American Gods

[hells_half_acre]

 I have now read American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

So, therefore, I now have the authority to say: Everyone who complained about Hammer of Gods being a rip-off/copy/poor-imitation is completely bonkers.

Four words: Holy Different Universe, Batman!

The ONLY similarity between American Gods and Supernatural is the idea that all gods exist and can appear in human form. Other than that, you're dealing with a whole other kettle of fish.

So, there you go. It only took me half a year, but I can finally have a stance on that argument. :-P

In other news: American Gods was an alright book! Next I'm going to read Anansi Boys.

Also, I'm having a bad day, so don't yell at me if you disagree...just leave it.

Comments

[lusciniate.livejournal.com]

Anansi boys were good, but I actually liked American Gods much better (I loved the whole story, loved the characters, language and many little things in the way how author wrote that story. Almost everything. ). So now I can offer one voice against that your "everyone" you talk to. Even if you are not talking to me :)

It seems you are now going through Gaiman books. Have you read/intend to read "Neverwhere"? Or this is just a coincidence that you have two Gaiman's books one after another?

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Noted! I'm glad you told me - now I'm not expecting Anansi Boys to be better or worse. I was afraid it would get overhyped for me, the way people kept going on about how much they liked it.

This is SORT of a coincidence. I borrow audiobooks from the library, and they had Anansi Boys - but I looked at it's basic info, and it appeared that I should read American Gods first. So, I actually dipped into my pocket and BOUGHT the American Gods audiobook.

So, yes, I'm going through Gaiman books, but it's really just so that I can read Anansi Boys. The selection of audiobooks at the library is sort of slim...and I like authors to be recommended, rather than just trying anyone willy nilly. I knew enough people who liked Gaiman to give him a go. I also tend to like adventure stories, so he seemed a good bet.

So yeah, if you want to recommend other things for me, that'd be cool, and I could see if they have them at the library.

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

I actually liked Anansi Boys a lot better than American Gods. Maybe it's that I'm not as up on my nordic mythology as everything else, but I was uncharacteristically unable to finish American Gods...at least until I read Anansi Boys and was invested enough in the universe to go back to it.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

The problem with American Gods is that the protagonist is an inactive participant through 2/3rds or more of it. It makes for a pretty boring time really unless you are somehow otherwise invested. And by inactive participant, I mean that the action unfolds around him, and he doesn't make any decisions for himself or do anything besides what he is told to do...boring.

Now of course, this ends up being a plot/character point, but not even that much of an important one in the grand scheme of things...so, yeah, I think Gaiman could have done a little better to engage the reader in American Gods. But, you know, most people don't take kindly to me criticizing Gaiman (for he is apparently the lord our god) so I just keep my reviews to "It was a good book. I liked it" and leave it at that. :P

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting point. I think you've hit the nail on the head.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Let me know if you know anyone who wants to hire an editor, I need money ;)

[lusciniate.livejournal.com]

Maybe this is another reason for me liking "American Gods " better. "Anansi Boys" were available in my library and since I wasn't at that point sure whether I wanted to buy American Gods (to be able to read it) or not, "Anansi Boys" seemed like a good idea to test Gaiman's writing style for those more adult books. So already knew a bit of the universe when I got into the American Gods. And I read "American Gods" in the original language but the "Anansi Boys" had suffered through rather terrible (imho) translation.

And that Nordic mythology thing - I think I can agree that it might be a little part of the reason why you didn’t like it. I was lucky then, that I knew most of the gods that were in the story or could guess about them from their names (like with the slavic ones).

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Oh,yeah, I don't read books in translation unless I can't read the original language at all, or unless I've already read them in the original language. (I've got a German copy of Catcher in the Rye that I like) and a German edition of Hamlet (just to be ridiculous)...and the Harry Potter books all in German, because I thought it'd be a fun way to practice.

