Thursday 15 April 2010

Golly, that was fun!

I really like Neil Gaiman. I also really like Terry Pratchett. But I think I love the two-headed monster they form when they write books together. As far as I know, Good Omens is the only one (and likely the last, as Pratchett has the Alzheimer's, alas).

I think Good Omens is both the best Neil Gaiman book I've read and the best Terry Pratchett book I've read, and they've both written some pretty kick-ass things (Anansi Boys and The Light Fantastic, respectively). It was just so clever and hilarious and plot-ful. It relied on overused clichés of religious horror and made fun of them by filtering them through the clichéd lens of a coming of age novel. Awesome. Perfect.

In spite of the sheer nerdy pulchritude of this novel, I've been having a hard time reading lately. My distractability quotient is quite high right now. Which might account for why I'm writing a post like this after writing two moody and Deep posts about what to do with writers who are jerks. I'm feeling a bit mooncalf-ish (in the idly dreamy way, not the monstrous birth way).

And the reading-lessness of it all is about to increase for hubby and I are working manically to get ready to go on vacation (one particular instance of irony I don't find to be hilarious) and my part-timer just quit (yes, as I was in the midst of writing this post). Sigh. See you in a year? Boo. ;(

4 comments:

Heidenkind said...

See? You should have hired me. ;)

I haven't read a lot of Neil Gaiman, but he is one of the great literary personalities of our generation, IMO. And I did love Neverwhere.

Unknown said...

I read this a long, long time ago (not really sure how co-writing a book actually works - alternate sentences?, but I still haven't got around to reading my first Gaiman solo effort. I have had a lovely, clean copy of 'Neverwhere' sitting on my bookshelf for a few months now, and I just haven't found the time to read it. Yet another reason why work sucks :(

Anonymous said...

I love both Gaiman and Pratchett. And the two together = perfect! I remember how my friends and I loved this book and I think we tried to write our own novel, a poor imitation but 100% for effort - I was writing a character named Mary whose favourite book was the dictionary (??) Fun times.

Bookphilia said...

heindenkind: I still think your commuting time would be a problem, but maybe you're right. :)

Tony: I too wonder how co-authorship works. At points, I felt like certain jokes *had* to be Pratchett's but otherwise I felt unable to make any distinctions.

chasingbawa: Co-writing sounds like oodles of fun, even if the results might...vary. But anyone whose favorite book is the dictionary is alright with me.