american gods -neil gaiman

the front page reads out as "Dark fantasy". i would second that.

anyway, its been a good read. the title itself suggests a saga in biblical proportions and the image of the book seems pretty out of place to befit the title "American Gods",but there had to be an image anyway,so what better than put an image showing what gods are good at, smiting and throwing lightening bolts at creatures/things far less powerful than themselves.

the story opens itself with the rivalry between the new age gods and the old forgotten gods, who seek to make their presence felt. this was materialized through the a battle between the two parties and the winner takes it all. shadow is the protagonist and is picked up by the All-Father, Odin/the Grimnir etc etc.... to act as an errand boy.

lots of stuff happen which merely builds up the plot and one such event which aggravated the old gods was the death of Odin. and then right before the battle, shadow the errand boy discovers that this was all the handiwork of Odin and Loki,the norse gods, to fill the reservoir of faith/sacrifice,which the gods(in general) feeded upon to survive and what better sacrfice would be to them (Odin and Loki)than the sacrifice of gods fighting for him,avenging his death.

so the protagonist steps in and enlightens them all of this fact and the battles stop. then and there. this perhaps was the sudden anticlimax which certainly i didnt expect. they stop and return back to their activities and the world is good again. shadow who has lost it all now seeks to start a new life somewhere afresh.

as Mr.Ibis says "That is the tale,rest is all detail."

as for the story,it was definitely novel, and had taken me by surprise with the turn of certain events,then again, its a story!

one thing i found amusing was the gods were depicted as normal human beings who dealt their emotions pretty much the way humans do, who dealt with the daily activities as humans do. so that is something different.

till we meet ,

au revior