By Shantell Powell
Content warning: blasphemy
Good Omens is a satire about the biblical end of days as told by legendary authors Neil Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett. It has been a cult classic since 1990, and now that it has been released as a live-action fantasy comedy series on Amazon Prime, it has gained even more popularity. Neil Gaiman is the award-winning author of The Sandman, American Gods, and Neverwhere. Terry Pratchett is best known for his Discworld series of fantasy novels. I cannot tell who wrote what in Good Omens. The transitions are seamless.
I have owned many different editions of Good Omens over the years, yet, I only have one copy left. This isn’t because I chose to offload some, but because the books were lent to people and were never returned. I think it says something about the quality of the book that it gets perma-borrowed so frequently. I know that I am not the only fan of the book who has this problem. People just can’t stop stealing Good Omens, and Terry Pratchett’s books were considered the most shoplifted in Great Britain.
I hadn’t read the book in a couple of years, so this time around, I decided to go with the full-cast audiobook produced by HarperAudio. This was my first time experiencing it as an audiobook. I wasn’t sure how this would translate since the text version of the book contains a multitude of footnotes, but I needn’t have worried because it works beautifully. There are fifteen different actors for this audiobook, and the cast includes the same actors as the film adaptation. The actors do a phenomenal job bringing the characters to life. With such a large, talented cast, this feels more like a radio play than it does an audiobook and is a master class in voice acting. I found myself just as engaged listening to it as I was reading the text version or watching the show. Good Omens is one of those rare gems where the film adaptation is just as good as the text version.
Good Omens contains biting social commentary about pressing issues such as climate change, pollution, war, capitalism, mutually assured destruction, and grid-locked traffic jams. It also delves into religious history, witch burnings, and misogyny, miraculously transforming these heavy topics into a literary confection as sweet and light as meringue. The book makes use of a wide cast of characters including angels, demons, witch hunters, a sex worker, children, insurance brokers, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Their interactions with one another make me laugh aloud.
If you are a fan of Monty Python, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and stories about the antichrist, this is the book for you. If you are appalled by blasphemous takes on Christianity, stay far, far away.