Gods Behaving Badly

My first thought when I started to listen to this book was that the author deserved at least 3 stars for coming up with the idea of the old Greek Gods alive and living, if not well, in London. The reader does an excellent job and I thought it was one of the more delightful books I have listened to in a while. Perhaps not as good as "A Dirty Job" but the first half was funny enough to have me laughing out loud as I listened.

The second half was more serious, but a change was probably needed to get the characters out of the situations they were in after the first half.

All in all I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to listen to something light and who is willing to suspend belief enough to consider a world where one Greek god has become a Christian and where others act as a collection of spolied children. I thought it was great.

Nothing deep, nothing earth-shattering, just plain enjoyable. I listened to this one straight through, many times laughing-out-loud to the dismay of my co-workers. If you like Robert Asprin, Spider Robinson or Terry Pratchett you will like this book.

It's a new twist on an old story! Reminded me a little of wicked. The narrator was very entertaining. I especially liked that the gods didn't act very god-like. All of their gifts and talents had turned into burdens!

Great use of the Greek gods in a fun, fun story. Neil and Alice are well-drawn characters with a great sense of love and friendship. Narrator is excellent, voicing each of the gods with their unique personality and delivering a real sense of restraint and decorum to Alice and Neil. Loved it.

The author does a great job of placing the Roman pantheon of gods in contemporary London. Because their power is derived from the belief of humans they are reduced to sharing a decaying house in a once nice suburb. Stripped of powe and therefore reduced to their basic and base characters, these gods are not people we ordinary humans would want as neighbors. To the authors credit the humans in her story do their best to avoid them, in spite of the fact they retain their outward beauty. But these characters, iincluding the passive humans they use, and I mean literally use, are so anoying that I regreted allowing them into my head. Terry Pratchett uses the theme of empowering gods through belief with much more elegance and humor. His human characters are not pwoerful, but see what is there, and would not dream of inviting such dreary gods as these into their homes. There are humorous bright spots, Athena reduced from the goddess of widsdom trying to communicate by means of a meeting, complete with reports, jargon, and politely blank listeners is funny. I love fantasy, but his one is too realistic in its unattractive characters and not realistic enough or at least not ogical in its conclusion. People can exercise resonsibility in what we empower with belief, and what we read ad hear.

The story is a superb cant on the daily activities Roman Gods and their effect on the human populous. I have listened to this story about five times since I bought it and still immensely enjoy it every time.

Marie Phillips puts together a superb story of bitter Gods who have fallen on hard times, and how the arrival of a simple housekeeper creates a butterfly effect that literally encompasses Heaven to Hell. To top off the mayhem, the housekeepers newly found boyfriend uncovers some disturbing information about these Gods and steps up to try and help rectify all.

Rosalyn Landor performs a myriad of distinct voices that brings the characters' persona from black and white into technicolor. Super job.

This was a fun listen. Although, I am a built in audience with a love for a Greek/Roman deities of yore. I was a little disappointed by the lack of a real interesting ending, but all in all it was good fun.

There are worse ways to spend a few hours. It beats watching TV at least.