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Small Gods
Cover art by Josh Kirby
Co-author(s)
Illustrator(s)
Publisher	Victor Gollancz
Publication date	May 1992
ISBN	0575052228
Pages	288
RRP
Main characters	Brutha, Om, Vorbis
Series	Discworld Series
Annotations	View
Notes
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Blurb

Brutha is the Chosen One.

His god has spoken to him, admittedly while currently in the shape of a tortoise.

Brutha is a simple lad. He can't read. He can't write. He's pretty good at growing melons. And his wants are few.

He wants to overthrow a huge and corrupt church.

He wants to prevent a horrible holy war.

He wants to stop the persecution of a philosopher who has dared to suggest that, contrary to the Church's dogma, the Discworld really does go through space on the back of an enormous turtle (*).

He wants peace and justice and brotherly love. He wants the Inquisition to stop torturing him now, please.

But most of all, what he really wants, more than anything else, is for his god to Choose Someone Else ...

(* which is true, but when has that ever mattered?)

Plot

The story is set in the land of Omnia, an oppressive theocracy that is controlled by a Church that worships the Great God Om and frequently wages war on non-believers. It is about time for Om to manifest in the world and send his eighth prophet. Om has ignored his believers for ages and is surprised to find himself stripped of his divine powers and only able to manifest himself as a tortoise. On the Disc, the power of a God is determined by how many people believe in them.

In Kom, the capital of Omnia, Om meets Brutha, a simple-minded boy with a remarkable memory. He struggles to convince Brutha that he is the God the boy worships. Vorbis, the head of the Quisition, asks Brutha to come with him on a diplomatic mission to Ephebe. While they are there, Brutha starts to take an interest in philosphy. Om meets the philosopher Didactylos and discovers that Brutha is the only remaining Omnian who actually believes in him; the others now only believe in the rules and rituals of the Church.

Brutha's memory helps him to provide information to the Omnians on how to access the Tyrant's palace via the Labyrinth that guards it. He also reads and memorises many scrolls in the library, in order to preserve the Ephebians' knowledge as Omnian soldiers burn the building down. Brutha, Om and a severely injured Vorbis flee the struggle by boat and end up lost in the desert. On their way home, they discover ruined temples that are haunted by Small Gods - ghosts of powerless gods who no-one believes in. Om begins to care about his believers for the first time.

Vorbis regains his strength as they approach Kom. He abducts Brutha and tries to finish Om off without success. He arranges for himself to be ordained the eighth prophet and for Brutha to be publically burned to death by being strapped to a heated bronze statue of a tortoise. Om intervenes; an eagle flies him over to the scene and drops him on Vorbis' head, killing the priest. The crowd witness the miracle and their faith in Om is restored, allowing him to become powerful again.

Meanwhile, Ephebe has formed an alliance with several nations to invade Omnia and a battle breaks out on the coast by Kom. Brutha attempts to make peace, but the invading armies are too distrustful of the Omnians. Om plans to use his physical powers against them, but Brutha argues that he should not interfere with the actions of humans. Om is frustrated but ultimately agrees; instead he travels to the top of Cori Celesti where he sees the other gods gambling on the fates of their believers to gain or lose them. Shocked by the callousness with which they treat their believers, Om loses his temper, even hitting some of the other gods. The soldiers hear a threatening sign from the heavens and stop fighting.

Brutha becomes the Eighth Prophet. He ends the Quisition and reforms the Church, turning the oppressive and dogmatic institution into a fairer-minded theology. For the next century, Omnia is able to enjoy great peace, freedom and prosperity. In the epilogue, Brutha dies on the 100th anniversary of Om's return to power. It is then revealed that the events were orchestrated by Lu-Tze, one of the History Monks, who decided that he would rather have a century of peace than the anticipated century of war.

Cover

The cover illustration was drawn by Josh Kirby. It is dominated by two figures: Brutha, who is chained to an altar in the form of a giant turtle and Vorbis with an eagle-like appearance interrogating him. Above both figures a large flying eagle holds a terrified turtle in its claws.

About the book

When reading the Discworld books starting from the first The Colour of Magic to the newest one notices a gradual change in the style of writing. Not only does the text become more picturesque and atmospheric, but the story itself becomes more elaborate. Whereas in The Colour of Magic the story seems to be a mere carrier for a multitude of jokes and anecdotes, newer books have less comedy, but make a good read, because of the intriguing story. Small Gods is the first book in the Discworld series with a noticeably changed style.

