re: Just finished American Gods

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There are some pretty cool ideas and characters in there, but the overall story and ending are fairly mediocre to me.

It's not nearly on the same level as Sandman, Stardust, or Neverwhere for me.

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It's not really the style that suits Gaiman the best and I agree that the books you mentioned are somewhat better. But I really enjoyed American Gods as the style was basically a tribute to old school Roger Zelazny which I really loved many decades ago in my youth. Zelazny was a master at blending mythology, fantasy, and science fiction. And not coincidently the older Zelazny was friends with and influenced a younger Gaiman (and GRR Martin). The ending wasn't all that satisfying but typical of the kind of thing that Zelazny did in the Amber series. The ending also felt like a bit of a nod to the Illuminatus series which is really fun. As has been said the audiobook version is excellent with all the different narrators. It may not be the best Gaiman but it's still a very enjoyable book to me.