The thing is, Iain Banks is a very special writer. You need to be ready for him because his stories require a lot of focus and patience. This is what makes him great. Almost always, there is a payoff that makes all the wondering of where he's is going worthwhile. Not all crow-related encounters involve the whole bird. Perhaps you’ve come across evidence of its presence in the form of feathers. Ok, for S2, the most interesting connection is that matchboxes are used to communicate from one character to another; I can see this an inspiration for the matchbox Gabriel uses. Damn, this book was terrific! I don't know why I didn't stumble across it earlier, given it was published in 1992 and was adapted by the BBC as a miniseries in 1996 (oh wait .... the 90's were the years that got eaten by my "professional career"... the mindless TV years). Anyway, no matter. One of the paintings in the pub The Dirty Donkey shows a dramatic image of Agnes Nutter being burned at the stake.

It's so easy to choose this famous opening line for starting a review of Crow Road, and therein lies the danger of focusing only on the sarcasm, the tongue-in-cheek, flippant running commentary provided by Prentice McHoan on the history of his family and on his own growing up process, as angsty and self-conscious and annoying as only smartypants teenagers can be. But there's more going on under the provocative surface, and for me the last line of the quote is the key to the novel: Prentice is obsessed with death, not without reason, seeing as he looses a lot more of his relatives and friends before the end of the novel - can't say who exactly, spoilers and all that ... The quest to define his place in the real world and to come to terms with loss will overshadow the more conventional storyline of Prentice chasing girls and learning about sex. Frankly, I believe this romantic angle could have been handled better : not only could I guess the outcome right from the start, but the final revelations made me laugh at the silly instead of touching my tender bones Morse code WTF . Prentice did have a nice turn of phrase when he describes the girl he loves : the stunning, the fabulous, the golden-haired, vellus faced, diamond-eyed Verity, upwardly mobile scionette of the house of Urvill, the jewel beside the jowls; the girl who, for me, had put the lectual in intellectual, and phany in epiphany and the ibid in libidinous! I haven't seen a thread for discussing The Crow Road yet, which we are shown at least 3 times in S2. This post will have the most convincing (to me) connections to the book and I'll post some of the more far fetched stuff below. These aren't perfect parallels; like the body switch in S1 is loosely inspired by Tale of Two Cities (except they both switch and both live) and the final 15 is loosely inspired by the first proposal in P&P, we're just looking for ideas or themes that Neil might be playing with. So excited to hear what others have found too! This is a wink toward the fact that, until the series premiered, the pronunciation of Aziraphale’s name was one of the most prominent questions fans had for Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. No joke, there was genuine discourse around this, discussion of angelic naming conventions and so forth. There was the suggestion that both authors had given different answers; that there had been one pronunciation decided upon beforehand, but that it didn’t seem to catch on, and the authors had given up. Even within the show there’s a bit of a discrepancy, with some characters pronouncing it “Azira-fell” versus “Azira-fail” (though that could largely be an accent issue, which is fascinating all by itself). Watching Furfur fumble over it several times was a nice little shoutout to those of us who have struggled with it for decades.The crystal ball in the magic shop seen in Episode 4’s 1940s-set minisode ‘Nazi Zombie Flesheaters’ is the same one used by Anathema Device in season one. Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife. The name of Nina’s coffee shop, Give Me Coffee Or Give Me Death, is apparently a shout-out to a famous stand-up sketch by Suzy Eddie Izzard, in which he explains why the Spanish Inquisition would not have worked if carried out by the Church of England, because they would just offer victims “tea and cake or death?” and everyone would choose cake. In McHoan, Banks has created a faulted, sometimes frivolous and always wildly entertaining character who introduces us to his merry band of sometimes semi-psycho friends and family as he delves into a family mystery. This is a book best read alone unless you want to spend a lot of time explaining to others why you are often laughing out loud--but it begs for a book club to share it with! If you saw many crows, traditional interpretations attribute different meanings, depending on the number.

