This is a tough review for me to write. I'm not exactly sure what it is about this book that I don't like. I'm not sure there even IS something I don't like. Since I don't want to just leave you all with the ever popular "I'm just not that into it", I will try to explain.

This book has all the elements of a book I would enjoy. The creepiness factor is up there, the writing is brilliant, the main character is a big lug I couldn't help but love. Also, I have always been fascinated by mythology, so that's a plus.

Shadow is our main character and he just got out of jail after doing his time of three years. Right before he is supposed to be released he is let out early, because his wife was killed, in apparently scandalous circumstances. The first 50ish pages were about the extent of where the book was interesting to me. Shadow meets Wednesday, and then the story turns into a bunch of mini stories and flashbacks, and I didn't enjoy most of them. Some were okay, but the majority just felt like annoying disruptions, and I felt myself thinking this is yet another longer book that could benefit from losing about 100 or so pages from the dragging middle. Shadow is paid by Wednesday to be an errand boy while he travels America trying to rally his troops in preparation for a war between The old Gods, and the new Gods (media and money) I guess it's my own fault. I couldn't really bring myself to care about this war between the new and old Gods, because the Gods of Media and Money? Not my Gods...

Books that are hyped up as much as this one leave me in a place where I tend to get disappointed, because it's so hard to live up to those expectations. Of course that's not the books fault, but I was just expecting to like this book much more than I did. I never felt engaged while reading this book, and that's the reason I couldn't rate this above three stars. I could appreciate the great writing and originality, however, so I couldn't give it below three stars.

Three stars it is folks, but as most of you know this book is loved by (almost) all, so of course I encourage everyone who is interested in this book already to read it, and form your own opinions. This book didn't do it for me, but I am definitely going to try some of Gaiman's other books and see if I have a better experience.

Esto va a ser una reseña un poco especial porque voy a intentar contar lo menos posible el argumento de este libro para así no destriparselo a nadie. ¿Por qué? Porque sinceramente este es un libro que se disfruta muchísimo más si vas a ciegas, sin ni siquiera leer la sinopsis del libro.

“La mejor forma de describir un cuento es contándolo, ¿entendéis? para describir una historia, a uno mismo, o a otros, uno tiene que contarla. Es un malabarismo y también un sueño. Cuanto más preciso sea un mapa, más se parecerá al territorio que representa. El mapa más preciso posible sería el del propio territorio, de este modo el mapa sería perfectamente preciso y perfectamente inutil. El cuento es el mapa que es el territorio. Tenedlo siempre presente”.

Me ha gustado muchísimo como la primera vez. La primera vez fue en el 2016 y lo descubrí por casualidad en una mini librería junto a otra de sus novelas “El océano al final del camino”, un cuento que aunque en un principio me costó pillarle el truco a Neil Gaiman una vez que lo hice se me abrió un mundo justo como me pasó con Sandman, Neverwhere o Good Omens.

Ahora vengo a reseñar esta obra maestra del señor Gaiman. ¿Saben cual es la sensación de llegar a una librería cualquiera y ver un libro que te hace ojitos pero no sabes por qué? Pues me pasó justo eso. No es que tuviera el título ni la portada más bonita del mundo. Tenía algo que yo decía que “tiene pinta de interesante”. Cogí su contraportada y adivinen. No decía absolutamente nada. Solo que había ganado un par de premios y críticas. Yo, viendo el panorama me dije, “igual no está tan mal” y con este título seguro que va y me gusta. Lo cogí y al poco tiempo lo empecé a leer.

He de admitir que no entendía nada de nada, tu ibas a ciegas igual que nuestro protagonista a lo largo de las páginas. Cuantas más preguntas te hacías menos respuestas recibías pero como dije había algo que te indicaba a seguir. Una vez que descubres el pastel tienes dos opciones: o lo amas o lo odias y yo claramente lo amé. Quien conoce como escribe Neil Gaiman sabrá que se caracteriza por unir la fantasía a la realidad y crear unas historias preciosas y esto es lo que hizo aquí. Sí, es cierto. Puede que hubiese momentos donde recayera un poco la acción pero estaba todo perfectamente encuadrado en la historia, cada detalle, cada personaje estaba colocado en un preciso instante por alguna razón. Además, dentro del libro no solo te explicaba una historia, la de Sombra y sus aventuras, sino que había también una serie de cuentos dentro de ellos que te hacía amar mucho más el libro.

Ahora mismo si tengo que ponerle alguna pega es que en parte se me hizo corto y es un libro autoconclusivo. A pesar de todo ello, no me arrepiento de poner 5 o 6 estrellas incluso 7 porque me encanta y sé que si lo vuelvo a leer dentro de un año lo voy a volver a amar como siempre.

