keep on trucking (Truckers - Terry Pratchett)

Member Name: brownp1

Product:	Truckers - Terry Pratchett
Date:	08/05/01 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great for adults AND children

Disadvantages: none

Whilst PTerry is best known as the author of the best selling discworld series which, with their clever punning is aimed at the adult market he has also produced two successful children's series the nome trilogy and the Johny series - Truckers is the 1st in the nome trilogy.

Nomes are a race of 4 inch high beings who, despite resembling a sumo wrestler, move too quicly for the human eye to see. As the story details the nomes are a space travelling race whose landing ship crashed on Earth 15,000 years ago, and were unable to repair their ship. To assist them in the process they helped mankind to develop agriculture and metallurgy but as time passed the contact between the races diminished until humans have memories of pixies while the nomes are forced to live in rabbit burrows or under floorboards out of the site of humans.

The plot starts in the country side where a large nome tribe has been reduced to 10 nomes, mainly older folk with only 1 hunter Masklin to look after them. Looking for a better life they hitch a ride in a truck and end up in the Arnold Bros (ets 1905) department store There they discover a further 2000 nomes living a luxurious life style who are divided into constantly bickering departmental tribes (Haberdasheri, Stationeri etc)who have forgotten that the Outside even exists.
Once inside the store the "Thing" the nomes religious icon draws on the stores electricity and reveals itself as their spaceships Flight navigation and recording Computer and discovers that the store will be demolished in 21 days. Masklin has to convince the store nomes that the store will be destroyed and that the outside exists. The escape route is no less precarious as they have to learn to read, learn the highway code, learn to drive and stael a truck to make a clean getaway.


The fun in this book, apart from the story, is in watching the nomes cope with the outsize human world, whilst at the same time believing that it
was all put there for them.

Apparently Speilburg has bought the rights to the series & I can't wait to see the film - 60 nomes driving a truck using bits of string an wood should be a sight to see.

Summary: