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Small Gods: A Discworld Novel
 
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Small Gods: A Discworld Novel (Paperback)

by Terry Pratchett (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Corgi Books; New edition edition (27 May 1993)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0552138908
  • ISBN-13: 978-0552138901
  • Product Dimensions: 17.9 x 10.8 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6,508 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #36 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > P > Pratchett, Terry > Graphic Novels
    #36 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > P > Pratchett, Terry > Childrens Books
    #36 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > P > Complete List

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Discworld is an extragavanza--among much else, it has billions of gods. "They swarm as thick as herring roe," writes Terry Pratchett in Small Gods, the 13th book in the series. Where there are gods galore, there are priests, high and low, and ... there are novices. Brutha is a novice with little chance to become a priest--thinking does not come easily to him, although believing does. But it is to Brutha that the great god Om manifests, in the lowly form of a tortoise.


Product Description

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was "Hey, you!". For Brutha the novice is the Chosen One, and all he wants is peace, justice and brotherly love. He also wants the Inquisition to stop torturing him now, please.

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Customer Reviews

46 Reviews
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 (33)
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 (8)
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (46 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Deep and serious issues, with added humour, 31 Jul 2004
By Sally-Anne "mynameissally" (Leicestershire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
If, like me, you'd ever thought: "~Philosophy~. I bet that's interesting but I expect philosophy books are really hard work, full of unfathomable ideas and impenetrable language ..." , then you might like to start here, with Small Gods. Terry Pratchett seems to have a firm grasp of some profound stuff and expresses it in a way that anyone can understand.

There's a young novice called Brutha, in the church of the great god Om - a fierce god that usually manifests as some powerful creature such as a bull or an eagle. Brutha is a quiet, gentle lad with some pretty harsh, religious fundamentalist ideas, at the beginning of this story. The Omnian church is powerful, expansionist, rules with a rod of iron and has an on-going inquisition, so anyone who doesn't believe the dogma in precisely the way the church presents it, is tortured and killed. Then Brutha actually meets his god, in the form of a creature far less fearsome than Om's accustomed to, and Brutha is enlightened by revelation after revelation. Things are not what he'd imagined. He starts having dangerous thoughts that he'd better not utter. Where do gods come from? How do they become great gods? Can't people just be nice to each other and live in peace? That sort of thing. The seeds of sedition! Deacon Vorbis, Exquisitor - Head of the Quisition, would have to stamp on that sort of thinking. There's already rebellious rumblings from those infidels who try to convince people that the world is flat when church teaching is very explicit on that: it's most definitely a sphere!

This is not like any of the other Disc World books I've read (about 8 so far). It's not quite so funny but it's even more than usually thought-provoking. There's a dark under-current that the author carefully draws attention to whilst not dwelling on excessively. There are people being tortured and slaughtered in the name of a god that, it turns out, hardly anyone really believes in - wars are fought and people suffer. A man betrays his friends to save his father (who committed the terrible crime of nailing a horseshoe on his wall) from the inquisition. Terry Pratchett has managed to get all this horror into a very entertaining Disc World novel. I'm impressed.

I recommend this book, and if you haven't read any disc world books before, this is not a bad place to start.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Deeper than it looks. Possibly even deeper than TP intended., 9 May 2000
By A Customer
Well, this one's quite a departure. A very different "feel" to the story, with much less of the normal knockabout stuff and much more of a dark tone to proceedings.

There's a sense throughout that Terry Pratchett wrote this book as a way to explain his feelings on the whole matter of belief, and the quite complex theological positions that some of the characters take up would seem to support this. Some of the writing feels - well, the nearest word would be "angry", and one or two events in the book will send a shiver of horrible recognition down your spine.

This isn't really the first Pratchett you should read, as it's rather unrepresentative of the series as a whole, but if you've read some of the others and are looking for something slightly different, then Small Gods can be highly recommended.

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Unexpectedly Excellent, 29 Oct 2002
By M. Barrett (UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
For years I have successfully avoided reading anything by Terry Pratchett. Perhaps because everyone else seemed to be doing just that, or perhaps just because I never heard about him from the right person.

That last point just changed - thanks you so much darling Liz - and she started me off with "Small Gods". I enjoyed it so much that I read it in stolen moments during two working midweek days, and now I curse the stupidity that made me wait this long.

This is a very clever book. Pratchett uses his mythical Discworld and its inhabitants to say far more about our world than he does theirs. This is a savage indictment of organised religion which will at the same time leave you holding your sides in pain as you try to stop laughing. It's most definitely not suitable for the Pope's Christmas stocking.

It may be a paradox, but if this world was a little bit more like Pratchett's, things would actually make more sense here than they do measured against accepted rationality.

I can't imagine there could be a better introduction to this author - an engaging and hilarious romp across another world, and a penetrating spotlight on an aspect of this one. Buy it!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Pratchett's masterpiece
When Brother Brutha of the Omnian Church starts talking to a tortoise, he merely assumes that he has gone mad. Read more
Published 1 month ago by A. Whitehead

5.0 out of 5 stars Wickedly funny dissection of montheistic religions
This is quite easily the best novel by Terry Pratchett that I have read. There are plenty of excellent gags about religion and philosophy as well as a top-notch plot. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. Mark J. Errington

3.0 out of 5 stars Another Discworld great
Meet Brutha. He is not overly intelligent - in fact people think he is a bit nuts. But that might be because his god is trapped inside a tortoise, one he is carrying around and... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Ms. K. Marsh

2.0 out of 5 stars The Audio-CD
I can't seem to find any other crits of the audio-book version of this title. So first of all, let me clear the air by saying that 'Small Gods" is possibly my favourite of all the... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Neil French

4.0 out of 5 stars The Turtle Moves
"Small Gods" is the thirteenth book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and was first published in 1992. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Craobh Rua

5.0 out of 5 stars Just plain wonderful...
I have read twenty or so of Pratchett's books, and they are a bit of a mixed bag. Most of my favourites are of the non-discworld variety, with the exception of my absolute... Read more
Published 22 months ago by A J Crowley

5.0 out of 5 stars His best work.
This is definitely my favourite Terry Pratchett book, Discworld or otherwise.
His earlier Discworld novels were more concerned with subverting and pastiching sci-fi and... Read more
Published 24 months ago by T. Parker

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual and thought provoking, a good one even for non-Pratchett fans
Of all the many stories Pratchett has written set on the fictional Discworld, 'Small Gods' stands out. Read more
Published on 16 Nov 2007 by BookWorm

5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite Discworld novel
I read all the Discworld novels (except "Wintersmith") and liked almost all of them ("Monstrous Regiment" and "Thud! Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2007 by Maciej K.

4.0 out of 5 stars Forget Dawkin's God Delusion - this is The Word
Its Dawkin's with humour and humility. The universe is a big and mysterious place however much we think we know, organised religions often suck but, "Its a funny old life" and... Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2007 by The Cam MC

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