Reaping By Numbers: A Dead-End Job by Nicole Givens Kurtz; Fun and Interesting Take on The Grim Reaper

 Reaping By Numbers: A Dead-End Job by Nicole Givens Kurtz; Fun and Interesting Take on The Grim Reaper 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Nicole Givens Kurtz knows how to write mysteries set in unique settings or populated with unique characters. Her novel, Glitches and Stitches is set in the future where AI is so omnipresent that people have a hard time separating the orga from the mecha which complicates a murder investigation. Kill Three Birds is a murder mystery set in a world of anthropomorphic birds. Her latest Reaping By Numbers also has an interesting premise in which a murder is investigated by none other than the Grim Reaper, well a Grim Reaper anyway.

Note, I said a Grim Reaper, as in plural more than one. Kurtz’s take on Reapers is that it is a job like any other. They are mostly human but are led by demons who work for the original Grim Reaper, also known as G. They don't kill people or cause them to die so much as they are there at the point of death and escort them in the transition between life and lifelessness. 

Patrice Williams is one such Reaper. Her reaping skills come naturally because they are inherited from her father who was an excellent Reaper in his day. Her latest assignment puts her right in the middle of a murder investigation, a turf war between various demonic factions, a meddlesome angel, and demonic possession. Patrice has to use all of her skills particularly when her own family is involved, especially her niece, Brianna, whose body inadvertently becomes the vessel of a very angry and violent demon.

In a strange way, Reaping By Numbers is the complete opposite of my previous book, Secrets at The Aviary Inn by Maryann Clarke. Secrets explores an ordinary conflict of a woman researching her family history but gives it some enchanting touches in setting and character that almost makes it seem like a Contemporary Fantasy. Reaping By Numbers takes an otherworldly fantastic situation of reapers guiding people after death and finds a dark humor by exploring the ordinary mundanity of the situation. 

Patrice clocks in and out like everyone else, does her shift, takes her breaks, deals with co-workers and supervisors, some encouraging and others obnoxious, collects her earnings, and goes home. Okay she's dealing with the recently deceased but so do morgue attendants and funeral home workers. What's so strange about that? Alright, her bosses are demons that emerged from the darkest pits of Hell but aren't all of our bosses? Yes, she has to face some very unpleasant encounters with dark magic, soul sucking spirits, wrathful ghosts, and avenging angels but no job is perfect. The benefits are great, particularly when you are alive to enjoy them. 

The way that her family is portrayed is that of a loving supportive foundation but are divided on various issues. Patrice's father is proud that his daughter is following in his footsteps. He is very encouraging as they talk shop though he also sternly warns her about some of the more dangerous aspects of the job. 

Not all of her family is supportive, particularly her religious mother and intrusive sister. Her mother is concerned that her daughter is consorting with demons. Her sister is trying to live a normal life with her pastor husband and children and feels that Patrice's profession could bring unwanted trouble within their family circle. Her worst fears come true when her daughter is possessed by demons.

Brianna's possession is a central plot point in this book. Kurtz conveys the anguish and fear that her family has, particularly Patrice who has to actively remove the demon while dealing with her own guilt and uncertainty about her chosen path. Patrice's dialogue with Brianna is the strongest emotional core especially when the young girl shows some potential to be a Reaper herself. 

Reaping By Numbers conveys a lot of dark humor but a lot of emotions in this book about a woman who considers hanging out with the dead as just another day at work.

American Odyssey The Devil's Hand by B.F. Hess; Gripping Modern Day Faustian Supernatural Horror ..Or Is It?

 American Odyssey The Devil's Hand by B.F. Hess; Gripping Modern Day Faustian Supernatural Horror ..Or Is It?

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I guess there's no time like the present to read a modern day adaptation of the Faust story like B.F. Hess’ American Odyssey: The Devil's Hand. It has many of the usual tropes found in the adaptations: cocky ambitious protagonist, creepy and charming demonic figure, deal with the devil, naive troubled love interest, many good times of untold wealth and fame, terrifying supernatural moments, and the climax when it all goes horribly wrong and the devil comes to collect. What makes American Odyssey different is the blurred lines between fantasy and reality, sanity and madness, delusion and truth. 

