Small Gods
by Terry Pratchett
Narrator (if applicable): Andy Serkis
Series: Discworld #13
Publication Date: August 8, 1992
Pages: 400
Duration (in minutes): 718
Rating: ★★★
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural
Fits Halloween Bingo Squares: Gallows Humor, Genre: Supernatural, Relics and Curiosities, Sword and Sorcery, The River Styx
Just because you can’t explain it, doesn’t mean it’s a miracle’ — and: ‘You should do things because they’re right. Not because gods say so. They might say something different another time.’
Religion is a controversial and competitive business in the Discworld. Everyone has their own opinion and their own gods, of every shape and size – all fighting for faith, followers, and a place at the top.
In such a competitive environment, there is a pressing need to make one’s presence felt. And it’s certainly not remotely helpful to accidentally be reduced to manifesting as a tortoise, far below god-like status in anyone’s book … particularly not if you’re actually the great god Om. In such instances, you need an acolyte, and fast — preferably one who won’t ask too many questions.
Enter Brutha, the Chosen One — or at least the only One available. He wants peace, justice and love … but that’s hard to achieve in a world where religion means power, and corruption reigns supreme.
I finished Small Gods this weekend and am making very slow progress through the Discworld novels, which is absolutely fine because this is a series I do not want to end. Small Gods, however, was not one of the installments that had me glued to the page or roaring with laughter, … or even smirking a lot. No doubt, it was written well, but I think the the subject matter of religion is just not one that interests me. So, while I appreciated Pratchett showing up deities and humans alike in his fine, satirical yet empathetic way, I don’t have a lot to that I will remember about Small Gods – except the scene with DEATH playing chess, which seemed to have come straight out of Bergman’s film The Seventh Seal.
Crewe Train
by Rose Macaulay
Publication Date: August 8, 1926
Pages: 304
Genre: General Fiction, Literary Fiction
Denham Dobie has been brought up in Andorra by her father, a retired clergyman. On his death, she is snatched from this reclusive life and thrown into the social whirl of London by her sophisticated relatives. Denham, however, provides a candid response to the niceties of ‘civilised’ behaviour. CREWE TRAIN is one of Macaulay’s wittiest satires. The reactions of Denham to the manners and modes of the highbrow circle in which she finds herself provide a devastating – and very funny – social commentary as well as a moving story.
I have also started Crewe Train (1926). This is my first book by Rose Macauley and I already love it for describing the plight of the introverted Mr Dobie, who just cannot get a rest from his neighbours interfering with his “me time”.
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