Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Buenos Presagios: las buenas y ajustadas profecías de Agnes La Chalada by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman

11 reviews

bluejayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've never read anything by Neil Gaiman, so I can't speak for that, but if you like the way Terry Pratchett's books are written then you'll thoroughly enjoy this. (I also have not seen the show yet, since I was strongly advised by a friend to read the book first, but I will be watching that eventually.) 

Aziraphale the angel and Crowley the demon are a lot of fun in the way they contrast. Aziraphale is strict, fastidious, and always plays by the rules. Crowley is bold, hedonistic, and not a huge fan of rules. They're enjoyable in their own right and especially fun when they bounce off each other. 

The book also has a remarkable amount of other point-of-view characters - such as Anathema Device, a witch and the last descendant of Agnes Nutter and possessor of the only book of her prophecies (which are very accurate, if not very clear); Newton Pulsifer, who fails at most things and joins the nearly-defunct Witchhunter Army nearly by accident; and Adam, the Antichrist, who I really didn't like much at all (possibly because he was the Antichrist and not supposed to be liked, possibly because he was an 11-year-old boy in small-town England in the late 80s, which is about as far from relatable as it's possible to be from a mid-twenties nonbinary person in a medium city in America in the 2020s). 

It also contains a delightful cast of secondary characters, including the slightly batty and only other Witchhunter Army member Sargent Shadwell, the fake psychic and probably-sex-worker Madame Tracey, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and a crotchety old man who writes so many complaints to the local newspaper that they don't have room to print them all and who only shows up for one chapter but I think it's the funniest chapter in the book. 

This whole book is funny, though. In between the whole "end of the world" and "cosmic battle between good and evil" and "literal Antichrist and son of Satan" bits, you also have laugh-out-loud lines and hilarious moments where ordinary people are completely gobsmacked by supernatural things that seem very ordinary to most of our main cast. 

This review is not going to accurately encapsulate this book, because this book is a lot of things. It's a bit of a rumination on human nature, and a bit about how the Divine Plan doesn't make a lot of sense (or doesn't seem to be planned at all), and quite a lot of implications that good and evil aren't all that different when it comes down to it, but it also has flying saucers, people being in underground tunnels without really being sure why, Atlantis, rains of fish, Crowley and Aziraphale being mistaken for a gay couple, major highways actually being demonic symbols, and a lot of humor. 

This book is long (or maybe it just feels that way since almost everything that happens takes place over about 7 days). I will admit, I skimmed over several of the longer tangents and only read about half of the footnotes. But it's still quite enjoyable, and if you enjoy Terry Pratchett's works, you'll enjoy this one too. 
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