Uriel Jacob Sullinger, the latest patient at the Clay County Home for the Mentally Ill, has an interesting story to tell his psychiatrist, Dr. Kessler. Jacob was once a rich, powerful, influential lawyer. During a case, Jacob receives an unusual offer from a friend to strike a deal with a M. Diabolus. When Jacob meets Diabolus, he can't help but notice that there is something mesmerizing but sinister about him. Dare we even say potentially demonic? 

American Odyssey is an interesting send up to the Faustian Legend. The modernized touches make the legend relevant and relatable to Readers. Instead of a demonic figure magically popping in and out from nowhere, Diabolus is dressed in fine tailored suits and has clandestine meetings in penthouses and limos. Instead of signing contracts written in blood, Diabolus like most businessmen rely on third parties and legal loopholes to get his souls.

It's similar to the movie, The Devil's Advocate which also depicts Satan (played by a deliciously diabolical Al Pacino) as a modern day businessman who uses the contemporary world to his advantage. 

There are some other touches that build on familiar tropes. Jacob was raised by an eccentric great uncle, who had a very loose definition of what is considered legal, and served as Jacob’s Wise Old Mentor. There's Fran, a married older woman who is ruined by her association with Jacob. There's Angelica, a sweet restaurateur who helps Jacob when he hits rock bottom and takes him to get the resources that he needs. Her name and personality might not be the only things angelic about her. Jacob is tormented by nightmares and visions of demons, fire, and torture that cause him to question his sanity and require medication to control.

Speaking of questions of sanity and requiring medication, there is another subtle more subversive element to this book that makes it more than a postmodern “Deal with the Devil.” There's an ongoing theme of mental health and the decline of it. The novel begins in a psychiatric hospital and Jacob recounts his story to his psychiatrist. Jacob spends the first few chapters detailing his upbringing by his great uncle and there are definite signs of inherited mental illness. Kessler even admits that he considers Jacob's great uncle a friend because of their time as philanthropist and beneficiary but also as doctor and patient. There are also revelations towards the end that Jacob is the latest in a long line of family members that have had psychological disorders and let's just say did not express them in the healthiest of ways. 

This background information casts the Reader in the role of a dubious skeptic wondering how much of the book is true in a literal sense, a figurative sense, or just a series of visual and auditory hallucinations. This question is never answered and leaves room for alternative possibilities and theories. 

Looking at his story from a more detached analytical perspective, it's possible that this is not the adventures of a man making a deal with the devil but the story of a man who is fighting a losing battle against his own sanity. His nightmares may not be supernatural but hallucinations. Seeing religious significance in real people like Diabolus and Angelica could be symptoms of paranoid delusions and they are neither diabolical nor divine messengers. His biggest battle might not be good vs. evil but instead madness vs. sanity.

If he's not damned by Satan, then Jacob is damned by his own mind. One can confront the Prince of Darkness, but can they ever really confront the darkness within themselves if they don't recognize it?

Demons Also Dream: Summoned (Deadly Sins Book 1) by Ava Lock; Meta Dark Fantasy/Horror is Also an Effective How To Writer’s Guide

 Demons Also Dream: Summoned (Deadly Sins Book 1) by Ava Lock; Meta Dark Fantasy/Horror is Also an Effective How To Writer’s Guide

By Julie Sara Porter

Spoilers: Ava Lock’s Demons Also Dream: Summoned is not the first time that I have reviewed a How to Writer’s Guide disguised as a novel. That honor would go to D-L Nelson’s Lexington: Anatomy of a Novel which features author Nelson’s Historical Fiction novel about a British soldier during the Revolutionary War while giving us the process in which she created, researched, wrote, and edited said novel. Technically, Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series flirts with that concept as well, especially in the books, First Among Sequels and One of Our Thursdays Are Missing when Thursday’s adventures are put in book form and she has to contend with an even more fictionalized version of herself. Jen Finelli's Becoming Hero gives us a graphic novel in which characters argue with each other and the authors about the directions in which the graphic novel is going. 

But Lock’s book Demons Also Dream, takes that step even further. She wrote an effective sharp witty satirical Fantasy but also offers advice how a Dark Fantasy novel should or shouldn’t be written by having the protagonists talk and argue about it during the action. 

