American Gods [TV Tie-In] audiobook

No denying that this one is a big boi. A long boi. Extra extra page boi.But was it worth all that paper?Click the link for my video review of the big bois in my life.The Written Review: Gods die. And when they truly die they are unmourned and unremembered. Ideas are more difficult to kill than people, but they can be killed, in the end. The Old Gods - brought over by immigrants. Wild, fantastical tales of elephant-headed men and trickster spiders. Of power and lust. Of fear and worship.The New Gods - created by the immigrants' descendants. Gods of money, media and might. Newly formed out of the hopes, dreams and desires of a people who've long since forgotten the Old Gods. A storm is coming. The New Gods, though young and foolhardy, know what they want and they want to take the world from the Old Gods. Caught in the crossfires is one, very human, ex-prisoner named Shadow. The ideas Neil Gaiman comes up with are simply stunning. It's hard to describe this book - it's all-encompassing. This story feels so old and established - almost like it's a legend, passed down from generation to generation. It crossed every genera - from romance to murder mystery to mythology - absolutely seamlessly. I really loved all of the New Gods that Gaiman created.There's The Technical Boy - God of the internet and computers. The Black Hats - Gods of Conspiracy theories and shady ideas. And, my personal favorite, Media - the Goddess of the Television. "The TV's the altar. I'm what people are sacrificing to.""What do they sacrifice?" asked Shadow."Their time." And of course, because it's Neil Gaiman...there's a bunch of weird sex thrown in...because reasons.Literally, one of the Old Goddesses ate a man alive with her "womanhood". Another time, Shadow was really injured and was healed through painfully descriptive sex magic. Aside: Does anyone really know why Gaiman always does this? Can't we have one book where everyone keeps their clothes on?And, if that wasn't confusing enough, in between the man-eating labia and sex-bandaids...we get absolutely adorable quotes like this: What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul. or this: The house smelled musty and damp, and a little sweet, as if it were haunted by the ghosts of long-dead cookies. Sometimes, I really want to know what goes through this man's head...and then again...maybe not. Still, this was an extremely interesting read and one of the few Gaiman books that I enjoyed from cover to cover!Audiobook CommentsExtremely well-read by Dennis Boutsikaris, Daniel Oreskes, Ron McLarty, and Sarah Jones. Each major character had a different voice actor/actress and it really enhanced the audio. The accents sounded accurate (to my untrained ear) and the whole book was immensely enjoyable to listen to! The Finer Books Club - 2018 Reading Challenge: A book based in your home stateYouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads

In 2003, I walked away from my childhood religion – a high control (some would say abusive) group with a tiny little worldview and a severe superiority complex. This was my reality:I believed with all my being that the things depicted above were real, and were just over the event horizon. Leaving meant losing almost every friend I had ever made since childhood, it created a rift with my still devout family, and quite possibly saved my life. Is it any wonder that fiction – alternate realities, fantasy, and mental escape – helped me make that decision, helped me move on, and helped deprogram my cult-think? One fiction supplanted the other, only this time I already knew I was working with stories. Some of this fiction I had read many times, not understanding why the stories resonated so strongly within me, just knowing that I was compelled to return to those worlds, over and over. Others were stories I read during the time surrounding my breakaway, and shortly thereafter.*American Gods made me observe and think differently. It gave me a new context for the mythologies I had accepted for most of my life. It was bigger than the story of Shadow, or the girl Sam, or Czernabog. For me, it was about how we allow our Old Gods to define our present worldview, and how we allow our New Gods to steal our awareness. Our mythologies set the boundaries of our culture, and paradoxically, as our culture changes, our gods sacrifice their immortality. "Religions are, by definition, metaphors, after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you--even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers, and triumphs over all opposition." The part of the story that affected me the most profoundly was the story of Hinzelmann and Lakeside. The mixing of good and evil, the blurring of lines, townspeople looking the other way – to such a degree that it never occurs to them to see what is happening right under their noses. Dead men's bones. Deaths of legends. It affected me to my core. During the time I was reading American Gods, it was this which rocked me – I was doing the same thing – choosing and keeping and killing my own Gods, my own mythologies. It was tremendously painful, made a little easier by having the opportunity to process it within the bounds of somebody else's story.*The rest of the list:DuneChapterhouse DuneFahrenheit 451Animal Farm1984SandmanCrisis of ConscienceUnder the Banner of HeavenSeductive Poison

In this unique love letter to the United States, Gaiman manages to celebrate its underground spiritual traditions, glory in the magnificence of its landmarks, landscapes, and bizarre tourist traps, and--most important--both mourn and venerate its pagan (often immigrant) gods in decline, battered and diminished though they may be by the shallowness and speed of our technological world. The gods are indeed the best part of this very good book: degenerate and threadbare, yet still gods, capable of inspiring both allegiance and terror. Gaiman loves not only fantasy, but also mystery and horror, and here he has constructed a book which fulfills the genre requirements of all. The plot is complicated and crammed with marvels: the beginning promises pleasures and horrors, the middle disturbs the balance, and the ending surprises and yet satisfies.

