Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home.

Good Omens

Good Omens

Good Omens
The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter (Witch)
by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
(Dutch title: Hoge Omens: de oprechte en secure voorspellingen van Agnes Nutter, een heks)

I have read this book multiple times and each time it is as good as it was last time. It’s smart and funny, and it does not bore easily.

The two main characters the angel Aziraphale and the Fallen angel Crowley, two angels have spent the past millennia on earth, ever since humans were cast out of the Garden of Eden. During this time both have become somewhat friendly with each other -how can you not become friendly with someone who spends eternity doing the same thing as you-, have become quite used to living their cosy, comfy lives, and also have become somewhat fond of humanity. The latter is expressed by Crowley (formerly known as Crawly, guess what his role was in the Garden) in these words:

He rather liked people. It was a major failing in a demon.
Oh, he did his best to make their short lives miserable, because that was his job, but nothing he could think up was half as bad as the stuff they thought up themselves. They seemed to have a talent for it. It was built into the design, somehow. They were born into a world that was against them in a thousand little ways, and then devoted most of their energies to making it worse.

And just when you’d think they were more malignant than ever Hell could be, they could occasionally show more grace than Heaven ever dreamed of. Often the same individual was involved. It was this freewill thing, of course. It was a bugger.

But then it is the coming of the End Times. The Apocalypse is near, and Final Judgement will soon be cast upon the human race. Aziraphale and Crowley decide to monitor the Antichrist, the son of an American diplomat in Great Britain (and therefore growing up in an environment that ensures that he’ll never be able to decide between Good and Evil)

However, due to a mix-up at the hospital were the Antichrist was born, the real Antichrist -Adam Young- is living an ordinary life with two very British parents and the leader of a small gang of friends. He grows up having no idea that he is ‘the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness’.

After realising the mistake, the two angels drive across the country to get to the Antichrist before anyone else does. And while Adam uses his powers to get things to be the way he wants them to be, the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are riding out. Or rather, the three Horsemen and one Horsewoman of the Apocalypse. Or, to be even more precise: the four Bikers of the Apocalypse.

- “You’re Hells Angels, then? What chapter are you from?”
- “REVELATIONS, CHAPTER SIX.”
(Death in conversation with a biker)

Other characters include an Occultist and professional descendent called Anathema Device, a witchfinder called Newton Pulsifer, a dog called Dog, and Brian, Wensleydale and Pepper (A Girl) who are the Antichrist’s friends.

Good Omens is a book that is not only funny and has fantastic characters, it also clever. It gave me something to think or chuckle about with almost every page.

Highly recommended!