"American Gaw-awds, get away from me-e"

I picked up Neil Gaiman's American Gods on Saturday. Finished it Monday night. Have been thinking about it off and on the rest of the week. When I'm not freaking out about my truck. That story will come later.

I first knew of Neil Gaiman from the Sandman comics. Interesting, surreal, thought-provoking stuff. And that was just the art. The stories were pretty transcendental as well. I was also 20 and had lots of disposable income. So I could afford to appreciate a lot of unconventional art. PS: Bill Sienkiewicz's art got me to collect Black Orchid, before I realized it was a Gaiman project. And Stray Toasters? That was some weird stuff, man.

As for the book... it was interesting. The premise is the storm brewing between the old and the new American gods. Presumably whomever won, would dictate the direction the country was headed. For where the country beliefs lie, so determines their future intention.

The old gods were those higher being beliefs immigrants brought over from older lands. Idols and gods revered by the Hindu, African, Nordic, and so on. These idols then assumed humanoid form, interacting with citizens. They were either eternally young, or aged at such a rate to make Vulcans jealous. They are charactered as grifters, more provincal or less corporate members of society.

The new gods were those things most worshipped and feared in current society; credit, digital, media, Internet (Internets, for you Farkers). Rockstar gods born and throw to the side in an instant in search of the next big thing. The new gods are characterized as the "poser mobile" posse. More than once I heard "fees, shorty, fees!" in my head.

There was also the plotline of one man's reckoning; the stoic and solid Shadow. Shadow is coerced by the head old god to work for him, protecting him from the new gods.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. But there were still sections I had a hard time grasping. Part of it was Gaiman's writing style. Writing is hard stuff, no doubt. Especially to write a book of that size. In some ways, it showed.

Some of the difficulty was the ebb and flow from the "real" world, and the "god" world. Time and spatial planes did not always move in time easily recognized. There was also the almost too-stoic-to-be-believed hero, Shadow. It would be nice to be that good. Understandably, the hero was trying to make up for some bad decisions. But still.

Donna's reading Stardust. So I'll check out another book, and we'll see. I did see the new graphic novel Gaiman has out with Alice Cooper. A nice, cheery, tale based on Cooper's "Showman" persona.