Good Omens


Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch is a 1990 novel written by the English authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
The book is a comedy about the birth of the son of Satan and the coming of the End Times. The premise is similar to that of Richard Donner’s 1976 supernatural horror film The Omen, with the main character, Adam Young, standing in as a comic version of Damian, the evil child Antichrist in the film. There are attempts by the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley to sabotage the coming of the end times, having grown accustomed to their comfortable surroundings in England. One subplot features a mix-up at the small country hospital on the day of birth and the growth of the Antichrist, Adam, who grows up with the wrong family, in a village in the wrong country. Another subplot concerns the summoning of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 68 on the BBC's survey the Big Read.

Plot summary

Aziraphale, an angel, and Crowley, a demon, have lived on Earth since its creation. Over the millennia, they have formed an odd relationship and taken a liking to humanity. One night, the forces of Hell deliver the infant Antichrist to Crowley, with instructions to swap him with the son of an American diplomat stationed in Britain. Crowley realizes this means that the Apocalypse is coming and persuades Aziraphale to help him prevent it. Together, they decide to influence the Antichrist's upbringing by posing as a nanny and a gardener so that the child can never really decide between Good and Evil.
However, due to several misunderstandings at the hospital, the real Antichrist is actually another boy, Adam Young, who grows up unnoticed in idyllic Lower Tadfield, Oxfordshire, together with his three close friends – Pepper, Wensleydale and Brian. As the foretold end of the world nears, Adam begins to unknowingly use his reality-warping powers, changing the world to fit his vision of how things ought to be, such as raising the lost continent of Atlantis after reading about it in a conspiracy theory magazine, summoning UFOs after talking to his friends about aliens, and having the Amazon rainforest reclaim land lost to urban development. In the meantime, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse assemble: War, Famine, Pollution and Death.
Aziraphale and Crowley realize their mistake and begin a frantic search for the Antichrist. Also looking for the boy is Anathema Device, a witch who is trying to prevent the Apocalypse as predicted by her ancestor, Agnes Nutter. Agnes's prophecies are perfectly accurate, but many are so cryptic and specific as to be nearly useless, save to the time, place and person they're meant for. Anathema is joined by Newton Pulsifer, sole recruit of the Witchfinder Army, who has been sent to investigate the strange phenomena around Tadfield by Sergeant Shadwell, the Army's only other member. Everyone, including Shadwell's medium neighbour, Madame Tracy, converges at Tadfield Military Base, where the Four Horsemen are starting a world-ending nuclear war by tampering with the computer systems.
Amid the increasing chaos, Adam is overcome with visions of greatness and attempts to split the world between his gang. When his friends react with horror at what he is becoming, Adam comes to his senses and decides to stop the Apocalypse. He and his friends make their way to the military base and defeat three of the Four Horsemen, with Death accepting defeat and vanishing. A furious Satan starts to ascend to Earth, but Adam, having heard that "his father is coming", twists reality so that his human adoptive father arrives instead, then modifies everyone's memories of recent events.
With Armageddon averted, Crowley and Aziraphale muse that this was God's plan all along and speculate that the real apocalyptic conflict will be between humanity and the combined forces of Heaven and Hell. Madame Tracy marries Sergeant Shadwell, effectively disbanding the Witchfinder Army. Anathema begins a relationship with Newton and receives a second book of Agnes's prophecies, but decides not to open it, and pass it on to their descendants. Finally, Adam uses his powers to evade his father's grounding and watch the circus setting up with his friends.

Characters

Supernatural Beings

  • God, the creator of the universe and all things in it. The ineffable Being.
  • Metatron, the Voice of God, but an entity in their own right.
  • Aziraphale, joint main character of the novel with Crowley. He is also a rare book dealer.
  • Crowley, joint main character of the novel with Aziraphale. He is an angel who did not so much "Fall" as "Saunter Vaguely Downwards."
  • Satan, the original Fallen; he led the rebellion against Heaven and was responsible for forming Hell when the rebel angels were made to Fall.
  • Beelzebub, Prince of Hell and leader of its forces.
  • Hastur, Duke of Hell and a very traditional demon who spends very little time on Earth.
  • Ligur, another Duke of Hell. Ligur is destroyed by a bucket of Holy Water which was placed above Crowley's door in defense against him and Hastur.
  • Dagon, Lord of the Files and Master of Torments. Dagon contacts Crowley through his radio.
  • Adam Young, the Antichrist. Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of this World, father of lies, Spawn of Satan, Lord of Darkness. The Leader of The Them.

