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dantastic's review
3.0
When God goes on sabbatical and becomes a human, the resulting power vacuum causes chaos among the obsolete gods, leading to a series of god killings. Meanwhile, God grows up to be Lando Cooper, an aspiring comedian who works for his father. Can Lando figure out who is making the power grab without forsaking his mortal life?
I got this from the fine folks at Angry Robot via Netgalley.
So it seems Michael Boatman of Arl$$ and Spin City fame is also a writer and a pretty funny one at that. Once I knew who Boatman was, I kept picturing him in the role of Lando Cooper. Before I get any further, how awesome is it that the main character's full name is Lando Calrissian Darnell Cooper?
Last God Standing is a humorous fantasy that also has some good ideas about gods and belief in it. Lando's a pretty relatable former deity, still living with his mother, still struggling to become what he wants to be. His relationship with his girlfriend is pretty believable, being afraid of meeting her parents since he's kind of a screw up and her father is due to be knighted. Lando's divorced parents were by far my favorite supporting cast members, though.
The conflict among the gods was well done and the scope of destruction when gods clash reminded me of some recent super hero movies. Speaking of super heroes, Lando's geek references were great and not overdone.
However, I liked the book but I didn't love it. Firstly, I thought Lando being mortal but still being able to access his Godly power, albeit with consequences, was a bit of a copout.
My other gripe was a matter of personal taste. Boatman told a funny tale but I felt like I read it before. As someone who went to Catholic school for 12 years and got dragged to church every Sunday morning for a couple decades, I've read a lot of religious-themed, gods in the modern world fiction, and I've also read a lot of humorous fantasy, and I didn't feel like this was breaking any new ground. Parts of it were really Neil Gaiman-ish, other parts Christopher Moore, and there was a dash of Lord of Light lurking in there.
Last God Standing was a funny read but I can't give it more than a 3. If I hadn't read so many similar books in the past, I'd probably give it a four, though.
I got this from the fine folks at Angry Robot via Netgalley.
So it seems Michael Boatman of Arl$$ and Spin City fame is also a writer and a pretty funny one at that. Once I knew who Boatman was, I kept picturing him in the role of Lando Cooper. Before I get any further, how awesome is it that the main character's full name is Lando Calrissian Darnell Cooper?
Last God Standing is a humorous fantasy that also has some good ideas about gods and belief in it. Lando's a pretty relatable former deity, still living with his mother, still struggling to become what he wants to be. His relationship with his girlfriend is pretty believable, being afraid of meeting her parents since he's kind of a screw up and her father is due to be knighted. Lando's divorced parents were by far my favorite supporting cast members, though.
The conflict among the gods was well done and the scope of destruction when gods clash reminded me of some recent super hero movies. Speaking of super heroes, Lando's geek references were great and not overdone.
However, I liked the book but I didn't love it. Firstly, I thought Lando being mortal but still being able to access his Godly power, albeit with consequences, was a bit of a copout.
My other gripe was a matter of personal taste. Boatman told a funny tale but I felt like I read it before. As someone who went to Catholic school for 12 years and got dragged to church every Sunday morning for a couple decades, I've read a lot of religious-themed, gods in the modern world fiction, and I've also read a lot of humorous fantasy, and I didn't feel like this was breaking any new ground. Parts of it were really Neil Gaiman-ish, other parts Christopher Moore, and there was a dash of Lord of Light lurking in there.
Last God Standing was a funny read but I can't give it more than a 3. If I hadn't read so many similar books in the past, I'd probably give it a four, though.
whatsisface's review
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book felt like the rough draft of a fanfic self insert for American Gods. There were constant typos throughout the book and inconsistent in world rules.
lewis_fishman's review
4.0
just a bit of fun really. is this my return to goodreads? is this a one off? i have no idea. watch this space
amberunmasked's review
5.0
When I saw LAST GOD STANDING by Michael Boatman in my list of Angry Robot announcements, the author’s name didn’t ring a bell. I took in the pitch paragraph and thought it sounded funny. Then I realized who Boatman is in a delayed, “Oh! THAT guy!” moment. I didn’t know that the handsome actor from Spin City, The Good Wife, and Anger Management was an established novelist. To be honest, I only knew him from Spin City and never saw anything else in his long list of acting jobs. I searched further to see if LAST GOD STANDING was his first taste of writing only to learn that he’s been around the horror literary world for quite some time in that subgenre of “the bloodier, the better” which Wikipedia refers to as splatterpunk.
