Awards
Winner of the 2002 Hugo Award
Synopses & Reviews
The storm was coming....
Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place.
On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose, accepts.
But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter — all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does.
Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined.
All around them a storm of epic proportions threatens to break. Soon Shadow and Wednesday will be swept up into a conflict as old as humanity itself. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought — and the prize is the very soul of America.
As unsettling as it is exhilarating, American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. Magnificently told, this work of literary magic will haunt the reader far beyond the final page.
Review
"American Gods is like a fast run downhill through a maze — both exhilarating and twisted. In it, Gaiman introduces a world where the dead past is all too alive, where gods struggle to keep a toehold on existence, and where reality's backstage is only a carousel ride away." Jane Lindskold, author of Changer
Review
"Neil Gaiman, a writer of rare perception and endless imagination...is...an American treasure." William Gibson, author of Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition
Review
"Gaiman slithers his snakily poetic way through the labyrinth of the human soul." Diana Gabaldon
Review
"American Gods is sexy, thrilling, dark, funny and poetic." Teller, of Penn and Teller
Review
"A magical modern Adventures of Huckleberry Finn this book will astonish you on ever page." Tim Powers, author of Declare
Review
"Here we have...a real emotional richness and grandeur that emerge from masterful storytelling." Peter Straub, co-author of Black House
Review
“Gaiman understands the shape of stories.” Patrick Rothfuss, www.tor.com
Review
"American Gods is like a fast run downhill through a maze -- both exhilarating and twisted." Jane Lindskold, author of Changer and
Review
“Original, engrossing, and endlessly inventive; a picaresque journey across America where the travelers are even stranger than the roadside attractions.” George R. R. Martin
Review
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Praise for Kelley Armstrong “Sexy, smart, and action-packed! Kelley Armstrong is truly one of the greats in the genre.”
—Richelle Mead, New York Times bestselling author of the Vampire Academy series
“There is never a slow moment...or a false line in Armstrong's writing.”
—Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author of Dead and Gone and other books in the Sookie Stackhouse series
"[Armstrong's] books have it all - danger, romance, mystery, and characters you care about." —News and Sentinel (West Virginia)
"Kelley Armstrong has entralled fans of her Women of the Otherworld series for a decade, using her gift for mystery, fantasy, and the creation of butt-kicking heroines." — Shelf Awareness on Spell Bound
Review
Praise for Kelley Armstrongs OMENS
“One of the best new series debuts this year! With its compelling characters and completely original set up, OMENS delivers a powerful combination of suspenseful thrills and supernatural chills. I can't wait to read more!”
-Lisa Gardner, New York Times bestselling author of Touch and Go
“Like the creepy, spooky town of Cainsville, Kelley Armstrong's OMENS lured me in. I was busy, way too busy for this book, which, through a series of surprises and sleights of hand, had me conspiring for ways to get back to the gripping story, the colorfully bizarre cast of characters, and the clever, strong, smart heroine at its center. Don't pick this book up if you have anything else to do. It will grab you by the collar and won't let you up for air until it's good and ready. And once youre done, you won't soon forget it.”
-Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of In the Blood
“Cainsville might be a nice place to visit, but I'm too creeped out to live there. Luckily, Armstrong isn't, and her dispatches from this village filled with sinister secrets are going to be keeping her readers up well into the night.”
-Linwood Barclay, #1 international bestselling author of A Tap on the Window
“Urban fantasy powerhouse Armstrong (the Otherworld series) begins the Cainsville series with a gripping thriller-paced novel featuring a young woman who learns that her wealthy parents adopted her after her biological parents were convicted of being serial killers. Mind control, gunplay, and double crosses will keep readers on edge to the last page.”
-Publishers Weekly
“Through first class writing and characters—including the town of Cainsville itself—that leap off the pages, Armstrong has penned a tale that I, for one, cant wait to see continue.”
-Suspense Magazine
Review
Praise for Kelley Armstrong “Sexy, smart, and action-packed! Kelley Armstrong is truly one of the greats in the genre.”
—Richelle Mead, New York Times bestselling author of the Vampire Academy series
“There is never a slow moment...or a false line in Armstrong's writing.”
—Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author of Dead and Gone and other books in the Sookie Stackhouse series
"[Armstrong's] books have it all - danger, romance, mystery, and characters you care about." —News and Sentinel (West Virginia)
"Kelley Armstrong has entralled fans of her Women of the Otherworld series for a decade, using her gift for mystery, fantasy, and the creation of butt-kicking heroines." — Shelf Awareness on Spell Bound
Synopsis
The Author's Preferred Text 10th Anniversary Edition of the New York Times-bestselling tour-de-force that USA Today called "a powerful, searing force that makes readers confront what is real and what is not."
It has been a decade since #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman (Sandman, Anansi Boys, The Graveyard Book) rocked the literary world with American Gods--his breathtaking tale of the war on Earth between old gods and new. For those who have yet to experience Gaiman's bestselling tour de force--a novel USA Today called "a powerful, searing force that makes readers confront what is real and what is not"--and for those eager to enter this astonishing world again, comes the Author's Preferred Text 10th Anniversary Edition. Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Bram Stoker Awards, with a special introduction by the author, this is American Gods as Neil Gaiman always meant it to be.
Freshman Common Read: Western Michigan University
--Jane Lindskold, author of Changer and
Synopsis
Destined to be a treasure for the millions of fans who made American Gods an internationally bestselling phenomenon, this beautifully designed and illustrated collectible edition of Neil Gaiman's revered masterpiece features enlightening and incisive notes throughout by award-winning annotator and editor Leslie S. Klinger.
A perennial favorite of readers worldwide, American Gods tells the story of ex-con Shadow Moon, who emerges from prison and is recruited to be bodyguard, driver, and errand boy for the enigmatic Mr. Wednesday. So begins a dark and strange road trip full of fantastical adventures and a host of eccentric characters. For, beneath the placid surface of everyday life, a storm is brewing--an epic war for the very soul of America--and Shadow is standing squarely in its path.
This annotated volume of the Author's Preferred Text features analysis from Leslie S. Klinger. His trenchant commentary identifies gods and supernatural beings, elucidates key phrases, and shows how Gaiman built his award-winning novel, giving readers unparalleled insight into the story and into Gaiman's creative process and authorial decisions. Carefully chosen illustrations complement and illuminate the narrative.
Synopsis
Since it was first published, American Gods became an instant classic. Now discover the mystery and majesty of American Gods in this beautiful reissue of the Author's Preferred Text edition. Featuring a new preface by Neil Gaiman commemorating the novel's 20th anniversary, this commemorative volume is a true celebration of a modern masterpiece.
Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the magic day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life.
But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow's best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and a rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.
Life as Wednesday's bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined--it is a job that takes him on a dark and strange road trip and introduces him to a host of eccentric characters whose fates are mysteriously intertwined with his own.
About the Author
Neil Gaiman is a New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books for adults and children, including the novels Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book; the Sandman series of graphic novels; and Make Good Art, the text of a commencement speech he delivered at Philadelphias University of the Arts.
He is the recipient of numerous literary honors, including the Locus and Hugo Awards and the Newbery and Carnegie Medals. 1.8 million people follow him on Twitter.
Born and raised in England, Neil Gaiman now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, the rock star Amanda Palmer.