Reading: Small Gods

[white_hart]

I find it impossible to pick a favourite Discworld novel, but Small Gods is definitely in my top five*. It's primarily a wonderfully sharp critique of organised religion, and the way that belief in the structures of a religion can take over from belief in the gods, until the church just becomes another way for unscrupulous people to gain power over others; along the way it also has time to parody Ancient Greece and the Greek philosophers and nail why arms races don't ensure peace. It's also genuinely very moving in places, and I love the way that both Brutha and his god grow and develop as a result of knowing each other; religion, to Pratchett, definitely isn't a one-way exchange.

* Despite the fact that I skipped it when I read the series through for the first time, because I thought it sounded rather like Pyramids, which I hadn't much enjoyed, and the next one was another book about the Witches (to be fair, that was Lords and Ladies which is probably also in my top five), and didn't come back to it until ten years later.

Comments

[miss_s_b]

Pyramids was my first one, and therefore I love it. Even though I recognise it's flaws.

[white_hart]

I started with The Colour of Magic and read them in order from there (apart from skipping Small Gods). I don't actually remember much about Pyramids except that I thought it was fairly dull and I've never bothered re-reading it.

[andrewducker]

Oddly, Pyramids is one of my favourites (having similarly started from the beginning). I love its structure, and it feels more novel-like than any of the previous books, to me.

[hilarita]

I do love Small Gods. It's one of the books that made me work out how to be human, and, oddly for a book about a monotheistic religion, how to be an ethical person without a religion.

[white_hart]

Well, I do think that one of its main points is that it's more important to be ethical than religious. Even if you're a god.

[slemslempike]

I think I've only read Small Gods once, I should rectify that.

[andrewducker]

It is marvellous.