Name: Good Omens
ISBN: 9780552171892

Neil Gaiman

Terry Pratchett

According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.

So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon-both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle-are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .

Good Omens

vairë randir

But there were times when you needed trees, and the shame of it, Jaime thought, was that his children were growing up thinking of trees as firewood and his grandchildren would think of trees as history. 

But what could you do? Where there were trees now there were big farms, where there were small farms now there were plazas, and where there were plazas there were still plazas, and that's how it went. 

Far below, the tree burst the walls of its brushed concrete prison and rose like an express train. Jaime had never realized that trees made a sound when they grew, and no one else had realized it either, because the sound is made over hundreds of years in waves of twenty-four hours from peak to peak. 

Pippa 

"You see, evil always contains the seeds of its own destruction," said the angel. "It is ultimately negative, and therefore encompasses its downfall even at its moments of apparent triumph. No matter how grandiose, how well-planned, how apparently foolproof an evil plan, the inherent sinfulness will by definition rebound upon its instigators. No matter how apparently successful it may seem upon the way, at the end it will wreck itself. It will founder upon the rocks of iniquity and sink headfirst to vanish without trace into the seas of oblivion."

That's how it goes, you think you're on top of the world, and suddenly they spring Armageddon on you. The Great War, the Last Battle. Heaven versus Hell, three rounds, one Fall, no submission.

There had been times, over the past millennium, when he'd felt like sending a message back Below saying, Look, we may as well give up right now, we might as well shut down Dis and Pandemonium and everywhere and move up here, there's nothing we can do to them that they don't do themselves and they do things we've never even thought of...

One of them had written it, hadn't he..."Hell is empty, and all the devils are here."

And just when you'd think they were more malignant than ever Hell could be, they could occasionally show more grace than Heaven ever dreamed of. Often the same individual was involved. It was this free-will thing, of course.

Jessica Geddis 

“If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boy and his dog and his friends. And a summer that never ends.  And if you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot… no, imagine a sneaker, laces trailing, kicking a pebble; imagine a stick, to poke at interesting things, and throw for a dog that may or may not decide to retrieve it; imagine a tuneless whistle, pounding some luckless popular song into insensibility; imagine a figure, a half angel, half devil, all human… Slouching hopefully towards Tadfield. …for ever.”

sandra

Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft are written by men. 

Alesha Clifford

The internal combustion engine had been a godse – a blessi – a windfall for Crowley.

It is said that the Devil has all the best tunes. This is broadly true. But Heaven has the best choreographers.

(Bre)anne✨

Crowley (An Angel who did not so much Fall as Saunter Vaguely Downwards)

might have jumped off a building after reading that idk

megumi

In the background, Crowleg and Aziraphale met on top of buses, and in art galleries, and at concerts, compared notes, and smiled.

𖠋

“Funny thing is,” said Crawly, “I keep wondering whether the apple thing wasn’t the right thing to do, as well. A demon can get into real trouble, doing the right thing.” He nudged the angel. “Funny if we both got it wrong, eh? Funny if I did the good thing and you did the bad one, eh?”

“No,” he said, sobering up. “I suppose not.”

Salomé GB

“You see, evil always encompasses its downfall even at its moments of apparent triumph. No matter how grandiose, how well-planned, how apparently foolproof an evil plan, the inherent sinfulness will by definition rebound upon its instigators. No matter how apparently successful it may seem upon the way, at the end it will wreck itself. It will founder upon the rocks of iniquity and sink headfirst to vanish without trace into negative, and therefore the seas of oblivion. Crowley considered this. Nah, he said, at last.”

I wanted to read this ahead of the last season, that's coming out and it's so well written and hilarious. 

Valentina

I wanted to read this ahead of the last season, that's coming out and it's so well written and hilarious. 
That said, f*ck Neil Gaiman

Armageddon only happens once, you know. They don't let you go around again until you get it right' According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, Judgement Day is almost upon us and the world's going to end in a week . . . Now people have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it's only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. But what if, for once, the predictions are right, and the apocalypse really is due to arrive next Saturday, just after tea? You could spend the time left drowning your sorrows, giving away all your possessions in preparation for the rapture, or laughing it off as (hopefully) just another hoax. Or you could just try to do something about it. It's a predicament that Aziraphale, a somewhat fussy angel, and Crowley, a fast-living demon now finds themselves in. They've been living amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and, truth be told, have grown rather fond of the lifestyle and, in all honesty, are not actually looking forward to the coming Apocalypse. And then there's the small matter that someone appears to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .

the book is simultaneously funny and irritating. the prolonged chapters of the children sometimes made me want to rip out my hair. the parts with crowley and aziraphale are obviously my favourites

Vincent Osvald

When the armies of Heaven and Hell decide it's time for Armageddon, a demon and an angel decide they like life on earth and team up to stop the coming Apocalypse

The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch : a Novel

Thought this would get me out of a reading slump but put me even deeper. Fascinating that Amazon managed to adapt it for screen so seamlessly. 

Katerina

It turns out that I can read quickly through a Terry Pratchett book only when he co-writes with Neil Gaiman. “Good Omens” has the best of both worlds - Pratchett’s incredible skill for character development and Gaiman’s calm style of writing. It has Pratchett’s absurdism just to the point where you don’t get enough of it. The story was captivating, full of wit and laughter. Oh, boy, so much laughter. I loved it.

Patrick Book

Ryan Mateyk

"His knowledge of country lore was a little hazy, but he felt fairly sure that if the cows lay down, it meant rain. If they were standing it would probably be fine. These cows were taking it in turns to execute slow and solemn somersaults, and he wondered what it presaged for the weather."