Are we at that point where we can add “-punk” to anything and people understand what it is? It started with cyberpunk, dieselpunk, steampunk. Now there’s cornpunk, splatterpunk and I’m inventing comicpunk right here, right now. My followers and I tend to be heavily invested in the comic book scene so it compels me to inform you that I would call LAST GOD STANDING either godpunk or comicpunk. It’s a multi-pantheon whirlwind of religious figures taking sides in a modern Armageddon but there’s so much reference to comic books, one can instantly tell Boatman is a big ol’ nerd just like us. “ONE OF US. ONE OF US. ONE OF US!” Point of fact: his human embodiment for the once Judeo-Christian God Almighty is named Lando Calrissian Darnell Cooper, an African-American stand up comedian who works part-time in his father’s automotive business with the wanderlust of a dreamer rather than a blue collar worker.
The book moved along so well bringing a multiple god battles. The gods had agreed to be retired through a Covenant when it was deemed that humans were perfectly fine having free will and no longer needed personal interference. Not all the gods were happy sitting around finding new worlds to rule and old realm competition reared up. This rather perfectly describes most retired humans I know. The Greek gods popped up for an uprising. Boatman portrays Zeus more off the wall than any of the other gods. "Cloud Snorter and Hymen Smasher" are among the monikers. The Celtic Morrigan, whose human persona is a romance writer in Boston, pitched in to help Lando run a good defense at the Vatican when Hannibal, not even a god but a figure so legendary he wielded non-human powers on stolen divinity. And even inside young Lando, the Navajo’s Changing Woman was obligated to act as his conscience until the human man learned how to handle his true origin. Lando was born embodied with God but wasn’t aware of it until it was revealed to him. He lived a life with mentally ill symptoms like talking to this Changing Woman he called Connie, talking with animals, and suffering migraines when other gods were misbehaving. His human parents had no idea and thought they had a rather directionless son.
My only criticism is that the battle scenes were hard to follow not only in movement but in location. These are immortals for all intents and purposes though some could “die” - who could transport between countries and planets and multiverses except for Lando who required assistance of other Aspects and Angels. Only a few of the former gods chose to take human forms. Buddha, by the way, is an overweight comic shop owner filled with joyful philosophies and gas both of which he shares openly. I wasn’t sure if the locations were really on Earth unless it was especially clear like the Vatican scene. The epic snowy showdown at the end seemed to be otherworldly but then there was reference at the end of the story the North Pole.
Lando has the ability to reset things after each battle so there is an easy way to explain how all the humans of the world didn’t notice titans toppling buildings. One of the resets causes a trajectory shift and the world is not the Judeo-Christian-Islamic dominant one we start off with and know in our real world. The parallel world is Indo-Egyptian. Boatman does a beautiful job not deriding the Biblical based paradigm when this shift happens. Some of it comes down to prosaic mythos like someone who appears beautiful turns “ugly” and menacing when their evil side comes out; but then it’s not really them because The Devil made them do those terrible things.
Every single politician of newsworthiness has been called the Antichrist during my own lifetime, parties matter not. The Devil is never just some average Joe. He’s always handsome beyond words unless he shows his true pan-like form. I got that same feeling here. Even when Archangel Gabriel is up to no good, his form becomes disfigured and blackened. If it were that easy to spot evil in the real world, voting and job interviewing would be a whole lot easier.
I have no doubt at all that my fellow comic nerds who pick up books without pictures would speed through LAST GOD STANDING in a week, maybe less if you habitually have reading time. (It took me two weeks as I’m always apologizing for being a slow reader). It’s a fun read and God is relatable for the first time. He’s a young man in love, wanting to follow his dream and just once make his parents proud.
If you’re brave, you know to look up Boatman’s horror works. I, however, am not. I’ll stick with the comedies.
Are we at that point where we can add “-punk” to anything and people understand what it is? It started with cyberpunk, dieselpunk, steampunk. Now there’s cornpunk, splatterpunk and I’m inventing comicpunk right here, right now. My followers and I tend to be heavily invested in the comic book scene so it compels me to inform you that I would call LAST GOD STANDING either godpunk or comicpunk. It’s a multi-pantheon whirlwind of religious figures taking sides in a modern Armageddon but there’s so much reference to comic books, one can instantly tell Boatman is a big ol’ nerd just like us. “ONE OF US. ONE OF US. ONE OF US!” Point of fact: his human embodiment for the once Judeo-Christian God Almighty is named Lando Calrissian Darnell Cooper, an African-American stand up comedian who works part-time in his father’s automotive business with the wanderlust of a dreamer rather than a blue collar worker.
