Ok, so before I do a review of one of my favourite books of all time, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, I thought Id have a quick rant about my undying love for Neil. Gaiman is one of those authors that can just write, you know? He has just got such incredible talent, and I haven’t finished all his works yet, but American Gods, Stardust and Neverwhere are just out of this world (sometimes literally).

And nobody can say anything that will make me love Neil Gaiman less. You tell me he kicks puppies? I say they probably had it coming. He lures small children into vans after school? I’m sure the kid would be happy to be in a van with the writer of Coraline and The Graveyard Book (I sure would). He takes candy from babies? He’s just watching out for them. Developing a sweet tooth at such a young age is not good in this world plagued by obesity. 

And just to put it all out there, I would have this man's children where he not married to the fantastic Amanda Fucking Palmer, the stunningly brilliant American performer (as well as singer,  lyricist, pianist and composer). Anyway, here goes...

AMERICAN GODS BY NEIL GAIMAN

This extraordinary book follows a man, Shadow, who is just out of prison and somehow manages to find himself involved in a war, between the old time gods of mythology, and those of the 20^th century, the relatively new gods of media, celebrity, technology and drugs, etc. Shadow is thrust into this fight with no warning, after he finds out his wife has been killed in a car accident, and he is recruited to serve as a bodyguard by the enigmatic and oddly captivating Mr. Wednesday, who is in charge of the final frontier battle for survival against these new gods.

Gaiman’s premise of the novel that these Gods exist because we worship them is one that I can’t help but fall in love with. Brought over to America on slave ships, existing in the minds and the souls of the people were the spirits and the dwarves and gods of Norse, Pagan, African, Hindu and Egyptian mythology. These gods that are in the novel, Gaiman gives a voice and a personality, and you feel with them all that they have been through, their weariness at the state of the world.

Just writing this review makes me want to pick up the novel again, and plunge straight back into this world that Gaiman creates. I could live there for days, just hanging with Mr ibis and Sheeba, Czernobog and Kali. If you haven’t gathered already, this book is a must read. Stop what you are doing and go buy it now. Don’t borrow it; trust me, you’ll want to read it again and again and again and again…