Soul Music is the story of how rock n' roll came to Discworld and got everyone all shook up. It's also the story of Susan's first time stepping into her grandfather's professional shoes (her grandfather being the anthropomorphic personification of Death). Lots and lots of promise there, and Soul Music definitely doesn't fail to amuse. Rock n' roll, called Music with Rocks In for Discworld purposes because the drums are a set of rocks banged on by a troll, literally infects the residents of Ankh-Morpork from the Unseen University down. Suddenly seventy year old wizards are acting like teen-agers and fashioning robes out of studded leather, and middle-aged housekeepers are tossing their undergarments at the lead singer of The Band.
The lead singer is the connection between the Susan plot and the music plot, and it's a connection that I feel wasn't taken full advantage of. The singer, a young druid named Imp y Celyn, forms a band with a troll and a dwarf, accidentally gets his hands on a magically electric guitar, changes his name to Buddy, and unleashes Music with Rocks In on the unsuspecting populace. Unfortuantely, Buddy was supposed to have died, (enter Susan doing her grandad's job), but the music reanimates him. Her heart then goes "twang" and she spends the rest of the book trying to save him from the music. I think. It gets a little muddy in there. And that's the main problem.
Pratchett tosses lots of fun stuff at the reader, but ultimately, when it comes time to wrap everything up, it all feels rather messy and contrived. In the end, it does all come together, but it does so in a bit of a tangle, so while Soul Music is definitely a fun little ride, it leaves you in a less than satisfying place. I wouldn't go so far as to not recommend it to someone looking for a little light fun, but if you want an ending that satisfies, I might look somewhere else.
3 comments:
I've tried to read this one several times, and I just can't get through it. There are some of his books that I really enjoy, and this one has some charm, but I just couldn't get into it.
Because I'm looking for an excuse to goof off I want to answer this one.
I've been more and more hooked on Terry Pratchett lately because of his goofy fun writing style, but, I've noticed particular themes in some books that make some books better, or worse, than others.
Hogfather was a laugh riot, as was "Thud!" and his more recent ones - Going Postal and Making Money. What I find though is that certain books which focus around certain characters have their own theme, and if you don't fall in love with the central characters to that theme, you won't get it.
For example, books with the Night Watch (especially Samuel Vimes) have a heavy detective/hard boiled cop feel to them. Night Watch is my favorite of these, despite how much I laughed out loud with Thud! where Vimes was a central character as well. However, Feet of Clay was much more of a mystery detective story than the others I've read.
The more recent books with Moist Von Lipwig (Going Postal and Making Money) have some outstanding characters in them, and they are indeed character driven stories. If you don't like the characters and the zany situations they keep getting into, then you won't like the rest. At times I'm finding his books to be stories about favorite characters with an underlying theme/motif to carry the adventure of that character along, and yet you will find concepts to enjoy which fit well into modern society. There is a healthy dose of skepticism and cynicism, but not too much, in the Von Lipwig books I mention above. The theme of this new series though is more effects of civilization institutions on life and how that affects everything else. Make one major change and see what happens to the rest of society type of books.
Anyway, I'll have to give this book a read (I have so many others to find as well) and see what theme this one fits into. It may not fit and may just again be a particular character/group of characters theme book.
I concur.
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