The book moved along so well bringing a multiple god battles. The gods had agreed to be retired through a Covenant when it was deemed that humans were perfectly fine having free will and no longer needed personal interference. Not all the gods were happy sitting around finding new worlds to rule and old realm competition reared up. This rather perfectly describes most retired humans I know. The Greek gods popped up for an uprising. Boatman portrays Zeus more off the wall than any of the other gods. "Cloud Snorter and Hymen Smasher" are among the monikers. The Celtic Morrigan, whose human persona is a romance writer in Boston, pitched in to help Lando run a good defense at the Vatican when Hannibal, not even a god but a figure so legendary he wielded non-human powers on stolen divinity. And even inside young Lando, the Navajo’s Changing Woman was obligated to act as his conscience until the human man learned how to handle his true origin. Lando was born embodied with God but wasn’t aware of it until it was revealed to him. He lived a life with mentally ill symptoms like talking to this Changing Woman he called Connie, talking with animals, and suffering migraines when other gods were misbehaving. His human parents had no idea and thought they had a rather directionless son.
My only criticism is that the battle scenes were hard to follow not only in movement but in location. These are immortals for all intents and purposes though some could “die” - who could transport between countries and planets and multiverses except for Lando who required assistance of other Aspects and Angels. Only a few of the former gods chose to take human forms. Buddha, by the way, is an overweight comic shop owner filled with joyful philosophies and gas both of which he shares openly. I wasn’t sure if the locations were really on Earth unless it was especially clear like the Vatican scene. The epic snowy showdown at the end seemed to be otherworldly but then there was reference at the end of the story the North Pole.
Lando has the ability to reset things after each battle so there is an easy way to explain how all the humans of the world didn’t notice titans toppling buildings. One of the resets causes a trajectory shift and the world is not the Judeo-Christian-Islamic dominant one we start off with and know in our real world. The parallel world is Indo-Egyptian. Boatman does a beautiful job not deriding the Biblical based paradigm when this shift happens. Some of it comes down to prosaic mythos like someone who appears beautiful turns “ugly” and menacing when their evil side comes out; but then it’s not really them because The Devil made them do those terrible things.
Every single politician of newsworthiness has been called the Antichrist during my own lifetime, parties matter not. The Devil is never just some average Joe. He’s always handsome beyond words unless he shows his true pan-like form. I got that same feeling here. Even when Archangel Gabriel is up to no good, his form becomes disfigured and blackened. If it were that easy to spot evil in the real world, voting and job interviewing would be a whole lot easier.
I have no doubt at all that my fellow comic nerds who pick up books without pictures would speed through LAST GOD STANDING in a week, maybe less if you habitually have reading time. (It took me two weeks as I’m always apologizing for being a slow reader). It’s a fun read and God is relatable for the first time. He’s a young man in love, wanting to follow his dream and just once make his parents proud.
If you’re brave, you know to look up Boatman’s horror works. I, however, am not. I’ll stick with the comedies.
kmaller01's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Lazy plot and clicking your fingers for a time jump is not ok when it’s used multiple times in a book. That served with a side of American Russian propaganda not a fan
mazza57's review
2.0
it does not read at the level expected by the blurb. It felt more like the description of a video game than that of God made man. everything was only lightly brushed
mckenzierichardson's review
3.0
I received a copy of this book through Goodreads' First Reads in exchange for an honest review.
It was really difficult to decide on a rating for this book, because there was so much going on. Some things I liked and some things I absolutely hated, but overall I think 3 stars is a fair rating.
One of the things this book had going for it was that it had a really unique and interesting story. I loved the variety of religious figures that pop up throughout the book. However as cool as the story was, a lot of the plot points and descriptions were really confusing. During every battle scene it was hard to stay interested because I was so confused about what was even going on.
There were good parts and bad parts of Boatman's descriptions. He had a lot of really good metaphors worked into his descriptions throughout the narrative. However, I absolutely hated his descriptions of women. Every woman was highly sexualized when described and was continuously evaluated on her appearances, even Lando's mother. There was also a good deal of weightism throughout the text. When meeting Surabhi's sister, Calliope, for the first time, Lando pokes fun at her weight maliciously in his narrative. When Calliope counters her family's criticisms, she is largely ignored and then easily forgotten about. Also, Boatman's descriptions of mental health issues are really ill-formed. He makes ignorant jokes about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. On the plus side, Boatman does include a variety of racially- and ethically-diverse characters including African-Americans, Caucasians, Japanese-Americans, ect.
So as far as story goes, this one was interesting but confusing and hard to follow. Description-wise there were ups and downs. Character-wise most of the people were either unlikeable or not described well enough to actually get to know, making them pretty up relatable and anonymous. Overall, this book was decent.
It was really difficult to decide on a rating for this book, because there was so much going on. Some things I liked and some things I absolutely hated, but overall I think 3 stars is a fair rating.