“Hog farm,” said Czernobog. “You just said that the real center of America was a hog farm.”
“This isn't about what is,” said Mr. Nancy. “It's about what people think is. It's all imaginary anyway. That's why it's important. People only fight over imaginary things.”
“My kind of people?” asked Shadow. “Or your kind of people?”
Nancy said nothing.”

This book is huge. And I'm not referring to its 600+ pages.

RTC if I ever come up with a decent sequence of words able to explain the reasons behind such majesty. So don't hold your breath. Just go read it.

3,5 αστΈρια

Το βιβλίο αυτό με έχει μπερδέψει,μια μου άρεσε πάρα πολύ και μία βαριόμουν και έχανα το ενδιαφέρον μου.
Τώρα τελειώνοντας το έχω ανάμεικτα συναισθήματα όπως με τα περισσότερα βιβλία του Gaiman.
Σίγουρα δεν είναι απ΄τα αγαπημένα μου αλλά θα ήθελα στο μέλλον να το ξαναδιάβαζα και να αποφασίσω τι μου άρεσε και τι όχι.

I am not so familiar with the urban fantasy sub-genre, I read a few Sookie Stackhouse books and one Dresden Files book, they are readable but they did not hook me into following their series. Neil Gaiman is a very different kind of fantasy author, there is a peculiarly whimsical tone to his narrative which I find very pleasant. American Gods is his best-known novel, though his best-known work may be the Sandman graphic novels (which I have not read). Deliberately meandering (the author says so in the Forward) the book is nevertheless immensely readable thanks to the author's literary yet whimsical (that word again) prose style, even the slow moving passages where nothing much seem to be happening are a breeze to read.

The story is essentially about gods in America, taken at face value it is an entertaining road trip through a fantastical world where gods are created by faith rather than the other way around. The narrative is mostly from the point of view of the protagonist Shadow who seems to go through life with remarkable equanimity. None of the supernatural goings-on seems to surprise him throughout the book in spite of the increasing outlandishness of events. Some people I have talked to find him too bland or too much of a blank slate, I personally find him quite likable, especially with his fondness for coin tricks. Better still, the cast of characters are generally a weird and wonderful bunch, like you would find in a Dickens novel but weirder. Special mention must go to the enigmatic Mr. Wednesday and the even more enigmatic supervillain Mr. World. Less weird (but still weird) is Laura, Shadow's zombie wife who is not interested in devouring flesh or brains, only the welfare of her husband and going back to being a real girl again. She is the book's most sympathetic character, and also quietly, discreetly and politely badass when she needs to take action.

The aforementioned (too frequently mentioned) whimsical prose style makes reading the book a little like dreaming sometimes, I was happy to drift along with it at a leisurely pace (took me almost two weeks to finish it due to lack of time). The book that follows this one Anansi Boys is tighter, faster-paced and funnier. Still, this one is well worth a read.


Picture from Tiny Little Dot on Tumblr
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Notes:
• A TV series based on this book air in "early 2017" (whatever that means). More info
• "First Look Trailer"

DNF @ 20%

This book is clearly not for me. I'm bored to tears, and I don't have much hope of it getting more interesting.

I like fantasy, and the fantasy elements of this don't appeal to me.

I get that this is probably a book that thousands of people love, but it's not my kind of book.

Only Neil Gaiman could get a FULL NARRATION CAST. O.O Does that ever happen in life? I’ve never seen it done except in this case. But wow, this is one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to. Each character has its own narrator and Gaiman himself narrators the Coming to American sections (which seemed completely random, but, whatever, Neil Gaiman’s voice tho).

I hadn’t read the book before listening so, I was a little taken back at how Shadow seemed to be a really apathetic protagonist. Oh, his wife just died the day before he’s due to get out of jail? He’s not bothered. Someone wants to kill him? He’s not bothered. Weird shit is afoot? He’s really, really not bothered. I didn’t get that about him and would have loved to see more emotion from him. To be fair, he does open up later near the end, and I guess that’s the point (kind of?), but that’s my gripe.

I was really impressed by the plotting and ending. Wouldn’t it be cool to crawl up into Neil Gaiman’s head?

A man was swallowed by a woman's vagina - so my mom wrote me a note and now I don't have to review this book anymore.

Spirit versus Matter


Although the good old Gods were carried to the American continent by old time immigrants, they don’t seem to have many fans in nowadays America
Wisdom, knowledge, justice,... among other noble values they stand for, are now frail, when compared to entertainment, money, fame, etc, etc,... — material values that gave birth to a new group of divinities and archetypes related to those standards.

In this story the old Gods will fight the new ones, to recover their long lost power, in a Spirit versus Matter battle.
When I think about the intemporal confrontation between those two, since they are both human and essential, I bet on peace the moment they’ll finally balance each other.

