Ursula Krischer

In this Discworld novel Terry attacks the subject of religion, while bashing philosophy and science on the side. While Terries satire is indeed set on the very fictional Discworld. It deals with the fundamental issues that lay at the base of human society. While in other Discworld novels, Terries criticism can be a bit random or spread over a wide range of subjects. In Small Gods it is more concentrated and directed, giving us a fuller discussion of the given subject.
Just like in my other Discworld favorite, The Truth.

In Small Gods, that great and funny mirror, in the shape of a disc, that rotates on the backs of four elephants that stand on top of Atuin the great space turtle, shows us a new location on the disc, Omnia. And tells the tale of the rise and fall and rise of the Great God Om. Well falling or should I say dropping has allot to do with it. And well, don't mention eagles, just don't.

Oh, and did I say "Read by Nigel Planer" yeat?
Well, I rest my case.

I loved Oryx and Crake. This book is to O&C like Ender's Shadow is to Ender's Game.

It's the same story from another point of view.

Instead of telling the story from within the corporation compounds, it is told from the point of view of the plebe lands and concentrates around the God's Gardeners group.

I found it easier to identify with Jimmy in O&C, as I am a word person in a tetchy world, a bit worried about where this world is going. The extreme nature of the God's Gardeners green cult is harder to identify with.

I love nostalgia and meeting the characters from O&C again was allot of fun. I did think Atwood laid the references to O&C a little too thick. We meet just about every character we knew, event's from Oryx and Crake are alluded to in very high detail. For example if in O&C Jimmy tells how a girl caught him reading her diary, then in The Year of the Flood you meet this girl and she describes the event down to how many times she underlined different words in the message she wrote him.

I may be too sensitive to this because I made sure to reread O&C before starting the Year of the Flood. But this is the main reason I'm deducting one star from my rating for this book.

I really enjoyed The Year of the Flood, it was allot of fun to revisit the O&C world. The only thing wrong with it is that like many sequels it doesn't match the brilliance of the original.