But yeah, I knew all the nordic Gods, and some of the North American native "gods" (who weren't really gods in this book, but something else). It didn't ruin the reveal, because a lot of the "boring" part of the book, I spent wondering when Loki was going to make another appearance - why he was in prison with Shadow and what part he was going to play...so, yeah, even though I knew the gods, I wasn't sure how they were going to be used - and that is what interested me rather than the fate of the protagonist.

[lusciniate.livejournal.com]

You have an advantage there :) Here in most cases it is easier/cheaper to get the translated version (if is an older book) than to get one in English (which for me then would be that original language I would be able to read). But with the newer ones - I try to get the originals, because the price difference between ordering it online or buying in the bookshop(if it has it, but in most of the cases they dont have those authors >_> )gets more similar. But still - I have to and choose to read for some books the translated versions.
And well sometimes one can get so tired, that reading a book in a foreign language gets too hard even if the book is very interesting and the language isn't no hard..

Oh, Harry Potter.. The first few came out when I didn't know English at all. And the 6th book became my first read book in English. In that time frame between they translated the 5th and the 6th book in Latvian I decided that I wanted to read the 6th one in the original, so I had less than one year to get to that level of text understanding (and it turned out that the best way to get familiar with english and Potter is reading fanfictions). So yeah - I have it in 2 sets now and I think that' s one of the few books I own in more than one language.

You say that you have them in German for practicing - for some times now I am entertaining the idea of getting some of them in Russian for the same reason.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Latvia, cool! Did I know that already? I have a friend that's from there.

Anyway, I recommend using Harry Potter books to practice foreign languages - it's fun, and if you already have a copy in your own language, it's convenient. I actually also own the first Harry Potter book in Irish Gaelic - just for fun. I've only ever gotten around to translating the first paragraph, but I had a ton of fun doing it. (I'm kind of a language dork, even though I only really know English and ridiculously rusty German.)

But yeah, I can see how finding books in English might be difficult sometimes. In North America, it's impossible to find books in other language - and it's also impossible to find books that are translated into English FROM other languages. All the translating always goes the other way - like English people don't want to read books from the rest of the world or something...not true! You can get the classics from other countries in English (like certain famous Russian novels) but you can't get anything new.

[lusciniate.livejournal.com]

I think you knew that already, because I did know that you have a friend from here :)

Mhm. And the best part for choosing Potter for this purpose is that it's still very interesting even in the X'th time when you re-read it.

..and it's also impossible to find books that are translated into English FROM other languages.
I hadn't thought about that from this side. That you wouldn't get that much of other European language books that are not originally in English and are not world famous bestsellers (e.g. Millennium series by Stieg Larsson, originally in Swedish). So - thanks for saying that!

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought I might have known that already. I had a strange sense of deja-vu. :P

But yes, unless a European author is as famous as Larsson, we just don't hear about them, and we certainly don't have access to their books. Maybe eventually that will change - I hope so anyway.

[lusciniate.livejournal.com]

:D

And now I feel sorry for you. I suppose every situation has its drawbacks.

I hope so too :)

[lusciniate.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know. If everyone around you talks about how good something is you start to expect too much. And because of that don’t enjoy the story as much as you could have in a different situation.

Wow. To buy something just because it might be connected to something you want. Usually it is the other way around (except when it’s a previous book in series).
[..] and I like authors to be recommended, rather than just trying anyone willy nilly.
I have now gotten to this point in our foreign language library. Those authors I knew I have read or don’t want to read, those I want – they don’t have. So now I'm choosing books like a kid – judging from their covers (is it an old book but rarely read before me or it is a well read book; by its colors and title, avoiding certain genres I dislike). And sometimes this way it is possible to discover unknown gems. But that’s not the topic here.

As for other books – “Good Omens” another book that has been mentioned way too many times in connection with Supernatural. But I think you might have already read it. But it’s too hard to recommend something for others. It’s hard even if the person is your closest friend. But as (I think) you know – one of the easiest ways to go is the same way as when you go through fanfiction authors. If you like one of them – checking what are their favorites. Good authors usually don’t fall in love with not that great stories :)

And lastly a bit more about “American Gods”:

It’s been mentioned that book was rather slow at time. Now I think that I avoided all those “slow” times in the story because I read that book only while traveling, so I had 30 min periods on the train when I could read it. And that’s not enough of time to get bored by something. There you have no distractions – so you don’t notice some of the flaws.

