In 2001, “American Gods” won the Hugo and Nebula awards as the best science-fiction novel of the year, as well as the Bram Stoker Award for best horror novel. Not a bad grab bag of honors.
The premise of the book, written by Neil Gaiman of “Sandman” fame, is genius. It pits the Old Gods of mythology – Norse, Egyptian, European, Native American, African, you-name-it – against the new “American” gods of media, technology, finance and paranoia, among others.
Shawn Ryan
The world in the book no longer needs the Old Gods, which frustrates and frightens them. The New Gods are smarmy, entitled and, honestly, a lot like us. And they don’t want to give up their status and power.
The book’s subtext hovers over the power of belief; what makes something “holy” or consecrated; and the coarsening of humanity’s belief in anything beyond what can be seen and touched.
Personally, I was disappointed in “American Gods.” I didn’t read it until several years after it was released. By that time, I had heard raving reports about it, so my expectations were high. Parts of the novel were stunningly good, but overall it seemed to me a fabulous idea that wasn’t adequately fleshed out.