On Saturday, right before dinner, the world will end. As the armies of Heaven and Hell, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness get ready for the final battle, an unlikely pair of friends work together to stop the end of the world. There is only one problem: someone seems to have misplaced the anti-christ.
Hey guys! It’s been a while. But it’s also been a while since I’ve read outside of class (sadly one of the tragedies of being an English Major is that the readings for my major take up most of my time). A friend of mine actually recommended this to me after finding out just how much I loved Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and I finally got to it.
And man, am I glad she did.
This book is absolutely Delightful–yes with a capital D, because this book made me laugh so hard that the person sitting next to me actually turned, gave me a quizzical look, and then tried to see the title of my book. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett have an amazing sense of humor, and it comes across in the story and the dialgoue, which could give Douglas Adams a run for his money. It also had a really amazing viewpoint on biblical stories, and played with religion in such a skillful way that it was funny without being offensive.
But to think that this book is all laughs and no suspense would be a slap in the face. Pratchett and Gaiman set a good pace with this one. One moment I was laughing hysterically, the next moment I was gripping the pages, waiting to see if they would, indeed, stop Armageddon from happening, and what would happen to our heroes, or my favorite characters, or even what that Agnes Nutter is up to now. That is not to say that the humor disappeared–I was still laughing even as the sun rose on that faithful Saturday. But I couldn’t put it down.
Gaiman and Pratchett worked so well together, and the pieces that I had thought at the beginning of the novel to just be fun little stories within the bigger story wove together in a plot of hilarious suspense. And it was more than just the plot–every single character was funny, dynamic, and regardless on what side of the war they were on, you still manage to fall in love with them.
10/10 recommend this book.
(And here’s a small exerpt, because how could I not include one?:)
It wasn’t a dark and stormy night.
It should have been, but that’s the weather for you. For every mad scientist who’s had a convenient thunderstorm just on the night his Great Work is finished and lying on the slab, there have been dozens who’ve sat around aimlessly under the peaceful stars while Igor clocks up the overtime.
But don’t let the fog (with rain later, temperatures dropping to around forty-five degrees) give anyone a false sense of security. Just because it’s a mild night doesn’t mean that dark forces aren’t abroad. They’re abroad all the time. They’re everywhere.
They always are. That’s the whole point.
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