Audiobook re-read 2020I'm sticking with my original rating, but only because the voice cast is simply amazing. If you're on the fence about this version of the book, I'd highly suggest listening to it. It's long, it rambles, and it doesn't go anywhere very interesting. The actual plot of this book could have filled 100 pages, while the other 500 pages read like a mythological travelogue of the United States. There's nothing wrong with that, and it was exactly what Gaiman set out to do. I'm just letting you know upfront what you're getting yourself into because (even with the fantastic voices) I almost DNF'd this audiobook every single day for a week or so. I had to keep reminding myself that nothing lasts forever and this too shall pass. Plus, I couldn't quite remember how it all turned out in the end and maybe there was something cool waiting for me that I'd forgotten.Eh.At some point, I'm planning to listen to the original version of the book that his editor got hold of and see how it compares. This version was for me at best a rambly 2 to 2.5 star book. The audio is fantastic, though. Easily a 5 star audio!

***Now a celebrated TV series on Starz.***“‘I read some book about brains,’ she said. ‘My roommate had it and she kept waving it around. It was like, how five thousand years ago the lobes of the brain fused and before that people thought when the right lobe of the brain said anything it was the voice of some god telling them what to do. It’s just brains.’ ‘I like my theory better,’ said Shadow. ‘What’s your theory?’ ‘That back then people used to run into the gods from time to time.’” Shadow Moon is played by Ricky Whittle. Excellent casting.There are few experiences that will teach someone more about himself better than going to prison. It is a microcosm. It is like shoving the world into a shoebox. There are rules, not prison rules, but prisoner rules, and you better get them figured out in a hurry. It is one of the few places remaining where people really have to interact and deal with other people. Inmates learn how to cooperate, or really bad things happen.Plenty of bad things happen anyway. Time keeps traveling at a normal rate outside, but inside the box, this minute is the same as the last minute, and when a person emerges from prison, it is like being dropped into a different world because his brain is still shackled in place, in whatever decade he first went into prison. A person spends a lot of time with himself in lockup. They become either a better version of themselves or a horrible twisted version of who they were supposed to be. Shadow lost his temper and lost three years. He came out of prison probably a better person than who he was going to be. He learned to ignore the bullshit and focus on what was most important...living. The universe is not done fucking with Shadow, not by a long shot. Prison is just the beginning, the burnishing of his character. He barely has made footprints in the dusty highway of his new life when he meets a god. Like it would with any of us, it takes a while for him to really believe he has met a god. This supposed god doesn’t glow or have a thunderous voice. He is abnormal, but in a kooky uncle sort of way, who besides being weird also happens to be a con man. He is frankly...kind...of...annoying. Gods have fallen on hard times in America. This god needs Shadow to work for him. “The land is vast. Soon enough, our people abandoned us, remembered us only as creatures of the old land, as things that had not come with them to the new. Our true believers passed on, or stopped believing, and we were left, lost and scared and dispossessed, to get by on what little smidgens of worship or belief we could find. And to get by as best we could.” Christianity commits deicide. The whole convert or die thing sort of makes pagans and what would be considered alternative religion types to quickly reevaluate their level of faith in the old gods. It is easier, after all, to focus on one god than figuring out the pantheon of gods they were trying to please before the first bedraggled priest washed up on the shores of their community. Christianity simplified faith. This left all the old gods, used to receiving tasty animal sacrifices, fresh fruits, virgins, bereft of not only sustenance but also...love. We brought these gods to America with us and then abandoned them. The new gods who are putting the final nail in their celestial coffins are the new deities, such as internet, media, and cell phones. They hurl insults like these: “You-you’re a fucking illuminated gothic black-letter manuscript. You couldn’t be hypertext if you tried. I’m…I’m synaptic, while, while you’re synoptic…” It is hard to be insulted by a compliment, isn’t it? These new gods are even starting to chip away at the strong foothold that Christianity has on the minds of the American people. If he doesn’t watch out, JC is going to be bumming rides from truckers on the interstate and hoping for the kindness of his former people, eyes focused like zombies on the screens before them, for a handout. Not to mention the fact that Shadow has televisions asking him, ”Do you want to see Lucy’s tits?” I’d explain that, but it is more fun for you to find out for yourself. Needless to say, things are dire. Ian McShane plays Mr. Wednesday, brilliantly of course.Shadow’s boss, Mr. Wednesday, you can probably figure out who he is, decides it is time to wipe the new kids off the block (a version of Titan vs Olympian) and seize the power the old gods so passively let slide through their fingers. Shadow is caught right in the damn middle of it. He is Odysseus in the midst of the Trojan War. Shadow naturally asks himself, why me? When Neil Gaiman first submitted this book for publication, his editor/publisher suggested that he cut 12,000 words out of the manuscript. If you are having deja vu feelings of The Stand by Stephen King, you are on the right fright frequency. Gaiman won a plethora of awards for American Gods, so how can you argue that the cuts weren’t a good idea? The thing is, those orphaned 12,000 words were still whispering to Gaiman, and when the decision was made to put out a tenth anniversary edition, he decided it was time to put the kids back with their parents. I would highly suggest reading the 10th anniversary edition. I do not feel the book is bloated. All the scenes are relevant to the larger arc of the plot. I would be nervous to lose the experience of reading any part of this book. I was skeptical when I began reading this book. Gaiman introduces these gods from different cultures and does not exactly explain who any of them are, or at times he is even being cagey with their names. He is expecting a certain sophistication from his readers that is not only refreshing, but startlingly bold. I thought, in the beginning, that he has the Stephen King magic figured out with the easy accessibility of the writing and enough interesting factoids to make people feel like they are learning something as they work their way through the plot. He has those things, but he doesn’t just let us dog paddle on the surface of the water. He snags our ankles and thrusts us deeper beneath the waves to where things get dark, and we have no choice but to examine ourselves in the context of this story. And what a pleasant surprise it has been. ”Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page or close the book, and we resume our lives.” With books like this, we resume a richer life. If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.comI also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten

