Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990) is a gloriously chaotic collaboration between fantasy titans Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman that turns the biblical apocalypse into a comedy of celestial errors. This cult classic follows the misadventures of an unlikely duo – the fastidious angel Aziraphale and the louche demon Crowley – who’ve grown rather attached to Earth over their 6,000-year assignment and aren’t particularly keen on letting the whole Heaven vs. Hell showdown ruin their comfortable arrangements.
The divine comedy begins when the Antichrist – an ordinary English boy named Adam Young – gets misplaced due to a celestial paperwork error, growing up blissfully unaware of his world-ending destiny in a quaint Oxfordshire village. As the appointed time for Armageddon approaches, heaven and hell’s bureaucracies mobilize while our antiheroic pair attempt to sabotage both sides through a combination of half-hearted demonic wiles, angelic bureaucracy, and general incompetence. The story escalates into a madcap race involving the modernized Four Horsemen (now including Pollution as a replacement for Pestilence), a witchfinder private detective, a no-nonsense witch descendant, and a book of alarmingly accurate prophecies that keep catching fire.
Pratchett and Gaiman’s joint creation sparkles with wit, from the footnotes (a beloved Pratchett hallmark) to the sly theological satire. The novel delights in upending expectations – hell is impeccably organized while heaven runs on wishful thinking, the Antichrist would rather play with his dog than destroy the world, and the actual apocalypse keeps getting postponed due to scheduling conflicts. Beneath the laugh-out-loud humor lies surprising warmth, particularly in the central odd-couple friendship between an angel who loves rare books and a demon who treats his vintage Bentley like a member of the family.
More than thirty years after publication, Good Omens remains a masterclass in comic fantasy, blending sharp social commentary with genuine affection for its flawed but endearing characters – both human and otherwise. It’s a story that argues, with both snark and sincerity, that maybe the world is worth saving after all, if only because it’s where we keep all our stuff. The novel’s enduring popularity led to a critically acclaimed 2019 TV adaptation starring Michael Sheen and David Tennant, introducing a new generation to what might be the most cheerfully irreverent take on the end times ever written.
