Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

(Book Review)

And yet another book in the disc world series. After having previously read:
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents,
Monstrous Regiment ,
Interesting Times ,
Night Watch ,
The Color of Magic ,
Thief of Time ,
Going Postal , and
The Truth .

Each discworld book revolves around a different theme. Often these themes are a bit anachronistic for the medieval fantasy realm of the discworld, in which case Terry Pratchett usually uses magic to explain away any discrepancies. (It’s a bit similar to the old “Flinstones” gag of having dinosaurs act in place of modern appliances. It’s a bit corny, but at the same time it’s all part of the fun).

In this case, the theme of this book revolves around rock and roll music. Which enters into the discworld through magic (of course) and creates a sensation (and conservative counter-reaction) somewhat similar to the birth of rock and roll in our universe in the 1950s and 60s.

But the rock music doesn't really belong in the discworld. Instead it’s seeping in from another dimension (presumably ours). As a result everything resembles rock music and popular culture from our universe, but never comes out exactly right. This gives way to a lot of bad puns. For example, instead of rock music, it’s called, “music with rocks in”. Instead of “The Who” there is a group known as “The Whom”. There is a reference to “The grateful Death”, et cetera.

In my personal opinion, Pratchett’s usual wit is lagging a bit in this book. There are some real groaners in here. Such as the following two (which are just by way of example):

“We need to play somewhere. Like in a club.”
“I've got a club. It’s got a nail in it,” said the troll.
“No, I mean like a night club.”
“It’s still got a nail in it at night.”

And…

“Don’t worry. I’ll sort it out. Sorting out about money is my middle name.”
“That must be a long middle name.”

And so it goes. Oh well, when you write as many books at Terry Pratchett does, I guess they can’t all be winners.
At the very least, he has the grace to acknowledge the cheesiness of some of his own puns, like in the following exchange. Our hero Imp, a young musician just arrived in the city, is playing his instrument at a street corner when two policeman walk by.

“That’s a harp he’s playing Nobby,” said one of them after watching Imp for a while.
“Lyre.”
“No, it’s the honest truth, I’m-.” The fat guard frowned and looked down. “You've just been waiting all your life to say that, ain't ya Nobby,” he said.

Corny jokes aside, one of the great things about a Terry Pratchett book is always the plotting. This book has several different plot lines that it is juggling and they all manage to come together seamlessly at the end.
There’s the story of “the band with rocks in” (the band that starts the whole phenomenon, and in the process becomes possessed by the music). But there’s also the story of their talentless imitators (a spoof on punk music), and there’s the Wizard’s University (where the aging faculty starts to act like rebellious teenagers and the arch-Chancellor is worried about the fabric of reality imploding again). And then there’s the story of Death himself (always a character in the discworld series) who gets depressed with his job and goes on a quest to try and forget. And Death’s granddaughter Susan, who is in a boarding school clueless of her real ancestry until a skeleton rat and a talking raven show up at her bedside.

Many of the characters introduced in this book also reappear in other books. For example, after having read, “The Thief of Time” (in which Susan Death was also a major character) it was interesting for me to see her first appearance in this book. (At one point I decided I was going to read all the discworld books in order, but it’s sometimes difficult getting English books in Japan, so now I’m just reading them as I come across them, and gradually the pieces of the broader narrative are fitting together).

A visit to wikipedia shows that this book was adopted into an animated mini-series for British television. And a trip over to Youtube shows that some kind soul has put up the whole thing for public viewing. (At least it was available the last time I checked. You never know how soon it can get taken down).
I confess I gave into the temptation and watched the whole thing. It’s not bad, if you've got the time to waste, but it shows how difficult it is to transfer Pratchett’s dry humor into the medium of TV. (Much the same problem plagues the various adaptations of Douglas Adam’s works. In Adam’s books, like Pratchett, much of the humor is in the ironic voice of the narrator, and this is very difficult to transfer over to live action). Also, with all the much more interesting Discworld books out there, I’m not sure why this one in particular was selected to be made into a mini-series.

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Soul Music by Terry Pratchett: Book Review (Scripted)