Soul Music by Terry Pratchett 9/10
It is one of “those” shops, dusty shelves with creepy objects, weird shopkeeper; and somehow, when you want to return your cursed purchase, the shop is gone. That is if the shopkeeper remembers to pull the lever. Inside the shop, waiting patiently under a pile of discarded instruments is a guitar.
A new kind of music is about to take the Discworld by storm. It is music, music with rocks in it.
Oh, and DEATH has gone AWOL… again.
Plot: 8/10
Wizards are donning leather, guitar stores are selling out, and people can’t stop tapping their feet and shaking their rumps. Music with rocks in it is disturbing the delicate social equilibrium in Ankh-Morpork.
Death has disappeared and his granddaughter must take over in his absence.
The two storylines are distinct and could justify two separate books. Both plotlines are brilliant on their own, but I never felt that the one needed the other. With a few minor changes, you could separate the two. I wasn’t sure if this is a good or a bad thing. I thought about it for a while and concluded that this was by design. This is how it works in real life; lives aren’t intrinsically intertwined.
Characters: 9/10
I’m amazed each time I read a Discworld novel. Anyone can create a fully fleshed-out character in 80 000 words or more. Terry Pratchett creates a world of unique personalities, each one as detailed as the main character. Even the DEATH OF RATS, a character capable of only two words, is more than a gimmicky and humorous character. DEATH, Susan, The Band, Ridcully; all of them stand on their own. Terry Pratchett doesn’t create personalities by simply comparing and contrasting them to the main characters.
Setting: 9/10
You get a proper tour of Ankh-Morpork in this instalment, something I found lacking in The Truth.
Theme: 9/10
Terry Pratchett parodies the social unrest caused by the rise of rock and roll in the US and UK. Don’t expect any profound moral or social themes in this storyline. It’s a light-hearted look at the rock and roll lifestyle. Freedom, angst, music; I wanted to learn to play the guitar after this.
The Susan storyline examines common themes in the DEATH series; fate, duty and the inevitability of death. Last Halloween I made a display in our extra room; it was a sleeping figure with the grim reaper at the foot of the bed. The death of rats was on the nightstand. When I stepped back and looked at the display, I realised that I found it soothing. Terry Pratchett’s view of death is…beautiful, clean, simple. The world is a chaotic and uncertain place, it is comforting to know that there is something you can count on.
Style and Mood: 10/10
Classic Pratchett; funny, insightful, vivid, and relatable.
Total Score: 9/10
Thanks for reading
JJ
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