AMERICAN GODS – Neil Gaiman

Fantastic book. This is my first Neil Gaiman novel although I’ve read some of his graphic novels. The concept is clever… old Gods such as the characters of myth, versus new Gods, such as the internet, television and the various things we worship to varying degrees.

The characters are rich, flawed and most importantly interesting. Even the ones you want dead, you don’t want dead YET because you want to find out more about them. It’s a sprawling epic of a thing with the American landscape as its backdrop. Fantastic idea, really well executed.

I got a little hung up on the difference between the type of rituals people traditionally performed and observed towards the old Gods whereas the modern “worship” is a more passive handing over of time and energy without ritual or sacrifice, but the resolution is clever and deftly positioned and American Gods leaves you wanting more.