American Gods is a book. Whether it's good or bad is up to everyone who reads it, but I think it's thoroughly, inescapably mediocre. The books ideas, are, of course solid—so solid, in fact, that every disjointed one of them could and should have been it's own book. The plot meanders, trips, and stumbles across America, a land that apparently has no people who actually, genuinely worship the old gods. The ideas of Neo-Paganism are discussed once, with a ridiculous strawman character that serves to illustrate Wednesday's point.
Normally, I greatly enjoy reading Gaiman, but not now. His distinctive, somewhat whimsical style is not present for much of the narrative, or it's downplayed.
Really, my favorite part of this is the fact that Gaiman even fucking lampshaded just how much of a blank Shadow is. Which suggests that making him so generic and boring was a deliberate choice. For fuck's sake.
Apparently, Neil Gaiman can fail.
American Gods is a book. Whether it's good or bad is up to everyone who reads it, but I think it's thoroughly, inescapably mediocre. The books ideas, are, of course solid—so solid, in fact, that every disjointed one of them could and should have been it's own book. The plot meanders, trips, and stumbles across America, a land that apparently has no people who actually, genuinely worship the old gods. The ideas of Neo-Paganism are discussed once, with a ridiculous strawman character that serves to illustrate Wednesday's point.
Normally, I greatly enjoy reading Gaiman, but not now. His distinctive, somewhat whimsical style is not present for much of the narrative, or it's downplayed.
Really, my favorite part of this is the fact that Gaiman even fucking lampshaded just how much of a blank Shadow is. Which suggests that making him so generic and boring was a deliberate choice. For fuck's sake.