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{{Book Data
'''The server of this wiki is being shutdown, please leave this wiki.'''
|title=Good Omens
|cover=[[File:Good Omens.jpg|240px|Cover art for {{PAGENAME}}]]
|coauthors=[[Neil Gaiman]]
|date=10 May 1990
|publisher=Victor Gollancz
|isbn=057504800X
|pages=
 
|series=
|characters=[[Aziraphale]]<br/>[[Anthony Crowley|Crowley]]<br/>[[Adam Young]]
|annotations=
|notes=
}}
 
{{GO}} is a comic novel about demons, angels, prophecies and Armageddon, in which a mix-up at a hospital causes the Antichrist to be brought up as a perfectly normal kid with bizarre consequences as he develops his special talents with neither demons nor angels for guidance.
 
Terry Gilliam would make a movie of this book if those with the money and inclination to make such a thing possible were not as rare as [[Klatchian Mist]].
 
==Blurb==
According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of [[Agnes Nutter]] &ndash; the world's only ''totally reliable'' guide to the future &ndash; the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea...
 
==Characters==
*[[The Them]]
**[[Adam Young]]
**[[Brian ("Good Omens")|Brian]]
**[[Pepper]]
**[[Wensleydale]]
*Demons and Angles etc
**[[Aziraphale]]
**[[Beelezebub]]
**[[Anthony Crowley|Crowley]]
**[[Hastur]]
**[[Ligur]]
**[[Earl Beezlemoth]]
**[[Dog]]
**The [[Metatron]]
*Riders Of The Apocalypse
**[[Death (Good Omens)|Death]]
**[[Famine (Good Omens)|Famine]]
**[[Pollution]]
**[[War (Good Omens)|War]]
*[[Four Other Riders Of The Apocalypse]]
**[[Greaser]]
**[[Pigbog]]
**[[Scuzz]]
**[[Big Ted]]
*[[Witchfinder Army]]
**[[Nurker]]
**[[Newton Pulsifer]]
**[[Shadwell]]
**[[Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer]]
 
*[[Anathema Device]]
*[[Julia Petley]]
*[[Madame Tracy]]
*[[The International Express Man]]
*[[Mr. Young]]
*[[Deirdre Young]]
*[[Greasy Johnson]]
*[[Mary Loquacious]]
*[[Agnes Nutter]]
*[[Beryl Ormerod]]
*[[Ron Ormerod]]
*[[Marjorie Potts]]
*[[Warlock Dowling]]
*[[Horace Gander]]
 
==Locations==
*[[Atlantis]]
*[[Power Cable]], Nebraska
*[[Tadfield]]
*[[Turning Point Power Station]]
 
==US Version==
The United States edition of Good Omens had numerous alterations to the text. The most significant alteration to the main text is the addition of an extra 700-word section just before the end, dealing with what happened to the character of Warlock, the American diplomat's son, who was swapped with Adam. The American edition also adds numerous footnotes not found in British editions as well as changes to the spelling throughout so that the text corresponded to American English norms rather than British English. One howler of an error has "Aziraphile nipping across the city of Hell" early on. Comparing this to the British text, it appears the American editor was correcting a non-existent error, not knowing ''Hull'' is an English port city on the east coast. It may be grim, it may have had the pugnacious John Prescott as its MP and it may be in the East Riding of Yorkshire - but it isn't quite Hell...
 
==Adaptations==
[[File:GO Radio.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Radio Drama CD Cover]]
Good Omens was adapted by BBC Radio 4 as a [[Radio Adaptations|full audio drama]], this was later released on CD.
 
==Annotations==
The book satirizes some aspects of the '70s movie ''[[wikipedia:The Omen|The Omen]]'', where an American diplomat has Damien, the Antichrist, for a child. Although Damien is dismissed as a name, and isn't the Antichrist anyway, he is raised by a supernatural nanny, and with a birthday party that gets out of hand.
 
Right on the very last page of the book, there is a line stating:
 
:"If you want to see the future, imagine a boot..."
 
Pratchett and Gaiman amend "boot" to "sneaker", but the reference is clearly to the closing paragraphs of George Orwell's ''1984'':
 
:"If you want to see the future, imagine a boot, stamping on a human face, forever."
 
This is softened in ''Good Omens'' to a sneaker, or trainer, with untied laces, on the foot of the Antichrist, who has just succeeded in thwarting the desire of both Heaven and Hell to stamp on the collective face of the human race until something breaks beyond repair. (What else is Armageddon, after all)
 
[[Category: Books by Terry Pratchett|Good Omens]]
[[de:Buch:Ein gutes Omen]]
[[Category:Good Omens]]

Revision as of 00:50, 19 May 2026

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