My Books of the Year - II : American Gods - Neil Gaiman

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Neil Gaiman's work has covered graphic novels, film, novels and TV, most people will be aware of the film Stardust which started out life as a graphic novel story of his. When I saw that American Gods was going to be made into a Netflix series I thought that I should read the book first. Set in a sideways view of modern America it is centred around the idea that the power of the old gods that settlers from Scandinavia to Russian to Africa brought with them to the country has faded as people begin to worship technology and those old deities have become drifters and hustlers on the forgotten streets of modern cities. If they are to survive at all they must work together to defeat the new gods of media and technology in one final showdown. It's a long read but a great one. I also watched the first series of American Gods (which covers about 1/4 of the story) which is as dark, deep and brutal as the book suggest and am eagerly awaiting the second series which is currently in production. Highly recommended.