Pratchett, Terry - Carpe Jugulum

Upon the birth of his daughter, King Verence of Lancre decides to have a giant party. Unfortunately, this means he decides to invite Omnian priest Mightily Oats and the Magpyr family, which in turn sets off Nanny Ogg, who takes issues with Omnian past practices of setting so-called witches on fire (the real witches got away, of course), and Granny Weatherwax, who does not approve of vampires attempting to take over Lancre.

I enjoy the witches books, so I'm a little sad to see that this is the last one that directly stars the trio of witches (I like the Tiffany Aching books, but I miss having more Granny Weatherwax). I'm also sad that Agnes/Perdita has not quite achieved the same place Magrat has in my heart (and I am very glad Magrat is in this book), although I suspect she very well could with another book.

I think (?) people tend to like this one better than Maskerade; I may be the exception, largely because I howled at all the parody in Maskerade but was a little meh to the vampire ones in here. They aren't as frightening as Fairy, and the tropes that Pratchett lampoons are tropes that aren't much in play any more.

Now, if he had written this book about brooding, morally conflicted and yet utterly gorgeous, perpetually teenaged hero vampires and the clumsy gorgeous girls they find to save them from their lifetime of misery and angst and squirrel blood, I would have lapped that up!

On the other hand, I had been expecting a more negative treatment of Mightily Oats in the book and was pleased to find that he actually developed as a character. And I very much love seeing Granny Weatherwax being put into a tight spot, from her opening encounter with Death to her battle against the vampires, largely because she always rises to the occasion. Or makes the occasion come to her, sometimes.

Pratchett, Terry - Small Gods

It was rather neat reading this right after meeting my first Omnian priest in the form of Mightily Oats in Carpe Jugulum! I only wish I remembered more of what Mightily Oats quoted Brutha as saying, to compare with what Brutha actually says.

The country of Omnia is currently engaged in religious wars against a host of other countries, the most notable being Ephebe, the Discworld equivalent of Greece and/or Rome. Alas, even though millions of people are dying in his name, the god Om is weaker than ever, and he soon appears to his Chosen Prophet Brutha.

But since this is Discworld, Brutha wasn't so much his first choice so much as his only choice, and he seems to be stuck in the shape of a tortoise and prone to making commandments about the evils of moldy lettuce.

I can see why I saw people make a few comparisons between this book and Nation, as both are about attempting to rebuild something out of the ashes of another, and both are centered around a humanism that denies many religious creeds. I think Nation is more cynical about religion than Small Gods, part of which is due to the darker subject of the former.

I'm not sure why, but I didn't become convinced by the book until near the end. Possibly the comparisons with Nation had me expecting higher stakes or something darker, and though Vorbis is frightening, I knew things would not end well for him in Discworld. But I do like the ending, and I like that there's an acknowledgment that an institution as large as a widely-believed religion can't be changed overnight, that reform is difficult and flawed and messy but still worth doing, that sometimes even the enemy needs a hand. And I'm impressed by how much Brutha changes over the course of the book.