In reply to claudiapriscus you wrote The problem with American Gods is that the protagonist is an inactive participant through 2/3rds or more of it. It makes for a pretty boring time really unless you are somehow otherwise invested.
For the first part I can agree that on one side the book might had been more fun, if Shadow had had taken bigger part in the events around him and hadn’t gone so much with the flow. But after I accepted that this is the way it is going to be – it became okay. On the other hand – this book read like a story about the Gods. A story where the Gods are actually more important at times than everything else, that they are the main characters. But Shadow was just someone that we could identify as readers with. Someone who knew most of the times just as much as we (readers), someone who didn’t know the rules of the game (again same as us).

But (if I look at all that logically and try to not get defensive:) ) - yes, I can see why so many people would want to have a more active protagonist. Especially in story like this one.

~
When I read your reply in the morning I had something I wanted to say, but now I can't remember what it was. Probably should make notes on a piece of paper if I don't have the time to reply :)

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Well, I probably wouldn't have bought it if I hadn't needed a lot to "read" for a three week period. I knew I needed as many audiobooks as I could get, and that one was a nice long one and was sort of a prequel to another good-length one...so, yeah, it seemed like a good investment to me. 1.5 hours of salary for the ability to suffer through earning 20 hours of salary, plus another 10 when I read Anansi Boys.

Sadly, my library doesn't have Good Omens in audiobook :( I'll keep it in mind though if I want to purchase again. But yeah, I understand - it's extremely hard to recommend things to people. But that's a good tip about seeing who your favorite authors like!

Yes, I also just accepted that Shadow was going to be inactive and it HAD to be a plot-point at some moment in the book, so I just kept reading in the hopes of discovering when and why...it wasn't THAT great of a pay-off though, so I think Gaiman could have written it just a little differently. There is a way you can write someone as obedient and non-questioning, and still make it look like they are actively being so and (in Shadow's case) living their life as though dead. I mean, even when he finally made a decision himself that he felt good about, it was still following Wednesday's orders.

I mean, yes, this is a book about Gods, and Shadow (no matter how large) is just a child to them - but it's hard to connect to someone who isn't active - or at least, it is for me.

But yeah, it was a good story, and that's an EXTREMELY minor nitpick. I mean, it's so minor, it's not even really worth mentioning. The universe itself is well crafted, and the the inactivity of the protagonist IS a plot-point, and no matter how minor that plot-point is, it still justifies the decision...and really, in this day and age, we should be able to stick with a book longer than 4 chapters to give it a chance. It's a good story!

:)

[lusciniate.livejournal.com]

Maybe I should have replied to both of your comments in one reply. So - sorry for that, but I thought about this option only just now.

Actually that recommending thing is a bit easier with books (which is already terribly hard), the hardest one for recommendation are theatre plays. Because if in the books you can trust the genre then in theatre every play is different from the another even if they claim that they are from the same genre. That one is too individual and people somehow tend to take disliking a theatre play more personally (and look for someone to blame: theatre, writer, director and in the worst cases even the actors) than disliking a book. And I have no idea why it is this way.

..it was still following Wednesday's orders.. And this reminds me of a part of one discussion that the actors had one stage this evening (they were quoting some smart, probably already dead, guys). And they talked how "free will" actually doesn't exist in its most widest way of understanding. And they gave an example:
"You go in the mall and see that today there are 5 different types of beer. You can choose which one you want. But actually someone else has made the choice for you, when they chose which 5 types will be in that shop."
So that even when you think that you use your free will, you actually just have the chance to choose from some already decided options.

:D you didn't have to defend yourself about that point. I was okay with you not liking it that much :)