Whereas previous books were driven by satire of the fantasy genre and popular culture, Small Gods touches on deeper themes. The main themes of the book are theism, atheism, morality and ethics. There is a clear contrast between Brutha's earnest faith and compassion, compared to the organized religion of a church which at best is stagnant and corrupt, and at worst is oppressive and extremist. The storyline then reveals that Brutha is the only person who is really believing in Om himself, whereas everyone else is just believing in rules and rituals. It also shows that a bad religion or church can still have good followers.

One of the more important messages of the book is: do good things, simply because they are good and not just because a god demands it. This might not sound too funny, but the messages are hidden in a rather humorous story (this is still a Terry Pratchett book) about Brutha, a novice priest of the church of Om.

Small Gods introduces Lu-Tze the history-monk. The book is also the origin of the phrase "The turtle moves" or De Chelonian Mobile.

Characters

Main Characters

Minor Characters

Lu-Tze
Brother Nhumrod
Bishop Drunah
General Iam Fri'it, his aspirations to assassinate Vorbis are cut short (as, indeed, is he)
Sergeant Simony
Death
P'tang P'tang, a god
Didactylos, a philosopher
Urn, a philosopher, Didactylos' nephew
"St" Sevrian Thaddeus Ungulant, a philosopher, friend to small gods
Tyrant of Ephebe

Cameos/Mentioned

Members of the Omnian Church (current and former, including excommunicated members)
- The SeptArchs, prophets who wrote the 7 books of Omniaism
  - Prophet Ishkible
  - Prophet Cena
  - Prophet Fruni
  - Prophet Wallspur
  - Prophet Ossory
  - Prophet Abbys
  - Prophet Hashimi
- Brother Murduck, beaten nearly to death (and flogged the rest of the way), ostensibly by Ephebians, but actually by the Omnian Church itself
- Brother Sasho, tortured for information
- Brother Whelk, teaches Comparative Religion (an interesting topic in monotheistic Omnia?)
- Bishop Kreeblephor, who converted a demon by reason alone in the Year of the Lenient Vegetable
- Brother Preptil, master of music
- Bishop Treem, archivist
- False Prophet Zeb
- False Prophet Zog
- Members of the Divine Legion, the military arm of the Church
  - Sergeant Aktar
  - Sergeant Fergmen
  - Private Dervi Ichlos, killed by Simony
- Members of the Quisition
  - Inquisitor First Class Ishmale Quoom, retired
  - Deacon Cusp
- Coplei, a bosun on the holy ship Fin of God
Cut-Me-Own-Hand-Off Dhblah
Gods and goddesses
- The Sea Queen
- Tuvelpit, God of Wine, aka Smimto
- Offler
- Astoria, Goddess of Love
- Petulia, Goddess of Negotiable Affection
- God of Lettuce (mentioned)
- Blind Io
- Cubal, the Fire God
- Flatulus, Wind God
- Fedecks, Messenger of the Gods, whose name parodies Fedex
- Patina, Goddess of Wisdom
- Foorgol, Avalanche God, whose name is "log roof" backward
- Angus, a small god
- Goddess of Plenty, minor goddess elbowed by Om
- Solar God (Tsortean God of the Sun)
Philosophers
- Legibus, philosopher, parodies Archimedes
- Aristocrates, philosopher, secretary to the Tyrant, parodies Aristotle
- Xeno, parodies Zeno
- Ibid, philosopher, whose name parodies the expression ibid
- Gordo of Tsort, who wrote about sand
- Irexes, who also wrote about sand
the Librarian
General Argavisti, of Ephebe
Imperiator Borvorius, of Tsort
Admiral Rham-ap-Efan, of Djelibeybi
Fasta Benj, fisherman from an unnamed small nation
Pacha Moj, another person from the same unnamed small nation
59th Abbot, who mis-used his ability to see into the future
493rd Abbot
Hodgsonites, Melchiorites, and Ashelians, peoples who were subjugated by the Divine Legion
Koomi of Smale, who wrote Ego-Video Liber Deorum (Gods: A Spotter's Guide), angering the Omnian Church
Ur-Gilash, god defeated by Om (and perhaps encountered by Om in the desert, though this isn't made clear), and whose capital city was Gilash
Customers of Didactylos and Nephew:
- Mr. Piloxi the farmer, who paid in rotten green black olives
- Mrs. Bylaxis
- Grillos, the cobbler
Sister Sestina of Quirm, who walked across coals for a goddess who was really only interested in hairstyles
Brother Zephilite of Klatch, who did charity work in the name of F'rum, an fairly stupid invisible god

