Pratchett. He writes books. Hes written quite a lot of books , about twenty or so in the discworld series alone. Strange , hes written so many acclaimed books like "The Colour of Magic" and "Mort" , he never seems to have been given any literary awards at all for any of his books.

But anyway thats side-tracking from the point of the book. "Soul Music" follows on the theme of the death books such as Mort nd Reaper Man which are both excellent books . "Soul Music" follows the life of schoolgirl Susan Sto Helit and she's not an ordinary pupil , she blends in too easily , what’s even stranger is that when she wanted a xylophone , all she asked was for her grandfather to take off his shirt.

As usual in Pratchett books , more than one plot is going on . Cut to Imp y Celyn, he’s a bit elvish and can play his harp but that doesn’t stop him going to Ankh Morpork to work with a Troll called Cliff who plays the rocks or the dwarf called Glod who is pretty good on the horn.

So what’s happened this time? Well as you would expect after reading the first two Death books , Death has done a runner again , but no one knows where he is and all
those souls that need to be reaped have to have a replacement harvester. But something else has happened , its not magic ,

“Its lawless . It changes people
Its called Music With Rocks In
It’s got a beat and you can dance to it , but ....
It’s alive.
And it wont fade away”

Yes this time , Pratchetts focusing on the music industry to satirise , previous examples of this have been “Small Gods” which was about religion (also extremely funny) . Pratchetts view of the theme is great as he writes about how the music affects the people in Ankh Morpork , except for the Archchancellor of the Unseen University and Mr Clete of the Musicians Guild who badly wants the
"Music With Rocks In" band to officially become members of the guild.

Also the character Cut - My - Own - Throat Dibbler is featured in this books as the
sleazy owner of the band who is using it as another money making venture . The plot then kicks in there and Pratchett continues his usual original lines with such gems as his theory of the beginning of the universe ,

"In the beginning , there was nothing . Which exploded "

and others which I wont spoil , reading it in the context of the book is so much more fun.

Although this is a good book , I feel as if it is not Pratchett’s best work in this theme . Some parts of the book feel a little confusing and if you are not a Patchett fan then some aspects and jokes of the book will completely pass you by. Nevertheless , novices of Pratchett should enjoy this as there are points in this book that made me laugh out loud . But be warned don’t read this if you’ve never read any of the other books.