American Gods

Discussion in 'TMB Book Club' started by WThrasher34, Jul 14, 2012.

  1. Teflon Queen

    Teflon Queen The mentally ill sit perfectly still
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    just picked it up...first neil gaiman book i've ever read...not really sure what i'm getting into
     
  2. Heavy Mental

    Heavy Mental non serviam
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    I read it three summers ago. Pretty entertaining, but I loved his past stuff and The Sandman's weirdness. If you like mythology, you'll love it. I probably spent about three hours on Wikipedia after finishing it researching the various myths in the book.
     
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  3. Daniel Ocean

    Daniel Ocean I only lied about being a thief
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    Read it right before the millennium trilogy. I really liked it. Going to read Anansi Boys soon.
     
  4. Cronk

    Cronk just living the dream...
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    love his stuff...Ocean at the End of the Lane was fantastic

    trigger warning was cool too if you like short stories
     
  5. colonel_forbin

    colonel_forbin Well-Known Member
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    This book really comes out swinging.
     
  6. colonel_forbin

    colonel_forbin Well-Known Member
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    Finished this up last night. I liked it a whole, whole lot. May have to start reading Sandman
     
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  7. Truman

    Truman Well-Known Member
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    I think Im going to start this tonight.
     
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  8. The Blackfish

    The Blackfish The Fish in Black
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    Have you read any other Gaiman? I really enjoy his style of writing and the atmosphere he creates. Highly recommend Ocean at the End of the Lane and Stardust. If you haven't seen the Stardust movie, its good as well. Those are the only other two Gaiman books I've read besides American Gods, but I plan on reading more soon.
     
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  9. colonel_forbin

    colonel_forbin Well-Known Member
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    No, I haven't. I'll check it out after I knock a couple other books out.

    The only thing I don't like about Gaiman's writing is how he sometimes offsets sentences with a thought/fact that makes it not read very fluidly.

    Stupid example: Colonel_forbin was eating his sandwich - it was homemade - at 11:30 today when a client called and would not shut the fuck up - she was talking about something they had already talked about - to let him finish his sandwich.
     
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  10. The Blackfish

    The Blackfish The Fish in Black
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    Never really noticed that so I guess it didn't bother me
     
  11. colonel_forbin

    colonel_forbin Well-Known Member
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    Yeah a lot of times it read just fine, but other times it kinda threw me off. I listened to a couple chapters yesterday on my way to Nashville for the Titans game and the narrator was just fine offsetting those clauses by reading it in a slightly different tone and faster so you knew it was a different fact/idea from the rest of the sentence, but when I was reading flatly and didn't know it was coming, it kinda threw me off like 2-3 times in the rest of the book. That makes no sense, but my example is pretty similar
     
  12. Gonff

    Gonff Prince of Mousethieves
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    I haven't read American Gods but I'm a big fan of Stardust. He was influenced a lot by Hope Mirlees iirc.
     
  13. Truman

    Truman Well-Known Member
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    Im about 60% through and kind of struggling to get through it.
     
  14. Truman

    Truman Well-Known Member
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    Finished. Im obviously in the minority, but I just hated it. I thought the dialogue wasnt great, and payoff wasnt all that great.

    Oh well.
     
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  15. Truman

    Truman Well-Known Member
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  16. Where Eagles Dare

    Where Eagles Dare The Specialist Show On Earth
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    It's a weird long book. I liked it.

    Not sure how this will manifest into a TV show.
     
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  17. Truman

    Truman Well-Known Member
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    I liked the premise, not the execution, tone. I think it will be a good a TV show. Good cast at least
     
  18. Iron Mickey

    Iron Mickey a guy who posted here like five years ago hates me
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    I think it's impressively done but just okay for entertainment.
     
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  19. MORBO!

    MORBO! Hello, Tiny Man. I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!!
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    I'm with you on this one. Did not enjoy and really struggled to finish.
     
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  20. Neyland

    Neyland Well-Known Member

    I started this last night and love it so far. 100 pages in.
     
  21. ukcats8

    ukcats8 smugapari
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    Just started this.16% so far. Very well written, and I'm a sucker for mythology. Interested to see where the story goes.
     
  22. Gonff

    Gonff Prince of Mousethieves
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    Just finished this. I liked it but didn't love it. I've never loved picaresque novels (Kingkiller excepting) and so I felt like it bogged down in the middle. I do really enjoy Gaiman's dialogue and I thought the mythology was cool. I preferred Anansi Boys though. I'd probably give it a 7/10
     
  23. ukcats8

    ukcats8 smugapari
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    I liked it as well, but it did get a bit stale in parts. Was my first Neil Gaman, and was blown away by the dialogue and the short stories inserted. Thought it could have been better, and expected more after the constant buildup of tension throughout. I honestly enjoyed the town of Lakeside story arc more than the main arc. Had a Twin Peaks feel.
     
  24. Fusiontegra

    Fusiontegra My life is dope and I do dope shit.#SparedByThanos
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    Finished it last night sitting at the hotel bar.

    After having spent a few months reading the HP series, this was a nice change of pace. I loved Shadow's evolution and the reveals, while not grand, were cleverly done throughout.

    There's a metric fuckton of symbology throughout the book and it would be a really great book to do a real, sitdown, discuss-multiple-chapters-at-a-time, book club on because there's all sorts of meaning to be pulled out of things.

    If you read it in ebook format, the little blurbs from his blog during editing were pretty cool, too. Enjoyed his take on that process.

    8/10

    Might have to pick up on the show now.
     
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