{"id":5972,"date":"2016-07-22T20:09:01","date_gmt":"2016-07-23T00:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=5972"},"modified":"2018-04-09T21:38:39","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T01:38:39","slug":"american-gods-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5972","title":{"rendered":"American Gods"},"content":{"rendered":"

American Gods<\/a><\/em> (2001) Neil Gaiman<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is a re-read, because I couldn’t figure out what I was in the mood to read, and as good as this story is, I knew it would suck me in almost immediately.<\/p>\n

Shadow is getting ready to leave prison. Ready to return to his old life. But his old life is gone, and he is instead pulled into the lives of Gods, old and new, trying to live in a country that treats gods harshly.<\/p>\n

Shadow had played checkers in prison: it passed the time. He had played chess, too, but he was not temperamentally suited to chess. He did not like planning ahead. He preferred picking the perfect move for the moment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(T)hey were at the bottom of a ramp now, with an ice-cream shop in front of them. It was nominally open, but the girl washing down the surfaces had a closed look on her face.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shadow stared, impressed in spite of himself, at the hundreds of full-sized creatures who circled on the platform of the carousel. Real creatures, imaginary creatures, and transformations of the two: each creature was different\u2014he saw mermaid and merman, centaur and unicorn, elephants (one huge, one tiny), bulldog, frog and phoenix, zebra, tiger, manticore and basilisk, swans pulling a carriage, a white ox, a fox, twin walruses, even a sea serpent, all of them brightly colored and more than real.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the television? Or someone in the television?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe TV\u2019s the altar. I\u2019m what people are sacrificing to.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do they sacrifice?\u201d asked Shadow. <\/p>\n

\u201cTheir time, mostly.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s never been a true war that wasn\u2019t fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe that they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lovely escape.
\nRating: 10\/10<\/p>\n

Published by William Morrow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Gods (2001) Neil Gaiman This is a re-read, because I couldn’t figure out what I was in the mood to read, and as good as this story is, I knew it would suck me in almost immediately. Shadow is getting ready to leave prison. Ready to return to his old life. But his old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,2,6,41,34],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-5972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-10-10","category-fantasy","category-folk-fairy-tales","category-reread","category-urban-fantasy","tag-neil-gaiman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1yk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/50","url_meta":{"origin":5972,"position":0},"title":"American Gods","author":"Michelle","date":"January 9, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"American Gods (2001) Neil Gaiman Sometimes, you just need to read something that you've read before and loved. After reading a bunch of new fantasy it was time to re-read Neil Gaiman's American Gods. In some ways, American Gods is the perfect novel for me; It combines mythology and folklore,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/American-Gods.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4506,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4506","url_meta":{"origin":5972,"position":1},"title":"The Monarch of the Glen","author":"Michelle","date":"March 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Monarch of the Glen (2004) Neil Gaiman The Monarch of the Glen appeared first in Legends II (2004) edited by Robert Silverberg, and then in Gaiman's own short story collection Fragile Things. It is the story of Shadow, as he is wandering the world following the events in American\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"the -monarch-of-the-glen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/the-monarch-of-the-glen.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3398,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3398","url_meta":{"origin":5972,"position":2},"title":"American Gods","author":"Michelle","date":"December 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"American Gods: Tenth Anniversary Edition (2001\/2011) Neil Gaiman I needed some comfort reading to distract me, so since I'd picked up the 10th anniversary edition of American Gods for the kindle awhile ago, it won the comfort reading lottery. I've read American Gods many times before, but not this version\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/American-Gods.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2435,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2435","url_meta":{"origin":5972,"position":3},"title":"American Gods","author":"Michelle","date":"June 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"American Gods (2001) Neil Gaiman It's the 10th anniversary of American Gods, so after seeing everyone write so much about it, I decided I needed to reread it. It's still awesome.","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/American-Gods.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/135","url_meta":{"origin":5972,"position":4},"title":"Anansi Boys","author":"Michelle","date":"October 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Anansi Boys (2005) Neil Gaiman All summer I went back and forth over whether I was going to get Neil Gaiman's new book Anansi Boys in hardback, or wait until it came out in paperback. On one hand, I greatly prefer paperback books--they're smaller and lighter. On the other hand,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Anansi_Boys.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":47,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/47","url_meta":{"origin":5972,"position":5},"title":"Legends II","author":"Michelle","date":"January 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Legends II (2004) edited by Robert Silverberg I picked up this book just for the Neil Gaiman Shadow story, so the fact that I found it in the bargain bin means that any stories beyond 'The Monarch of the Glen' were an added bonus. And 'Monarch of the Glen' was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/01\/Legends.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}