Our Literary Deadpools are Jocelyn B. “Joss” Wild, best selling Horror and Fantasy author, and Azazel, AKA Fury, a demonic genie, former lover of Lucifer, and Joss’s muse. Joss shares a psychic connection with Fury and Hell’s denizens so she can see what’s going on down there and this in turn gives her inspiration for her works. Joss however wants to write her final Fury novel and move onto other works. This does not sit well with her favorite subject as Fury questions Joss’ novel and what this untimely end would mean. While this is going on, Fury bids to collect a bounty on Roger Ford Garrison, the escaped soul of a news anchor who in life kidnapped, tortured, and murdered members of the LGBT+ community. Joss encounters April S. Showers, a fan and aspiring author who is not exactly the picture of perfect sanity. 

Demons Also Dream is a Hell of a fun time, particularly because of its two leads. Joss is a cerebral sardonic character who probably would have preferred to experience Hell, demons, psychopaths, and psychic energy through the pages of the books that she writes. She would rather be an author of best selling novels and go to the bar to cruise for an attractive woman to sleep with. What she gets instead is Fury, an aggressive sexually charged denizen of Hell who lives up to her name. She reacts with passion and fury inspiring Joss with her experiences and her energy. It's a difficult life one of demonic encounters , kidnappings, torture, and frightening psychic visions but Joss endures it, reports on it, and even makes money off of it. The two bounce off each other really well in these insane situations in which they find themselves. 

The book is ripe with deliciously juicy bits that add to the overall tone of the story. Lucifer is described as looking and sounding like George Clooney. Roger works for, what else, Fox News. Hell is less a place of torture than a place of ineffective bureaucracy. When April holds Joss captive she submits her to the worst torture imagined: she makes her read her unfinished sappy Princess Fantasy novel! This book is a hilarious and savage delight.

The best parts are the meta commentary which reveals that this is a smart novel about how to write a Dark Fantasy novel. Characters call attention to various plot points that happen particularly Fury. It's one thing to kill off a lead character as Joss was planning to do in her novel. But when said lead character sits up and argues with you about it is something else entirely. It's particularly good when in the end Joss changes the name of her intended book from Demons Also Die to Demons Also Dream implying that the book that we just read is the one that she wrote. It makes one wonder how Lock’s actual creative process went in putting together her book.

The most brilliant and savage commentary is when Joss reads April's manuscript which, let's just say, makes the Vogons from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The Mentor’s William Lansing look like misunderstood literary geniuses. Rather than outright attack the banal work, Joss gives her captor smart advice. She tells her to make her Mary Sue protagonist more real by giving her flaws. Put her into a conflict that raises the stakes and changes her outlook. Happy endings are fine but make them well earned by having her struggle. This is all good advice that any author needs to hear and the fact that it is written inside a novel that plays with and illustrates these conversations is really telling

 Demons Also Dream: Summoned is an amazing and effective Master Class on writing a novel that is Trojan Horse disguised as a fun and exciting novel.

New Book Alert: Eliana Who Sees Us by Amani Jesu; Creepy Demonic Religious Horror

 

New Book Alert: Eliana Who Sees Us by Amani Jesu; Creepy But Spiritual Demonic Religious Horror

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: It would make sense that I would review yet another religious themed book around Christmas. Eliana Who Sees Us by Amani Jesu is a religious horror, which has a bit more emphasis on the horror but also focuses on the spiritual aspects as well.

Eliana is a photographer who just had an awful Thanksgiving in which she broke up with her boyfriend and had a severe argument with her mother. She is about to endure her job on Black Friday of taking pictures of kids with Santa and the occasional family portrait when she sees something unusual. She sees demons clinging to people's bodies. One dangles on a woman's throat. Another holds a man's hand. One man is eerily covered with demons that hang off his back and torso. Even her best friend and roommate, Mariah has one that hangs on her breasts.

There are some very creepy eerie moments that occur because of Eliana's newly discovered second sight. No one else can see the demons, so Eliana explores the possibility that it is a hallucination, possibly a sign of a mental illness. The other terrifying aspect is that she just develops the sight during a regular day at work. Nothing foretells it, no Divine light, no voice from beyond. Not even any earthly signs of a migraine or seizure. (Though a seizure occurs after she sees them). They just are there.

The premise is one of those plots that border on whether what they are experiencing is real or a product of insanity. The book straddles that line between what is real and what isn't. After all, if you can't trust what you see and hear, what or who can you trust?

