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5.0 out of 5 stars
An Amazing Journey, Sep 24 2009
The Headline Review edition of "American Gods", by Neil Gaiman, is significantly changed from the edition that was published on June 19, 2001 and received so many nominations and won so many awards. This edition was published on September 19th, of 2005, and includes the "Author's Preferred Text", which Gaiman explains in the introduction as being a combination of his original unedited text along with editorial corrections which he made to the trimmed down award winning version. While I haven't read the original edition and thus I am unable to do a comparison, I can easily state that this new edition is an amazing work in and of itself.
The idea that Gods didn't exist without man is not original, but Neil Gaiman takes it to a new level. America is not only a melting pot for people, but for the Gods which they brought with them from all over the world, and those which the Native Americans created. Nor does Gaiman stop there, for as technology and industry have in some respects taken on aspects of religion in American society, those too appear in this mythological epic as the old Gods and new Gods take on adversarial positions as the storm looms throughout most of the book.
The hero of the book is Shadow, a man on the verge of being released from prison after serving his time is released a few days early because his wife has died in a car accident. As a result, the life that Shadow expected to return to is gone, even more so when he finds out that the man who was going to give him a job has also died in the same accident. At the same time, the mysterious Mr. Wednesday keeps turning up and is pursing hiring Shadow for a different type of job. Shadow resists at first, but when it is clear that he has no other life to return to, he decides to take the job. This is just the beginning of the adventure which will take Shadow on a mythological journey to a conflict between the Gods of the old world and the new Gods, i.e. industry, technology, etc., of the new world.
One can hardly do justice to a book of this scope in a short review, but this 635 page novel is a blend of mythology, murder mystery, fantasy adventure, and horror. There are a few extras as well, including an introduction to the "Author's Preferred Edition", an interview with Neil Gaiman, and some reading-group discussion questions, and a short essay titled "How Dare You?" by the author. The extras are nice, but the novel is extraordinary.
There are times when one reads a book which has won awards and they wonder what the people who give out the awards were thinking. This is not one of those times. The nominations include the 2002 World Fantasy Award, the 2002 British Fantasy Award, the 2002 British SF Award, the 2002 International Horror Guild Award, the 2002 Mythopoeic award for adult literature, finishing 3rd on the 2002 SF Site Poll for SF/Fantasy books, being nominated in 2003 and 2004 for the Italia Award for international novels, finishing 2nd both times, and being nominated for the 2004 Phantastik award for foreign novels. Even more impressive is the list of awards won, which include the 2002 Hugo Award, the 2002 Bram Stoker Award, the 2002 Locus Award (for fantasy novel), the 2003 Nebula Award, and the 2003 Geffen Award for fantasy book.
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