Good Omens tells the story of the Apocalypse and features a huge cast of characters, including the Four Horsemen.. er, Bikers of the Apocalypse, a gang of youngsters led by the Antichrist, a witch, some witch-hunters and a demon and an angel who have grown quite used to their cushy lives on Earth.

It was easily one of the funniest works of fiction I’d ever read in my life. The writing was quite erratic, with scenes often cutting to descriptions of new characters or scenes that would never be described again, but it was all in the name of a good joke. And there were many, many of those found in this little book. Plenty of them found in the footnotes (yes, this book has jokes in fictitious footnotes).

I highly recommend if you’re looking for a funny read. It was a zany religious satire with plenty of laughs, but it also managed to spin a nice (heartwarming?) update on the classic story of the battle of good and evil.

Need someone British to explain a lot of the jokes to me…

Jas 🐸

Itzel

As of today I still don't know where I stand with this book. I liked the characters (All of them, I should say), the plot was interesting, the writing was witty... but somehow, the book as a whole didn't click with me, I felt much more connected while reading Gaiman's American Gods.

Oh, yes, sure, I liked it, and Aziraphale, Crowley, Adam, Pepper, Anathema, Newt, and even Death joined my list of Characters I really, really Like, but still, I feel like I could have liked it more.

In some parts, the style greatly reminded me of Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and that made me smile.

It's a good reading, and when you read it, you'll probably end up caring a lot about the characters, and probably you'll also laugh a lot. It's good, even if it failed to utterly amaze me.

Taking a cynical look at the horror genre, this book features Crowley and Aziraphale, two friends who attempt to prevent the prophesised Armageddon. When the Antichrist is born they divert him from his original home at the American Embassy to Tadfield, where he grows into an unkempt individual.

The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Hanna Rybchynska

Teoricamente, este livro é um dos melhores livros de humor de sempre, por ser escrito de uma forma super inteligente! No entanto, eu devo ser um pouco burrinha porque não percebi totalmente "a piada", ou então percebi, mas não achei que fosse "hilariante". É um livro de humor? - Sim, tem uma certa piada. É um livro interessante? - Quem gosta de histórias sobre anjos e demónios, o filho de Lúcifer, os Cavalheiros de Apocalipse - SEM DÚVIDA que vai adorar. Só que em vez de ser uma história sobre o fim do Mundo mórbida e escura, foi feita com piada e com algum suspance.

O livro é basicamente sobre o Fim dos Tempos - o Apocalipse chegou com o nascimento do Anticristo! O anjo Aziraphale e o demónio Crowley não gostaram nada desta ideia, pois o Apocalipse implica o desparecimento dos humanos e eles, ao viverem muito tempo na Terra começeram até gostar de humanos e acham que a vida sem eles vai ser muito má. Amigos de longa data na Terra, o anjo e o demónio decidem que deviam tomar conta da criança, afirmando que "nenhuma criança nasce logo má ou logo boa, é um processo de influência". Isso seria uma ótima forma de criar um rapazinho certinho, mas há um grande senão - o rapaz que eles achavam que era o filho do Lúcifer foi trocado a nascença e eles têm andado a influênciar o rapazinho errado o tempo todo.

Apesar de parecer que dei spoiler, na realidade a história é muito mais que isso! Por isso, quem gosta de algo diferente para ler, este livro devia estar no topo da lista.

Monicap

Very fun, 70's British fantasy. Maybe a full review to come? We'll see.

Leslie Huffington 

Sarah Sammis

Agnes Nutter probably prophesied this but it's still worth celebrating; Good Omens is my 365th review for the year!

Good Omens is the brilliant novel collaboration between Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett with a guest appearance by Death. See, it's the coming apocalypse and Death is one of the Four Horsemen except that Pestilence has quit in a huff and Pollution is filling in for him.

At the center of the world's destruction is the 12 year old Antichrist. He should be living in the United States but he's apparently not. Can the forces of good and evil find him and set things right before they go completely pear shaped?

Good Omens is an enjoyable book with humor similar to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Gaiman and Pratchett play off of each other well although the pacing of the ending does stutter a bit. I'll forgive the book the last thirty pages since I enjoyed the rest of it so much.

Vicky  Nuñez 

This was just a joy to read. I can't believe this book took me this long to read, but it was just a delight.

According to the 'Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter' - the world's only totally reliable guide to the future - the world will end on Saturday.

C. D’Orsay 

Humourous, irreverent and clever... That pretty much sums the book up.  It's not often that I laugh out loud when reading, but this book coaxed a few.

Deepika Ramesh

'Good Omens' makes me remember why I love Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, and PG Wodehouse. This book is charming, funny, and moves my heart every now and then. :) And, the book tells me that some angels are angels, and some devils are angels.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

4.5 stars rounded up! my only criticism is that i didn't get to see enough of the characters i cared about the most. i wish the book focused more on crowley and aziraphale but i enjoyed it nonetheless!!!

Jensyn Ronca

“Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft are written by men.”

anita

3.5
me hubiera gustado más si no se hablaba tanto de personajes que no me importaban :*

yaya

favourite book & show of all time!!!!!!! i've read this and listened to the audiobook more times than i can count and i often forget how accurate & well done the tv show adaptation actually is until i read or hear the Actual book chapters. it's freaking perfect

sammy

garnet

hilarious. never knew what was going to happen next but i was just happy to be involved. crowley supremacy

Lionel

From two delightful imaginations comes a comic masterpiece in which the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride motorcycles, the hound of the devil chases sticks, and the end of the world is subject to Murphy's Law.

Laura Mauler

Perfect book for waiting out a super typhoon, especially if there is a beer vending machine three floors below you.

Good Omens

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