A review by isabellarobinson7
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
3.75
Rating: 3.5 - 4 stars
Small Gods is my third attempt at getting into Discworld (fourth if you count DNFing The Colour of Magic, and then picking it up again sometime later before finishing it) and I think it's the most successful yet. As always it was very funny, as good British humour often is, but this time my enjoyment went past a few chuckles every two or three pages.
My journey with this book went like this:
Page one: I'm going to like it. I will like it. You don't have any choice Me, you will like it.
100 pages in: This is so boring. No one is doing anything. They are just sitting around and talking. Uggh.
200 pages in: Woah! Actual plot progression! Really cool!!
300 pages in: A lot of commentary now. It's all slowed down and we just talking again. Grrrrrrr.
400 pages in: What the heck is happening. What is this. Huh?
450 pages in: That was kind of cool.
Last few pages: Oh... that's it?
My problem with authors like Terry Pratchett (who are master wordsmiths, in my opinion) is that I can't pick out anything fundamentally wrong about their books. I can't say "this was a bad narrative decision, they should have done this" or "this lacked character growth, this should have happened instead", because everything reads just as the author intended it to be read. Every word, character, event achieves its goal. ...But I just don't love it. It's a weird place to be in for me, who customarily finds enjoyment out of media that, on a technical level, is widely considered flawless (my brother once said, after I was critiquing one of his favourite movies, that he couldn't do it for me because all of my favourite movies are cinematic masterpieces). Yes there are some exceptions (I have a lot of guilty pleasures when it comes to my music, and I am utterly blind to faults in The Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time particularly), but more often than not my brain tends to correlate technical excellence with enjoyment (obviously, I know everything is subjective, and what one perceives as "technical" excellence is absolutely up for debate).
Pretty much anything else I can say about this book is summed up in the "journey" I wrote above, so I don't think I should ramble on any longer. While Small Gods is indeed intended to be taken satirically, there are some quite blatant jibes almost at certain religious organisations in our world. I wasn't too bothered by it, not having any ties whatsoever to said organisations, but others may be.
Anyway, now I'm on to Guards! Guards! as my next Discworld attempt. Wish me luck!
Small Gods is my third attempt at getting into Discworld (fourth if you count DNFing The Colour of Magic, and then picking it up again sometime later before finishing it) and I think it's the most successful yet. As always it was very funny, as good British humour often is, but this time my enjoyment went past a few chuckles every two or three pages.
My journey with this book went like this:
Page one: I'm going to like it. I will like it. You don't have any choice Me, you will like it.
100 pages in: This is so boring. No one is doing anything. They are just sitting around and talking. Uggh.
200 pages in: Woah! Actual plot progression! Really cool!!
300 pages in: A lot of commentary now. It's all slowed down and we just talking again. Grrrrrrr.
400 pages in: What the heck is happening. What is this. Huh?
450 pages in: That was kind of cool.
Last few pages: Oh... that's it?
My problem with authors like Terry Pratchett (who are master wordsmiths, in my opinion) is that I can't pick out anything fundamentally wrong about their books. I can't say "this was a bad narrative decision, they should have done this" or "this lacked character growth, this should have happened instead", because everything reads just as the author intended it to be read. Every word, character, event achieves its goal. ...But I just don't love it. It's a weird place to be in for me, who customarily finds enjoyment out of media that, on a technical level, is widely considered flawless (my brother once said, after I was critiquing one of his favourite movies, that he couldn't do it for me because all of my favourite movies are cinematic masterpieces). Yes there are some exceptions (I have a lot of guilty pleasures when it comes to my music, and I am utterly blind to faults in The Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time particularly), but more often than not my brain tends to correlate technical excellence with enjoyment (obviously, I know everything is subjective, and what one perceives as "technical" excellence is absolutely up for debate).
Pretty much anything else I can say about this book is summed up in the "journey" I wrote above, so I don't think I should ramble on any longer. While Small Gods is indeed intended to be taken satirically, there are some quite blatant jibes almost at certain religious organisations in our world. I wasn't too bothered by it, not having any ties whatsoever to said organisations, but others may be.
Anyway, now I'm on to Guards! Guards! as my next Discworld attempt. Wish me luck!