This was my first taste of Neil Gaiman and I couldn't imagine a better starting point. Beautifully written, and full of surprises, American Gods crawls its way under your skin and lives there. Gaiman is an author whose stories are all about the details, and as they say the devil is in the details. American Gods is a story filled with old gods, new gods, coin tricks, and the possibility of getting your head smashed in for losing a game of checkers. Shadow Moon, our guide if you will, is out of jail and on his way to bury his wife. What starts as a simple plane ride, turns into a journey like no other. We learn what happens when gods are no longer worshiped, and the lengths that they will go to to stay remembered. The new deities of America are taking over, and the former have something to say about it. This is a novel that I have gone back to time and time again, and always learn something new. -Victoria
In Neil Gaiman's universe, all of the gods are real. Deities from cultures all around the world come together in this epic fantasy spanning the crossroads of America. When the Old Gods are no longer worshipped, they'll do whatever it takes to regain relevence. Shadow Moon, freshly released from prison, finds himself entagled with a mysterious man known only as Mr. Wednesday, and is dragged across America in this wonderous tale of myth and modernism.
--Gary
— From Gary's Picks!Now a STARZ® Original Series – Season 3 premiere in January 2021
“Pointed, occasionally comic, often scary, consistently moving and provocative….American Gods is strewn with secrets and magical visions.”—USA Today
Newly updated and expanded with the author’s preferred text. A modern masterpiece from the multiple-award-winning master of innovative fiction, Neil Gaiman.
First published in 2001, American Gods became an instant classic, lauded for its brilliant synthesis of “mystery, satire, sex, horror, and poetic prose” (Washington Post) and as a modern phantasmagoria that “distills the essence of America” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). It is the story of Shadow—released from prison just days after his wife and best friend are killed in an accident—who gets recruited to be bodyguard, driver, and errand boy for the enigmatic trickster, Mr. Wednesday. So begins Shadow’s dark and strange road trip, one that introduces him to a host of eccentric characters whose fates are mysteriously intertwined with his own. For, beneath the placid surface of everyday life, a storm is brewing—an epic war for the very soul of America—and Shadow is standing squarely in its path.
“Original, engrossing, and endlessly inventive.”—George R. R. Martin
Neil Gaiman is the New York Times bestselling and multi-award winning author and creator of many beloved books, graphic novels, short stories, film, television and theatre for all ages. He is the recipient of the Newbery and Carnegie Medals, and many Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner Awards. Neil has adapted many of his works to television series, including Good Omens (co-written with Terry Pratchett) and The Sandman. He is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR and Professor in the Arts at Bard College. For a lot more about his work, please visit: https://www.neilgaiman.com/
“American Gods manages to reinvent, and reassert, the enduring importance of fantastic literature itself in this late age of the world. Dark fun, and nourishing to the soul.” — Michael Chabon
“Provocative yet fun . . . Gaiman has applied his vast breadth of knowledge about all things mythological to a truly high concept.” — Entertainment Weekly
“Gaiman returns to the fertile killing ground that nourished The Sandman: that peculiarly American crossroads where pop culture intersects with religion, violence and death.” — Village Voice Literary Supplement
“Immensely rewarding . . . . Suffused with . . . powerful imagery and deftly painted characters . . . . A finely crafted novel of weight and significance [with] poetic descriptions, sharp-eyed criticism, and first-rate storytelling. There is much to enjoy, to admire, and to ponder in this unforgettable tale.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Pointed, occasionally comic, often scary, consistently moving and provocative . . . . American Gods is strewn with secrets and magical visions.” — USA Today
“Mystery, satire, sex, horror, poetic prose-American Gods uses all these to keep the reader turning the pages.” — Washington Post
“Original, engrossing, and endlessly inventive.” — George R. R. Martin
American Gods is sexy, thrilling, dark, funny and poetic." — Teller, of Penn & Teller
"American Gods is like a fast run downhill through a maze -- both exhilarating and twisted." — Jane Lindskold, author of Changer and
