It's a new month... time for some new bug fixes!
While Matt is still working on harnessing the book data that we all have contributed to, and making it available for searches, he's also been rather busy fixing other things, and even adding some nifty little features. Read all about it in this Announcements forum post.
Small Gods: A Novel of Discworld
3 journalers for this copy...
I don't usually register books that already have a number of entries in BC, but in this case - I really liked the book, there are only (!) 12 copies currently registered, which isn't a lot for a Pratchett, and I found a spare copy of this at an Annie's Bookstore for about $1.50. So Fate wants me to register this book. [Just don't look into his eyes...]
Since discovering Discworld via the raves of assorted BCers, I've been happily learning about the City Watch, Death and his family, and the Wizards of Unseen University, and have enjoyed them all. This book was something of a switch, though; its setting is a time and place far removed from most of the settings of the other books, and about the only crossover characters are Death (of course) and a few of the gods. [Oh, and a clone of C.M.O.T. Dibbler, called "Cut-Me-Own-Hand-Off Dhblah" - I gather that some things are constant everywhere you go...] The story's more philosophical as well, dealing with - in addition to philosophy - the nature of gods, faith, and righteousness.
Somehow, Pratchett finds humor in the midst of all this higher thought (plus a very nasty Inquisition and a war or two). The Great God Om, currently embodied as a tortoise, finds he must rely on a naive, slow, earnest young novice named Brutha, the only person who sincerely believes in him (though even Brutha has trouble accepting the tortoise shape; Om's always depicted as something huge and powerful, usually with horns). From the introduction of the tortoise-god when an eagle drops him at Brutha's feet [watch for the ongoing tortoise-eagle confrontations; the climax is a dilly], through the journey to Ephebe [think ancient Greece] and the growing realization that much of what he's been taught isn't true, through a death-march in an arid desert, to the final conflict back in Omnia, Brutha learns, grows, changes - and argues with Om - until he's someone who might change the course of history... There were some wonderfully funny bits in this one, and some very moving ones as well - and more than a few nasty, scary bits too. [And I got positively teary at the end...] I'd feared that I wouldn't like the story as much without most of the well-known characters from the other books, but "Small Gods" turns out to be among my favorites - although at this point a "favorite Discworld book" is liable to be described as "in my top twenty-however-many-there-are"!
*** I'd like to add one philosophical quote from "Small Gods":
"His [Dydactylos the philosopher's] philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools - the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans - and summed up all three of them in his 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.'"
Since discovering Discworld via the raves of assorted BCers, I've been happily learning about the City Watch, Death and his family, and the Wizards of Unseen University, and have enjoyed them all. This book was something of a switch, though; its setting is a time and place far removed from most of the settings of the other books, and about the only crossover characters are Death (of course) and a few of the gods. [Oh, and a clone of C.M.O.T. Dibbler, called "Cut-Me-Own-Hand-Off Dhblah" - I gather that some things are constant everywhere you go...] The story's more philosophical as well, dealing with - in addition to philosophy - the nature of gods, faith, and righteousness.
Somehow, Pratchett finds humor in the midst of all this higher thought (plus a very nasty Inquisition and a war or two). The Great God Om, currently embodied as a tortoise, finds he must rely on a naive, slow, earnest young novice named Brutha, the only person who sincerely believes in him (though even Brutha has trouble accepting the tortoise shape; Om's always depicted as something huge and powerful, usually with horns). From the introduction of the tortoise-god when an eagle drops him at Brutha's feet [watch for the ongoing tortoise-eagle confrontations; the climax is a dilly], through the journey to Ephebe [think ancient Greece] and the growing realization that much of what he's been taught isn't true, through a death-march in an arid desert, to the final conflict back in Omnia, Brutha learns, grows, changes - and argues with Om - until he's someone who might change the course of history... There were some wonderfully funny bits in this one, and some very moving ones as well - and more than a few nasty, scary bits too. [And I got positively teary at the end...] I'd feared that I wouldn't like the story as much without most of the well-known characters from the other books, but "Small Gods" turns out to be among my favorites - although at this point a "favorite Discworld book" is liable to be described as "in my top twenty-however-many-there-are"!
*** I'd like to add one philosophical quote from "Small Gods":
"His [Dydactylos the philosopher's] philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools - the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans - and summed up all three of them in his 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.'"
Controlled release: I'm sending this one to BCer avanta7 in a swap. Enjoy it!
My first Pratchett! Thanks, GoryDetails, I look forward to reading this (eventually, someday, as avanta7 cowers before the awesome and formidable eminence known as the To Be Read Shelves).
I'm taking dynamite to Mt. TBR and blasting this book, which has been languishing there long enough, into the available pile.
Journal Entry 5 by avanta7 at Social Security Administration office in Sherwood, Arkansas USA on Monday, January 10, 2005
Released on Monday, January 10, 2005 at about 7:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Social Security Administration office on Kiehl Ave in Sherwood, Arkansas USA.
RELEASE NOTES:
It's in the employee break room on the bookshelf.
RELEASE NOTES:
It's in the employee break room on the bookshelf.
It's sat on the shelf for nearly two months, so I've rescued it and will re-release it somewhere else.
This book is going to the 2005 BookCrossing Convention in Ft. Worth, Texas! Reserved for Marinaw.
Given to marinaw. It was wonderful to meet you!
Thanks again to avanta7 for bringing this along! I've been trying to start this "series" for a while now, and I finally have a few to keep me company.
