Take a premise borrowed from the novel and movie The Omen, about the birth of the Antichrist; add a little sharp Twain-like satire about religious fanaticism, new-age fads of the week, and various other human oddities; spice with a generous portion of the Hitchhiker's Guide/Monte Python type of British silliness. The result is Good Omens.
The baby Antichrist is supposed to be substituted for the newly born baby of the American Cultural Attache' to Britain, but Sister Mary Loquacious, a Satanic Nun of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl, messes things up and mistakenly gives the Son of Satan to someone else. Now the scheduled time for Armageddon is fast approaching, and the angel Aziraphale and the fallen angel and Satanic representative Crowly must locate the now eleven-year-old Antichrist so that the final battle between good and evil can take place. The only trouble with this is that neither one is sure he wants the end of the world. They have come to like humans.
This novel is irreverent, sometimes keenly insightful, but mostly it's just silly, wacky, outrageous, etc., etc. It's fun to read, but you can forget it immediately afterward.
Two bits I particularly liked: audio tapes (now it would be CDs) left in a car for more than two weeks all turn into The Best of Queen; and when Marvin O. Bagman got religion, it "was not the quiet, personal kind, that involves doing good deeds and living a better life; not even the kind that involves putting on a suit and ringing people's doorbells; but the kind that involves having your own TV network and getting people to send you money."
Recommended to people who liked The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Monte Python's The Life of Brian.
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