Mass Market Paperback, 412 pages
English language
Published Jan. 5, 2007 by HarperTorch.
According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter—the world's only totally reliable guide to the future—the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea. . .
People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. This time though, the armies of Good and Evil really do appear to be massing. The four Bikers of the Apocalypse are hitting the road. But both the angels and demons—well, one fast-living demon and a somewhat fussy angel—would quite like the Rapture not to happen.
And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist. . .
The one set on Earth with Crowley & friends and Agnes Nutter and her prophecies. Great fun, excellent plot.
How would you feel if you were a supernatural being enjoying the XX century on Earth when Heaven and Hell decide it's time to bring on the Apocalypse? Angel Aziraphale enjoys his bookshop on Earth very much and after so many centuries of companionship he even learnt to appreciate the bon vivant demon Crowley. In this way, they are both very disappointed to learn that the Antichrist was born and that in eleven years' time the Earth will be destroyed. Since they both believe they know more about humans than their counterparts (above and below), they take it to themselves to try and stop the Armageddon. But the Antichrist seems to be missing and people, being people, are not keen on letting the Earth go just yet.
I've loved this book since the first time I read it so many years ago and it's amazing that it keeps growing on …
How would you feel if you were a supernatural being enjoying the XX century on Earth when Heaven and Hell decide it's time to bring on the Apocalypse? Angel Aziraphale enjoys his bookshop on Earth very much and after so many centuries of companionship he even learnt to appreciate the bon vivant demon Crowley. In this way, they are both very disappointed to learn that the Antichrist was born and that in eleven years' time the Earth will be destroyed. Since they both believe they know more about humans than their counterparts (above and below), they take it to themselves to try and stop the Armageddon. But the Antichrist seems to be missing and people, being people, are not keen on letting the Earth go just yet.
I've loved this book since the first time I read it so many years ago and it's amazing that it keeps growing on me. Maybe knowing the story helps to savour each paragraph more each time. The writing style is very Pratchett but the core of the story is very Gaiman - there's no way these two together could go wrong. The book is hilarious and you'll find yourself laughing out loud or trying to read passages out loud to people that have no idea of what you're talking about - it is that good. And maybe while reading this story you'll learn something about caring for our planet and humankind. Maybe.
"And there never was an apple, in Adam's opinion, that wasn't worth the trouble you got into for eating it."
I read this about 20 years ago and liked it then, so I thought I'd give it a re-read. It's nothing like I remember.
Already miss the book. It made me smile - a lot.
A fun book to read that gives a humorous spin on the "end of the world" type of story. The story starts with two supernatural characters, the angel, Aziraphale, and the demon, Crowley, meeting after Adam and Eve are evicted from the Garden of Eden. As the years past, they find they like each other and come to a gentlemen's agreement that sees them doing enough to please their respective authorities (Heaven and Hell), while keeping the peace between themselves.
But it comes to an end when Crowley find he has to deliver the anti-Christ to a devilish nunnery, where the anti-Christ is to be swapped with another baby and then raised in the ways of evil (or good) until he is ready to end the world. But things go wrong when the wrong babies were swapped (without Crowley's knowledge). Years later, just days before the end of the world …
A fun book to read that gives a humorous spin on the "end of the world" type of story. The story starts with two supernatural characters, the angel, Aziraphale, and the demon, Crowley, meeting after Adam and Eve are evicted from the Garden of Eden. As the years past, they find they like each other and come to a gentlemen's agreement that sees them doing enough to please their respective authorities (Heaven and Hell), while keeping the peace between themselves.
But it comes to an end when Crowley find he has to deliver the anti-Christ to a devilish nunnery, where the anti-Christ is to be swapped with another baby and then raised in the ways of evil (or good) until he is ready to end the world. But things go wrong when the wrong babies were swapped (without Crowley's knowledge). Years later, just days before the end of the world is due, the mistake is discovered and now both Aziraphale and Crowley desperately hunt for the real anti-Christ in the hope of stopping him, for both have grown rather fond of the world as it is and there is no telling what an anti-Christ that wasn't 'raised properly' might do.
While that is happening, other supernatural events being to take place. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse begin to gather (with one being humorously replaced by another due to an advancement by mankind). A strange book, "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch" is lost and found and shown, unlike other books filled with prophecies, to be actually able to predict the future: only as viewed by a witch from the past, so the descriptions of future events are rather unusual. It is also rather disorganized.
So things come to a climax when the anti-Christ gets revealed and all the characters converge on a nice little spot in England in order to ensure or prevent the end of the world from happening.
Written by two authors well known from their supernatural and humorous fiction, this is a fun book to read, filled with interesting characters and situations that should get quite a few chuckles out of the reader.
I enjoyed the premise. Gaiman's themes (what happens when the supernatural interacts with our world in almost a commonplace way) and Pratchet's humor were both compelling and made me want to read more of both authors. I felt the premise and set-up were stronger than the ending. I just wanted more of the angel and demon enjoying each other's company.
I liked most of this. The characters are engaging, the angel and demon are fantastic, the plot is pretty well paced, and most of the humor is spot on. However, it has threads of homophobia wound throughout the book, despite the character in question canonically being "sexless". A lot of the homophobic jokes are made by characters we're meant to dislike, but it disrupted my enjoyment of an otherwise great story.
If you're looking to the book to see if you'd like the show, the homophobia and pacing issues are some of the things that the show fixed, and I recommend you just watch that instead of trying to read the original material.
I was a little surprised by this one. Maybe I’m not the right target audience but I found it all just a tiny bit too whimsical for me. I still thoroughly enjoyed it though, just not 5 stars enjoyed it
An enjoyable, though now a bit dated, romp through good and evil, with a sound landing on "it's complicated"
Great cast. The dramatization and what exactly was happening got a bit blurry around the edges at certain parts, but overall, a decent bit of audio.
Zachęcony serialem w serwisie Amazon Prime postanowiłem, że w pierwszej kolejności przeczytam książkę, aby później porównać ją z ekranizacją. Z wielkim entuzjazmem podszedłem do lektury i niestety ... zawiodłem się na całej linii
4.5 Really hard to choose betwen that and 4.25. On the one hand it's a great book, but on the other hand some of the scenes really haven't aged well (especially War in southern countries) and the pacing is quite sub-optimal in the first half. Also what's up with all the weird anti-Welsh prejudice? Still a great book and I really like the authors' stressing of human agency. Oh and definitely more fun in the original than in the rather lackluster German translation. They even changed Newton's name.
A cult classic for a reason.
супер! просто супер: пратчетів гумор, гейманів сюжет і бомбезна постановка з англійськими акторами — смакота, і хочеться більше! p.s. рекомендую спершу прочитати саму книжку — зайде легше.
There were a couple of patches towards the end where it got a bit... preachy... which was odd from two such brilliant and subtle authors. Otherwise as brilliant as one would expect of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