This confusion and lack of trust can be found in the people that do believe her: her friend, Mariah, a young man, Shay and his close friends, and an author and religious scholar, Jon Addison. When something incredible happens, a person could have loyal friends and supporters, but they could just as easily have people that want to exploit and use them for their own personal gain. Eliana's new abilities give her enormous power to see what troubles others but it also leaves her vulnerable to other's greed and religious myopia.

There is a strong religious undercurrent of relying on faith and that perhaps Eliana's abilities are a gift to help others. Jesu shows this in some of the scariest passages when Eliana is confronted with demonic possession and human avarice in one fateful confrontation. 

Weekly Reader: The Prophecy Has Begun: Donum by Alexandra Lane; Suspenseful and Fantastic Faith Based Dark Supernatural Fantasy (and My Views on Faith Based and Conservative Literature)

 

Weekly Reader: The Prophecy Has Begun: Donum by Alexandra Lane; Suspenseful and Fantastic Faith Based Dark Supernatural Fantasy (and My Views on Faith Based and Conservative Literature)

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: This is the second of four Faith Based works that I am doing closely together so I feel that I must make a true confession.

I am not a Christian, regular Readers of my blog know that. But it is worth repeating. 

I grew up in a Christian household and was figuratively beaten over the head with scare tactics about Hell, The Rapture, The Last Days, and "You must be saved or suffer the consequences of burning in the Lake of Fire."

 I was a kid who already had Depression and Anxiety. I was undiagnosed until my first year of college. The religious threats only made my fears worse and I often suffered untold psychological stress including nightmares, trauma, crying jags, mood swings, and other negative emotions over whether I was saved or "saved enough." I replaced what I was told was God's love with God's Judgement.

As if the fear factor wasn't enough, by the time I reached high school, I developed some very strong political opinions which were very different from what I was being indoctrinated with from the pulpit. The views I heard were often racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and were forceful towards who "Good Christians" were supposed to vote for, much of it was espoused by people that my family knew for years. (This was during the '90's when religion and politics were becoming intertwined only to tighten ever further.) 

When I entered college, I realized that since I no longer lived with my parents, then I needed to find a spiritual/philosophical path that was more in line with what I believed and made me feel accepted and welcomed. I realized that I no longer wanted to be a part of a religion that speaks more of judgement and exclusion rather than acceptance and understanding, that has to guilt trip, scare, proselytize, or browbeat a person into joining. In 2002, I became and still remain a Solitary Wiccan. 

Now where does this leave the books that I read and review,

you may ask. Well, I consider myself open minded and accepting of many paths. The various myths and legends share many common tropes, themes, names, and characters and parallel many scientific occurrences so much that they are all telling the same stories. They just use different words to describe them. If you accept me and others then I have no problems with you. 

I am an avid reader of History and certainly understand that religion definitely has its place in history, for good and bad. Many schisms, debates, and wars were and still are fought over different religions, many times the same religion but different denominations. Many people used religion as a standard for their society's rules and regulations or at least allowed their people to have freedom of and from religion. So of course, religion has its place in Historical Fiction and Nonfiction.

For modern times, that can vary depending on book, author, and intent. I find that I can enjoy a religious book if it is well written. I have reviewed a few for this blog including An Elegant Facade by Kristi Ann Hunter, Amora by Grant Halloran, Unraveled and Made Whole Again by Deanna Wood Priddy, and most recently The Book of Uriel by Elyse Hoffman. If a book is well written from a storytelling point of view and a character is fully focused without just being a mouthpiece for the author to insert their religious or political views. If they aren't seen as this perfect model of paragon and virtue because they accepted their faith and all the liberal or disagreeing characters aren't cardboard, then I will read the book. I may even like it, even if the author and I have very different views. 

However, the religious books and works that I don't like are the ones that try to force a conversion out of the Reader. If the character converts after a hard life and this is seen as an individual choice, then that's fine. However, if  every character is either practically forced to convert or become a one dimensional villain shilling for the evil "Atheist/Pagan/Other Religion" antagonists then that is just poor writing. If the author then ends the book by turning their words to the Reader and orders them that they must be saved too or suffer God's wrath, then I'm sorry. I will hate it. Works like that include Jack Chick Tracts, Pure Flix films, or the Left Behind Series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

For one thing, the author doesn't trust the Reader to make their own connection so it treats them like they're stupid. For another thing, that religion may have worked for the creator but like it or not, it may not work for everyone else. People do not need to be indoctrinated to make decisions. They are smart enough and should be allowed to find their own path in life without someone forcing them down their road.

