Books.

I LOVE my books. I love my comic books. But I really, really love regular old books. I’ve got a small library of things ranging from fantasy to suspense to horror, and a smattering of non-fiction for good measure. Sadly during the school semester I hardly have time to read (Or when I do it’s school related, or very short lived) but at the end of winter break I opted to finally sit down a read an author I’ve heard nothing but good thins about: Neil Gaiman.

I picked up ‘Neverwhere’, and devoured it, despite a few complaints it was fantastic, but a few days ago I picked up the book I was looking for when I walked out with ‘Neverwhere’. ‘American Gods‘.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to tell you this, but READ. THIS. BOOK. @#$%. I haven’t finished it yet (It’s only been a few days, give me another week since school’s started) but I have to say that it’s absolutely amazingly well written.

It follows the story of ‘Shadow’, a recently released convict who get’s hired by a man calling himself ‘Wednesday’…from there his life falls apart and he ends up involved in something that he’s fairly certain is out of his league…yet he’s not a whiny little @#$%er.

This is something that bugs me with books, and movies, and comics (even my own…which I’m trying to fix): The main character ends up in an impossible situation and spends the whole time doing nothing but bitching and moaning about how unlikely the whole thing is until the end when they start bitching and moaning about how they hate their old life.

Thus far Shadow hasn’t complained (expressed confusion and disbelief, sure) and he’s taken the whole thing in a combination of amusement and ‘sure what the hell’edness. I’ve gotten to really like Shadow (don’t spoiler it for me if he goes bitch towards the end) and the way each character is written is amazingly fantastic and unique.

Neil Gaiman may be my new favorite author.

I was worried that he would follow the same formula every time, as ‘Stardust’ and ‘Neverwhere’ were the same basic story: Boy falls into shit, boy climbs out of shit, boy learns life lesson and everything works out…and no this isn’t a spoiler as you don’t know how it works out and that’s the lesson. At first I was worried that ‘American Gods’ would follow this same formula, which would have made me sad. But so far Shadow hasn’t started to do this…and I’ve only got a few more chapters to go, so I don’t see this happening.

Because I got mighty sick of Dan Brown’s: Open with murder, have series of plot twists (that after two of his books you could guess the whole thing), then end with a big reveal that is ultimately covered up and the main character getting laid.

I read four (is that all he’s done?) of his books; ‘Angels and Demons’, ‘The Da Vinci Code’, ‘Deception Point’, and ‘Digital Fortress’…all very good but all the same damned thing. I should have given up after ‘Deception Point’ but I just started on the last and I hate to give up mid-stride.

The best part of the book is probably the ‘coming to America’ side stories, where Gaiman discusses how the gods found their way to the new world…they range from funny, to spooky, to outright @#$%ed up. And they’re fantastic.

Ok, That’s it. I’m done. It’s nearly a @#$%ing paper here.

Comic on Monday will explain a little about the green guy’s reappearance. As will the blog.

I don’t think I can think of something interesting to say all the time.

I don’t roll like that.

-Peace

PS: Anybody have any suggestions on what I should get of his next? I know there’s a seaqual to ‘American Gods’ but I’m open for anything…