Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett

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(Mass Market Paperback - Reprint)

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  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Pub. Date: November 2006
  • ISBN-13: 9780060853983
  • Sales Rank: 2,431
  • 432pp
  • Edition Description: Reprint
 
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Synopsis

According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.

So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .

Orlando Sentinel

Outrageous...read it for a riotous good laugh!

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Biography

Novelist Neil Gaiman has sent a British businessman tumbling into a fantastic underworld and had a devil and angel comically conspiring to thwart the Apocalypse. He found his biggest success, though, in Death, Dreams and Destruction -- and the four other similarly named siblings who controlled the reins of the human race's emotional impulses in his graphic-novel series The Sandman, a wholesale rejuvenation of graphic fiction that had everyone from Tori Amos to Norman Mailer spinning with, yes, Delirium.

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Customer Reviews

Reviewed by Carrie Spellman for TeensReadToo.comby TeensReadToo

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October 30, 2008: I love this book! The first time I came across it, it was hidden in a corner in a bookstore. It cried out to me. I had to take it home. I laughed so hard that I cried, more than once. I loved it so much I gave it away. Which is an extraordinarily difficult thing for me to do. But it wanted to be shared, and I can't deny a book its destiny. My brain, however, is not so capable of release. I had to buy it again. And read it over and over and over. Until I gave it to my boyfriend, before we were dating. And still, I read it at his house. When he forgot and gave it back to me, I cruelly didn't correct him. (It came back to me! It must be fate!) Now, there's a new edition out, with comments by the authors. I have to go get it.

I'm obsessed. It's unhealthy. I know. Come join me. It's the best apocalypse you'll ever survive.

Crowley and Aziraphale have been locked in the battle between good and evil since, well, at least the beginning of time. In fact, it's been so long that it's become more of a debate then a battle. Actually more of a conversation. Aziraphale is an angel, and part-time rare bookseller. It's a front; he really collects the books for himself. Crowley is sort of a fallen angel; well, as the book says "an angel who did not so much fall as saunter vaguely downward". So he's a demon, ish. Mostly he's an instigator. These two have been enemies for so long that they've become pretty good friends.

But that's all going to end. Everything is going to end. Next Saturday. That's when the apocalypse has been scheduled for. The final battle between good and evil. What's an angel, or demon, to do when it comes time to end the world, but they really don't want to?

The apocalypse is aided and thwarted, alternately, by angels, demons, and an assortment of other ridiculous, hilarious, pitiful characters. Newton Pulsifer, Witchfinder, armed with a stickpin. Anathema Device, Witch and owner of the only accurate book of prophecy to ever be written, until she lost it. Agnes Nutter, author of said book, semi-illiterate, or maybe just a really bad speller, and dead. The Chattering Order of St. Beryl, satanic nuns who really just like to wear black. Dog, who was, or is, or should have been a hellhound. Adam, the anti-christ, depending on how the day goes. There's a lot more, but I don't want to ruin the fun. Let's just say that good, evil, and prophecy are all ideas that leave a lot of room for interpretation. And I'll never leave music in my car for too long again.

Good Omensby FocoProject

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October 27, 2008: You will never hear me complain about Neil Gaiman?s imagination or creativity. I would not know much about Terry Pratchett, author of Discworld, because I have never really been interested in reading his stuff, but I simply had to give this book a try, based entirely on the irony of its subject.

For all intents and purposes, this book is an apocalyptic one, albeit shot up with a good amount of humor, where a satanic nun accidentally hands the antichrist to the wrong family and the kid ends up growing up as?just a normal kid. The four riders of apocalypse are actually four motorcyclists (Hell?s Angels), and a not always competent angels and demon are handed the task of keeping good and evil in balance until the end of days. With witches, witch finders, celestial and hellish creatures cut loose, this book counts down to the day that will end it all in a big war for which both Heaven and Hell have long been preparing for.

There is no question that this was a very fun read, the humor in it more than laugh out loud at points, however, it lacked the depth that Neil Gaiman?s other books have had. Perhaps it is the fact that so many characters enter the story, from the Metatron (the voice of God) to Newt, a young man who thinks he is enlisting for the army, only to find out he has enlisted for an army of witchfinders composed of no more than two people?and that is including himself. The characters are very colorful, but at the same time not very deep. The potential for greater exploration is there, but instead this book is kept light, meant to be much more comical than serious about its subject and that is not necessarily a bad thing, simply something you need to be aware of.

All in all, it was a fun read and would recommend it to anybody just looking for a good laugh and something to pass time with. But not to anybody looking for a serious read about the end of days.


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