Started: July 3, 2010
Completed: August 12, 2010
Recommendation: Highly recommended
Recommended By: Nobody, although American Gods was recommended by the owner of Vertigo Books (now closed), so I guess this one comes from the same source.
Words I looked up:
gruntle -- to put in a good humor or satisfy
koan -- a paradox to be meditated upon that is used to train Zen Buddhist monks to abandon ultimate dependence on reason and to force them into gaining sudden intuitive enlightenment
lubricious -- marked by wantonness, but the second definition is to have a smooth or slippery character.
lascivious -- lewd or lustful
rubicund -- ruddy (I always thought this word meant fat)
Review: It is important to note, first, that Neil Gaiman is an artist with words. His eloquent descriptions and careful use of language makes reading his books almost akin to watching a movie in your own internal hi-def. The story here is fanciful and the plot, while well developed, is not really all that complicated. This book is fun to read, it is not a head scratcher. The use of the magic of the gods is fairly smooth and makes sense within the context of the rest of the book. I'm not going to put any spoilers in even though I think the joy of reading the book is the reading itself and not the plot line so much.
