Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Scifi/Fantasy
Rating: Five Ninja Stars!
Description: Shadow is an ex con who, upon being released, meets the mysterious Mr. Wednesday and is whisked off into a world close to our own. Along the journey Wednesday laments to Shadow about how many of the Old Gods are being replaced by new ones and how even the new ones are being replaced by even newer ones. This is due to human attention and focus ("worship" if you will) shifting, especially in America. Something that Wednesday says about the situation is: "They made me. They forgot me. Now I take a little back from them. Isn't that fair?" (Page 275). In a way this is a cautionary tale to us all about taking care of what we have created and what happens to gods and legends when they are forgotten.
What I enjoyed the most about this book was the character development. We see how Shadow goes from ex con to confident man by the end of the story. In him the reader can find something that they can relate to and connect with. Wednesday becomes the boss that we like to be around, but is someone we can only handle in small doses. While Gaiman doesn't outright say which of the gods the different characters represent, he drops small hints and lets us guess who they might be. They are obvious, but not too obvious. The plot and the detail that is put into the story helps create a great mental picture not just for the material world, but also the immaterial that the characters visit at one point. Let yourself get lost int story and you can feel like you're there.
