Jack of Harts

The fall of Los Angeles left a power vacuum. The new Empress of Japan filled that vacuum by walking through the streets after her refugee fleet arrived. She met the people. And then she worked to rebuild her new home on the American mainland. Her people brought with them the surviving riches of the Japanese Home Islands, and a boundless determination to rebuild what they had lost. And so New Japan quickly became the center of Japanese power in the world, and they remade it in their image. Cherry blossom trees and Shinto architecture dominate much of the city in Jack’s time, though you can still see the older Spanish influences beneath the Japanese veneer. And both of those influences are tempered with Americana of all ages. New Japan isn’t a pure recreation of what they lost, but more a mixture of everything that survived the Second Great Depression.

Los Angeles got it bad when the Second Great Depression came over America. First it had the gang violence that weakened law and order. Then the Islamic State of Detroit sent agents to sow chaos there. Including Rogue AIs that made a particularly nasty hash of the local networks. An alliance of technogeeks and friendly AIs finally drove them out, but not before they sparked off the Los Angeles Blackout that brought the city low. Worse than the New York City Blackout of 1977. There were riots and arson and the city burned like a bonfire. Like the funeral pyre of civilization. The second largest city in America died that day. Oh, the fires went out. And some neighborhoods even began to rebuild. But the city as a whole died and refugees fled into the desert in hopes of finding more hospitable places to lay their heads.

Good Omens is a fun, joyful romp through the birth of the Anti-Christ, the rise of the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse, and the coming Battle of Armageddon. Add in a dollop of temptation in the Garden of Eden, and a few thousand years of an angel and a demon working together to counter each others’ work so their higher authorities think they are doing their jobs on Earth, and you have a delightfully satirical look at the End Times on Earth.

I’ve read the book, and now I’ve seen the show on Amazon, and I have to say that it is a good rendition of the story. And the actors nailed the characters dead on. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to see the characters any other way again. And the music is delightfully jolly for a hop, skip, and a jump through the decidedly crazy trip that is Revelations. Not that Good Omens is a faithful reproduction of that book. Oh no. Good Omens takes what it likes and tosses the rest on its delightful path. Yes…that is the third time I’ve said delightful. Four now.

I mean it. It really is a de….enjoyable story. De…liberately irreverent and enjoyed most if you go in with a sense of humor and an expectation that sacred cows will be slaughtered with great del…glee. It is a story of friendship in the end, and how it can change the world. For angels and demons who learn to see the good in the world around them. For children forced to see the evils of the world too soon.

Good Omens tells a del…oh the heck with it…a delightfully humorous and surprisingly serious story about the coming of age of people of all ages.

I give it to two angels dancing merrily on the head of a pin. Because they can.

P.S. – That doesn’t mean I forgive the demon for inventing the evil that is tie-dye. He is a sick and twisted individual, and I hope he receives the punishment he deserves for that. 😉