Subject: Kronto Review: Terry Pratchett - Small Gods

From: [email-masked] (Leo Breebaart)
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1992 09:58:32 GMT

Terry Pratchett - "Small Gods"
London, Victor Gollancz 1992
ISBN: 0 575 05222 8

[ Reviewer's Note: I have tried to keep this review (which I had 
already been planning to write weeks ago) honest and objective, and 
not let myself be influenced by the thought of A Certain Person 
reading it. On the other hand: I *am* a fan, after all, and I'll be 
damned if fear of sycophancy will stop me from praising a novel I 
happened to really like a lot. You're warned. Oh, and watch out for 
some minor SPOILERS in what follows. ]

"Small Gods", the latest Terry Pratchett novel is his most serious 
novel yet. It is also one of his best.

It takes no genius to see that there are two sides to Terry 
Pratchett's writing. On the one hand there is his slapstick side, 
especially present in the first few Discworld novels. This is the 
side that gave us Rincewind, and the Luggage, and many other 'zany' 
characters and scenes, which Pratchett describes in a relaxed, 
highly visual, perfectly timed style -- almost like a movie 
screenplay: you only need some actors to play out the parts. On the 
other hand there is the contemplative, philosophical side. 
Observations of people and humanity, really, brought with humor and 
kindness, making you smile instead of laugh out loud, and sometimes 
making you think a bit.

With each new Discworld novel, Terry Pratchett has been moving 
further and further towards this second side. Ideas and characters 
became more important than individual jokes and scenes. In my 
opinion 'Guards! Guards!" was the first novel in which the second 
side 'dominated', and although Pratchett never forgot his roots 
(both "Moving Pictures" and "Witches Abroad" have large, healthy 
doses of the slapstick side), I think most of his recent work (the 
Truckers trilogy, "Reaper Man" and now "Small Gods") shows where his 
heart really lies, and which direction he is trying to progress in.

It may cost him some fans, though: "Small Gods" has almost *no* 
slapstick anymore, and all the philosophy and religion jokes (while 
not particularly obscure -- otherwise I wouldn't have understood 
them myself) may not go over too well with thirteen-year olds 
longing for more wild & crazy adventures involving funny Wizards and 
lethal travel utensils.

As a matter of fact, it occurred to me after reading "Small Gods" 
that this is almost a non-Discworld novel in that it uses next to 
none of the special aspects of that world's setting everybody has 
come to know and love. There are no wizards in this book at all; no 
witches or trolls or Ankh Morpork or elves or dwarfs either: not 
even *magic*! The Librarian only makes a one-paragraph cameo, and 
Death gets about twice that amount of attention. I find this change 
refreshing. As someone remarked the other day in another article: 
Terry Pratchett always seemed to search for a good way in which to 
make his slapstick and his serious side 'work' well together. Both 
"Witches Abroad" and "Reaper Man" (especially the first one) are a 
bit disappointing in this aspect -- you can see the literary 
equivalent of imperfect needlework. By throwing away all excess 
baggage and focussing on his main story only, Pratchett overcomes 
this problem beautifully in "Small Gods", *without* sacrificing his 
usual jpp (jokes per page) rate.

I don't want to elaborate too much on the plot and the events in the 
story itself. Basically it takes off where 'Pyramids' left us: with 
Ephebian philosophers and tortoises, and with the additional 
ingredient of a huge, organized state religion, heavily into 
persecution of about everybody, including heretic philosophers, 
neighbouring 'heathen' countries, and even its own loyal subjects. 
Central to it all is the conflict between science and religion,  and 
the beauty of this book lies in how Terry manages to get many 
thought-provoking, often sad points on this and other religion-
related subjects across without ever turning preachy, or losing his 
sense of humor (or timing!) along the way.

This book also contains the introduction of one of my favourite 
Discworld characters so far: the blind philosopher Didactylos. ("His 
philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools -- the Cynics, the 
Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up all three of them in the 
famous phrase, 'You can't trust any bugger further than you can 
throw him, and there's nothing you can do about it, so let's have a 
drink'") Didactylos is also the poser of the famous philosophical 
conundrum: 'Yes, But What's It *Really* All About, Then, When You 
Get Right Down To It, I Mean *Really*?', and the writer of the 
heretical book "De Chelonian Mobile", which postulates that the 
world is flat and moves on the back of a turtle -- since Omnian 
religion holds that the world is spherical, this gets him and his 
followers into no end of trouble...

Add to this central plot-element the troubles of the great god Om 
himself, who suddenly finds he's inhabiting the body of a tortoise 
with not much smiting power to speak of, and who can only 
communicate with the novice Brutha (who hadn't been Called so much 
as Sent); apparently the only person left in the world to actually 
still *believe* in him (though he has some trouble accepting his 
God's current appearance at first: "You can't trample infidels when 
you're a tortoise. I mean all you could do is give them a meaningful 
look."), and you will begin to get the idea what Small Gods is all 
about.

There is of course much more to the book's plot (including a truly 
nasty, warped villain, and a great supporting cast of minor 
characters), but the red line of religion/philosophy is so tightly 
interwoven with everything that happens, that I am going to repeat 
myself and say again that never before has Terry Pratchett pulled 
things off so consistently and neatly as he does here. It makes the 
book a joy to read, and not nearly so black or wry as some fellow-
netters felt it was. Thoughtful and at times very serious, yes; wry, 
no.

And since Terry Pratchett is, after all, a humorous writer, let me 
end this review with a short note on my favourite humorous aspect of 
the book: be prepared for *many* jokes about philosophers. Literally 
every known anecdote or piece of common historical knowledge 
involving philosophers gets spoofed, from world-moving levers, via 
the Liar's paradox ('...if Xeno the Ephebian said, "All Ephebians 
are liars --"' 'See? See? He did it again!') to Galileo ("The Turtle 
Moves!"). And this book contains more low-key, subtle humor than we 
have come to expect even of Pratchett: I have re-read the book twice 
already, and each time I found new things I overlooked. ('Oh. My 
God,' he said. 'Something wrong?' said Didactylos. 'Could someone 
fetch me my tortoise?')

"Small Gods" is a must-have for the Real Pratchett Fan, and quite 
possibly the best place to start newcomers as well.

-- 
Leo Breebaart  (leo @ ph.tn.tudelft.nl)