The other reason is more personal. It takes me back to that anxious and depressed young woman who was constantly being scared and verbally chastised by adults who seemed to care more about injecting fear and judgement into their young listeners,viewers, or readers than whether their tactics were actually working. (News flash: They didn't and still don't.) I'm sure that I'm not the only one who feels that way. 

On a similar note, since religion and politics are so interconnected these days, I am going to mention one more thing. There are certain recent Conservative political books, not just nonfiction but novels, and even children's books, that promote certain views that I absolutely cannot and will not condone and refuse to review. I won't even name them in this review so they don't get any more publicity than they already have. Regular Readers of this blog and my social media accounts like Facebook know what those titles are or can take a good guess.

 Call me "woke," a "snowflake," or whatever the latest name is which has no real meaning except to show that rhetoric hasn't changed beyond schoolyard taunting that you want. I know what I believe and where I stand. To be truthful, I don't think that I could in good conscience give  a fair, unbalanced, and unbiased review. Normally, I try and say "This book is not for me but Readers who like this type of thing will….." But  I draw the line somewhere. 

You may ask me and I might read it. (Don't worry, I don't charge until after the review airs). But now that you know who I am, what I believe, and how I feel, it's on you whether to ask me for a review. There are other bloggers and reviewers that might be more inclined towards that perspective and you are free to check them out. I am just letting you know.

Okay now that confession is over. On with the review.

As I mentioned before, if a religious book is well written with good characters and is the type that can genuinely be read by more than just the choir in which the author preaches, then it actually is a good experience. Thankfully, Alexandra Lane's The Prophecy Has Begun: Donum is that type of book. 

You might wish to think of it as Left Behind: The Correction. In everything that the LaHaye and Jenkins' Best Selling Millennialist Tribulation period series failed at, Lane excels. Like them, she writes a Supernatural Dark Fantasy about the end of days from a Biblical perspective. She hits the high points that these types of works often include: natural disasters, angels, demons, a sinister charismatic figure who has a direct line to Hell (not Michigan) AKA The Antichrist, divine miracles, Biblical prophecy, The Mark of the Beast the whole bit. The type of stuff Readers of the Book of Revelation watch and repeatedly debate on. 

However, Lane makes it a decent well written book with interesting characters, genuine suspense, and adds other touches to these works that focus more on friendship and human compassion rather than fire and brimstone.

In Capers, North Carolina, Noigel Braddock,a new Tech CEO, has moved in. He is handsome, charming, charismatic, but there is something….off about him. Local pastor, Frank Wright feels this as a distinct chill fills him whenever he sees the man or his tinted black car. The realtor, Allison Kennedy feels this when he asks if his new neighbors, Drs. Charles and Katy Leonardis have had their baby…yet. 

Okay the Leonardis are public figures. Charles is a medical researcher on diabetes and Katy is a well respected psychologist. Allison reasons that Braddock might know about them.

But their fertility problems are hardly a matter of public record and why is this his business anyway? The CEO's hypnotic stare with solid black eyes that emit pure evil are enough to freeze Allison in her tracks, but a good sales commission steadies her hand. She sells the house feeling vaguely like she made a deal with the Devil, before she gets the Hell (pun not intended) out of town.

Meanwhile, true to Braddock's question, Katy Leonardis learns that after over a decade of trying, she is pregnant. She gives birth to a son named Charles Leonardis Jr. However, he is an unusual boy to say the least. After he is born, his parents are stricken by his strange teal colored eyes that seem intuitive and wise, like he can see right through anyone who is looking at him. Because of his strange eye color, he is nicknamed Teal. As Teal grows, many strange things happen around him. He talks to an angel that only he can see. When he is still a child, a sick little girl touches him and is miraculously healed. Other people such as  a terminally ill woman are also healed by his touch. Others see Teal in their dreams and call him "Donum dei," Gift from God.

