Some amount of time has passed since the end of American Gods, and Shadow Moon has been traversing around Europe. He ends up in Scotland, hired to be security for a mysterious party held in a mysterious mansion. As always, all is not as it seems.

It’s an interesting little follow-up to American Gods. There’s sort of a throw-away reveal about Shadow in the story. Who he is. I wish that had been elaborated on more. Maybe that’ll be the topic of any eventual full sequel to American Gods.

As for the content of this short itself, it’s a good read. As is Gaiman’s usual style, it starts off fairly slow, laying down the groundwork that the rest of the story builds upon. About halfway through, things pick up and come to a climax in a battle that I didn’t see coming. What if Grendel was still being fought by men, once a year? This is the story for you.

It’s a good follow-up. Not as good as the original novel, but how could it be? It’s a short story. A really good one, though.

(4 out of 5 wands)