined up, his ducks are seemingly in a row. Then the prison warden comes to tell him that his wife has been killed in a car wreck, and they're releasing him early. On the plane ride home, Shadow meets this guy named Mr. Wednesday, who knows things about Shadow that he couldn't possibly know. Mr. Wednesday offers him a job, and Shadow declines. To shorten this a bit, we'll just say Mr. Wednesday is very persuasive, and Shadow finally agrees to work for him. It turns out that Mr. Wednesday has just enlisted Shadow to take part in an underground battle going on in America. Mr. Wednesday is actually Odin, the head of the Norse pantheon, and the war he's waging is a spiritual one. He represents all of the old gods that the settlers brought with them to America - the piskies and sidhe of Ireland, the vaudun loa of Africa, the pagan Eostre, etc. - who still exist and are barely functioning in today's America. They're slowly being replaced with the gods of media and technology.
The book is about the battle therein - the old gods fighting for their place, and the new gods trying to replace them. I'm not very good at descriptions without writing like 10 pages, but I hope that will suffice. It's really a wonderfully written book.
Sounded cool untill mythology got into the picture....Im lovign the names thoug.....Mr wednesday?FUCKING SWEET!!!!!!I think i should make that my name....Lol
Just finished the book tonight at work - loved every minute of it! I'm just glad it was a slow night at the hotel.. I didn't put the book down for like twenty minutes.
Anyone who's a fan of horror/thriller novels should check out the books by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. Highly recommended are Thunderhead, Mount Dragon, Cabinet of Curiosities and Still Life With Crows... but all their books are really good. I promise!
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll definitely check them out. Tracy and I are going to Evansville Thursday, and since we have no good bookstores where I live, I'll stock up then
Another author I would recommend checking out is Laurell K. Hamilton - her Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series rocks the proverbial socks. I've gotten Tracy hooked on those, lol.
Check out the Shadow Saga line of books by Christopher Golden. The first book, Of Saints and Shadows, is a great work. A vampire nation fights against a renegade sorcerer sect of the Catholic church with epic, violent battles and deep, intriguing characters. If you can get into that book, then I recommend the follow ups which follow the character Peter Octavian through hell and back... literally.
Sweet! Speaking of characters going through hell and back, I also just finished What Dreams May Come, by Richard Matheson. I'd seen the movie a while back, and liked the concept... the book is interesting if a little hokey at times.
Now I'm reading an HP Lovecraft short story collection