The best interpretation of what ancient gods could look like in modern societyUsurpers of the throneA company goes bankrupt, a human dies, and a god without any believers… rebrands her/himself, vanishes, goes back to heaven, hell, behind the big bang, crunch, rip, multiverse? But seriously, of course not, as long as nobody has interviewed a literal goddess/god, this remains an open question. Maybe they don´t even know it themselves and fear the day of the last dead idolator. But at least they are human in the one regard that there is alwaysA new business idea based on technological and cultural evolutionThis is the totally mindblowing, forever continuable concept of creating new gods out of technological and social progress and manifested in it. Internet, biotech, social media, mind uploading, nanotech, war machinery, new ideologies, all fantasy, and sci fi concepts that are standalone enough to be an equivalent, or new interpretation, of the old gods for human stuff like love, death, birth, war, and the big ones like weather, earth, etc. The funny thing is, the moreHumans are losing the connection to their origins, nature, and the biospherethe more destructive a bad god could be. Let´s say a god of war or mammon is the whole army or government of a superpower or all its conglomerates and megacorporations. A god of lust is the owner of anything pornographic in a time VR and AR are pimping and spicing already incredible 4K and 8K pornography. What I´ve heard so far. And depending on how good or bad Aphrodites and Eros's kinky fetish tendency is, One man's meat is another man's suffering style, the impact on a society, in this case even a mixture of hard tech and soft, sometimes slack, horny ape needs, is pleasure or pain. Play with the idea yourself, you´ll find incredible insights. Both fantasy and sci fiExpand this concept in extreme detailImagine an incredible mighty evil or good magician or a Clarketech civilization and this game could be played until the end of time. And thereby also creating a picture of the human values left in these fantastic settings. That´s what makes, back to the topic, Gaimans´work not better, but more unique than his other also incredible pieces. They are a kind of gold standard for fantasy, but they don´t have this Mixture with our current time This is what makes both the book and the TV series something unusual for the genre, tinkering with the idea of fusing fantasy genres with a commentary on modern society that isn´t moralizing or proselytizing for an ideology. But instead letting gods do that work.Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

