American Gods
American Gods (2001) is a fantasy novel by British author Neil Gaiman. The novel is a blend of Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on the mysterious and taciturn Shadow.
Stats for nerds
35recommend
88mentions
81people
2009–2026years
40% recommend48% neutral13% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- 20 years ago I read a The Guardian article about the "top geek novels". I immediately read a bunch of those.
Recently I managed to find the list again, and it's been endless pleasure:
- American Gods -- Neil Gaiman
- Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley
- The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett
- Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
- Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
- Cloud Atlas -- David Mitchell
- The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson
- The Dispossessed -- Ursula K Le Guin
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick
- Dune -- Frank Herbert
- Foundation -- Isaac Asimov
- Giles Goat-Boy -- John Barth
- Gravity's Rainbow -- Thomas Pynchon
- The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
- I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov
- The Illuminatus! Trilogy -- Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
- The Left Hand of Darkness -- Ursula K Le Guin
- The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K Dick
- Microserfs -- Douglas Coupland
- Neuromancer -- William Gibson
- Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell
- Orlando -- Virgina Woolf
- The Shockwave Rider -- John Brunner
- Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
- Stand on Zanzibar -- John Brunner
- Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein
- Trouble with lichen - John Wyndham
- UBIK -- Philip Dick
- Watchmen -- Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
- Woman on the Edge of Time -- Marge Piercy
(I am creatively interpreting "The Colour of Magic" as "all Discworld", "Dune" as "the six Dune books", etc.)
- Read: American Gods, Consider Phlebas, Neuromancer, The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dune 1, Nineteen Eighty-Four listened to Foundation and I definitely recommend all.
But for me Consider Phlebas is the best. Currently on 4th book in series, but cant get through it. Nineteen Eighty-Four doesnt feel geek novel, just political. Also great.
I keep reading outputs from LLMs all day and don't have energy to focus on Eng written books in the evening.
- Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy is must-read IMO. (The Three-Body Problem is the first book in the series.)
The Darth Vader graphic novels by Charles Soule were quite good, IIRC.
I loved American Gods. Seeing that book listed, in addition to The Three-Body Problem and Exhalation, were my clues that this is probably a good list.
There's a bunch of books on this list that weren't on my radar. I'm going to start with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
- I strongly disliked Morrison's books when I read them, though I'll happily concede they're expertly written.
Some fiction books I've read as an adult and appreciate:
Gone with the Wind, Fields of Fire, American Psycho, The Turn of the Screw, Anna Karenina
Some from school:
To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Frienheit 451, Moby Dick, Brave New World
Some of the more pop fictiony:
American Gods, The Stand, His Dark Materials, A Song of Ice and Fire, Imajica
- A pair of books I’d recommend for 2024, which I didn’t get the chance to reread this year, would be:
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Gaiman), which is beautiful in a way I can’t quite describe
- Century Rain (Reynolds), which is best described as a hard boiled 1930’s noir hard science fiction novel.
Books I read this year which I really enjoyed:’
- Exploding The Phone (Lapsley): Super engrossing description of the phone phreak scene almost from its start to its end
- Hyperion and sequels (Simmons): Probably one of my favourite science fiction series now, and I’ve already felt the need to go back and re-read passages from it. Also really enjoy how each part of the series (Hyperion, then Fall of Hyperion, then the Endymion books) re-invent the style and the story.
- The Annotated American Gods (Gaiman, Klinger): 1000’s of footnotes is a great way to revisit the story :)
- I really enjoyed American Gods but it took me a long time to finish. I assumed it was because my attention span was getting worse but I hadn't considered that it was just a tough book to read. The books I've read since have been non fiction which are also slow reads for me which supported my, hopefully incorrect, hypothesis.
