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READ ALL ABOUT IT: Pratchett's 'Good Omens' puts flavorful twist on apocalypse

January 07, 2009 @ 10:25 PM

The Herald-Dispatch

In describing Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's "Good Omens" to a friend, the easiest way I found to describe it was, "It's the apocalypse, but it's fun!"

Indeed, "Good Omens" is one of the most entertaining and amusing novels I've read in the past six months.

Whenever the apocalypse is mentioned, people generally think of floods, fire, famine and disease -- not an adolescent in rural England. While all the expected characters are present (angels, demons, the four horsemen, a rather crabby witchfinder and the Antichrist), some characters develop in ways that are altogether not like the expected. An angel and a demon, Azriphale and Crowley, work together to save the world from the Antichrist (a boy of 11 named, what else, Adam) mostly because as the back cover states they've "grown rather fond of the lifestyle" on earth.

Adam was supposed to be delivered to a group of Satanists so he could receive his Antichristly training; instead, he winds up in rural England leading his own group of four kids in play, until his powers start manifesting. That's when the classic signs of the apocalypse start happening and Adam must decide whether or not to live in peace as a normal human. Meanwhile both angelic and demonic forces are trying to force Adam to fulfill his destiny.

Add in a witch, some extra demons and angels for flavor and top it all off with some aliens and Atlanteans, and Gaiman and Pratchett's conception of the end of the world couldn't be funnier.

Kallel Peterson is an employee at Empire Books and News at Pullman Square in Huntington.

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