Locations

Ramtop Mountains
Omnia, the rimward fringe of Klatch on the Circle Sea
- Kom, capital of Omnia
- Gate of Horns
- Citadel of the Omnian Church
- Place of Lamentation
- Port of Il-Drim
Ephebe
- Library of Ephebe, 2nd largest library on the Disc
The Circle Sea
Pseudopolis (mentioned)
Djel (mentioned)
Tsort (mentioned)
Brown Islands (mentioned)
Djelibeybi (mentioned)
Ankh-Morpork (mentioned)
Erebos, an island that Ossory sailed to on a millstone
Rim Ocean (mentioned)
Countries conquered by Omnia
- Istanzia
- Betrek
- Ushistan
Unseen University (mentioned)
- Library (mentioned)
  - Lost Reading Room (mentioned)
Lost City of Ee (mentioned)
Sto Plains (mentioned)
Dunmanifestin
- Cori Celesti (mentioned)
Skant, the Cenobiarch goes off to hermitage here when Vorbis (briefly) becomes the 8th prophet

Miscellaneous

Year of the Notional Serpent in the Century of the Fruitbat, time frame for this book
Year of the Astounded Beetle, Brutha was 2 years old then (almost 3) when he saw derechmi, an Ephebian coin
The Omnian Quisition, parodying Roundworld's Inquisition
Omnian Hymns
The Septateuch, holy book of Omnia
Klatchian Delight, parodies Turkish Delight
Pointless Albatross
Scalbie

Books written by philosophers (they seem to prefer short titles)
- Didactylos' Meditations
- Xeno's Reflections
- Aristocrates' Platitudes
- Ibid's Discourses and Civics
- Legibus's Geometries
- Hierarch's Theologies
- Orinjcrates' (whose name is a pun on "orange creates") On the Nature of Plants
- Philo's Bestiary
- Abraxas's On Religion
- Grido's Mechanics
- Gnomon's Ectopia (a gnomon is the triangular part of a sundial, while ectopia is the displacement of a bodily organ; the pun here, however, may be on Sir Thomas More's Utopia
- Dykeri's Principles of Navigation
L-space
Ambiguous Puzuma
Aurora Corealis, the hublights, parodying the Roundworld Northern Lights, whose proper scientific name is Aurora Borealis
Most Holy St Bobby, Ossory's ass

Adaptations

Radio

A radio adaptation was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2006.

Cast:

Patrick Barlow: Om
Carl Prekopp: Brutha
Alex Jennings: Vorbis
Geoffrey Beevers: Nhumrod, St. Ungulant
Gerard McDermott: Didactylos, Cut-Me-Own-Hand-Off Dhblah
John Cummins: Urn
Nick Sayce: Sergeant Simony
Anton Lesser: Narrator
Michael Kilgarriff: Death

Graphic Novel

Adapted into a comic book Small Gods A Discworld Graphic Novel in 2016, illustrated by Ray Friesen.

Annotations

"The other novices make fun of him, sometimes. Call him The Big Dumb Ox." - in Roundworld, this nickname was applied to St Thomas Aquinas

"maybe a small army could get a quarter of the way, and leave a cache of water. And do that several times. And another small army could use part of that cache to go further, maybe reach halfway, and leave a cache. And another small army... It had taken months." - a version of the Jeep Problem

"Stoics. Cynics. Big drinkers, the Cynics. Epicureans. Stochastics. Anamaxandrites. Epistemologists. Peripatetics. Synoptics." - implies that there are philosophers named Epicurus and Anaximander

"The Chain Letter to the Ephebians." - parodies chain letters and the Epistles of the New Testament.

"could drag Omnia kicking and screaming into the Century of the Fruitbat!" - the implication here is that this book takes place during the Century of the Fruitbat, even though it presumably takes place centuries before Moving Pictures (Lu-tze had to travel back in time to get to Omnia). Of course, there's no solid evidence that the "current" books take place in the Century of the Fruitbat either(?), and Thief of Time shows the Disc's space-time continuum is rather convoluted.

"I said to [Prince Lasgere of Tsort] 'There is no royal road to learning'" - parodies Euclid's statement to King Ptolemy: "there is no royal road to geometry" {{{2}}}

"Got to have a whole parcel of worshipers to live on Nob Hill." - references Roundworld's Nob Hill, an upscale area of San Francisco.

'[Om] plunged his beak through the brown feathers between the talons, and gripped. [...] "Now. You play, uh, ball with me, I'll play . . . ball with you."' - As the APF (http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/small-gods.html#p340244) notes, eagles don't have testicles. Of course, this might be a "balled eagle", but I doubt even Pterry would make such a bad subtle pun.

Notes

This book is not a part of a series, although some place it in a "Gods" series together with Pyramids and Hogfather. It was placed together with these two novels in the collection The Gods Trilogy.
Originally published in Great Britain by Victor Gollanz Ltd.
Copyright (c) 1992 by Terry and Lyn Pratchett.

Gallery

External Links

Small Gods Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File

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