内容简介
A master of inventive fiction, Neil Gaiman delves into the murky depths where reality and imagination meet. Now in American Gods, he works his literary magic to extraordinary results.
Shadow dreamed of nothing but leaving prison and starting a new life. But the day before his release, his wife and best friend are killed in an accident. On the plane home to the funeral, he meets Mr. Wednesday—a beguiling stranger who seems to know everything about him. A trickster and rogue, Mr. Wednesday offers Shadow a job as his bodyguard. With nowhere left to go, Shadow accepts, and soon learns that his role in Mr. Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous and dark than he could have ever imagined. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought—and the prize is the very soul of America.
Winner of the 2002 Hugo Award for Best Novel; 2002 Nebula Award for Best Novel; and 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
作者简介
Neil Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won numerous awards, including Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, Newbery Medal, and Carnegie Medal. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book (2008).
尼尔·盖曼(Neil Gaiman)是一名移居美国的著名英国作家, 一度被誉为是罗琳之后最成功的作家。相貌英俊的他也以称得上是一位当代奇才,其创作的领域横跨了幻想小说、科幻小说、恐怖小说、儿童小说、漫画以及歌词。他的作品不但部部畅销,更是获奖无数。恐怖小说大师作家斯蒂芬·金称赞他是一个“装满了故事的宝库”。
精彩书评
American Gods is Neil Gaiman's best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, strange, and hallucinogenic road-trip story wrapped around a deep examination of the American spirit. Gaiman tackles everything from the onslaught of the information age to the meaning of death, but he doesn't sacrifice the razor-sharp plotting and narrative style he's been delivering since his Sandman days. Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow's dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost--the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book. Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and underneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow's road story is the heart of the novel, and it's here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book--the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow. More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country--our obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what's real and what's not. --Therese Littleton
前言/序言
好的,这是一份关于另一本未提及的、但内容详实的图书的简介。 --- 《失落的回响:文明的黄昏与重生的黎明》 作者: 伊莱亚斯·文森特 (Elias Vincent) 出版社: 寰宇之光出版社 (Cosmic Light Press) 装帧: 典藏版精装 (Collector's Hardcover) 内容梗概 《失落的回响:文明的黄昏与重生的黎明》并非一部简单的历史叙事或预言之作,它是一部跨越千年、横亘东西半球的宏大史诗,深入探讨了人类文明在面临结构性崩溃时所展现出的韧性、遗忘与重塑。文森特以其标志性的、近乎考古般的严谨考证和诗意的洞察力,构建了一个虚构但又无比真实的后“大断裂”时代的世界——公元24世纪,在被我们称为“寂静之潮”的全球性信息与能源系统崩溃事件发生近三百年后。 本书的核心围绕着三个相互交织的主题展开:记忆的碎片化、身份的重构,以及知识的再神化。 第一部分:记忆的迷宫 (The Labyrinth of Memory) 在“寂静之潮”爆发后,全球化的信息网络瞬间瓦解,使得历史记录如同沙塔般崩塌。第一部分着重描绘了“遗忘之代”的图景。文森特将镜头对准了居住在被遗弃的巨型城市残骸中(他称之为“铁棺材”)的后裔们。这些人依靠口耳相传的“低语史诗”和对古代遗物的碎片化解读来理解他们的过去。 作者细致入微地描绘了不同派系的“记忆守护者”——他们是社会中负责保存和阐释那些残缺不全的文本、电路板和建筑遗迹的群体。我们见证了“刻印者”如何将古老的编程语言视作神谕,而“泥土学者”则痴迷于生物圈的复苏,将现代农业技术视为失传的炼金术。 文森特在此部分展现了文明的悖论:当所有信息都变得稀缺且易碎时,最微小的碎片也可能被赋予至高无上的意义。他探讨了神话如何取代科学,以及在缺乏中央权威的情况下,地方性的、相互冲突的“真理”如何成为社会凝聚的唯一基础。 第二部分:界限的消融 (The Dissolution of Boundaries) 随着新定居点的建立,文明的碎片开始在地理上相互隔离,但在精神上却产生了奇特的共鸣。本部分聚焦于不同社群间跨越遥远距离的接触与冲突。 文森特引入了“信使骑队”的概念,这是一群勇敢的旅行者,他们冒着严酷的环境和变异的生物群落,在分散的人类聚落间传递物资、技术和——最关键的——故事。通过跟踪其中一位名叫卡莉娅的信使的旅程,读者得以窥见一个由孤立的“城邦农场”、“潮汐聚落”和潜伏在地下深处的“旧光信徒”组成的复杂世界。 界限的消融不仅体现在地理上,更体现在身份的模糊上。随着基因工程的片段被误解为某种神圣的祝福或诅咒,许多社群开始出现与自然环境高度融合的新型人类形态。作者对人类定义的不断拓展进行了深刻的哲学反思:在失去了共同的文化锚点之后,“人”的本质究竟由什么来维系?是生理结构,还是持续不断的叙事冲动? 第三部分:重生的黎明 (The Dawning of Rebirth) 故事的高潮集中在“回响之年”,此时,一个跨越三大洲的、基于失传的远程通信技术(部分是修复的、部分是全新发明的)的初步网络开始缓慢重建。这并非一个技术乌托邦的回归,而是一场充满危险的文化整合。 文森特笔下的“黎明”充满了矛盾性。新的知识带来了解放,但也引发了对现有社会结构的致命挑战。那些世代相传的“真理”——无论是关于火的起源,还是关于天空为何变色的解释——在新信息的冲击下开始动摇。 本书的最终部分探讨了重建的伦理困境:我们应该选择性地继承“旧世界”的遗产吗?如果重建的代价是牺牲了“寂静之潮”后建立起来的、虽然原始但更具社群性的生存模式,那么这种“进步”是否值得?文森特没有提供简单的答案。他以一个充满希望却又带着深沉忧虑的场景收尾:一个新兴的“档案塔”正在各地建立,其目的既是为了储存过去,也是为了谨慎地编码未来。人类文明正站在一个十字路口,既可以重蹈覆辙,也可以在古老的智慧和新的视野的交汇处,锻造出一种真正持久的未来。 艺术特色 《失落的回响》的叙事风格雄浑而细腻,混合了人类学田野调查的精确性与后启示录文学的浪漫色彩。文森特巧妙地使用了大量的虚构文献摘录、口述历史记录和符号学分析,赋予了全书一种无可辩驳的真实感。其对衰败美学(Ruin Pornography)的精妙运用,使得每一页都充满了对逝去辉煌的缅怀和对生命力的赞颂。这是一部关于人类如何记住、如何遗忘,以及如何在灰烬中寻找下一颗种子的不朽之作。 --- 本书适合对象: 对后人类主义、社会人类学、哲学史以及宏大叙事文学感兴趣的读者。