One of the things this book had going for it was that it had a really unique and interesting story. I loved the variety of religious figures that pop up throughout the book. However as cool as the story was, a lot of the plot points and descriptions were really confusing. During every battle scene it was hard to stay interested because I was so confused about what was even going on.
There were good parts and bad parts of Boatman's descriptions. He had a lot of really good metaphors worked into his descriptions throughout the narrative. However, I absolutely hated his descriptions of women. Every woman was highly sexualized when described and was continuously evaluated on her appearances, even Lando's mother. There was also a good deal of weightism throughout the text. When meeting Surabhi's sister, Calliope, for the first time, Lando pokes fun at her weight maliciously in his narrative. When Calliope counters her family's criticisms, she is largely ignored and then easily forgotten about. Also, Boatman's descriptions of mental health issues are really ill-formed. He makes ignorant jokes about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. On the plus side, Boatman does include a variety of racially- and ethically-diverse characters including African-Americans, Caucasians, Japanese-Americans, ect.
So as far as story goes, this one was interesting but confusing and hard to follow. Description-wise there were ups and downs. Character-wise most of the people were either unlikeable or not described well enough to actually get to know, making them pretty up relatable and anonymous. Overall, this book was decent.
bibliotropic's review
3.0
What if God was one of us? (Oh come on, you really didn’t see that song title coming with a concept like this? I’m just surprised it didn’t get mentioned in the book itself!) The god of Judeo-Christian-Islamic religion is living a mortal life, as are most of the gods from various pantheons through humanity’s history. Yahweh, in this case, is a black stand-up comedian named Lando, who hails from a tremendously effed-up family. Lando would be pretty content to go through life as a normal guy, without any divine issues getting in the way of things, but other gods seem to have different ideas and are bent on revenge for past slights and sins. Add in the fact that these attacks on Lando seem to be part of a plan by some unknown and newly-emerging god for the modern age, and Lando finds himself in over his head in more ways than one.
Boatman gets serious kudos for taking the basic concept behind this book and running with it to places that others often wouldn’t. I’m sure there are some people out there who read this and were ticked off that God was a black guy who makes a living by being rather absurd on stage, or that all the myths are true and that all prior deities from other religions are just as real (and often just as corporeal and real and yet still divine) as the God of Christianity (and Judaism, and Islam). Which says more about them than about the book, really, but I mention it to show that Boatman clearly isn’t afraid to buck trends and go against the status quo just because it might anger people with a narrow-worldview. And there’s a strong vein of humour running through the novel, as can be expected given that it’s told from the first-person viewpoint of a stand-up comic. Keen observation and wit is the order of the day, and there’s plenty of opportunity for it seeing as how there are so many twisted characters, human and divine alike. It’s an extremely diverse cast of characters that Boatman brings to the table.
Part of the problem is the general lack of tension expressed when it comes to divine battles. On pages where two deities are fighting it out and reality is getting warped and twisted as an effect, I figure I should be able to feel something. But no matter how often those scenes occurred, the most I felt was confused, since Lando himself seemed more concerned with witty retorts and insults to make his opponent angry than he did with how the world is twisting around him. It seems odd to complain about how unrealistically unreality was presented, but with distanced narration and scattered commentary on what was essentially the laws of physics and perception getting thrown out the window, it made it hard to feel anything from those scenes.
Especially when it gets obvious quickly that the scenes have no actual lasting effect, since Lando can just wipe out the time and set reality back to rights again. No consequences, and so no threat.
Oddly, the parts of the novel that felt most developed to me were the ones that centred around Lando’s mundane mortal life. Issues with his (incredibly gorgeous and self-assured) rich girlfriend and her family. Trying to please his parents. Watching his mother fall prey to a charismatic cult. These pieces of he story were fascinating, and stranger in many ways than the parts about divinity. Secondary to that was the section of the book in which Lando finds himself in an alternate reality, one with a history very different from our own, and that was well put together and detailed and so fascinating that I could have read an entire novel set in that reality and been perfectly happy with it. It was a shame to me that it was such a short part of the book and so near the end.
In many ways, it felt like the characters relied on their extreme diversity in place of any real development. I can give you a dozen descriptive words and labels for some of the characters, and with maybe 2 exceptions, none of the characters were actually deeper than those labels. It was as though readers were getting little more than an overview of them, and the diversity was a bit of a fake-out, a way of making characters seem deeper and more nuanced than they really were.
