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)    

Charming mystery, romance and epic

I very much enjoyed the book; it captured me in the first few minutes, and I was sorry to finish it. Some books transport you; this is one of them; it takes you to a place that might be here and now; one hopes that it is. There is romance, mystery, and murder; the whodunit is quite good, and there are many twists and turns; a great book for a road trip.

Read other Neil Gaiman first

Reviewers have recommend that newcomers to Neil Gaiman not read American Gods first. I would agree. Not that this book might might be his best but it is definitely way out there truly defying classification or genre. The book is sacrilegious as all get out and that is fine with me but it has something to offend everyone somewhere in the book… and that's still fine with me. Just don't be turned off to the author with this as your first read of one of his books. The storytelling is just superb and again wonderfully executed by George Guidall.

I got turned off to the Wheel of Time series after about the fifth installment finding each volume pretty much followed the same formula and there was very little fresh. This is never the case with Neil Gaiman. Every book is a new surprise and it is hard to believe almost any of them are from the same author. One common denominator for sure, they are all excellent.

Don't miss this one

Unbelievaly good. I didn't think there were too many original story ideas left but the author found a new one. This is not just a rehashing of old stories as far as I can tell.

Not only is the story great, the author also has excellent style and technique. Character development and plot advancement are smooth and compelling.

The author manages to introduce dozens of characters at various points througout the story and neatly wrap them up by the end of the book. Some characters were introduced early on and not referenced again for hours and some were introduced 2/3 of the way through - yet they all managed to come to a satisfactory conclusion. Often in a book with many characters the resolution can be forced - this wasn't.


The narrator was quite good with just one thing bothering me. His dialects were not always consistent and the differentiation of characters was a little challenging for him. Sometimes it was difficult to tell which character was talking. This was the only reason I didn't rate this a five.

His overall reading was excellent though, very dramatic and hitting the right emotional buttons.

This is up there with the best of Stephen King. Not exactly like King but very broadly in the same genre. As one of the other reviewers pointed out, though - this is fantasy not Science Fiction.

An odd sidenote for audio fans...

Not so much a review of the book, but just a comment on audiobooks. George Guidall is a top notch narrator; one of the best. But his style and the style of this book made this sound EXACTLY like his narrations for Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. I kid you not; I think this one could be dropped in the middle and no one would know different.

For the record I enjoyed this book and I also enjoyed Stephen King's.

A Powerful Story and an Interesting Analysis

If you love myth, you'll love American Gods.

I think that it's a story that you really can't love, though, unless you have some background in myth, how myth works, and the basic themes that surround the stories that are as old as human speech itself.

However, any student of Joseph Campbell will be entranced by some powerful storytelling and understanding of myth.

It is also interesting to see an Englishman's take on what it means to be an American.

The story's structure is fairly exact, but you don't catch on to what Gainman is doing or how he weaves the plot for quite a long way into the book. It seems like three or four rambling tales when it really is a single saga. And perhaps, given the fact that it draws heavily on the mythology of cultures that gave us the very WORD saga, that makes good sense.

As far as the audio performance, George Guidall's vocal characterizations are all very good, but his rendition of Mr. Wednesday is absolutely masterful. I always enjoy his narrations and this is no exception.

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.

Fun with metaphysics

This is my first read of a Gaiman novel. As a huge comics fan, I am always hopeful that a writer of comics can succeed as a traditional author.

Here Gaiman not only did not let me down, but in fact superseded my expectations. The narrative is clever, and the characters are just interesting enough to allow the events to unfold in the way that they need to unfold. We know little about the Shadow character - here that is a good thing.

The best thing about the novel is that the story becomes both more exciting and plausible as it gets closer to its climax. And the epilogue is even better.

The narrator is excellent. His vocal repertoire is quite good. It is particularly strong for the female characters, such as Laura, and for the two most interesting male gods, Wednesday and Chernabog. Some of the voices are a tad cartoonish, but they seem to match Gaiman's intentions.

In summary, this is a highly enthusiastic review of a book that should not disappoint.

Not For Everyone

If you've not read/listened to anything by Neil Gaiman I recommend you don't start with this one.

This book is much darker than his other work; though perhaps bleak is a more accurate word. The pacing is also much slower and it's not a strictly linear plot. Finally, there is a lot of swearing and some rather gruesome passages, but nothing I would call obscene.

So, why did I give it four stars?
The book is full of fascinating ideas. You can read it and re-read it and find interesting new things hidden around every corner.
The depth of the characters is very satisfying. You feel that they aren't just there to further the plot, but that the plot is there to explore their depths.
The main character is, of course, one of the most interesting. "Shadow" as he is aptly named, is not so much a reluctant hero as an apathetic one. After losing everything, he no longer cares what happens to him. So he plunges down the rabbit hole. As things get crazier, he must search within himself to find if can again care about himself or anyone around him.

Good God!

I only knew Neil Gaiman from his work in The Sandman comics, and even then my knowledge was pretty limited. However, knowing the acclaim he has gotten for his work, I decided to give American Gods a read. It's weird and it's strange, but it's also very engaging. The characters and scenes came to life very easily and that could be attributed to the reading of George Guidall. He is one of the best I have heard so far and he was able to convince me that every character that I heard was very different indeed. I give the book itself a ****, but I add another * for the excellent reading. If there's one Neil Gaiman book you buy, start here.

Pleasant surprise

I'm an avid audiobook addict, the down side of this condition is that after a time all the gems have been heard and we move on to random choices hoping for the best, usually get mediocre. But this book is a gem, the narration is excellent. I was expecting little, an author famous for comics, i thought though talented beyond question, could not maintain the conhesion needed for a novel of this magnitude. But he pulls it off with grace and style, this book brings much to the table, a look at gods in a way that makes them characters, a look at the world through a slightly cracked glass. A beatiful book, i will look forward to more from "Mr. Sandman"