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Good Omens and other things
I've just finished Pratchett's and Gaiman's "Good Omens".
I've never read any Terry Pratchett before, because from what I'd heard, I was sure I wouldn't like his style. I still don't like the footnotes. Well, I haven't really read any real Pratchett yet, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
neery pointed out to me, so I won't start on Pratchett's style now. But I will comment on Good Omens.
I would readily rec this book to anyone of whom I know that they have a taste in books and enjoy a good laugh. It was a lot of fun to read. I absolutely loved the bits with Crowley and Aziraphale, and not only because they have this slashy slashy friendship going on. Their two characters just fit. They did, said and thought the right things most of the time. They worked for me.
Then there was a part where the demon and the angel disappeared for about hundred pages, and the apocalypse took its course. That part mostly dealt with the Them. Now, maybe that's just me and my worship of the great King, but if you've read "It", you might recognize The Losers in the Them. I certainly did. Not that I resent Pratchett and Gaiman to have snatched a few ideas about kids' characterization from King; I do it all the time when I write about kids, and I wouldn't stop if, by some weird twist of chance, I suddenly became a best-selling author. Still, it's this feeling of *if-they're-copying-from-King-they-can't-be-as-good-as-he-is-now-can-they*.
Well, that's why I didn't really like the middle part. The Four Horsemen I quite liked. They were a good idea, though, thought up nicely. The scenes with them were a little - um - well, pointless, really. I don't need three scenes with that woman to realize that she's War. I liked Death. He was done well.
Anathema and the Witchfinder Army... hm. Anathema didn't really have a character. Newt was fine, so was Mr. S. (even though he was a little ott), but Anathema lacked a bit of color. Which made her only interesting in interaction with interesting characters like Crowley, Aziraphale or Newt. Which I thought was a shame, because she could have been an interesting character.
What I didn't like about the book was the big amount of randomness. It was the same when I read The Hitchhiker's Guide - not as bad, though. In the Hitchhiker, the author comes up with wonderful ideas, explains them to you, and then dashes off to think up the next one without actually doing anything with the things he thought up. It's actually frustrating. In Good Omens, the randomness is not quite as bad, but it's there. They're constantly making up new characters, only to introduce a scene. That's absolutely okay, but only as long as your main character have more of a personality than those characters, which wasn't always the case in this book.
But overall, I liked it. It was certainly one of the better books that I've read.
Now, I need to get some coffee. I wrote a long, long scene this morning for WIP#1, and found that writing it had drained me of all energy to write anything else. But I'm feeling at least partly recharged by now, and coffee will keep me awake so I can get at least a few paragraphs done in WIP#2. So, I'm off *waves*.
I've never read any Terry Pratchett before, because from what I'd heard, I was sure I wouldn't like his style. I still don't like the footnotes. Well, I haven't really read any real Pratchett yet, as
neery pointed out to me, so I won't start on Pratchett's style now. But I will comment on Good Omens.I would readily rec this book to anyone of whom I know that they have a taste in books and enjoy a good laugh. It was a lot of fun to read. I absolutely loved the bits with Crowley and Aziraphale, and not only because they have this slashy slashy friendship going on. Their two characters just fit. They did, said and thought the right things most of the time. They worked for me.
Then there was a part where the demon and the angel disappeared for about hundred pages, and the apocalypse took its course. That part mostly dealt with the Them. Now, maybe that's just me and my worship of the great King, but if you've read "It", you might recognize The Losers in the Them. I certainly did. Not that I resent Pratchett and Gaiman to have snatched a few ideas about kids' characterization from King; I do it all the time when I write about kids, and I wouldn't stop if, by some weird twist of chance, I suddenly became a best-selling author. Still, it's this feeling of *if-they're-copying-from-King-they-can't-be-as-good-as-he-is-now-can-they*.
Well, that's why I didn't really like the middle part. The Four Horsemen I quite liked. They were a good idea, though, thought up nicely. The scenes with them were a little - um - well, pointless, really. I don't need three scenes with that woman to realize that she's War. I liked Death. He was done well.
Anathema and the Witchfinder Army... hm. Anathema didn't really have a character. Newt was fine, so was Mr. S. (even though he was a little ott), but Anathema lacked a bit of color. Which made her only interesting in interaction with interesting characters like Crowley, Aziraphale or Newt. Which I thought was a shame, because she could have been an interesting character.
What I didn't like about the book was the big amount of randomness. It was the same when I read The Hitchhiker's Guide - not as bad, though. In the Hitchhiker, the author comes up with wonderful ideas, explains them to you, and then dashes off to think up the next one without actually doing anything with the things he thought up. It's actually frustrating. In Good Omens, the randomness is not quite as bad, but it's there. They're constantly making up new characters, only to introduce a scene. That's absolutely okay, but only as long as your main character have more of a personality than those characters, which wasn't always the case in this book.
But overall, I liked it. It was certainly one of the better books that I've read.
Now, I need to get some coffee. I wrote a long, long scene this morning for WIP#1, and found that writing it had drained me of all energy to write anything else. But I'm feeling at least partly recharged by now, and coffee will keep me awake so I can get at least a few paragraphs done in WIP#2. So, I'm off *waves*.