2013 read #48: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
357 pages
Published 1990
Read from April 18 to April 19
Rating: ★★★½ out of 5

Without knowing the relative contributions of each author, and not knowing much about Pratchett's work beyond one story in that After the King anthology, I'm going to make this review pretty much all about Gaiman. I would say Good Omens is obviously a stock Gaiman plot: What if the metaphysical world and its creatures kept up with modern times and was run by career bureaucrats? It's basically Gaiman's entire novel career in embryo form, complete with a whimsical and self-aware style that had yet to take a step back and stop pounding your face with just how goddamn WHIMSICAL and SELF-AWARE it is. The prose in this book is trying very, very, very, very, very, very, very hard to be precious, and that's kind of annoying. I'm glad Gaiman managed to tone that down just a smidge in his later novels. Other Gaiman staples that make early appearances here: Flimsy characterization; the competent and eccentric young female lead with no obvious flaws; the mostly incompetent and humdrum male lead who just happens to be the only man who can save the day; the groan-worthy wordplay that's as clever as it thinks it is maybe one time out of twenty; the same themes of belief manifesting into reality, and human will butting up against bureaucratized divinity, that would get recycled in one form or another in Neverwhere and American Gods. We get it, Gaiman, that's your meal-ticket. Don't hold back from trying something new on our account, though.

The funniest, most charming bits are the few references that don't get underlined, such as "Mr. Francis" being the kindly gardener who encourages Warlock to love all living things. Another clever-if-obvious touch I liked was the pre-Samuel Johnson spelling of the dialogue in the flashback sequences. A particular highlight was the all-too-brief buddy cop interlude starring Crowley and Aziraphale. Once the narrative shifted its focus to the human cast, it suffered.

As always, I emphasize the negative in these reviews. I maintain the star ratings to give a relatively consistent idea of how much I actually liked each book. As you can see, I thought Good Omens was pretty good, all in all. That brings my Gaiman tally to one outstanding book (American Gods), one really good book (Neverwhere), two good books (this one and Anansi Boys), and one wretchedly banal short story ("And Weep Like Alexander," in that Year's Best anthology from 2012). I maintain my claim that, while he's good at what he does, Gaiman is ridiculously overrated. He writes well for an airport novelist, but this is not deep or provocative fiction by any stretch, especially when you realize he's been rewriting the same basic novel again and again since 1990. I must be deaf to whatever powerful influence he exerts over, like, half the nerds on the internet.