Rich and tasty...with nary a hint of cheese...

Neil Gaiman first popped into my brain when I hunted my way through the outstanding, revolutionary Sandman series from DC. After reading the eleven volumes (plus a couple more from Death and the rest of the Endless), I set the man aside knowing that someday I'd probably get around to Coraline but not knowing of much else by Gaiman.

I was frustrated, then, when I picked up American Gods on cassette from the West Chester library a while back, got engrossed in the first tape but had to return the book when the second tape was thoroughly unlistenable. Waiting a while for others to return the copy for PLCH, I finally got around to going all the way through the book, and I couldn't have been more pleased.

The basic storyline is of Shadow, a pretty good guy who got caught in a bad deal gone wrong, just getting out of jail with the feeling that a storm was brewing in the air. Things get bad, turn strange, and get worse for Shadow, and he meets some fascinating characters - Mr. Wednesday, a leprechaun, and gods from every imaginable pantheon from Egypt to Eastern Europe, Native American to South American, Australian to prehistoric. There is trouble afoot as the newer gods - Media, Internet, Spook Show - are threatening to wage war against the old gods for primacy in the American belief system, and Shadow finds himself in the middle of the coming battle, not knwoing his exact place in the deal but knowing that more and more are coming to him wanting to have his help or his head.

Throughout the book, Gaiman reveals things at a wonderful pace, allowing us to guess the secrets of the characters just before or just as he reveals them. He crafts a truly sympathetic but far from helpless figure in Shadow and allows us to invest in him emotionally as we see him trying to do the right thing but being thwarted and mystefied at nearly every turn.

By the end of the tale, Shadow has found himself to be a bit player and the axel around which the entire story turns, both at the same time. He turns out to be nothing but a red herring while being the absolute hero of the tale, and it turns out that Gaiman has been dropping us hints all along.

Gaiman is a master at his trade and is one of the finer authors working today.

I'm looking forward to Mirrormask - also from Gaiman - this fall...