I've mentioned Neil Gaiman here before I think. He's one of my favorite authors these days, something like a more whimsical Stephen King, a more prolific Douglas Adams, or a more literary Joss Whedon.He's got a great blog, regularly updated with all kinds of fascinating things, but I thought it was worth mentioning today because he's made one of his books available for free. He actually held a vote on his site last month about which book it should be. I'm happy to report that my choice was the one that made it through. It's called American Gods, and it's one of the better books I've read in the last few years. And now you can read the whole thing for free thanks to the magic of the interwebs.
Of all his works, it's the one that was the most immediately gripping. It's also, I think, his most successful attempt to merge so-called speculative fiction with a contemporary novel. It's kind of hard to imagine, but a book about Norse gods and ancient myths is also unmistakably modern.
The result is a book that's quite insightful as well as extremely enjoyable reading. I think it took me all of two days to get through the 500+ pages a couple summers ago.
The long and short is that it's totally free so there's no excuse to not give it a shot. And if you like it, he's got plenty of other free content as well as other novels, short story collections, graphic novels, and anything else you might desire.
Are You There Margaret? It's Me God - The Lawrence Arms
God - John Lennon
Teeth Like God's Shoeshine - Modest Mouse
6 comments:
I adore Neil Gaiman, although my favorite is still Good Omens (which makes me laugh out loud every time I read it). I just started a book (by Marie Phillips) called "Gods Behaving Badly," and though it's about the Greek gods hanging out in London, I can only hope it's half as good as Gaiman's (so far it's pretty entertaining).
It's funny, because Good Omens is actually my least favorite thing of his I've read. Not that it was bad - it just didn't do a whole lot for me. But I know many many people who feel differently. I haven't heard of Marie Phillips - it'll go on my list of things to investigate.
Hey if you like the lawrence arms check out http://www.lawrencearms.org/
American Gods is great. Have you read 'Anansi Boys' - it works as kind of a sequel, and is very good indeed. And tomorrow I have to do a reading for some 11 year old kids here at school so I'm going to read them some of Coraline and try to scare the life out of them.
I read Anansi Boys a couple summers ago. I definitely enjoyed, though not as much as American Gods. The characters didn't seem as realistic - more archetypes than actual people. I guess that might have been the point but it just didn't sit with me as well.
I'm a Gaiman fan too. I loved the short stories in Smoke & Mirrors. Sandman: The Dream Hunters is also a favorite of mine. ~E~
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