I have, I think, blogged about Neil Gaiman before. Unfortunately he seems to have been in the bundle of the year that this blog is missing. Generally I think of him as the poor man’s Alan Moore, he never quite goes far enough for me and has the very Stephen King habit of making sure the ending is happy. That’s fine for a kids book I guess (though please see Mortal Engines for how to make an ending satisfyingly happy without being untrue to the story) but it annoys me once you get to teen fiction, young adult and above. Anyway, American Gods, I read it at uni, not long after I read Sandman (and being the age I am, obviously I loved Sandman) and I loved it, that and Small Gods by Terry Pratchett are the biggest fictional influences on my actual religious belief. I’m not the only one I suspect.
It’s all about belief…
Amazon have made a TV series out of it, as a side note I much prefer Amazon’s way of doing shows to Netflix, there’s something about knowing that on Monday, or Tuesday or whenever that’s when you’ll get the next episode. Perhaps it’s my age, but I like to binge watch old shows (I’m now up to date on Supernatural never having seen any of it before January!) but if it’s new I want the episodes to come out and let me appreciate them, one by one. I do rather like the ability to rewatch though.
It’s good, I was prepared to be disappointed by the Bilquis scene and I really wasn’t! Which says something, I always remember it as Eostre swallowing the guy inside her and actually watching the TV show has me re-reading the book because so much of it has gotten mashed up in my head.
The Old Gods and the new in a million scenes like some crazy Neal Stephenson novel but working, it definitely worked. I was worried that they would make them too nice, but they haven’t and Ian McShane as Mr Wednesday in full on Lovejoy mode – yes, absolutely yes. They’ve made it moreso, which I like, Bilquis seems to be going on a full on spree-kill, Wednesday coming to America and Anansi coming to America is so much bloodier than the book. To me, it reads like either Gaiman has finally given himself his head or that the TV guy has adapted to what Gaiman should have written – everything in all the bloody glory they should have. In anycase, I’m enjoying my Monday American Gods.