American Gods [TV Tie-In]

By: Neil Gaiman

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Now a STARZ® Original Series produced by FremantleMedia North America, starring Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning, and Pablo Schreiber.

Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life.

But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow's best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and a rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.

Life as Wednesday's bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined. Soon Shadow learns that the past never dies . . . and that beneath the placid surface of everyday life a storm is brewing—an epic war for the very soul of America—and that he is standing squarely in its path.

©2015 FreemantleMedia North America. All rights reserved. Artwork © Starz Entertainment, L.L.C. Starz and related services marks are the property of Starz Entertainment, L.L.C. (P)2001 HarperCollinsPublishers Inc.

Critic reviews

Hugo Award Winner, Best Novel, 2002

Nebula Award Winner, Best Novel, 2002

"Read dynamically and emotionally by George Guidall - who gives more personalities and ethnicities than one would think possible... 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)

amazing

Neil Gaiman is a masterful author and continuously turns out amazing works. I don't know if it was an error in the recording or if it was the just the style of the voice actor but there were awkward pauses throughout the audiobook. Still completely worth it to hear this amazing story.

Well written and pulling traditions together

A strange and beautiful book…. I loved the Shadow character. A pretty clever guy in the end

Unique, never boring

I was always curious about Gaiman, and when this was available on one of Audible's 2-for-1 sales I got it. I didn't really know anything about the plot. There had recently been a bunch of ads showing up for the TV show based on the novel (which I still have not watched), and that got me interested so I started it up.

The basic setup is that the gods are all real, and they walk the Earth as mostly-normal people. They're created when enough people believe in them, and they die when the last person stops believing in them. As a result, there are the "old gods" (eg Shiva, various Native American gods, a leprechaun, etc) and then there are the "new gods" (the Internet is represented by a fat kid, the railroads by a down-on-his-luck robber baron, etc), and they hate each other and threaten to go to war.

The plot centers around a human ex-con named Shadow, who gets enlisted by one of the gods as a combination chauffeur-bodyguard. After that, it's sort of a combination road story, buddy comedy, and murder mystery/thriller. It's all over the map, but it's never boring. I don't want to go into detail on the plot because there are a few twists and reveals that I thought were really well done, and actually gave me goosebumps at a couple spots. I wasn't in love with the ending of the story, I thought it could have had a better payoff, but overall I liked it quite a bit.

One of the reasons I liked it as much as I did was that the reader was one of the best I've ever heard. He did voices for every character, and each one was completely unique and consistent. So when a character from the first chapter resurfaces toward the end of the book, you instantly know who it is before the text reveals it. It's pretty impressive. There are two audio books out there for it, the one I listened to, and a full-cast version. I don't know which I would have preferred, but this one was really good.

Great take on an ancient struggle

I haven't watched the American Gods series, but I feel like I don't need to at this point. Fantastic storyline with engaging plot and memorable characters. Voice performance is great but not distracting. Wonderful purchase.

It just got better and better

Would you consider the audio edition of American Gods [TV Tie-In] to be better than the print version?

I enjoyed both the print and this audio version. I think my print version was the longer, "anniversary text", but they worked well together.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes, once it got going. There was plenty of suspense, that kept building until the very end.

What about George Guidall’s performance did you like?

I much preferred George Guidall's performance to the multi cast one. His voice drew me more easily into the story, and the narrative moved smoothly among the various characters.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Honestly,even as a Neil Gaiman fan, I found the book a bit hard to get into, and even a little off-putting for about the first half. Both excruciatingly funny, and punch in the stomach sad. Then the story sort of climbed out of the dark hole it had created, and I couldn't put it down. A very satisfying ending. By the time I got there, I loved it all.

Great narrator, author talk a real plus

Neil Gaiman never disappoints. The story had almost too many ideas, and was a little hard to follow at times, but it's a lot of fun and a real jumping off point to think about the gods of all the diverse cultures that ended up in our American melting pot. I loved the author talk at the end; I'd love to have a pint of bitter or five with Neil Gaiman, he's so charming and interesting.

Excellent

A very imaginative story with enough plot twists to keep it interesting. I had listened to the author's other book on Audible ("Anansi Boys"), and though this one lacked the humor in that book, I actually preferred it. The mixture of realism and fantasy, and the concept of parallel realities was reminicent of "The Stand", "Dr. Strange and Mr. Norrel" and "Wormwood". The author pulled it off well. The narrator was very engaging.

A Powerful, Unforgettable Novel

This book is stellar, poetic, intense, magical, engrossing, perceptive, original, imaginative, bizzare, touching, and epic in scale.

Defies classification: Part thriller, part mystery, part fantasy, part road trip, part horror, part history, part comedy and just damn fine storytelling.

I'll admit to not having listened to the audio version yet (it's still downloading), but I INHALED the book. It immediately grabbed my attention and I was whisked away to a different world. The story is by turns funny, disturbing, poignant, uplifing, and always entertaining. Full of powerful imagery, months after finishing it I still find that certain scenes or vingettes come back to me out of the blue.

This is a book that will pleasantly haunt you long after you finish it ... lingering in the recesses of your mind to reappearwhen you least expect it.

Perfect match of story maker and teller.

Not knowing who Neil Gaiman was, I immediatly suspected that the book would follow a sort of Noir theme with mythic references, but luckily it turned out to be something much, much better. The writing is this book is probably one of the best forms that I've heard or read in a very long time. Gaiman's writing has the amazing ability to be down-to-earth and yet spellbinding at the same time. His writing switches continuely from one side seeming as humourous and casual to suddenly becoming overtly graphic in an fluid transaction without destroying the pace or the imagery within the book. The real kicker though is George Guidall, and how he seems to literally bring out the personality in the multitude of characters. If you had to listen to something by either of Gaiman or Guidall, make it this book.

BRILLIANT! Like nothing else

Gaiman definately stretches your boundaries here... He doesn't pull any punches either. This story is expertly told and VERY well read, the narrator was really in tune with what the author was trying to get across and 'nailed it'! I can't say enough about this audiobook. If you can handle S.King, you'll really like this. One of my all time favorites.