(Today, of course, we’ll be munching on this during our meeting…)
There are no inconsistencies in the Discworld books; ocassionally, however, there are alternate pasts.
–Terry Pratchett, at alt-fan-pratchett
Men at Arms
“Of course, just because we’ve heard a spine-chilling, blood-curdling scream of the sort to make your very marrow freeze in your bones doesn’t automatically mean there’s anything wrong.”
– (Terry Pratchett, Soul Music)
It’s another Death book! And it introduces one of the central characters in the Death clan: Susan Sto Helit, daughter of Mort and Ysabell. Susan is very fair-minded, skeptical, practical, and down-to-earth sensible; it’s not that she’s not unreasonable, in any way. It’s just that the world tends to be…
We see Death giving up on his duty (again. Must be Tuesday) and get an interesting plot twist on one of the final scenes in Mort. We get Quoth the Raven and the Death of Rats, and Susan falls in love for the first time.
Not to mention the many, many Rolling Stones, They Might Be Giants, U2, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Thelonius Monk, The Grateful Dead, Def Leppard, Elvis, and Beatles jokes…
Share your thoughts.
One of my favorites, and one I reread regularly. So many puns and homages and references…a beautiful piece of work. Depth, pathos, some meaningful insight into various parts of The Human Condition. And Opening Acts.
Favorite line: “We’re on a mission from Glod.”
I’m not much of a music buff, but Soul Music really tickled me with all the musical allusions and gags. Especially the recurring bits with Crash and his crew.
The novel is a good introduction to Susan, but I thought the non-resolution with Susan and Imp to be somewhat (heh) anticlimactic. But then that gets into the broader problem of trying to find an appropriate boyfriend/SO/soulmate for Susan, which took Terry a long time to resolve anyway.
I really liked it when it first came out, but it’s not one of the ones that’s grown on me, I must confess. Still worth a re-read and a chuckle, but lacks a certain something that later Susan books have. I do like the musical puns, and the whole Klatchian Foreign Legion bit too. Heh “Beau Nidle”
Also, IIRC, this is the introduction of Hex as well?
I saw the animated version recently and they made a pretty good stab at it, with the music with rocks in style evolving, sort of Elvis->Beatles->Hendrix
Biggest laugh, when the band are chased out of town (pseudopolis?) when Buddy says:
Additional things I liked that have not been elswhere mentioned -
the continuation of the Dean’s character arc, with his studded black leather robes the punk rock band ( and the search for the leopard skin pants)
the musician’s pawn shop
I really don’t like Soul Music. And I have no idea why. There isn’t anything I can point to and say I don’t like; and there are certainly parts I do like, like the discussion of Mort and Ysabell. And yet… I dunno. There’s something that bugs me about it.
Crash buying a deaf leopard, ‘Pathway to Paradise’ (“If anybody tries to play it, tell the troll to rip their head off” “What about a warning?” “That’ll be the warning”), ‘Sioni Bod Da’, Death on a motorbike (with a rose in his teeth), Asphalt the roadie… Loved it!
This is one of my least favourites. Mostly because I’m not a fan of music, but also because the puns overwhelm most of the humour this time. There are probably more parodies here than any other book, with the possible exception of Moving Pictures, but I like that one better.
In spite of having many enjoyable elements, this is my least favorite Discworld book. Not that rock music isn’t ripe for parody, but what’s left after “The Rutles” and “Spinal Tap”?
The only thing that distinguishes this book (for me) is that it introduces Susan. I say, enough already with Sam Vimes, give me more Susan. Along with Granny and Nanny, she’s my favorite Pratchett character.
The book begins badly, by doing away with Mort and Ysabel. My guess is that Pratchett felt he’d done all he could with Mort, and morphed the previously underused Ysabel into Susan. Okay. But I still think he could have gotten more mileage out of Mort.
Imp and the band are a non-starter for me. C.M.O.T. Dibbler never made it for me at all. I really wish he would cut his own throat and be done with it. And the whole book seems like one allusion after another.
This is not to say that I think the book sucks, but without Susan it would.
To each their own. This is still my favorite. It’s not Literature like Night Watch, but it’s close, and oh so hilarious. I discover or rediscover some lost gem every time I re-read it. Vimes is still The King, but Susan is at least, oh, Aretha in my pantheon of favorite characters.
