Soul Music: Discworld, Book 16

Soul music is another discworld novel where Terry Pratchett explores and pokes fun at a broad theme. In this case it's rock music and let's face it rock music is a valid target. It tells the story of Imp y Celyn who's a bard. He meets a troll and a dwarf and forms a band. They play "music with rocks in it" thanks to the help of a not entirely benign mythical guitar. On the way Death goes missing and his granddaughter Susan has to take over. What could possibly go wrong. Well if CMOT Dibbler is involved then you can bet that everything goes wrong with hilarious consequences. Half of the fun of this book is spotting obscure references to bands and songs. How about the felonious monk and the surreptitious fabric? Some of them are quite hard to spot. If you like Terry Pratchett then this is a great book anyway and since it's before he settled into principal character mode has a sense of fun and novelty that is missing in some of the more establishment Ankh-Morpork books. Rock music had it coming and Pratchett delivers agin in spades of laughter and irony. A great read.

NOTE: While the remainder of the review focuses on the content of the book itself, it is worth noting that as of this posting, the Kindle edition of this book suffers from a large number of typos that appear to be the result of poor OCR conversion. Hopefully, HarperCollins will fix this sooner than later.While it is still a very enjoyable book, Soul Music, the 16th entry in the Discworld series, is a bit of a letdown following the string of strong entries that began with the 12th book of the series, Witches Abroad, and continued through to the 15th, Men at Arms.Soul Music does for rock-and-roll (or, Music With Rocks In, as it is called in the Discworld) what Moving Pictures did for Hollywood. And, structurally, the plot is similar to that of Reaper Man, including, as it does, a storyline concerning the fallout that arises from Death taking some time off from his work (though in the current volume, he does so willingly). Like those two previous entries, Soul Music serves up some delightful characters and some great laughs, put the resulting whole lacks some of the heft and emotional punch of books like Small Gods or Men at Arms.It is certainly pleasurable to watch Pratchett riff on rock culture (across all eras, but with a focus on early formative rock-n-roll - the protagonist is essentially a Discworld mash-up of Elvis - "he looks a bit elvish to me" - and Buddy Holly). And Pratchett's storytelling skills remain impeccable. While the book does share much in terms of plot and structure with Reaper Man and Moving Pictures, it easily bests both those entries with its tight pacing and its thoroughly satisfying and convincing resolution. At the same time, one can't help but miss the satire and weightier observational humor that has marked the previous four entries in the Discworld series.Soul Music is, however, also a book in which Death plays a significant role. And, as he has in past books, Death, for all his inability to grasp some of the basic elements of what it means to be mortal, becomes the perfect vehicle to capture the seeming absurdity of human existence.While some Discworld fans may find this book to be not quite as strong as some previous Discworld novels, it is still, at the very least, a well-written book with a generous serving of laughs.

The last few weeks, my reading has been monopolized by the mind of Terry Pratchett. I have been sucked into the Discworld, and I am just fine with that. I sought out experts on which order to read the books, since there is no one straight linear way to read the books.I read the entire sequence centered on Death (and his extended family) first, since my introduction to the world of the Disc was the movie version of _Hogfather_.I bought the first one, _Mort_, just to see if I would like it. I liked it well enough; I bought the next two books in the series on the Death story-arc. A quarter of the way through the second book, I bought the final two books of the arc.I neared the end of one of those books and I bought the first three books from the "Guards" story-arc. At this point, I have only read one of those books, the first _Guards, Guards_. I was pleased, since I have to admit that I was a bit worried about the continuity of quality between story-arcs. Was I just interested in the character of Death, or did I like the world as a whole?It turns out that I like the world as a whole, and this is a huge strength of Pratchett. I want to learn about all the inhabitants and read all the stories, no matter how tangential. I don't usually keep many books in my wish list, but it is now filled up with Discworld books. He builds a world like Vonnegut did. There are many familiar elements of the world we inhabit but there is the magic element that rips from genre fiction: what Vonnegut did with science-fiction, Pratchett does with fantasy elements.There are a couple of things about the series generally that I really enjoyed. The first is what you try to develop as a writer, a unique voice. I've been struggling on finding the right word to really describe what I would characterize as Pratchett's voice. It is arch and tongue-in-cheek and just fun if you've read enough. He's a post-modern Tolkien, but that's a little off.Secondly, he is funny, and he's not afraid to go for the easy joke. There are puns-galore, if you like that sort of thing. I happen to. There is one very memorable one that he just sort of sneaks in during _Soul Music_. He takes the reader 90% of the way to the pay-off but allows the slow dawning to set on the reader, so that a bad pun feels like it was done masterfully. Which it is, it really is.If I had to make a critique of the books in the series that I have read so far is that I have read them too fast. My wife often tells me to slow down and enjoy the books you like, but I seldom listen to her. I should have here. There have been a couple of times that I enjoying the ride so much, I didn't even bother to remember what I had just read. I had to go and reread the last 50 pages of _Guards, Guards_ because of this. I enjoyed it too much.Otherwise, this is an unqualified recommendation for the Discworld books. Spend some time there, you won't regret it.

El libro es excelente solo me gusta que Amazon fuera más cuidadoso con los libros siempre llegan maltratados y raspados

I am a big fan of Terry Pratchett, and this book is just brilliant.Comical story of Death doing a disappearing act, but this time his granddaughter Susan is called to take over.Brilliant and exceptionally funny.Recommended

Even though it took 14 days to deliver I am happy because it was not damaged as it was packed in bubble wrap within cardboard box.Very excited to read this book.

Great book that came in great condition

I bought all the 5 books about Death and I love them all. Terry Pratchett is a must read imo.