IntenseDebate - BoomWhat

9 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 1 reply · +30 points

Much as I identified with Brutha as a kid, Older Me keeps coming back to how this isn't jsut Brutha's story, it's Om's too, and in a way Om's change of personality is an even greater leap. Someone who's never had to give a damn about people, having his power reinstated, and then still forcing himself to give a damn about people. A book wherein the Prophet gives his God a moral epiphany.

It's also nice to see the Two Commandments being a total subversion of so many religious doctrines, where the world is basically a combination of waiting room/moral testing centre before a more substantial existence in the afterlife. Bugger that. Judgement is at THIS end of the desert.

Yep, flaws and all, still my favourite in the series.

9 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 0 replies · +14 points

And at this point, anything I can say about the book would just be a laudry list of things I love about it.

Most of all, the idea of a Constitutional Religion with rules that God has to obey too.

9 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 0 replies · +17 points

Yeah, knew that line was going to get quite a reaction. Deservedly so. Maybe the use of an actual slur makes the point hit harder, probably could do without it, Shocked me too when I first read it (as a straight, cis white boy), which helped hammer the point home about racist language dehumanising people AND making the dehumaniser feel better about it. Still sticks out like a sore thumb though, since the book's not about racism and it's a way too late to make it about racism. Can't remember if anything like that crops up in later books.

Still , I like how the Urn and Simony stuff that Oehgun qbrfa'g whfg fnir Bzavn sebz Ibeovf naq gur Syrrg, ur fnirf vg sebz Fvzbal. Naq fnirf Fvzbal sebz uvzfrys. Jvgu Ibeovf' qrngu, Fvzbal naq gur Ghegyr-Oryvriref ner nyy frg gb hfure va n jubyr arj jnir bs evtugrbhf-ivbyrapr jvgubhg Oehgun'f vaibyirzrag. Avpr gb frr, sbe nyy gur pevgvpvfz bs eryvtvba, gung fbzrgvzrf gnxrf eryvtvba gb cebqhpr na ha-iratrshy (iratryrff?) crnprshy fbeg yvxr Oehgun.

9 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 0 replies · +83 points

Obviously it was a rare species of Balled Eagle

9 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 0 replies · +18 points

Om NOT suggesting they kill the goat gets overlooked here, but I think it's great to see the starting point of Om's character development here. Spoilers-ish: Urer, Oehgun'f unf znqr gur terngrfg yrncf va uvf orunivbhe naq gubhtugf gung ur unf gb qb, naq vg'f BZ jub fgnegf gb punatr. Nf zhpu nf V vqragvsl jvgu Oehgun, V guvax Bz'f punenpgre qrirybczrag gung nssrpgf zr gur zbfg. Ur'f na nefrubyr, jub'f orra zvtugl naq vaqrcraqrag sbe zbfg bs uvf rkvfgrapr. Ohg gur jnl gu riragf bs gur obbx whfg uhzoyr, punatr naq sbepr fhpu na boivbhf wnpxnff gb rzcnguvfr jvgu crbcyr naq tvir n qnza nobhg uvf sbyybjref, vf fbzrguvat V arire fnj pbzvat. N fvzcyr zna jub ortvaf gb guvax naq npg sbe uvzfrys naq n cbjreshy qrvgl yrneavat jung'f yvxr gb or qrfcrengr naq uhatel.

This book, people. This book.

Also, given that Vorbis attempts to murder his god, Ithink it's fairto say he spentmost of his time in the desert faking it while considering about his next move.

9 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 0 replies · +28 points

I think the way Vorbis is has a lot to do with his mind being like a 'steel ball'. Nothing gets in. He's a great reader of people, but his usually-accurate preconceptions are all he has. The only time we see him angry or speechless is when other people, like the Tyrant and Didactylos, go off-script, as it were, and confound his expectations. Brutha never questioned anything he was told, but had room for doubt and growth. Vorbis on the other hand, is someone who's never doubted anything.

That and the Quisition, the violent rhetoric and the religious equivalent of Manifest Destiny were all already there in Omnianism, waiitng for someone who Meant Business to take the reins. He's what happens when you take a sociopath and add the confidence from an assumed divine mandate. He's almost like Granny Weatherwax and Vetinari, but without the self-doubt and self-awareness.

9 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 0 replies · +19 points

Drink-My-Own-Hemlock Diblotes

9 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Small Gods... · 2 replies · +36 points

At last! My favourite of the series. First one I read too, as a 13-year old Smartarse at a Catholic school. Can't say much without spoilers, but this book is one of main things that made me re-think religion. And, also the reason I never became an Angry Anti-theist like other kids.

Looking back, these books were a moral education to me as much as they were a damn good time. They taught me that it's OK to be a bit weird.

Also: Ibeovf nf na rntyr naq Oehgun nf n gbegbvfr gung yrneaf gb syl. V whfg tbg gung.

9 years ago @ Mark Reads - Mark Reads 'Reaper Man... · 1 reply · +49 points

Don't know if it's been said before, but it bears repeating anyway:

This is a story wherein a Good Zombie fights an Evil Shopping Mall.

God I love Pratchett.

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