Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman

Harper Torch, 2005, 387 pages

ISBN: 978-0-06-051591-5

Read: November 2014, age 36

If you haven’t read it:

Anansi Boys is a standalone, recent past (no cell phones) urban fantasy starring African gods.

From the back cover:

Fat Charlie Nancy’s normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn't know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother.

Now brother Spider’s on his doorstep – about to make Fat Charlie’s life more interesting… and a lot more dangerous.

My (very brief)  Reactions (no spoilers):

Overall: 

This book had a fantastic tone for me – it was lighthearted, but was also deadly serious and somehow managed to pull it off all at the same time.  I almost felt like I was reading some of the best Douglas Adams, except that I cared about the characters, so it was much better.  I liked pretty much everything about the book, so I’m not going to break it down further.

Rating: 5

Other Opinions:

As with all things Gaiman, there are scads of reviews.  Here are a couple I liked:

 Russ Allbery

 The Elephant on the Roof

Sounds like it’s getting turned into a BBC miniseries .  There's a lot of potential there.  A few times during my read-through, I felt like this story would make a really good movie.  A miniseries would be as good or better.