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Sample
American Gods
Unabridged
Narrated by
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Program Type
Audiobook (Fiction)
Publisher
Length
20 hrs and 50 mins
Audible Release Date
11-07-03
Audio Formats About Formats
2 3 4 Audible Enhanced Audio
Customer Rating

3.92 based on 1788 ratings
 

Audible Editor Reviews

Why we think it's Essential: In an era before both iPod and printing press, people told tales of the gods around the firepit. With American Gods, master storyteller Gaiman taps that mythic vein for a genre-defying modern-day tale of gods, both ancient and new, warring under our very noses. Giving voice to Gaiman's words, George Guidall brings out both the energy and emotion of this surprisingly human tale. His characterization of the much-more-than-a-conman Mr. Wednesday is masterful. —Ed Walloga

Publisher's Summary

For the three years Shadow spent in prison, all he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place.

On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday, a self-declared grifter, who offers Shadow a job. Shadow, a man with nothing to lose, accepts. But he soon learns that his role in Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous than he could have ever imagined.

American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. Magnificently told, American Gods is a work of literary magic that will haunt the listener long after it has been heard.

©2001 Neil Gaiman; (P)Recorded Books, Inc.; ©2001 HarperCollinsPublishers Inc.

What the Critics Say

  • Hugo Award Winner, Best Novel, 2002
  • Nebula Award Winner, Best Novel, 2002

"Brilliant dialogue and profound insights into American consciousness show Gaiman to be a visionary and a master wordsmith." (AudioFile)
"Neil Gaiman enters Stephen King territory...with American Gods." (New York Post)
"A crackerjack suspense yarn...juicily original...Wagnerian noir." (Salon.com)
"By turns thoughtful, hilarious, disturbing, uplifting, horrifying and enjoyable, and sometimes all at once." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Customer Reviews

Showing: 1-5 of 144
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2 of 2 people found this review helpful:
Rating 5.0Rating 5.0Rating 5.0Rating 5.0Rating 5.0 "Amazing, powerful book about America."
By: Joseph (Austin, TX, USA)
October 29, 2009
First and foremost, Neil Gaiman can actually write, which puts him ahead of 90% of the people on the best sellers lists these days. That alone is worth a positive review.

But this book is stupendous. It starts small in a prison cell with an unremarkable hero, and ventures out across America, revealing this nation and its psyche more than any recent work I've read. The format is odd--it alternates between the modern story and vignettes into the gods of the different cultures that melted into America, from pre-discovery to modern immigrants. Each vignette is well-imagined and offers an insight into America that would leave even a student of culture and anthropology impressed. Each ties together to explain the whole picture of what's happening in the novel. Several criticisms here have claimed it is just a bunch of stories, but it is much more than that.

This is one of the best imagined books I've ever read. It isn't always about pretty romances or graphic slasher/horror killings--although they are in here--so it may be different than some readers are used to, but it tells a powerful story that goes beyond the simple actions of the story. You will see America in a different light--sometimes better, sometimes worse--after reading this book, and if you don't, you've missed the whole story.

It is a spectacular mystical, mythical adventure, and I have enjoyed few books this much, and have been this impressed with the overall scope of even fewer. I can't imagine not loving it.

Oh yeah, don't listen with your kids. There is explicit, though not gratuitous, sex and violence that might offend some readers. Not one of Gaiman's childrens books.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful:
Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0 "Love the Story"
By: Cheryl (Chicago, IL, USA)
September 21, 2009
I very much enjoyed this one! It took me some time to understand why he jumped from the present to another time, but it came together nicely into the story. I found it difficult to stop listening to. I put my iPod on while I ironed, washed dishes, besides the normal listening in the car t work. I very much like the direction Gaiman is taking in his writing.
His characters were always in development from beginning to end. I felt good and bad about Shadow's wife and was very impressed with her character's bravery and love.
Great book.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful:
Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0 "Modern Mythology = Good Stuff"
By: Ryan (Desoto, MO, USA)
July 23, 2009
American Gods was my introduction to Gaiman, and what a first impression. This was one of those books that I only put down once or twice from cover to cover. I think I started it on a monday and finished it by that wednesday.

When I saw that it was available here, I spent a credit on it in a heartbeat. If you like fantasy...scratch that, no hobbits or goblins here, if you like old school mythology, think Edith Hamilton, you will love this modernization.

The narration was average, shined a lot in some places, but nothing amazing. Guidall does much better in the later books of King's Dark Tower series than he does here.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful:
Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0Rating 4.0 "Nice piece of writing"
By: Joshua (USA)
July 13, 2009
Neil Gaiman is a fantastic story teller, and if you dig weird fantasy and tight writing, you'll dig American Gods. There are some graphic scenes of sensuality, so be forewarned if you're uncomfortable hearing an old man read that stuff to you; that said, the elderly quality to Guidall's voice doesn't detract from his solid narration. Though slow at times, he knows how tales are meant to be told when being told rather than being read by the consumer.
1 of 8 people found this review helpful:
Rating 2.0Rating 2.0Rating 2.0Rating 2.0Rating 2.0 "Bored"
By: Jennifer (Bronx, NY, USA)
June 30, 2009
I only got halfway through the audiobook because it was so boring to me. The basic concept of the story is interesting but the execution of it is a snoozer. I can see where others might have loved this book - it's likely a matter of taste. But for me it was hours of my life wasted, that I can't get back, listening to a boring audiobook hoping it'd start to get interesting at some point.
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