Good Omens: an overview
Introduction

Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your own home

Good Omens is a novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, written before they were both well known and by their own admission written mainly to make each other laugh. It's very funny, very clever and one of those books that grows on you the more you read it. (Current readings: too many to count). It's had a resurgence of popularity lately, due to being one of the books picked for the BBC's 'The Big Read', a survey of the UK's favourite novels. It came in at no. 68, more loved than 'Lord of the Flies' (no. 70) but not as popular as Crime and Punishment (no. 60).

I don't want to recount the entire plot here because I don't want to spoil it for you, and in any case I'd be bogged down here for ages and there's not much point when you could rush out and read the book for yourselves.

And obviously, being a lit fandom there aren't any pictures of the characters, apart from the illustrations from book jackets, which in my opinion are frankly a bit dubious but I'll put them in anyway. There are some lovely works of fan art which I'll link to as well, alongside.

Good Omens is the story of Crowley, a demon, and Aziraphale, an angel and their alliance to save the world from Armageddon in the last decade of the 20th century. They've both been on Earth for 6000 years and have both picked up various human habits. Crowley likes to sleep, Aziraphale worships books and they both like to get drunk, preferably together. They also seem a dab hand at exercising free will, something they're not technically supposed to have. And, even though they're on opposing sides, they've become friends of a sort, and over the years they've worked out a sensible working Arrangement:

"If one were going to Hull for a quick temptation it made sense to nip across the city and carry out a standard moment of divine ecstasy. It'd get done anyway and being sensible about it gave everyone more free time and cut down on expenses."

Though it's interesting that we never hear of Aziraphale carrying out temptations for Crowley, which makes me think he's got Crowley wrapped around his little finger. Their meetings are supposedly surreptitious and are often likened to meetings of secret agents, which I suppose they are in a sense. Duck feeding features quite heavily.


Main characters

Aziraphale is an angel: a manicured, sushi-loving, book-worshipping angel who doesn’t balk at the odd lie or getting drunk with demons.


Aziraphale, from the Corgi paperback cover art

Personally I think he looks more like this (on the right), by omelton

There are almost no physical descriptions of him, apart from his hands which are described as plump and elegantly manicured, but there is this rather telling description:

"Many people, meeting Aziraphale for the first time, formed three impressions: that he was English, that he was intelligent, and that he was gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide."

Of course, two of those impressions are incorrect. Aziraphale owns a bookshop in Soho, where he specialises in frightening customers away. He also manages to dispose of the local mafia.

"...men in dark glasses would wander round the shop shaking their heads and saying how inflammable paper was, and what a fire trap he had here. And Aziraphale would nod and smile and say that he'd think about it. And then they'd go away.

And they'd never come back.

Just because you were an angel doesn't mean you have to be a fool."

This quote is nicely telling about Aziraphale. Next to Crowley's boisterousness he can seem less than sharp, but he actually can be rather ruthless and cunning.

Another thing about the angel: he enjoys passing the millennia by taking up hobbies such as dancing and conjuring tricks. His favourite word is 'ineffable'.


Crowley, formerly known as Crawly, the serpent in the Garden of Eden, is described thus:

"Crowley had dark hair, and good cheekbones and he was wearing snakeskin shoes, or at least presumably he was wearing shoes, and he could do really weird thing with his tongue. And whenever he forgot himself, he had a tendency to hiss.

He also didn’t blink much."


Crowley, from the Corgi paperback cover art

I think this version by saeryph is rather nice, although it's not exactly how I imagine him.

Crowley has a stylish flat in Mayfair, wears sunglasses even at night, has a firm belief that everything will go his way, is fond of gadgets, drives a 1926 black Bentley and has a tendency to wrestle with big philosophical questions. And to hang around with Aziraphale.

Crowley has a major failing as a demon: he rather likes people and tends to taint souls at one step removed rather than get involved on a demon-to-human basis, which he justifies to himself as the modern way to do things. Along with Aziraphale, his attachment to the world they have lived in for so long means that he doesn’t want to see it end, and quite frankly he's not too chuffed with the prospect of either Heaven or Hell winning: in his opinion they're both as bad as each other. Of all the characters in the book, we see things from his perspective most of all and he's the most sympathetic character.

