That Funny Thing Called Religion (Small Gods - Terry Pratchett)

Member Name: campb3ll

Product:	Small Gods - Terry Pratchett
Date:	04/10/01 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A humorous foray into the world of religion

Disadvantages: None in particular

"What gods need is belief, and what humans want is gods." This is why the Church of the Great God Om is all-powerful and why Om is somewhere up a brown river. Humans want gods but they don't necessarily believe in them - it's the difference between wanting a church wedding and actually going to church.

Om started out as one of the billions of small gods, hanging on to existence while trying to attract believers. One day a shepherd came along and Om helped him locate a lost sheep. Et voila, Omnianism.

There's an old story that says if you whip a horse, it'll run faster but eventually, when you stop whipping it, it'll lose the desire to run. The Great God Om whipped his followers into a frenzy but when his back was metaphorically turned, they stopped believing in him. Now, he has just enough power to manifest as a tortoise and a desperate fear of losing his one remaining believer, Brutha. ("Sheep are stupid and have to be driven. But goats are intelligent and need to be led." - If only Om's first believer had been a goatherd.)

History is about to be made: the next Prophet is about to come forward. Unfortunately for Om, Novice Brutha the Chosen One has to compete with Deacon Vorbis who Chose Himself for the position. Brutha hears the voice of his god but Vorbis hears the voices in his head. (As head of the Quisition, they usually tell him to turn up the heat.)

In this novel, we follow Brutha as he accompanies Vorbis from Kom, across the sea to Ephebe - city of gods, philosophers, democratic people and other barbarian infidels. It's the perfect setting for a lively I'm-mightier-than-you discussion. This means Brutha is accompanying Vorbis back home sooner than he expected and taking a risky shortcut through the Klatchian desert.

All Brutha and Vorbis need to do is make it across the desert and ensure there's at least one survivor to become the next Prophet. Starving in a
desert doesn't do much for your health but sanity isn't a prerequisite for the Prophet job. Things look decidedly dodgy for Brutha and Vorbis but fortunately there's a whole host of individuals along to keep an eye on them. Om the (former) Great God is still plodding along in tortoise form, a stray lion is quite happy to follow them along, there's quite a few small gods whispering in the night and, of course, there's St Ungulent - "Friend of all small gods. Everywhere."

History is rapidly getting confused and it's at times like these that you could do with a History Monk to witness all the "random events" and keep the plot on track. Well, perhaps once Brutha and Vorbis reach the dubious safety of Kom, the Monks of History can give things a bit of a nudge before History loses all credibility. All they need to do is witness the arrival of the Prophet, the recovery of the (not so) Great God Om, and the effects of the invading Ephebian army.

This is the lucky 13th novel in the Discworld series and it is one of the most challenging novels in the series. Initially, it's quite hard to get into the story. Religion is a difficult topic to translate into comedy and the results can easily offend. Fortunately 'Small Gods' copes rather well and smiles do start to break through. The only problem is Vorbis - he is simply unlovable and untouchable. Vorbis is only there as a plot aid - to get Brutha to Ephebe and make him think for himself.

Asides from this little grumble, the rest of the novel is as humorous and as entertaining as the rest of the Discworld series. In other words, if you like the Discworld series then you'll like 'Small Gods'. Terry Pratchett utilises a peculiarly British type of humour, which involves being irreverent and sarcastic. The Quisition, like their 'real' Spanish counterparts, torture people to death to obtain confessions; their mugs are "grouped
around a kettle on the hearth of the central furnace which incidentally heated the irons and knives" and had legends like "To The World's Greatest Daddy" written on them. It's a kind of humour that you either 'get' or you don't but this novel is a good place to find out.

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