Recent Reads (September 25)

Small Gods (1992)

I absolutely loved Small Gods. Pratchett takes on religion, faith, and power. The story follows Om, a god trapped in the body of a tortoise, who has only one true believer left: a novice named Brutha. The central premise is that gods and mythical beings exist because people believe in them, and their power fades as belief fades.

    There’s no point in believing in things that exist.

The book is funny, clever, and surprisingly philosophical. Pratchett skewers organized religion, but he also asks bigger questions: What is faith? What is belief? How do institutions shape people, and how do people shape institutions? It's satire, but not heavy-handed. Like Vonnegut, he writes with a wink, yet there's real depth under the jokes.

    Gods don't like people not doing much work. People who aren't busy all the time might start to think.

    Why not? If enough people believe, you can be god of anything….

    The figures looked more or less human. And they were engaged in religion. You could tell by the knives         (it's not murder if you do it for a god).

    The trouble with being a god is that you've got no one to pray to.

I came across Small Gods after reading Gaiman's American Gods (2001), which credits it as inspiration. Both explore gods and belief, but Pratchett's is lighter, sharper, and full of characters you actually care about. The audiobook is narrated by Andy Serkis, and he's brilliant. My precious!

Some more quotes from the book:

    But is all this true?" said Brutha. / Didactylos shrugged. "Could be. Could be. We are here and it is now. The way I see it is, after that, everything tends towards guesswork." / "You mean you don't KNOW it's true?" said Brutha. / "I THINK it might be," said Didactylos. "I could be wrong. Not being certain is what being a philosopher is all about.

    What have I always believed? That on the whole, and by and large, if a man lived properly, not according to what any priests said, but according to what seemed decent and honest inside, then it would, at the end, more or less, turn out all right.

    Sometimes the crime follows the punishment, which only serves to prove the foresight of the Great God." / "That's what my grandmother used to say," said Brutha automatically. / "Indeed? I would like to know more about this formidable lady." / "She used to give me a thrashing every morning because I would certainly do something to deserve it during the day," said Brutha. / "A most complete understanding of the nature of mankind,.

    Probably the last man who knew how it worked had been tortured to death years before. Or as soon as it was installed. Killing the creator was a traditional method of patent protection.

    Last night there seemed to be a chance. Anything was possible last night. That was the trouble with last nights. They were always followed by this mornings.

    The Turtle Moves!

I Shall Wear Midnight (2010)

I had read The Shepherd's Crown earlier, and it made me a witch lover. I loved this book too. Pratchett's witches are sharp, strong, and unforgettable. Tiffany Aching, the protagonist, is brave, clever, and endlessly practical: “I make it my business. I'm a witch. It's what we do. When it's nobody else's business, it's my business.”

Pratchett's prose is excellent and witty. He makes you laugh and think at the same time. Lines like “You've taken the first step.” / “There's a second step?” / “No; there's another first step. Every step is a first step if it's a step in the right direction” stayed with me. There’s so much care in how he builds characters, their choices, and their world. The book is about people, not the fantasy world, and that is Pratchett's genius. The witches, the townsfolk, even the Nac Mac Feegles ... they all feel alive.

I also loved how the story quietly mirrors what researchers like us do: “We look to the edges. There’s a lot of edges, more than people know. Between life and death, this world and the next, night and day, right and wrong … an’ they need watchin’. We watch ’em, we guard the sum of things.” That is the witches' charter, but also a motto for formal methods researchers, or anyone keeping an eye on the boundaries of a complex system.

Another great line: “Well, as a lawyer I can tell you that something that looks very simple indeed can be incredibly complicated, especially if I'm being paid by the hour. The sun is simple. A sword is simple. A storm is simple. Behind everything simple is a huge tail of complicated.”

Quantum Leap (TV series 2022)

As a kid growing up in Turkey, I watched the original Quantum Leap, and it felt magical. We were filled with wildly incorrect optimism about science and technology, but it felt inspiring. Some lies are useful. The reboot was fun to watch with my kids too. Raymond Lee as Ben Song is a strong lead: he's the physicist who ends up stuck leaping into the bodies of other people. Caitlin Bassett guides him as his fiance and observer.

The show is well-paced and fun for family viewing. Many episodes lean into socially conscious themes, which I appreciated, but at times it becomes unintentionally offensive: portraying “dumb Americans” with exaggerated Southern accents or mocking Salem settlers in ways that feel worse than silly. The writers clearly aimed for humor or commentary, but the execution backfired. I won't spoil the full story, but the second season tries a pivot/twist, only to throw it out again. What were they thinking? Moments like this make me want to be a TV writer.