I struggled with this one.

Much like Pyramids, this one is essentially religious satire. In addition, until the last 50 or so pages, it could have been set anywhere. There was one v. brief mention of the librarian from Unseen University rescuing scrolls from a fire, a couple of characters mentioned Ankh-Morpork... that was it.

The biggest issue, as with Pyramids, is the lack of a truly engaging protagonist. The MC in Pyramids was underutilized - he was a member of the Assassin's Guild yet let a priest railroad him in everything. The MC in this one - Brutha - seemed to have little potential beyond comic relief except that never occurred. He was simple, he obeyed without question...until he didn't and he wasn't. And I never quite saw how this occurred. Oh, I saw WHEN, but not how. I mean; I sort of get his increasing understanding of reality but not the sudden rebellion and certainly not his going from a Mongo-like character to a leader. Even with a photographic memory clogged with hundreds of scrolls, that's not going to make HIM smarter; just make him unable to focus for all the apparently useless trivia clogging his brain.

Small Gods stands on its own in the Discworld universe, at least when it comes to the story and the characters.  It does of course continue to build on the “in jokes” that have been accumulating from the very first Discworld book.  There are some references that I think would sail harmlessly over the head of anybody who hadn’t read the earlier books, but catching those references is part of the fun for me.

The story is based on the idea that there are lots and lots of “small gods” out there, with no influence or power, desperately trying to get the attention of a human who will believe in them.  Once somebody believes in them, they start to gain power, which grows as they accumulate more true believers.  This can also happen in reverse; if the believers diminish, then so does the god.  The story focuses on a god by the name of Om, who has unexpectedly found himself in the form of a tortoise as his power is diminishing.  Only a single boy by the name of Brutha truly believes in him and can hear his voice.  Adventures ensue.

I really enjoyed the first half of the story, but I started to lose interest in the second half.  I couldn’t really say why; it just seemed to get a little tedious for a while there.  The humor in this book was great, though.  It wasn’t quite on the same level as the books in the Witches subseries for me, but it was pretty close.  The part about penguins being extremely confused birds because they only know how to fly under water completely cracked me up.  I’m not sure what that says about my sense of humor.  It’s a bit corny, I guess!

I thought this book had a little more meat on it in terms of covering some deeper themes.  Several of the previous books have done that to some extent, but I thought it was more substantial in this book.  As you might guess from the title and the premise, there are quite a few thoughts about the nature of religion, how it affects people, how it gains power, and how it’s used.  There were also some thoughts about war and slavery.

So overall I enjoyed it, but I thought it dragged a bit in the middle.  I enjoyed it enough to round my star rating up to 4 stars on Goodreads.

The divine order of Discworld is put under the microscope by Terry Pratchett in “Small Gods” as we follow focus of Omnian religion, the Great God Om, and his only believer, Brutha.  Pratchett takes on not only organized religion, but also atheism, philosophy, and how militaries find a new technology and turn it into a killing machine.

The main story of the book is about the once powerful Om, who once had thousands upon thousands of followers but now only has one, Brutha.  Both Om and Brutha discover that while many claim to be worshipping Om, they don’t believe in him because their religious experience is basically the rituals of the Church.  These rituals are alright to one Vorbis, Head of the Quisition (the Omnian version of the Inquisition).  Vorbis thinks only fundamentally about religion and not belief, just like Brutha’s grandmother does which if he succeeds means that Om will find himself cast into the desert with other failed gods.  All the while, many professed Omnians believe that their world is not a sphere circling the sun but a flat disc on top of four elephants standing on top of a turtle moving through space.  These atheists have their own plans, especially after discovering the creator of their philosophy who seems to be put off by the whole semi-religious movement based on his writings of fact.

This Discworld installment does not seem as humorous has previous books, however because “Small Gods” is satire Pratchett’s humor is more finally tuned to suit the genre.  Its only after you’ve read the book that you get the overall metaphysical discussion Pratchett has just had with you in a fun way.

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett is the story of a dimwitted novice priest of the god Om, named Brutha, with an eidetic memory who becomes a prophet rather against his will. Unfortunately when Brutha meets his god, Om happens to be trapped in the form of a tortoise and is almost powerless. It's up to Brutha to help Om figure out why this happened and to help restore his god to his former glory. In the process Brutha learns the truth about his religion and that much of what he had been taught was false.

This is a very funny religious satire. It made me grin a lot and at times even laugh aloud. I'd definitely recommend this book to Discworld fans as well as anyone who enjoys British humor, provided you aren't sensitive about the subject matter.