This is an exceptional tale. And the idea of this tale, the central concept, might even be better than the tale itself. Yet, it’s still a masterfully-written, wonderful book, which tells you just how fantastic a concept it is. It was published in 2001 and won the 2002 Hugo and Nebula (and yes, I’m just now reading it). I read the ten-year anniversary edition with the extra 12,000 words.Compared to Europe, America has no mythology and hardly a history. Norse mythology can be traced back to the 13th century. Sources for Irish Folklore have been dated to the 11th or 12th century, but oral history might be as old as the 6th century. Greek myths date all the way back to 18th century B.C. The central theme of American Gods is that while Europe has old, strong, powerful gods, America is not a good land for gods. Yes, immigrants brought their beliefs with them and, in a sense, created weak incantations of the European gods. You see in Gaiman’s universe, a facsimile of a European god could exist simply due to the beliefs of settlers. This backdrop allows Gaiman to create a rich story of god and god-like characters that exist solely due to worship and idolization, whether that be an incarnation of an ancient god such as Oden, or the create of a new god, such as media or technology. The plot is that a small group of new gods (technology boy, media, and the intangibles – modern stock market worship), along with the help of Black Hats, sort of government thugs, are plotting to overthrow the old gods, who are becoming ever weaker due to fading beliefs. Our protagonist is Shadow Moon, an ex-con, who is hired by an old god, mysteriously named, “Mr. Wednesday”. Mr. Wednesday assisted by Shadow is journeying across the country to gather support of the old gods for an impending battle against the new gods. This plot allows Gaiman to explore the county and provides rich locations from “The House On the Rock” in Wisconsin, to Las Vegas, to the meatpacking yards of Chicago, and to Rock City (See Rock City!). While Gaiman’s appreciation of the new world shows through, especially in small town America, he by no means pulls any punches concerning the vices, corruption, and depravity of America. Shadow spends time in a small Wisconsin town, which Gaiman lovingly describes, but underneath there are dark forces at work, even in this simple place. He explores the historical horrors of slavery, native American atrocities, the sex trade, as well as the modern greed and gluttony of Las Vegas and the Stock Market. I was surprised that Gaiman missed our Sports worship, as this would have made another excellent and interesting new god. So, this is no whitewashed love letter of America, but I still took away a sense of appreciation of small-town America and the amazing blend of cultures in the United States. The journey though America and the interaction with the supernatural allowed Gaiman to fully display his mastery of language. At times the prose is almost lyrical or poetic. At others it’s purposely pedestrian and workmanlike, which creates a differentiation between the ordinary events and the mystical occurrences.I knew this book was good, based on its awards and reputation which often leads to high expectations and disappointment for me. Well, not in this case. I enjoyed it, I admired it, and I respected it. It deserves all the awards and acclaim it received, imho. I read that Gaiman actually toured the U.S. while writing this book and that makes it even more epic in my mind. America may not have as rich, long, or complex lore, mythology, or legend as Europe, but Gaiman adds a bit to our nation’s tale. Ultimately, it’s an amazingly inventive and masterful story.

American Gods (American Gods #1), Neil GaimanAmerican Gods (2001) is a fantasy novel by British author Neil Gaiman. The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on the mysterious and taciturn Shadow. Shadow is an ex-convict who is released from prison three days early when his wife Laura is killed in a car accident. Shadow is devastated by her death, and is distraught to learn that she died alongside his best friend Robbie, with whom she had been having an affair. He takes a job as a bodyguard for a mysterious con man, Mr. Wednesday, and travels with him across America, visiting Wednesday's acquaintances. Shadow learns that Wednesday is an incarnation of Odin the All-Father, and is also recruiting American manifestations of the Old Gods, whose powers have waned as their believers have decreased in number, to participate in a battle against the New American Gods – manifestations of modern life and technology, such as the Internet, media, and modern means of transport. Shadow meets a leprechaun named Mad Sweeney, who gives Shadow a magical gold coin after Shadow beats him in a fight. ...تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و نهم ماه اکتبر سال 2019میلادیعنوان: خدایان آمریکا؛ نویسنده: نیل گیمن؛ تهران، زبان، مهر، 1398؛ در 705ص؛ به زبان اصلی؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده 21مدرباره ی شخصیتی به نام «شدو»، که به سه سال حبس در زندان، محکوم شده است؛ در حالیکه تنها چند روز از دوران محکومیت او باقیمانده، «شدو»، به دلیل کشته شدن همسرش، زودتر از زندان آزاد می‌شود؛ او سپس با فردی به نام «چهارشنبه»، آشنا شده، که به او پیشنهاد کار می‌دهد؛ «چهارشنبه»، در ظاهر فرد حیله‌ گری به نظر می‌رسد،؛ که به دنبال استخدام «شدو»، به عنوان نگهبان خویش است؛ ولی در واقع او یکی از خدایان به نام «اودین» میباشد؛ «چهارشنبه»، در حال مسافرت به دور «آمریکا»، و گردآوردن خدایان کهن است، که اکنون خود زندگی آمیخته با سبک زندگی «آمریکایی» دارند، تا برای رودرویی با خدایان تازه، از جمله خدای تکنولوژی، و رسانه، که هر روز قوی‌تر می‌شوند، آماده شوند؛تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 29/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 14/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

