It’s one of two books that I have signed by Terry. 'Nuff said.
Well said.
As perfect an Omnian act…
But yeah, it’s because Brutha is that type of person, But it’s because Brutha is that type of person that he believed in Om, and could see Om in the first place. In fact, I think Brutha is one of the few completely moral and good people on the Disc.
Myfavourite Pterry book. It has it all - the comedy, the humanism. Deep thoughts.
I think Brutha is a good person in spite of his faith, not because of.
My fav. quote:
"And it all meant this: that there is hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal, kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
Vorbis loves knowing that. A man who knew that, knew everything he needed to know about people"
I’ve said before, Vorbis is, to me, an expansion and yet also a crystallization of Dios from Pyramids
You know, Brutha and Carrot Ironfoundersson have quite a lot in common.
“Bishops move sideways. That’s why they often turn up where kings don’t expect them to be.”
Wonderful book. I especially love the hermit in the desert (I don’t remember the name and I don’t have the book here) who lets the small gods treat him to otherworldly pleasures just for the privilege of enjoying his belief.
He once said in an interview: “I think I’m probably an atheist, but rather angry with God for not existing.”
I can’t find a link, though.
St Ungulant, I think.
I didn’t like this book when I first read it… I’m not really sure why not, but I think it was because I didn’t feel it was played for laughs as much as the Rincewind series are. Coming back to it and reading it again, however, I’ve realised that it is a lot deeper than I first thought.
The development of both Brutha and Om as characters - that they change from one end of the book to the other, and who is the dominant one, is very noticeable - but how it happens is subtle.
Vorbis’s character is a clever one too… he’s very, very scary. And I think most of his scariness is because for the first half of the book he’s a man who is quite kind to Brutha, but you can feel Brutha’s fear that the calm, reasonable man in front of him is suddenly going to send him to the inquisitors for looking at him funny.
I enjoyed the little side story of the lion - which felt that it had to symbolically not eat Brutha in some way.
And I agree with everyone else about the ending with both Vorbis and Brutha in the (metaphorical) desert. Very powerful.
The bit at the end where Brutha asks: “Which end?” Brilliant. Just brilliant.
My favorite Discworld book.
“I like the idea of democracy. You have to have someone everyone distrusts”
Wonderful stuff!
And it came to pass that in time the Great God Om spake unto Brutha, the Chosen One: “Psst!”
Also one of my favorites - there’s not much I could say about it that folks haven’t already said. This book also has great re-read value - you get a lot out of it from reading it more, while many of the other Discworld books don’t seem to have that going for them. I really liked the Guards series, but I’m not sure I would get as much out of re-reading them as I did from Small Gods.
“Slave is an Ephebian word. In Om we have no word for slave,” said Vorbis.
“So I understand,” said the Tyrant. “I imagine that fish have no word for water.”
I had much the same experience. I was lukewarm on it on at first, but on a re-read, it somehoe got a lot better. Now it’s my favorite. Great book.
The Nigel Planer audio book of Small Gods is excellent, if only for his pronunciation of “Tor-toys”. I actually use the bit with Om first calling Brutha as my ring tone.
“Psst, psssssst, are you deaf, boy?”
This was the first Terry Pratchett book I ever picked up, after seeing an advertisment in Dragon.
There are two parts I remember vividly, apart from, you know, everything. The first is the part where Pterry explains that as miracles go, there’s nothing that inspires more belief than a turtle falling on someone’s head. The second is the part where he points out that an atheist who is angry at the gods for not existing is almost as good as a believer.
If I had to pick a favorite Discworld book it would probably be Small Gods. It goes so deep without sacrificing the humor!
“You do have a tongue, don’t you, lad?”
Brutha nodded and, in case this were not enough, presented it for inspection.
I just loved the bit in Tsort (or was it Ephebe?) where they meet the philosphers. And of course any government that actually calls it’s ruler the Tyrant is a few steps ahead of the rest of us in my book.