Monthly Dose-O-Discworld - Soul Music

[Melki]

Summer's a great time to visit with friends and family (if you can stand any of your family, anyway), so let's spend some time with our old pals Mort and Susan, and of course, the man himself - DEATH.

So, throw another basilisk on the barbie, and let's kick back and enjoy some sweet Soul Music.

[Rebecca]

Cool! And I finally finished Men At Arms last night :)

[Mathew]

There is a cartoon, er graphic video compilation, at my library for this one. Maybe I'll just watch the movie?

*prepares for vicious attack from all book lovers*

[Ubiquitous]

I always brace myself for my extreme and somewhat childish reactions whenever I read an author's attempt to describe music. I don't know if it's the musician in me or my pathological insistence on having my way, but authors almost never get it right.

I twinged a couple of times, but Sir Pratchett managed to pull it off here. This was one of my favorite Discworld novels. I'm always happy to see Mr. D. in a Discworld story, so that was fun. I don't know how much time the author spent backstage in the past, but the depiction of Dibbler as a manager is dead on. I know that guy.

I loved some of the puns and word-play. There's just enough to elicit groans, but not so much that it takes you out of the story.

(Thwacks Bookworm with a copy of War and Peace...)

No, the cartoon doesn't count. Read the book. :)

[Melki]

There is a movie of this book?

Oh, Bookworm... *shakes head disappointedly* For shame!

[Michael]

Oh, I enjoyed this one quite a bit, and no surprise, since I enjoyed Mort too. I have to wonder how long he worked on the list of music jokes and references, because this felt pretty full of them to me. (view spoiler)[Buddy of the Holly? Oh boy... (hide spoiler)] And I laughed out loud at one point: (view spoiler)[when the wizards had their conversation about the high likelihood of yet another creature slipping through the cracks in reality into Ankh-Mopork. It felt like Pratchett was responding to critics when he wrote that -- and I've complained about that heavily-used plot point, too -- and I thought it was a nice deflection. (hide spoiler)]

[Andrew]

I love the book, but I have to defend those who enjoy the cartoon, partially because it's by Cosgrove Hall, but mostly because it does what the book can't and parodies the music itself. I bought the DVD and soundtrack CD at the time...

[Rebecca]

I finally got my copy of the book. Time to stop messing with the internet and start reading!

[Rebecca]

Ah, enjoyed that no end. I do like Death and his family, and the music jokes worked for me. Loved the truly awful band that went through so many almost-right names, too.

[Melki]

I didn't completely love this one. Death, Susan, Death of Rats and CMOT Dibbler were great fun...but I didn't like the band much. I DO wish I'd written down all the music references and I'm now intensely curious about the cartoon.

[Rebecca]

I did wish that we could have gotten a little more feeling that Imp was a real person--though that was sort of the point.

[Mathew]

I've still yet to crack the cartoon. The book either.
I should have some time now that Hockey is over. I'll try to give you a review of the 'movie'.

[Mathew]

I started the 'movie', watched about a half hours worth and fell asleep. Now, it was late, but, I think a lot is lost when you take a Pratchett book and try to make it into a movie.

[Melki]

I thought "Hogfather" was pretty well done. My youngest son has watched that one three times already. Looking forward to finally reading it...in October, I believe.

[Zack]

I know the threads been dead (har har har) for a bit, but just wanted to say that my favorite part of this book was when Death was trying to get drunk.

"It was the most impressive collapse the bar had ever seen. The tall dark stranger fell backward slowly, like a tree. There was no sissy sagging of the knees, no cop-out bouncing off a table on the way down. He simply went from vertical to horizontal in one marvelous geometric sweep.
Several people applauded as he hit the floor. Then they searched his pockets, or at least made an effort to search his pockets but couldn't find any. And then they threw him into the river."

The book was a bit dull to me. I almost wish Pratchett skipped the whole music theme and explored Death and his granddaughter's relationship in a different way entirely.

[Melki]

That was my favorite part as well.
Good old Ankh-Morpork...ALL drunks shall be rolled, then tossed. Even DEATH.

[Rebecca]

I love the idea that Death can get drunk and pass out!

[Mark]

DEATH is my favorite character in all the Discworld books, but I regret to say SOUL MUSIC is not one of Pratchett's best. I read it shortly on the heels of MASKERADE, which is an interesting juxtaposition, since they both deal with forms of music. MASKERADE has great wit, characters, and structure, not to mention a fun little "who done it" angle. SOUL MUSIC's best quality, for me, is to show DEATH in mourning, for while it's never explicitly stated, he's clearly trying to forget the death of his adopted daughter and her husband, Mort, along with the fact that HE could have done something about it, but did not, for various reasons.