Last God Standing played with some very interesting concepts and ideas and was nicely thought-provoking at times, but it was sporadic and uneven, and that was the novel’s real downfall. It had some great visual promise, the kind of thing that would actually make for a great film, but the presentation as a novel didn’t do the trick for me, and in spite of the promise that it held I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. Worth a read, and it will probably stimulate some discussions on the nature of reality and divinity, but as with many of the characters, the surface was barely scratched and the ideas don’t get too deep. Good for light reading and when you’re in the mood for fast and snappy dialogue with a good sense of wit and levity, but if you’re looking for something more, you’re not likely to find it here.
(Book received in exchange for an honest review.)
Boatman gets serious kudos for taking the basic concept behind this book and running with it to places that others often wouldn’t. I’m sure there are some people out there who read this and were ticked off that God was a black guy who makes a living by being rather absurd on stage, or that all the myths are true and that all prior deities from other religions are just as real (and often just as corporeal and real and yet still divine) as the God of Christianity (and Judaism, and Islam). Which says more about them than about the book, really, but I mention it to show that Boatman clearly isn’t afraid to buck trends and go against the status quo just because it might anger people with a narrow-worldview. And there’s a strong vein of humour running through the novel, as can be expected given that it’s told from the first-person viewpoint of a stand-up comic. Keen observation and wit is the order of the day, and there’s plenty of opportunity for it seeing as how there are so many twisted characters, human and divine alike. It’s an extremely diverse cast of characters that Boatman brings to the table.
Part of the problem is the general lack of tension expressed when it comes to divine battles. On pages where two deities are fighting it out and reality is getting warped and twisted as an effect, I figure I should be able to feel something. But no matter how often those scenes occurred, the most I felt was confused, since Lando himself seemed more concerned with witty retorts and insults to make his opponent angry than he did with how the world is twisting around him. It seems odd to complain about how unrealistically unreality was presented, but with distanced narration and scattered commentary on what was essentially the laws of physics and perception getting thrown out the window, it made it hard to feel anything from those scenes.
Especially when it gets obvious quickly that the scenes have no actual lasting effect, since Lando can just wipe out the time and set reality back to rights again. No consequences, and so no threat.
Oddly, the parts of the novel that felt most developed to me were the ones that centred around Lando’s mundane mortal life. Issues with his (incredibly gorgeous and self-assured) rich girlfriend and her family. Trying to please his parents. Watching his mother fall prey to a charismatic cult. These pieces of he story were fascinating, and stranger in many ways than the parts about divinity. Secondary to that was the section of the book in which Lando finds himself in an alternate reality, one with a history very different from our own, and that was well put together and detailed and so fascinating that I could have read an entire novel set in that reality and been perfectly happy with it. It was a shame to me that it was such a short part of the book and so near the end.
In many ways, it felt like the characters relied on their extreme diversity in place of any real development. I can give you a dozen descriptive words and labels for some of the characters, and with maybe 2 exceptions, none of the characters were actually deeper than those labels. It was as though readers were getting little more than an overview of them, and the diversity was a bit of a fake-out, a way of making characters seem deeper and more nuanced than they really were.
Last God Standing played with some very interesting concepts and ideas and was nicely thought-provoking at times, but it was sporadic and uneven, and that was the novel’s real downfall. It had some great visual promise, the kind of thing that would actually make for a great film, but the presentation as a novel didn’t do the trick for me, and in spite of the promise that it held I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. Worth a read, and it will probably stimulate some discussions on the nature of reality and divinity, but as with many of the characters, the surface was barely scratched and the ideas don’t get too deep. Good for light reading and when you’re in the mood for fast and snappy dialogue with a good sense of wit and levity, but if you’re looking for something more, you’re not likely to find it here.
(Book received in exchange for an honest review.)
zizabeph's review
3.0
I almost stopped reading several times. Fairly derivative and hard to care about the protagonist in the first half. ..or ever.
Some interesting concepts, all to the idea that humans have (almost) outgrown their need for gods.
girl talking to a god: "you tell me that toy are real, but also that you were never what we believed you to be. ..that we have looked too long in the wrong direction. "
Unlike American God's, which is deities fighting for that last of human belief, the idea here is that humanity's first demon, fear itself, tries to destroy all other gods and in so doing, lead to humanity's destruction. The elder gods, led by Yahweh, fight for the freedom of humans to choose for themselves.
Some interesting concepts, all to the idea that humans have (almost) outgrown their need for gods.
girl talking to a god: "you tell me that toy are real, but also that you were never what we believed you to be. ..that we have looked too long in the wrong direction. "
Unlike American God's, which is deities fighting for that last of human belief, the idea here is that humanity's first demon, fear itself, tries to destroy all other gods and in so doing, lead to humanity's destruction. The elder gods, led by Yahweh, fight for the freedom of humans to choose for themselves.
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