Scan barcode
erikwmj's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Torture
Minor: Slavery, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry
kshertz's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
It was interesting for sure. I love the silliness and the smart quips. It took a lot of focus for me to get through this book and I’m thinking this type of book is not really my style. But I did enjoy it and laugh a lot.
Content Warnings
Minor: Bullying, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and War
woweewhoa's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War
Minor: Racism
shadereads's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Torture, and Religious bigotry
viktorreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Religious bigotry, and Murder
bluejayreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
3.25
This is one of the few Discworld books not part of a sub-series. Since I’ve read at least one book of each sub-series at this point, it’s a little weird to be with completely new characters in a completely new place with none of the tiny overlaps I expect from Discworld books (except for some of it being in the city of Ephebe, which I’m pretty sure was also mentioned briefly in Pyramids.)
The protagonist of Small Gods is Brutha, a novice in the service of the Great God Om. Brutha has an eidetic memory – meaning he can recall everything he has ever seen, heard, or done all the way back to the moment of his birth – but he can’t read because he lacks the intelligence to connect spoken sounds with written symbols. He doesn’t mind hard work, never complains, and believes wholeheartedly in the Great God Om with an innocent, childlike faith.
There’s not a whole lot of plot actually involved in this story, and a lot of that is because Brutha is quiet, unintelligent, and unambitious. Everything that happens to him is due to the machinations of the Great God Om (currently a tortoise and desperate to not be a tortoise anymore) and a particularly ambitious and ruthless leader of one church department. He talks to some philosophers in Ephebe (Discworld’s ancient Greece), treks across a desert, and pretty much meanders through a plot that other characters set up for him.
The point of the story seems to be a satire of organized religion, especially Catholicism. It has:
- The big, multi-tiered church structure with one old guy at the top who’s at least 75% figurehead
- A bunch of prescribed prayers, Important Days for feasts or fasts, and rituals that have lost any connection with the reason they are done (if they had any reason to start with)
- An all-powerful, all-knowing deity who speaks only through appointed prophets
- Scriptures, written by said prophets directly from the mouth of god (supposedly), which form the backbone of all doctrine; knowledge and memorization of these is essential to religion
- A Quisition that tortures confessions (true or not) out of heretics, complete with believing that suspicion = crime because Om wouldn’t let them have a suspicion if it wasn’t true
- And the strong conviction that their religion is the only true religion, their god is the only one that exists (which is demonstrably false in the Discworld), and the best way to deal with disbelievers is to conquer them and force Omnianism upon them
So it’s not exactly a subtle analog of organized religion and Catholicism/Christianity in particular. The disappointing thing was it didn’t really make a commentary on any of it. The Omnian church was an obvious caracature of the Catholic church, but that’s as far as it went. The idea seemed to be, “What if god, in a lowly form, came down to a caricature of the Catholic church, and also he was an asshole?”
Personally, I found it interesting enough. I think that’s mainly because I am interested in deities and religion in general, though. Brutha may not have been a spectacular character and the plot might have been weak, but there were plenty of interesting bits about Omnianism and some new tidbits about how the small gods of the Discworld work, and that was enough to keep me reading. Someone with less of an interest in religions, though, would probably find this one of the less enjoyable entries in the Discworld canon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Blood, and Alcohol
jessthanthree's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Religious bigotry
crufts's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I "read" Small Gods twice: once in the original novel format and once in the BBC radio play. They're both excellent.
Small Gods is Terry Prachett's satire of gods and organized religion. It's funny, entertaining, insightful, sometimes even heartwarming, and it ends on a bang.
Something the book does really well is the selection of its main characters, which are:
- The protagonist Brutha, a young novice in the order of the god Om, who takes Omnian religion extremely seriously; and
- The god Om himself, who has been accidentally transferred into the body of a turtle, and who doesn't take Omnian religion very seriously at all.
The back-and-forth discussions of these two bring rise to all the one-liners and witty observations that the author inserts into the novel. I liked how Brutha's victory in the novel is basically the result of his good nature and sincerity. It was also a clever move to make the protagonist the most devout believer in the entire novel, as it avoids heavy-handedly placing religion as the enemy and instead explores it from the inside.
Definitely a good read.
Did You Know? The Ogg Vorbis audio codec is named after the main baddie in this book, Exquisitor Vorbis!
Small Gods is Terry Prachett's satire of gods and organized religion. It's funny, entertaining, insightful, sometimes even heartwarming, and it ends on a bang.
Something the book does really well is the selection of its main characters, which are:
- The protagonist Brutha, a young novice in the order of the god Om, who takes Omnian religion extremely seriously; and
- The god Om himself, who has been accidentally transferred into the body of a turtle, and who doesn't take Omnian religion very seriously at all.
The back-and-forth discussions of these two bring rise to all the one-liners and witty observations that the author inserts into the novel. I liked how Brutha's victory in the novel is basically the result of his good nature and sincerity. It was also a clever move to make the protagonist the most devout believer in the entire novel, as it avoids heavy-handedly placing religion as the enemy and instead explores it from the inside.
Definitely a good read.
Did You Know? The Ogg Vorbis audio codec is named after the main baddie in this book, Exquisitor Vorbis!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Religious bigotry
Minor: Death
midnightcomets's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
"That's a funny thing," said Om. "Winners never talk about glorious victories. That's because they're the ones who see what the battlefield looks like afterwards. It's only the losers who have glorious victories."
As always, Pratchett never fails to surprise me in the best way possible. Not only was this humourous and full of irony at organised religion, it also surprised me with some of its turns. Definitely enjoyed every minute reading it, plus some of the worldbuilding that it entailed. Furthermore, some of the puns in the names of this were just killer-level, and I adored them.
As always, Pratchett never fails to surprise me in the best way possible. Not only was this humourous and full of irony at organised religion, it also surprised me with some of its turns. Definitely enjoyed every minute reading it, plus some of the worldbuilding that it entailed. Furthermore, some of the puns in the names of this were just killer-level, and I adored them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry
chemicalcain's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I found Small Gods to be full of compelling ideas and characters, but I also found it deeply troubling and triggering in parts. This is a book about the evolution of religion and about escaping a cult. The cult in question is a satirical parallel to a particularly violent form of Christianity: it's a monotheistic religion about "the One True God," and the leadership of the movement controls its followers by fear and surveillance. Content warnings will apply for cults, religious intimidation, and holy wars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, and Colonisation
CW: cults, religious intimidation, holy war.