Guest Blogger on Neil Gaiman

THE REVIEW BELOW IS BY A GUEST BLOGGER AND FELLOW LATINIST.

Although I haven't read any fiction recently which invokes the roles of Greek or Roman gods, I enjoyed one such novel some time ago.  It is titled American Gods, written by the young British author Neil Gaiman.

The plot involves an ex-con released from prison (in America), who goes by the nickname of "Shadow" (he is strictly human but has some of the skills desirable for those working at the margins of the laws).  He is offered a job as bodyguard by a character he knows as "Mr. Wednesday" who turns out to be an incarnation of the god Odin.  The name Wednesday turns out to be derived from "Oden's (Woden's) Day," allegedly the origin of that name of the week.

He and Mr. Wednesday encounter a large variety of American characters in their travels, and author Gaiman invokes a previously-used gimmick to the effect that the strength of a god depends on the degree to which that individual is revered or acknowledged by mortals.  One episode of Star-Trek employed a similar idea.

Anyhow, Shadow and Mr. Wednesday meet a number of other persons who are ancient gods in a modern American version, but most of them happen to be from Norse or Celt or Egyptian origin rather than Greek.

It is quite an original plot, and enjoyable for those who like fantasy.

As it happens, this is not Neil Gaiman's best example of such uses of the ancient past in novels.  My introduction to his work was some years ago when a BBC presentation of his Neverwhere was serialized and shown on our PBS station.  It was just great;  I won't summarize the plot, which is set in modern London, but which does reprise the lives and character of some of the ancient Roman soldiers and heroes who supposedly still live in an underground world accessible via the London subway system.  It is available in book form, and remains one of my all-time favorite fantasy novels.  Gaiman is immensely good at that genre, and has written a list of novels, all distinct and entertaining, since he easily jumps over the boundary between reality and fantasy, without jarring our sense of rationality.

If you pick one of his novels to try, I guess I would recommend Neverwhere ahead of American Gods, but I bet that if you read the first, you will look for the second, too!