Audiobook re-read 2020
I'm sticking with my original rating, but only because the voice cast is simply amazing. If you're on the fence about this version of the book, I'd highly suggest listening to it. It's long, it rambles, and it doesn't go anywhere very interesting. The actual plot of this book could have filled 100 pages, while the other 500 pages read like a mythological travelogue of the United States. There's nothing wrong with that, and it was exactly what Gaiman set out to do. I'm just letting you know upfront what you're getting yourself into because (even with the fantastic voices) I almost DNF'd this audiobook every single day for a week or so. I had to keep reminding myself that nothing lasts forever and this too shall pass. Plus, I couldn't quite remember how it all turned out in the end and maybe there was something cool waiting for me that I'd forgotten.
Eh.
At some point, I'm planning to listen to the original version of the book that his editor got hold of and see how it compares. This version was for me at best a rambly 2 to 2.5 star book. The audio is fantastic, though.
Easily a 5 star audio! <--definitely recommend going this route

  

Original review 2014

High 3.5 maybe 4 stars?
I can't say this is one I would recommend to everyone, and I certainly won't be shoving it down peoples' throats.
But I liked it.
Now, somehow I ended up with the extended 10 year anniversary edition. So, maybe that's why it took me forever to finish this. But I don't think that was entirely the issue. It's just a loooong fuckin' book. And not much happens in it action-wise, so you're not exactly flipping the pages with any intensity.

  

There's not even really (in my opinion) a slow-build up to anything super-exciting. And what I mean by that, is that I never once thought to myself, Oh! Something GOOD is gonna happen in the next few pages!, you know?
Thing is, it has everything I could want in a book. Half-crazy gods, zombie ex-wife, tarnished-but-decent hero, missing kids, and unlikely friendships.
However, it also has everything I usually despise in a book. Trippy/hallucinogenic dream sequences, random quotes from other pieces of literature, plodding storyline, and no action.
But Neil Gaiman just oozes so much talent that somehow I still liked it.
Which is saying a lot, because I'm normally a real asshole when I feel like a book needed to be chopped down by about 400 pages.



Although, unless someone can tell me that Anansi Boys is an Awesome-Not-To-Be-Missed-Roller-Coaster-Thrill-A-Minute-Ride, I'm gonna have to say no to that one.

A stunning novel and a celebration of multicultural society, in which (almost) every American descends from once-foreign settlers. The gods are unscrupulous, violent, and often feckless, but adapted to a distinct, contemporary American setting, where their mishaps and debauchery is enrapturing.

American Gods (American Gods #1), Neil Gaiman

American Gods (2001) is a fantasy novel by British author Neil Gaiman.

The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on the mysterious and taciturn Shadow.

Shadow is an ex-convict who is released from prison three days early when his wife Laura is killed in a car accident. Shadow is devastated by her death, and is distraught to learn that she died alongside his best friend Robbie, with whom she had been having an affair.

He takes a job as a bodyguard for a mysterious con man, Mr. Wednesday, and travels with him across America, visiting Wednesday's acquaintances.

Shadow learns that Wednesday is an incarnation of Odin the All-Father, and is also recruiting American manifestations of the Old Gods, whose powers have waned as their believers have decreased in number, to participate in a battle against the New American Gods – manifestations of modern life and technology, such as the Internet, media, and modern means of transport.

Shadow meets a leprechaun named Mad Sweeney, who gives Shadow a magical gold coin after Shadow beats him in a fight. ...

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و نهم ماه اکتبر سال 2019میلادی

عنوان: خدایان آمریکا؛ نویسنده: نیل گیمن؛ تهران، زبان، مهر، 1398؛ در 705ص؛ به زبان اصلی؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده 21م

درباره ی شخصیتی به نام «شدو»، که به سه سال حبس در زندان، محکوم شده است؛ در حالیکه تنها چند روز از دوران محکومیت او باقیمانده، «شدو»، به دلیل کشته شدن همسرش، زودتر از زندان آزاد می‌شود؛ او سپس با فردی به نام «چهارشنبه»، آشنا شده، که به او پیشنهاد کار می‌دهد؛ «چهارشنبه»، در ظاهر فرد حیله‌ گری به نظر می‌رسد،؛ که به دنبال استخدام «شدو»، به عنوان نگهبان خویش است؛ ولی در واقع او یکی از خدایان به نام «اودین» میباشد؛ «چهارشنبه»، در حال مسافرت به دور «آمریکا»، و گردآوردن خدایان کهن است، که اکنون خود زندگی آمیخته با سبک زندگی «آمریکایی» دارند، تا برای رودرویی با خدایان تازه، از جمله خدای تکنولوژی، و رسانه، که هر روز قوی‌تر می‌شوند، آماده شوند؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 29/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 14/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی