Good Omens

Who would have thought that the Apocalypse would be so entertaining? For the first time on audio in the U.S., this 1990 collaboration between authors Gaiman and Pratchett follows the (mis)adventures of Aziraphale, an angel, and Crowley, a demon, as they somewhat grudgingly take up their roles--along with all the hosts of heaven and hell--in precipitating the coming of the Antichrist. The thing is, the Antichrist has been . . . shall we say . . . "misplaced." Narrator Martin Jarvis's outstanding performance captures all of Aziraphale's British officiousness and all of Crowley's vaguely disinterested sarcasm. Jarvis also shines as he bounces from Sister Mary Loquacious to Scarlett Zuibiger to Adam Young, the 11-year-old would-be Antichrist, and so many others, with impressive ease. Moreover, Jarvis's attentiveness to the authors' sense of timing and humor enables his performance to accentuate every twinge of irony in this absurd comedy. A.H.A. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

August 29, 1990
When a scatterbrained Satanist nun goofs up a baby-switching scheme and delivers the infant Antichrist to the wrong couple, it's just the beginning of the comic errors in the divine plan for Armageddon which this fast-paced novel by two British writers zanily details. Aziraphale, an angel who doubles as a rare-book dealer, and Crowley, a demon friend who's assigned to the same territory, like life on Earth too much to allow the long-planned war between Heaven and Hell to happen. They set out to find the Antichrist and avert Armageddon, on the way encountering the last living descendant of Agnes Nutter, Anathema, who's been deciphering accurate prophecies of the world's doom but is unaware she's living in the same town as the Antichrist, now a thoroughly human and normal 11-year-old named Adam. As the appointed day and hour approach, Aziraphale and Crowley blunder through seas of fire and rains of fish, and come across a misguided witch hunter, a middle-aged fortune teller and the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse. It's up to Adam in the neatly tied end, as his humanity prevails over the Divine Plan and earthly bungling. Some humor is strictly British, but most will appeal even to Americans ``and other aliens.'' Literary Guild alternate.

January 25, 2010
The end of the world is coming, and the portents are everywhere. All is dependent on the anti-Christ—if the agents of good and evil here on Earth can find him. Action-packed with flaming swords and freakish catastrophes, the 20-year-old novel is made even more suspenseful, irreverent, and clever with Martin Jarvis at the helm. Young or old, male or female, angel or demon, human or not, Jarvis’s voices are legion, and his delivery and dramatics make for never a dull moment.