On the other end of the spectrum, strange bad things seem to happen around Braddock. His girlfriend, Chris leaves her husband and daughter and is reduced to an anorexic abused alcoholic mess for years. A local pharmacist who invests in Braddock's company fills his sadistic urges by molesting and killing young girls. In fact, crime goes up in Capers with several murders, domestic violence reports, and missing family members reported, all by people associated with Braddock.

It becomes clear that Teal Leonardis and Noigel Braddock are on opposite sides of the struggle between good and evil. Soon these two polar opposites will have to use all of their abilities, human and supernatural, to face each other in a final showdown.

What makes this book stand out is Teal himself. He has great awesome powers and is a selfless kid slowly becoming aware of his role in this supernatural war. However, he is also a regular kid. He argues and disagrees with his parents. One of the more dramatic confrontations between parents and child occurs after the illness of the family dog. Teal argues with his mom and dad, refuses to accept the dog's inevitable death (Teal can heal but can't bring the dead back to life), and refuses for a time to bond with the new pup that they later get.

Teal also grows into a typical adolescent with typical adolescent friends and interests. He and his best friends James, I.Q., and Stilts hang out and talk about-what else will hormonal heterosexual teen boys talk about but-girls. They also protect Teal from the dangers around him.

 Also, Teal goes through two major relationships in the book. Unfortunately, he does not break cleanly with Carry, Chris's unstable daughter, to date James's sister, Bree. James behaves like a teenager acting on impulse and does not think about the consequences.

There are some strong spiritual passages spread throughout the book that are pretty suspenseful. One is when Braddock sends a legion of demons through Capers to hunt and kill everyone around. Teal orders the residents to go in their houses, lock the doors, and don't even look outside through the windows. The few that do suffer gruesome fates.

 It's true sometimes what you don't see is as terrifying as what you do. Most of the night, Caper's residents are treated to hoofsteps climbing over roofs, glowing eyes peering inside the windows like searchlights, and the tortured screams of those who were unfortunate enough to be caught outside.

What is particularly nice about the book is that even though the book is very Christian based, there is no over emphasis on doctrine. No one gets "saved" and they don't discuss punishment in Hell. It's clearly the Revelation inspired version of the end of the world but it is written like a situation you would find in secular horror films like The Exorcist or The Omen.

In fact, the Christian characters are not concerned with beating other characters and Readers over the head with the religious talk of salvation. Instead, they let their actions do the talking.

 Katy's sister, Marlene had a troubled past in which someone helped her get clean. She does the same for another character that changes them for the better.

Another time, Teal and his friends help a family during a natural disaster. The Christian characters are the type that you wish would exist in real life, buy don't always: Kind, giving, and committed to helping all people, even those not in their religious spectrum, not preaching to, shunning, and excluding them. 

The Prophecy Has Begun: Donum may be based on Christian literature but there is enough in there for any Reader.

Classics Corner: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman; A Brilliant Pythonesque Send Up About Biblical Prophecy and The End of the World

Classics Corner: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman; A Brilliant Pythonesque Send Up About Biblical Prophecy and The End of the World

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I grew up in a Christian household so I had a very tense childhood filled with nightmares and fear about Satan, Hell, the Rapture, and the Book of Revelation. Those thoughts made me uncomfortable and I dreaded going to church. Many times I worried whether I was “saved” enough and lost a lot of sleep over the years. As I grew older and became a Wiccan, I realized that I didn't agree with that idea of spirituality. If a religion has to guilt trip or scare me into joining, then in my mind, it was not a religion worth having.

I think that's why Good Omens resonates so well with me. It takes many of those Book of Revelation fears and made a comedy out of them. It is sort of like what would happen if The Monty Python guys wrote The Omen or The Left Behind series. Terry Pratchett, late author of the Discworld series and Neil Gaiman, before he became the literary giant we know today, took those concepts found in Biblical prophecy like the Anti-Christ, the End Times, Armageddon and the rest and made them better and funnier.

