American Gods

Why it’s on the list: Neil Gaiman’s novel of an ex-convict, Shadow, driving across the United States in the middle of a war between the old gods immigrants brought with them and the new ones the country has made — media, markets, technology. Its premise, that a society’s real objects of worship can be read off what it pays attention to, is why it gets cited well outside fantasy.

Where I heard about it

• Spotted at SFO — July 2023 (Books photo album)

• The a16z infrastructure team — on the a16z Infra Reading List, in the Fantasy section: the third and most ambitious of the four titles under its Neil Gaiman entry.

Connections

• a16z Infra Reading List — the list this came from; Fantasy section, Gaiman author entry.
• Neil Gaiman — the author.
• Good Omens — first of the four selected works.
• Stardust — second of the four.
• Anansi Boys — fourth of the four, which shares a character with this one.
• a16z — the firm whose infrastructure team curates the list.