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Cover of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett

Good Omens

Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman

  • 400 pages · about 7 hours
  • First published 1990
  • 73 editions
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1 About this book

Armageddon only happens once, you know. They don't let you go around again until you get it right. According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch - the world's only totally reliable guide to the future, written in 1655, before she exploded - the world will end on a Saturday.

Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea... People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it's only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. This time though, the armies of Good and Evil really do appear to be massing.

The four Bikers of the Apocalypse are hitting the road. But both the angels and demons - well, one fast-living demon and a somewhat fussy angel - would quite like the Rapture not to happen. Oh, and someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist...

  • Humor
  • Fantasy
  • Fantasy, contemporary
  • End of the world
  • Prophecies
  • Occult fiction
  • Witches
  • Apocalypse

2 What to expect

A comic fantasy about the end of the world: an angel and a demon, both too fond of life on Earth, quietly try to stop Armageddon, and the Antichrist has been mislaid. The plot hops between a large cast, including witch-hunters, a book of prophecies and four horsemen on motorbikes. The humor is very British, full of footnotes, puns and asides, and under the jokes it is a warm book about human nature and free will.

Good for readers who want: comic fantasy, British humor, and a light take on the apocalypse.

3 About Terry Pratchett

1948–2015

Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author, humorist, and satirist, best known for the Discworld series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983 and 2015, and for the apocalyptic comedy novel Good Omens (1990), which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman. Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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