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I advice everyone not to follow the TFA's author's example and do read Tiffany Aching series, which is one of the best. Yes, it's marketed as YA fiction, but disregard: it's exactly the same style and themes as the rest of Discworld, and as good or better.

Also, the author does a disservice to Small Gods (also, oddly names the god Om as GamesStop, was that humor?), but this novel is one of the best ones in my opinion -- self-contained and both humorous and strangely moving.



> I advice everyone not to follow the TFA's author's example and do read Tiffany Aching series, which is one of the best. Yes, it's marketed as YA fiction, but disregard: it's exactly the same style and themes as the rest of Discworld, and as good or better.

To each their own, but to me the Tiffany books definitely felt weaker and felt like Terry Pratchett was restricting himself in terms of worldbuilding, human complexity (which Discworld usually portrays very well), and narrative. I hadn't knownn they were meant as YA fiction, but looking back, that would explain the mild feeling of lack-of-Discworld-richness to the books.

They aren't bad books by any means - just today, I was thinking about the "third thoughts" idea from one of these books and how interesting a mental model it is - but they certainly have a different feel from the rest of them.


small gods is about how history could go either way + about developing critical thinking skills through reading

agree that it's one of the best


Not to mention that it's also about the difference between religion and the church!


atheists like Simony are almost as good as believers


Small Gods is my favourite so far. I think it's a great example of how Sir Terry could be silly and funny whilst making very interesting points about (usually) serious matters.


hoping not to spoil the book for anyone who hasn't read it, but a line that has stayed with me:

'you don't know what they mean / they know what they mean'


“It takes a long time for a man like Vorbis to die” - is my favorite, but the book is chock full of brilliantly executed philosophy.


at the end of the desert is judgment


I even found Vorbis' end strangely moving, though in large part due to Brutha, of course.


Small Gods postulates that Discworld gods get their power through the amount of belief in them.

Memestocks get their value not through some form of fundamentals but how many people believe in them.


Why GameStop though?

Also, I find it slightly distasteful to refer to works of literature I like with the fad term du jour.

I can't say I liked this article overall.




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