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Contributed by Sargos
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Friday, 15 July 2005 |
 by Terry Pratchet & Neil Gaiman
I had heard a lot about Terry Pratchet in the past, but never had the chance to read one of his books. What a shame! I've been missing out on one of the most interesting, and amusing authors of our time; and I know how heavy this statement is.
It is not the rave reviews this book received, nor the fact that many of my friends had already read it, that finally made me read it. Its subject originally intrigued me: Apocalypse, Armageddon, angels, demons, the Antichrist... All in today's modern England . What a nice concept!
The story begins with one of the main characters, the demon Crawley (Yes, Crawley , I found it funny too! His initials are A.J. by the way ;-) ), a totally humanised ethereal being (after having stayed in Earth for countless years, passing off as a human, albeit a weird one), after having sabotaged half of England, forcing many virtuous English people towards the ways of down-under, receiving the Antichrist, as a baby, by two of his superior demons. His task is to deliver the Bringer of the End to a small hospital, where, with the help of some satanist nuns, the baby would be switched with another family's baby, and raised by them as a normal kid. But, (you probably have guessed it already) there's a mix-up! Wrong babies, wrong families, and noone's realised a single thing!
The years go by, and Armageddon is closing in. It's prophesied by Agnes Nutter, a Middle-Ages witch/prophet, that the Apocalypse is to take place on the Antichrist's 11th birthday. The Forces of Heaven and Hell are, of course doing their best to influence the child -who is totally ignorant of his 'heritage'- towards their ways. Too bad for them, though, the real Spawn of Hell is quietly being raised by a middle-class family in a small rural village in the middle of English nowhere, and instead of plotting the world's destruction in a blazing inferno, he spends his time riding a bike and playing with his friends in pools of mud.
This is where the angel Aziraphale comes in. Aziraphale, as well as being Crawley 's best friend (Yup, you heard right, it's an unofficial and secret alliance noone knows about, which indeed proves a lot!) was sent from up-above to supervise on this issue. Together with Crawley , they embark on a frenzied race to figure out what's going on, and save (or destroy ;) ) the world from Doom. What's worse is that they only have less than a week to do it!
Loads of different characters also come to play, such as the 2 stupidest witchhunters of all times - sole members of the Witchhunter Army (Hah!), the Spawn of Hell, his Hellhound called simply.. Dog, the witch Anathema Device, an aging future-teller/psychic who also serves as an S&M mistress, and many others.
All in all, this is one of the coolest, most amusing books I've read in the past 4 years that I've been living in England . It's basically taking the piss out of everything, especially of the Church, (of Christ and Satan equally), making all sorts of clever jokes about the whole thing. If it was turned into a movie, I bet my whole month's paycheck it'd be the comedy of the year! Interesting characters, amazing narration that draws you into the book, and a demon in sunglasses driving a Bentley, whose best friend is an angel who has a part-time job as a rare-book dealer...
What more could you possibly want for a nice evening or two? And, for £5 sterling, it's a bargain! |
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