The plot: there is a building power struggle between the old Gods (Norse, Native American, pagan, etc.) and the new Gods (Technology, Television, Money, etc.). The basic idea: the more worshippers a God has, the more powerful they are. But Gods help me, the more I read, the more I hated American Gods.įirst off, while the premise sounds interesting the more I thought about it, the less I liked it. For those who love this book-and I know it is many-please forgive the sarcasm to follow as I blaspheme against the beloved Gaiman.

How on Gods’ Earth could a book about Gods walking on the Earth among mortals be so pedestrian? Somehow Gaiman managed to turn a potentially cool premise into something boring. Magnificently told, this work of literary magic will haunt the reader far beyond the final page.I find myself shocked at the awards this book has won and the praise heaped upon it. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought - and the prize is the very soul of America.Īs unsettling as it is exhilarating, American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. Soon Shadow and Wednesday will be swept up into a conflict as old as humanity itself. Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined.Īll around them a storm of epic proportions threatens to break. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter - all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose, accepts.īut working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life.

Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time.

American gods by neil gaiman