Soul Music is one of my favorite Discworld books, as well. The scene where The Band With Rocks In is playing at the Cauldron made shivers run down my spine the first time I read it. Also, bands like the “short-lived but grammatically correct The Whom” were really good for a laugh. As was “rat music”: “I’m mean and turf/and I’m mean and turf/and I’m mean and turf/and I’m mean and turf/and me and my friends/can walk towards you/with our hats on backwards/in a menacing way/yo”. I think the references to our-world themes and features is one of the best things about Pratchett, especially as a non-British or American native. It’s always a little confidence-booster when you get the little historical and pop-culture references or what have you.
I have a constant argument going on with a friend of mine who enjoys the Rincewind-themed books most of all. I, on the other hand, find almost everything other than Rincewind enjoyable. We both agree that the fact that we disagree indicates that Discworld books really cater to a wide audience. Something for everyone. Excellent.
Soul Music was the first Discworld book I ever read, so it’ll always have a warm place in my heard. As a longtime “music with rocks in” geek, I also have a special fondness for it. I suspect that those who both get and enjoy the many little history of rock and roll jokes and band name puns in Soul Music will like it a lot more than those who don’t.
Perhaps, but what kind of sick freak would ever sell off their Terry Pratchett collection?
I agree, but Peter Morris does have a point in that the plot of Soul Music rehashes many of the elements of Mort. I believe he did a better job of them the second time around, though, and I think that might be precisely why he did so: he felt he hadn’t adequatly addressed the themes he wanted to address in Mort, and decided to give them a second go. The addition of rock’n’roll was the clincher. What better vehicle to explore the themes of death, immortality, and immortality-through-death?
LOVE Terry Pratchett… he’s hilarious - Reaper man was certainly my favorite after The Light Fantastic"…Terry’s a genius with the spoken word - one of the very few writers that can make me bust out laughing when I’m reading by myself somewhere…
Some Favorites:
“You’re dead,” he said. Keli waited. She couldn’t think of any suitable reply. “I’m not” lacked a certain style, while “Is it serious?” seemed somehow too frivolous.
The thing between Death’s triumphant digits was a fly from the dawn of time. It was the fly in the primordial soup. It had bred on mammoth turds. It wasn’t a fly that bangs on window panes, it was a fly that drills through walls.
Pets are always a great help in times of stress. And in times of starvation too, o’course."
All dwarfs are by nature dutiful, serious, literate, obedient and thoughtful people whose only minor failing is a tendency, after one drink, to rush at enemies screaming “Arrrrrrgh!” and axing their legs off at the knee.
People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders often have uneventful journeys. People jump out at them from behind rocks then say things like, “Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else.”
