Small Gods

Terry Pratchett

Average Rating 7/10 (1 Review)

Brutha is the Chosen One.

His god has spoken to him, admittedly while currently in the shape of a tortoise.

Brutha is a simple lad. He can't read. He can't write. He's pretty good at growing melons. And his wants are few.

He wants to overthrow a huge and corrupt church. He wants to prevent a horrible holy war. He wants to stop the persecution of a philosopher who has dared to suggest that, contrary to the Church's dogma, the Discworld really does go through space on the back of an enormous turtle.*

He wants peace and justice and brotherly love. He wants the Inquisition to stop torturing him now, please.

But most of all, what he really wants, more than anything else, is for his god to Choose Someone Else...

*Which is true, but when has that ever mattered?

'I'm beginning to think that Terry Pratchett is the best humorist this country has seen since P. G. Wodehouse - less coarse than Tom Sharpe, less cynical than Douglas Adams, simply a pure joy.'

'Terry Pratchett... just keeps getting better and better... Pratchett is at the peak of his powers; it's hard to think of any humorist writing in Britain today who can match him.

Review by Chrissi (300401) Rating (7/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 7/10
Small Gods is one of those TP books which stands alone. Although they take place on the Discworld, they have no links with other places.

This is the story of Brutha, a novice monk of the state religion of Omnia, worshipping the Great God Om. The head of the religion is Vorbis, a not-very-nice man, he is not the top priest or anything, he is just the one who is really in charge, he does not have to bother with all the surface stuff, he can just get on with the nitty-gritty behind the scenes stuff.

Brutha is a good novice monk, he works in the vegatable gardens and knows all of the religious tracts off by heart. And what is more, he really believes, not just believes, but Believes, if you know what I mean.

So, when Om comes to him in the form of a small tortoise, he thinks that it is a demon come to tempt him. He feels that a tortoise is not a fitting guise for a great god, but Om is unable to change, (been ill you know, wandering in the desert...) Brutha is a very literal young man, with a perfect memory, he does not understand what it means when he is told that a conversation never took place, because it did, and he can navigate his way through mazes because he knows where he is.

He thinks this is all very simple, and does not appreciate quite how much trouble it can get him into. And it does.

I love the ability of Terry Pratchett to take an idea through to the obvious, if absurd conclusion. This story reflects a view of a religion as a belief system based upon a god, but which has become too far removed, so that people now believe in the church, not the God. An interesting thought, I am sure you will agree.

The characters in Small Gods are great, philosophers, priests and people living at the top of poles, it makes you think, truly it does, about what I do not know, but it does make you think...
Chrissi (30th April 2001)