Soul Music

by Terry Pratchett

Paperback, 384 pages

English language

Published Nov. 6, 1995 by Bantam Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-552-14029-4

(44 reviews)

Death goes walk-about and tries everything, including joining the French Foreign Legion, to forget a tragic carriage accident at dead man's curve. His independent-minded teen granddaughter has to surreptitiously take over the reaping biz. Three guys invent music with rocks in it or did the magick in this music invent them? Is time changing or - déjà vu all over again- is it rushing to a new tragedy on Dead Man's Curve?

34 editions

auken reviewed Soul Music (Discworld Novels) by Terry Pratchett (Discworld (16))

Could have been really impactful

2 stars

Content warning Lots of spoilers

The first pages were very disorienting, but then I understood. I don't know if the deaths of Mort and Ysabell were supposed to be a twist or not, but I didn't think any of it was well paced. This story could have been incredibly moving, but for me, the realization and the emotional impact came too early to let me enjoy most of the book. Death's desire to forget was in theory also very impactful, but in execution it felt diluted and random.

Suddenly we get Susan, who I actually really liked as a character (I would absolutely use the ability to fade from awareness. This is the best superpower ever, although I might never be motivated to become perceivable again). I also love the Death of Rats and Quoth.

On the other hand, I didn't know what to do with the whole band plot. Of course Susan needed something to do in order to grow as a character, but I found myself unable to care about any of the band members and associates. The first descriptions of Imp y Celyn were a bit intriguing but it didn't lead to anything special. I also found the Wizards' subplot to be a drag, but so far I haven't really appreciated the Wizards so perhaps they are just not for me. It felt like the band and the wizards were simply a vehicle for puns and jokes, which were of course, incredibly witty and quotable, but the story around the jokes felt flat.

All in all, I had trouble finishing this book. The best parts I took from it besides the quotes, was the introduction of Susan and some more details about Death and his personality.

tgt reviewed Soul music by Terry Pratchett (Una novela del Mundodisco)

Review of 'Soul music' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

(Listened to the audiobook. It may have received a different score if I’d read it.)

Jack Miller reviewed Soul music by Terry Pratchett (Una novela del Mundodisco)

Review of 'Soul music' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This was a frustrating entry to the Discworld collection. Similar to Moving Pictures, this story just superimposes a bunch of real world references into Discworld and every time it pretty much falls flat.

Discworld is at its best when it leans on the real world least. For example Small Gods (my favorite Pratchett so far) clearly referenced a lot of religion and ancient civilizations of Earth, but at no point does it cross into gougingly obvious parody and instead makes some insightful points about all religions and faith overall.

There's a certain aspect of that in Soul Music, defending creativity against the bean counters, the supernatural essence of music, and even some lore gems about Death and Susan Sto Helit, but it's all sandwhiched into too many one-to-one glaring cultural references and characters acting out snippets of the real world in jarringly un-Discworld ways.

Avarla reviewed Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

Review of 'Soul Music' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Oh the puns. So elvish. I love Death, and Susan, so this one was a must read, but it turns out I had only ever read it once before.

To me, Soul Music was very similar to Moving Pictures in feeling, if not in narrative.

adastra reviewed Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

Review of 'Soul Music' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Felt about this pretty much the same way I felt about the previous one – it's got some fun elements, but I'm still not as convinced as I was with Mort...