    Humans

  • Agnes Nutter, a witch from the 17th century. She wrote The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.
  • Anathema Device, a practical occultist and Agnes' descendant.
  • Newton Pulsifer, a wages clerk who becomes a Witchfinder Private.
  • Shadwell, the last remaining Sergeant of the Witchfinder Army, who hires Newt.
  • Madame Tracy, Painted Jezebel and Medium.
  • Pepper, member of The Them.
  • Brian, member of The Them.
  • Wensleydale, member of The Them.
  • Warlock Dowling, a boy that is thought to be the Antichrist by Aziraphale and Crowley, thanks to a mix-up.
  • Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer, Newt's ancestor and the witchfinder who burned Agnes.
  • Sister Mary Loquacious, a satanic nun of the Chattering Order of St Beryl. She managed to fumble the switching of the Antichrist with a human baby.
  • Mr Young, "father" of Adam.
  • Mr Tyler, chairman of a Residents' Association.
  • The International Express Man, a delivery man of the International Express, who delivered parcels and messages to the Four Horsemen. He dies delivering a message to Death.

    Apocalyptic Horsepersons

  • Death, leader of the Four Horsemen and the only one who survives the Apocalypse. He is everywhere.
  • War, aka Carmine Zuigiber. Her item of power is the flaming sword that God once gave to Aziraphale.
  • Famine, aka Dr Raven Sable. His item of power is a pair of scales.
  • Pestilence, former Horseman. He retired in 1936, muttering about penicillin.
  • Pollution, aka Chalky, Pestilence's replacement. Their item of power is a silver crown, which is tarnished black by their touch.

    Development

Origins and authorship

and Terry Pratchett had known each other since 1985. Gaiman, inspired by his success in writing a biography of Douglas Adams, and in observing Adams's work at close quarters decided to try novel writing, and sent a piece of work to a number of friends, including Pratchett, for feedback. Pratchett responded positively eight months later. According to Gaiman, he began the book as a parody of Richmal Crompton's William books, named William the Antichrist, but it outgrew the original idea. It was their own idea, not that of their publisher, to collaborate on a novel.
Gaiman said:
We were both living in England when we wrote it. At an educated guess, although neither of us ever counted, Terry probably wrote around 60,000 "raw" and I wrote 45,000 "raw" words of Good Omens, with, on the whole, Terry taking more of the plot with Adam and the Them in, and me doing more of the stuff that was slightly more tangential to the story, except that broke down pretty quickly and when we got towards the end we swapped characters so that we'd both written everyone by the time it was done, but then we also rewrote and footnoted each other's bits as we went along, and rolled up our sleeves to take the first draft to the second, and, by the end of it, neither of us was entirely certain who had written what. It was indeed plotted in long daily phone calls, and we would post floppy disks back and forth.

Pratchett said:
I think this is an honest account of the process of writing Good Omens. It was fairly easy to keep track of because of the way we sent disks to one another, and because I was Keeper of the Official Master Copy I can say that I wrote a bit over two thirds of Good Omens. However, we were on the phone to each other every day, at least once. If you have an idea during a brainstorming session with another guy, whose idea is it? One guy goes and writes 2,000 words after thirty minutes on the phone, what exactly is the process that's happening? I did most of the physical writing because:
  1. I had to. Neil had to keep Sandman going – I could take time off from the DW;
  2. One person has to be overall editor, and do all the stitching and filling and slicing and, as I've said before, it was me by agreement – if it had been a graphic novel, it would have been Neil taking the chair for exactly the same reasons it was me for a novel;
  3. I'm a selfish bastard and tried to write ahead to get to the good bits before Neil.
Initially, I did most of Adam and the Them and Neil did most of the Four Horsemen, and everything else kind of got done by whoever – by the end, large sections were being done by a composite creature called Terryandneil, whoever was actually hitting the keys. By agreement, I am allowed to say that Agnes Nutter, her life and death, was completely and utterly mine. And Neil proudly claims responsibility for the maggots. Neil's had a major influence on the opening scenes, me on the ending. In the end, it was this book done by two guys, who shared the money equally and did it for fun and wouldn't do it again for a big clock.