The Old Gods have existed in America, brought in by faithful immigrants over millennia. But as their adherents dwindle, so do their powers.
Shadow Moon has just been released from prison, but has no prospects. His wife is dead, as is his best friend. No home, no job. He is engaged by a mysterious Mr. Wednesday as a bodyguard, as he travels around the country meeting unusual persons in improbable locations. As it turns out, Mr. Wednesday is the Norse God Odin, or at least, the version of Odin brought to the Americas by the early Viking raiders.
Mr. Wednesday, accompanied by Shadow moon, meets several other Old Gods, from Norse, Egyptian, Hindu, Celtic, African and various other mythologies, trying to rally them to his cause. He is up against the powerful “New Gods”, Technology, Media, Pop-culture, Transportation… everything the people worship now. Things go wrong and the new Gods kill Mr. Wednesday, which galvanizes the other Old Gods to heads to an all out war with the New ones. Shadow is called upon to mourn Odin, and in the process, dies himself.
But Odin, Mr. Wednesday,is actually running a 2-man con along with Loki, to destroy all other Gods, old and new, and take all their power for themselves. Shadow is brought back to life, and now with some magical powers of his own, works to end the reign of the cruel Gods.
It is hard to get the plot straight in your head soon after reading this book. Needlessly twisty, and riddled with arbitrary Deus ex machina characters who randomly pop up, do something, and then slide out of the story just as suddenly. The basic premise is interesting, but beyond that, the execution left much to be desired. Character buildup was minimal, and it is near impossible to separate the good guys from the bad; everyone seems to straddle both sides in a Machiavellian nightmare. There is probably some interesting back story to each character, but that is something only a student of comparative mythology may be expected to know. Much as I want to like this book, I find it hard to.