February SF/F Book Study: American Gods

Oh dude, I'm in! I just unpacked my old copy yesterday... Serendipity, yo.

Woot! I'm reading this right now. I love Neil Gaiman's style.

I just finished reading American Gods a month or so ago. Here is my review from goodreads:

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. The reason I did not is due to its rambling nature, too often the drama mounts only to be derailed by other situations that just made my shoulders slump. It's inventive and rich and complex, all things I love.
I had to do my own research on who a lot of the character were, when a few lines within the book could have solved it...and not once does the main character ever try to learn more about the unique individuals he is working with and for, he just took way too much for granted. Now admittedly he was a unique character and a good one.
The side stories mixed in of history and such were hit and miss, I would say they didn't add a significant amount to the story, all they did was pound home how the gods came to america over and over again.
This is a rich read, not a fast one. There are far too many places where the story loses momentum. And a lot of points where the main character just doesn't seem to care what happens, thats just part of his character though.

---------------------

I gave it three stars, and as you can see I had issues with it. What I want to know is why so many people have this listed as their favorite fantasy ever. it IS good, it IS worthy of reading, but it for me it falls way short of being a favorite.

It is the only book of Niel Gaiman's that have read, could it be that he has to win me over with another book before I see the santifying virtues of American Gods for myself?

I read this book a few months ago, thought I did a review of it on my blog, but I guess I forgot.

I do remember enjoying the book and the idea of how the gods came to America and how that changed them. I do agree with some that the main character allows stuff to just happen to him. He seemed very passive that way, so some times it came off a little boring. But over all I liked it.

I confess that while I like much of Gaiman's work, I've tried to read AG's three times, and bailed each time.

There's a new edition in paperback that is apparently the "author approved" American edition; I'm not sure what the differences are.

I had read Anansi Boys some time ago because people were raving about it, but didn't love it. I did like his take on the characters, though, so when American Gods went on sale for Kindle, I bought it.

It was a bit of a slog for me, and I looove doorstoppers. It sprawls, like America, and the space between the denser areas of story is too big, and too sparse. I liked Shadow, but I think he's overwhelmed by the canvas he's painted on, and would have been a better reader vehicle had the story perhaps been broken up into volumes. I liked all the pieces, but all put together it didn't work for me.

Tying in slightly to what Clovia just said, about how the book has the same sprawl of America.

I guess, from the above comments, that a lot of people had issues with the spread out style of not too much happening (travel) to the pieces of substance (towns, gods, what have you). If you drive America from one end to the other, that's pretty much exactly what you get. The journey is pretty perfectly captured in the style and the structure of the writing.

I was personally really a fan of the way that Gaiman tied in the smaller/ stranger gods into the smaller/ stranger little towns. I've been through a number of those places, and they are just as unique and darn weird as he makes them out to be. Having their own deities just added that little extra bit of flavor for me.

And while I'm on the "this book is like the American landscape" binge, I think the overarching story does an exceptional job at tying all the little pieces in to make the larger canvas. The clash between new technologies and the old world, the way that so many different cultures and Gods band together for certain reasons. I almost feel like the main Wednesday/ Shadow arc was more of the icing on the cake rather than the real substance of the novel.

Trevor Z said:

Tying in slightly to what Clovia just said, about how the book has the same sprawl of America.

I guess, from the above comments, that a lot of people had issues with the spread out style of not too much happening (travel) to the pieces of substance (towns, gods, what have you). If you drive America from one end to the other, that's pretty much exactly what you get. The journey is pretty perfectly captured in the style and the structure of the writing.

I was personally really a fan of the way that Gaiman tied in the smaller/ stranger gods into the smaller/ stranger little towns. I've been through a number of those places, and they are just as unique and darn weird as he makes them out to be. Having their own deities just added that little extra bit of flavor for me.

And while I'm on the "this book is like the American landscape" binge, I think the overarching story does an exceptional job at tying all the little pieces in to make the larger canvas. The clash between new technologies and the old world, the way that so many different cultures and Gods band together for certain reasons. I almost feel like the main Wednesday/ Shadow arc was more of the icing on the cake rather than the real substance of the novel.

Click to expand...

This is pretty much how I felt. A lot of things I initially perceived as flaws (bland-ish main character, weird pacing with odd tangents) ended up making the book more enjoyable once I figured out what was going on and what it all meant. I also think it helps that I'm not as opposed to passive characters as many other people I know. I liked that Shadow was just a normal guy who's most prominent feature was his resilience in the face of some seriously weird stuff.

It was actually a toss up between this and The Black Company for my most challenging read of 2012. (Although I ultimately did go with the latter.) The narrative was just so unusual and unique. I really admire Gaiman for his willingness to play with the "rules" of fiction.

The conversation seems to have slowed down a little, so I'll pose a question:


They unnamed money(?) God in Las Vegas. What or who is he?

Because I have no idea.

I'll reread that part tomorrow morning and see if I can't piece it together.

I got quite frustrated reading this book. Stopped reading, and never picked it up again. I just couldn't get invested.

Stopped reading at the vagina incident (you know the one). Why. Just why.

etcetc said:

Stopped reading at the vagina incident (you know the one). Why. Just why.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that was weird. By the time I finished, I still couldn't tell what it had to do with anything. Maybe I missed something.

I liked the book in general, though. Shadow was a bit bland and passive, but I kind of liked him. The whole book kind of felt like a dream because random things just kept happening.

I think you have to be in the right frame of mind to read it. I read it at the right time to appreciate it. Afterward, I tried Neverwhere and didn't like it as much. I'll probably pick up some other books by Gaiman at some point.

To me, American Gods is like America itself, as seen by a foreigner who's never been there. A big, expansive and confusing whole, kinda stupid and confusing at times, funny, weird, fascinating and mysterious at other times. A good read, though not my favorite work by Gaiman. That would be the Sandman series.

Huh, I didn't realize that unnamed god thing was something a lot of people wre trying to puzzle out. I thought it was as obvious as the other gods and I'd just managed to forget it or something.

After logging off last night, I couldn't actually think of many cultures besides the Greeks+Romans who actually had out-and-out currency and commerce gods, as opposed to just gods of wealth/bounty in general- lots of fertility gods doubled as gods of financial success or security. So with that said, Mercury/Hermes or maybe Plutus (not to be confused with Pluto) seemed like a good bet.

I went and reread and those were still pretty much all I had without reaching too far into the improbable.

I then Googled "american gods las vegas" and got [SPOILER WARNING!!] this. It seems we have our answer and a whole lot more.

Wow that's a lot of cool information. Thanks for sharing Raven.

I'm a huge fan of Good Omens, and the husband swears by Sandman, so I picked up American Gods. I was expecting a sort of adventurous urban fantasy sort of thing (a little bit like 'The Younger Gods' maybe), but I found it was a little too into the history. It was confusing, with all these characters who are supposed to be old gods and I didn't know who any of them were, it felt like the story was filled to brim with inside jokes that I didn't understand. The main character sort of annoyed me, because he didn't question ANYTHING and just sort of rolled along.

I did really like the "Sun" and "Moon" coins, the little Leprauchaun guy was awesome (I forget his name) so I was sad when he died, and I enjoyed the whole storyline with the MC getting haunted by his dead wife, and all what happened to her to lead to her death. THAT was awesome.

The rest of it was really hard to get into and really enjoy, and yeh. I decked about 3/4s through, which took twice as long as my usual time, and had to put it down for good.

Edit: The vagina-eat-a-person scene was weird, but I thought it was neat, like 'what the hell is this? why? I must read on and find out'. Ad then... NOTHING. It felt like another inside joke I will never get -_-;