The Crow Road not only thematically connects to Gabriel and the overarching themes of mortality in Good Omens, but it also ties into Aziraphale and Crowley's heart-wrenching conclusion in season 2. Crowley, with the help of Nina and Maggie, comes to terms with his emotions for Aziraphale and implores him to remain on Earth, promising happiness together. However, Aziraphale opts for a prestigious position offered by the Metatron in Heaven. The Crow Road additionally delves into Prentice grappling with unrequited love, similar to Crowley's predicament in the finale of Good Omens season 2. Moreover, it explores unconventional love that transgresses societal norms, with Prentice harboring feelings for his cousin, Verity, while Crowley, a demon, finds himself enamored with an angel. In Episode 3’s minisode ‘The Resurrectionists”, Dr Dalrymple’s laudanum proclaims on the label that it is guaranteed by C.M.O.T. Dibbler chemists. Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler is a beloved Discworld character who turns up anywhere there is money to be made, but can most often be found selling inedible pies and sausages-inna-bun on the streets of the Disc’s premier city, Ankh-Morpork. No matter how uncomfortable this could be in the moment, the benefits to your longer-term wellbeing will be far greater. 7. Crow FeathersBanks tells his story mostly through Prentice's eyes, employing him as the first person narrator - and does an admirable job at creating a character who is sympathetic but also at times unlikable, who behaves like a jerk and is often not aware of things around him, but with whom we cannot help but sympathize, because we can remember full well how confused we were at one point in our lives or another. Parts of novel are set in another timeline and told in the third person, letting the reader see the past of Prentice's family and its members present themselves, instead of being interpreted by someone else. What could easily have ended up as a mess works perfectly and gives the reader a more intimate insight into the storyline and the formation of its characters - in particular his father Kenneth, whose stories about Scottish myths and legends capture the attention and minds of children. Even though the sections are chronologially out of sequence they compliment one another, never feeling artificial, showing how times past haunt the times present. Apart from the McHoans, this is also the story of the Urvills; landed gentry, who are related to the McHoans by marriage. Fergus Urvill, the Lord of the Castle, was married to Prentice's Aunt Fiona. They have two beautiful daughters Helen and Diane; the household also consists of Verity Walker, Fergus Urvill's niece, who is the target of Prentice's hopeless infatuation. It takes four funerals, a wedding, and immeasurable amounts of whisky, but in between hangovers Prentice is pretty smart, and pieces it all together for an ending that is maybe a little too neat, but is definitely satisfying. So – we apologize that the Good Omens ending explained was somewhat long-winded, but there was an awful lot to cover in that final episode! If you have more questions about season 2, we have some further guides for you – such as When did Aziraphale and Crowley first meet? And When does season 2 take place? Among the graffiti on the wall of Give Me Coffee Or Give Me Death is a snake image with the names Terry and Neil written on it.

Some people interpret this as a sign of negative karma. Is it possible that you’ve harmed someone in some way? It may be that this person is harboring resentment towards you. And you may yourself be carrying feelings of guilt. A parallel plot is Prentice's gradual transition from an adolescent fixation on one young woman to a more mature love for another. Encounters that are more obviously out of the ordinary might be more likely to hold a spiritual message. But that doesn’t mean that what appears on the surface as an everyday occurrence can’t also have a deeper meaning. In the magic shop in episode four’s minisode, David Tennant as Crowley plays with a fez; this was a frequent tic of his successor as the Doctor, Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor, who liked to proclaim that “fezzes are cool”. Beelzebub describes the container fly in Episode 6 as “bigger on the inside”, which is, of course, the way just about everybody who sets foot inside it describes the TARDIS (except Victorian Clara, who said it was “smaller on the outside”).If this chimes with you, the crow could be prompting you to reflect on your actions. Why did you behave the way you did, and what have you learned from the experience? Do you need to clear the air with the person you’ve wronged? Or better yet, apologise to them? Crows, as we’ve seen, are skilled problem solvers. A crow appearing to you in this way could be a message to tap into your own instincts to overcome barriers. It turns out that the reason Gabriel had left heaven is because they wanted another war with hell and another Armageddon. Gabriel had been secretly meeting with Beelzebub (Shelley Conn) in various bars and pubs on earth, and they had become close. Therefore Gabriel doesn’t want a war with hell.

That seems like a solid philosophy to me. I’ll try more by Banks. I also nabbed a free copy of The Wasp Factory, which I take it is very different in tone. Any recommendations after that? Could I even cope with his science fiction (published under the name Iain M. Banks)? In Episode 2’s minisode ‘A Companion to Owls’, Job is played by David Tennant’s father-in-law Peter Davison (best known as the Fifth Doctor from Doctor Who, in which Tennant of course plays the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors) and Job’s son Ennon is played by Ty Tennant, Davison’s real-life grandson and David Tennant’s son (seen in 2022 playing Young Aegon Targaryen in HBO’s House of the Dragon).Crowley says that he can’t hear nightingales (which they heard at the end of season 1, and is how the book ends – sob). Crowley kisses Aziraphale and he infuriatingly says; “I forgive you.” Crowley responds with “don’t bother.” Crow’s feathers are symbolic of balance. They are also the means by which the crow takes flight, offering freedom and a fresh perspective. There are some parallels between the significance accorded to crows and magpies. But there are some differences too – and sadly, there’s no rhyme for crows to help us!