This send up of Biblical prophecy begins with Crowley, a demon who did not fall from Heaven but just “fell in with a wrong crowd” and Aziraphale, an angel who wants to follow God's ineffable plan no matter how arbitrary it seems. The duo have been on Earth longer than they have been in Heaven or Hell. They have even worked out an Arrangement (in capital letters) where Crawley tempts one person while Aziraphale guides another. Crowley takes one region in England while Aziraphale works another. They don't interfere in each other's transactions, their Bosses get their souls, and everything is hunky dory. That is until Crowley's Hellacious colleagues, Hastur and Ligur show him a certain screaming baby delivered up from the bounds of Hell and he is ordered to take him to the hospital in Tadfield. The baby is the Antichrist and the End definitely is nigh.


That's a bummer for Aziraphale and Crowley because they kind of like Earth. Crowley would miss his barely lived in penthouse flat, his well kept plants, and his beloved Bentley with car phone and tape deck which turns every cassette into the Best of Queen if it has been in the deck longer than two weeks. (This book was published in 1990, one year before Freddie Mercury's death and Queen received a second life thanks to the rerelease of Bohemian Rhapsody). Aziraphale would miss his used bookshop and old antique books, the sweet little cafes where everyone knows his name, and the great classical composers. (Heaven only has two: Elgar and Liszt).

Aziraphale and Crowley make for a memorable duo and their moments together are a delight as the two bicker, agree, and talk like an old married couple leaving many Readers (such as myself) to conclude that maybe they are a couple. Crowley's cynical barbs match up with Aziraphale's idealistic naive quips making them more of a comedy team instead of beings on opposite sides of the war between God and Satan.
One of the highlights is an argument in which Crowley tries to convince Aziraphale to thwart Armageddon by reminding him that he still hasn't seen the end of Sound of Music. (“And you'll enjoy it, you really will.”) Because they will miss Earth and each other, the duo decide to take matters into their own hands or rather into their own wings and cloven hooves. They decide to watch over the baby and steer him towards good or evil.

Great idea but oh wait the baby was delivered to the wrong couple. They've been watching the wrong one and the real Anti-Christ has grown up without any angelic or demonic influence.


Besides Aziraphale and Crowley, Good Omens has some other great situations and characters. There is Agnes Nutter, a 17th century witch whose prophecies are spot on much to detriment of her descendant, Anathema Device and her new boyfriend, Newton Pulcifer who happens to be the descendant of the Witch Hunter who executed Agnes.

There are the Horse Persons of the Apocalypse now taking advantage of modern era. War is an arms dealer turned war correspondent. Famine writes diet books which promote not eating and also creates a series of frozen foods with no nutritional or edible value whatsoever. Pestilence is out for the count because of penicillin and antibiotics, so he is replaced by Pollution who works on various oil tankers that mysteriously explode. Death is well, Death.
The Four Horse Persons even ditch their horses in favor of motorcycles and also get new members to their gang with names like “Things That Don't Work Properly After You Give Them a Good Thumping” and “Really Cool People.”

Then there is the Anti-Christ, Adam Young who is a cross between Tom Sawyer, Booth Tarkington's Penrod, and Anthony Freemont from the Twilight Zone episode “It's a Good Life.” He is forever getting into mischief with his friends Pepper, Wensleydale, and Brian and his dog, Dog, and doing typical kid things like playing “The British Inquisition” and “Charles Fort and the Tibetans Vs. The Aliens” based on things he read. He is able to make things happen such as causing aliens to appear and Atlantis to rise from the oceans but is unaware of the reason why until it is almost too late. (In one of the few dramatic moments, Adam understands the full scope of his powers and has to appeal to his friends to stop him.)

There are great moments sprinkled throughout the book such as the Bugger Alle This Bible which has a few extra verses transcribed by a clearly irritated typesetter. There is an order of Satanic nuns whose job it is to deliver the Antichrist only to make a mess of things when they give him to the Youngs and who one member turns their temple into a meeting place for businesspeople to work out their aggressions by playing paintball.

There is a great moment where Aziraphale crashes a religious telecast and gives some American Bible Thumpers what for about the Rapture. (“Who has time to go round picking people out and popping them up in the air to sneer at the people dying of radiation sickness on the patched and burning Earth below them?”)
Of course there is the inevitable final showdown between God, the Devil, and Our Heroes in which they try to convince them that the World doesn't have to end.

Good Omens is a great book especially if you are familiar with the Bible and it's End Times prophecies. But even those who aren't, will love the wordplay, dialogue, farcical situations, and story in which Good and Evil don't fight so much as perform a stand up comedy act.