There are other nicely drawn characters, although in my opinion they're not so vivid as Crowley and Aziraphale:

Anathema Device, a witch and prophetess, whose ancestor Agnes Nutter left behind a book of prophecies ('The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. "Reminiscent of Nostradamus at his best"- Ursula Shipton.') that predicts the coming Armageddon.

Newton Pulsifer, a private in the Witchfinder army and would-be computer expert.

Shadwell, Witchfinder sergeant and very curious old man.

Adam (the Antichrist) and his friends Pepper, Wensleydale and Brian, known collectively as the Them, who terrorize Lower Tadfield.

With appearances from the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse, Beelzebub, the Metatron and God, who, like love, is very much all around and never actually shows up in person.


The plot in brief

The story begins with a conversation between Crowley and Aziraphale in the Garden of Eden. Aziraphale, the Angel who guards the Eastern Gate has given his flaming sword away to Adam and Eve, who have just been expelled. Crowley is still in his serpent form and is going under the name Crawly. They're both wondering if they've done the right thing.

Cut to 6000 years later when the antichrist is born. Crowley is charged with delivering him to his human parents and generally overseeing him, except that it all goes wrong, predictably, and the real antichrist is confused with a human baby by a rather dim Satanic nun, and is given to the wrong parents. Crowley convinces Aziraphale that to save the world they love they should have equal influence over the Antichrist to prevent him gaining his full evil powers, as once he reaches them there will be armageddon. Except that unbeknownst to them the Antichrist has been misplaced. Thereby hangs the rest of the plot, with Adam (the Antichrist) growing up unbothered by the forces of good or evil in the little village of Lower Tadfield, a town curiously unspoilt by modern bypasses or housing estates. Crowley and Aziraphale are meanwhile trying their best to influence a perfectly normal boy into not being evil.

The plot stops here, or my recounting of it does anyway. I'm not going to try and sum up something you'd have far more fun reading for yourself. So, go read it!

There was supposed to be a film of Good Omens, reputedly directed by Terry Gilliam, but the project looks like it's been put on hold in the long term. Nevertheless the casting debate ran and ran and possiblly is still running somewhere. Neil and Terry refuse to comment on the casting, but have talked about the horrors of going to Hollywood and I think now they've pretty much washed their hands of the project



The fandom

Good Omens is a small fandom and the general standard of fanfic is high. But of course, being a small fandom with few writers, there's never enough of it. The majority of writers write gen or slash, although I have seen a few het stories around. The main pairing is Crowley/Aziraphale although the slash tends to be mild and almost always non-explicit. There is hardly any real smut in GO Fandom; it's quite entertaining to see people wander in and cry, 'but where's the porn?' Answer: you'll have to write it yourself. It says a lot about the tone of the book that it's very difficult to write sex (especially between Crowley and Aziraphale) that doesn't seem wildly out of character. Although I know it can be done! Hmm, perhaps this isn't the best way to pimp the fandom!

The thing about Crowley and Aziraphale as a pairing is that it's very easy to see them as being in love, or loving each other, and I think that's the thing that attracts people to them. And even though they're pretty jaded, they also have a sort of innocence to them too, which is also very attractive.

The other characters get some attention too, mainly the four Horsepersons. The Them and especially Adam have also inspired quite a few fics. Adam in the book is described as being stunning beautiful.


Main communities

lower_tadfield on Livejournal
Crowley's Angels Yahoo group (more yaoi-oriented)


Archives

There's no real central archive, although there are around 200 GO fics on Fanfiction.net ranging from excellent to bloody awful, as you'd expect. Stories are mainly housed on author sites, although there are some smaller archives:

Temptation
Hobbies odd
Saunter Vaguely Downwards


Some author sites:

Afrai's site
Carmarthen
daegaer's fics, housed in her Livejournal memories
imperfectcircle
Jenelin
Joon
Lady Jaida
Lux fanfiction
Moony
Snowballjane
Tomo Trillions


Recs sites

Cimorene's Good Omens recs
Versaphile recs, although they haven't been updated for a while
foodless_diet
miladysboudoir


RPG's There are 2 RPG's that I know of, both on Livejournal:

buggreallethis
ineffable_apple (This one is very new)


Other GO related things

Phil Foglio's cartoon version of GO (only the very first conversation between C & A, unfortunately) is here
Pratchett Quote file
Annotated Good Omens
Neilgaiman.com