Subject: Truckers by Terry Pratchet.

From: [email-masked] (Mr P Johnson "Baddow")
Date: 4 Oct 89 11:06:56 GMT

The latest TP is not set on the Disc World.  It is set on twentieth century
Earth and concerns nomes (note: TP does not spell this with a "g" so neither
will I).  It is described as a "book for younger readers".  I suspect that
this is because the publishers felt that a book about nomes would not sell
to adults.  At the beginning the narrative jumps around rather confusingly
and there are quite a lot of difficult words.  On the other hand I do not
know exactly what makes a good childrens book.  It probably depends more on
the child than the book.  As for adults, if you like TP and his Disc World,
you will love Truckers.  A mixture of the Borrowers and Stranger in a
Strange Land, with a dash of Watership Down and TP's skewed view of the
world as a binding agent.  Rating +4.  I would have said +5 if only it had
been longer.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

_Truckers_ describes how a small group of nomes (two fairly young and six
OAPs) leave their old burrow and stow away in a lorry.  The lorry stops in a
department store garage and they encounter a thriving community of nomes
(about 2,000) living under the floor boards.

The store nomes have forgotten that there is anything "Outside" and most
think that the old stories of "Wind" and "Rain" are just silly ledgends.  TP
describes their social structure and religion in some detail.  The store
nomes worship "Arnold Bros (est. 1905)".  He has said "all things under
one roof", and so obviously there can be nothing outside.  Within the store,
there is everything that the nomes need, and as a result they spend their
time bickering and fighting.

The nomes are divided into "departments" lead by aristorcratic leaders such
as the Count de Ironmongri or the Countess del Icatessen.  There is also a
religious department called "Stationari" which consists of the monks and
priests of Arnold Bros (est. 1905) and presided over by the Abbot.  By
careful diplomacy they have become the de-facto leaders of the nomes.

The Outsiders bring a small black box called the "Thing".  They have
ledgends in which the Thing speaks and tells them what to do.  Shortly after
arriving in the store, the Thing speaks for the first time in living memory
(nomes live for about ten years, but they also live ten times faster than
humans).  It tells them that it has overheard telephone conversations
between the humans in the store and a demolition company.  The nomes have 21
days to get out.  The Thing also tells them that it is the guidance computer
from a nome starship scoutcraft which crashed 100,000 years ago.  The
mothership is still somewhere out there.

How do you get 2,000 gnomes, including many young and infirm, out of a store
and into somewhere they can live?

You half-inch a lorry.  Hence the title.

How do nomes drive a lorry? Well they read the High Way Code and some pulp
trucking stories they find in Stationari, and send out a scout to find out
how its done.  Then they rig the chosen lorry with string and pulleys and
have teams of nomes to work the pedals and steering wheel.  On a rickety
platform on the drivers seat they put a steering committee.  This system is
not a complete success.

At the end of the book, the gnomes are installed in a disused quarry and are
looking with interest at airplanes.
-- 
Paul Johnson,         | `The moving finger writes, And having writ, moves on,'
GEC-Marconi Research  |                    Omar Kyham when contemplating `vi'.
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