Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Rating: B
In Omnia it is time for the arrival of the Eighth
Prophet to reveal himself and convey to the followers of Om the Great God’s
desires. Except, when the god goes to the
disc in order to find his prophet he finds himself in the body of a tortoise,
only able to made himself heard to a slow, stupid novice, Brutha. Brutha is the only person in all of Omnia who
truly believes in Om the god and not just the rules and rituals of the
church. In true Pratchett fashion, it is
up to Brutha to save the day and restore the god, although he doesn’t exactly
realize that he needs to do as much.
Small Gods is not my favourite
of the Discworld novels. It wasn’t as funny as the previous books in
the series, although the plot was a bit more intricate than others. My big problem with the series was that the characters
were harder to get into. All of the
characters of the book are new to the series (although the Librarian is briefly
alluded to) and very few of them are narrator characters. It takes a bit for both Om and Brutha to
become interesting narrators, and as such it isn’t until about half way through
the book that it actually becomes interesting.
Prior to that it more feels like a long, somewhat dry preamble to the
actual plot.
Once Small Gods begins to
pick up its steam it really takes off and flourishes. As the meaning of Om’s predicament becomes
clear and Brutha begins to flourish under his influence the plot begins to really
take shape, things get interesting, and the fact that the novel doesn’t contain
the same level of humour as earlier books is forgotten. At times things are still a bit overly
complicated, and there are elements that I thought could have been toned down
(particularly in regards to the philosophers), but the book does hold its
own. My one big problem with the second
half of the novel is that the consequences of some of Brutha’s actions are
never really fully explained. Not the best in the series, but overall still a good book.
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