I listened to the full cast audiobook of this while on a long drive and I highly recommend it for the experience. This book is meandering, in such a way that you can feel yourself getting lost. But, in Gaiman fashion, he has a way of tying everything up in the end (or not in some cases) in a way that was satisfying for me. If you don't mind a character focused story with a lot of detours and LOVE mythology, you'll eat this up.

a protagonist, Shadow. calm, collected, quiet, passive, cagey, a tough guy and a sensitive guy. his life has been about reacting and not impacting. he moves through his story as if through a dream; tragedies and betrayals and mysteries and confidence games, the beginnings and endings of hope and love and life - all viewed as if through water, as if these terrible wonders were happening to someone else. he could be nothing more than a pawn in life - let alone a pawn of the gods - but yet his passivity is combined with an inner strength, a gentle kindness, an innate decency. his decency is more than a trait - it defines him. and when he does decide to act, his actions become another one of this novel's terrible wonders. he is complex and completely appealing. one of my my favorite heroes in modern fiction.a wife, Laura. dead before the novel begins. a living ghost, a revenant; aided by a magical coin. a sad and appalling and dreamlike journey. a terrific payoff.a Road Trip, full of kitchen-sink reality, full of terrible wonder.an old guard, the Old Gods. Odin, Anansi, Czernobog, Anubis and Thoth and Bast and Horus, Eostre, Kali, the Norns. the Queen of Sheba - strangely, now an Old God. their transformation into prosaic american emigres - confidence men and tenement dwellers and whores and jailhouse cellmates - is both a fun game of mystery-solving (guess the god!) and a rather sad parallel to how the world of the not-aged pushes the aged into their little corners, out of sight and out of mind, into a world of irrelevance. and yet the old gods are not portrayed with cloying sweetness - there is no filter of nostalgia or hints of some long-lost, longed-for Olden Way to make us love them. they are fascinating, powerful, often monstrous, entirely without easy sentiment.a new guard, the New Gods. Technology, the Media, the Vehicle, the Men in Black. it's easy to put them all automatically in a nice little box labeled The Villains. but that's too simple; too instantly gratifying. the novel's portrait of these potentially repellent figures is one painted in broad strokes, lacking subtlety - but it is also a fair one... they sound and act like villains, and yet they are not. how can they be? we worship them on a daily basis. they are only evil if we consider our modern age an evil one.a creepy subsidiary villain: a Kobold. he lives in a portrait of classic americana that miraculously manages to be free of condescension.a Confidence Game, long-game style, played by two gods, with our hero as their catspaw. cleverly done by the gods. beautifully overturned by our hero. brilliantly pulled off by the author.an author, Neil Gaiman. i'll admit that i have well-stocked reserves of love for the man, ready and willing to be accessed. his Sandman series is my favorite comic book, full of crazy imagination and complex mysteries and creepy villains and complicated heroes and terrible, wonderful journeys. so i was prepared to love this book as i love its author, to draw upon that deep well of affection. there were connecting factors that helped to ease my transition from dealing with my old god of awesome comics to this new literary god of popular fantasy fiction; namely his interest in unearthing and revitalizing the world's myths and legends - an ongoing Gaiman leitmotif. i was less prepared to discover that Gaiman is an actual writer! his prose is fluid, nuanced, supple, at ease with both constant ambiguity and you-are-there, detailed realism. both grounded and hallucinatory. the narrative is anchored by everyday reality as well as a strange lack of affect - a blankness of tone that is a good fit for a phantasmagorical road trip. and then it is capable of sudden, surreal flights of visionary madness, a grey-toned package that becomes a conjurer's box of magic. and then that tricksy legerdemain can just as quickly transform back into a soulful and emotionally honest portrait of one man's journey through various adventures, through his own life, to the end of it and back again. who could ask for more?

Update: Re-read for the first time in years to prep for reviewing the tv show. So excited!!! I'm recapping for B&N, I'll be putting links up on my profile periodically to the recaps. Overall, this is a harder book than I remembered. So much harder (as in, harder-edged) and more thoughtful than I remember, both. It's not as twisty/turny surprise-y as it was when I read it last time, but it more than makes up for it with the new thematic things I have the headspace to think about. There's so much here to play with and I'm hoping they use as much of it as possible.***Original: Here's my new review of this, up on the B&N fantasy blog: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sc...Yay!!

Fantasy meets action packed thriller waltzes with Ancient and Modern mythology! A masterpiece from my all time favorite author!I loved the book! I loved the series that I highly recommend you to watch: for the love of Ian McShane who is the best choice to play mysterious Mr. Wednesday! Giving my 5 gazillion stars and moving to the next masterpieces of the author!