American Gods - Neil Gaiman

There are two authors I am particularly jealous of, and for identical reasons.

Their names?

China Mieville and Neil Gaiman.

Why?

To put it simply, they are so full of creativity, it just seems to leak out of them.  You see, most writers are human and have limits.  Whether they tell their stories in a sandbox world of their own creation, or in a more contemporary setting, the story itself demands most of the creative attention.

And then, there's Mieville and Gaiman.  With every novel they not only tell an original and compelling tale, but manage to create a completely new and broadly imaginative universe for that tale to unfold in.  Very rarely do they trot out the same setting.  Granted, creating one of these "sandboxes" as most fantasy authors do takes a lot of creativity, but to do it again and again?  To colour each new world with unique elements, great characters and cultures and technology? Creativity to spare.

My first introduction to such restrained and channelled delusion was Neil Gaiman's American Gods.  It's atmospheric.  Stylistic.  Downright weird, in a marvellous way.  Gaiman reminds the reader how important good prose is to the pacing of a story.  In American Gods, that prose is poetic when it needs to be, simple and restrained when it doesn't, and at all times, evocative. Which is just as well, because in this case, atmosphere is the most important element of the novel.  A dark, dreamlike, metaphysical weirdness pervades every particle of the story and if the prose was not up to the challenge of holding it all together, the book would fail.  Therein, perhaps, lies the reason that Gaiman is held in such high regard.  He is more than up to the challenge.

Following the story of ex-con Shadow upon his release from a federal prison, Gaiman leads the reader on a vivid journey through middle America.  Soon after taking a job as a bodyguard for the mysterious Mr. Wednesday however, Shadow finds himself caught up in a world where manifestations of ancient Gods walk the land.  Depleted in strength, these once powerful beings face extinction as the numbers of their believers and worshippers dwindle.  Wednesday, an avatar of Odin the All-Father, journeys across the continent in an attempt to recruit these ageing and waning gods for a final battle against the New American Gods - likewise, avatars of the modern world, referencing technology in particular but also the dangers of mass consumption and media.

Perhaps the greatest triumph of American Gods, is the manner in which these gods, both ancient and new, are portrayed.  Consistently boorish and aloof from the world around them, they are so invested in their own cause that they are ignorant of anything beyond it.  People rarely figure into their reasoning, if at all.  And while they may be out of touch, Gaiman is most certainly not.  His finger is on the pulse, in a way that only he could manage.  Well, other than China Mieville perhaps.

My score - 8.5/10