"Small Gods" by Terry Pratchett

Plot summary: The Great God Om incarnates and appears to his worshipers... as a turtle. And it's actually worshiper, singular, because nobody else in the entirety of Omnia actually believes in him anymore. Then the Omnians go to Discworld Greece to invade negotiate.

 

I was expecting this book to explain the Discworld pantheon. It does not. It also doesn't appear to be part of any of the overarching subseries I've identified (to date, The Watch, Death, Witches, Rincewind, and Moist von Lipwig). (Actually, now that I think about it, Unseen Academicals is also not in any of those. I haven't found any other UU books that don't fit better into one of the other subseries; The Last Continent is Rincewind, and Going Postal is Moist von Lipwig. Maybe I'll do a post after I finish Discworld on classifying the subseries.) 

(Now that I think about it, the Unseen University plays a decent role in Hogfather and Reaper Man too. But those are both Death books.)

(Why am I on a tangent about the Unseen University? This is a book about ancient Omnia. Although the University's orangutan librarian does cameo in this, rescuing some scrolls from a burning library despite the fact that this is a few hundred years or so before the University we know from the rest of the books.)

Apparently an Ephebian (Discworld Greek) philosopher invented steam power about a century before Dick Simnel did. It seems it never took off.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T15+ for crude humor and swearing.

3 stars.

Favorite lines:

There's one in the Very Long Quotes Page, as quote 4.

    "...he's carrying a dead body, sir."

    "On a battlefield? It's not bring-your-own, you know."

    Page 362.

    Fasta Benj's people had no word for war, since they had no one to fight and life was quite tough enough as it was. P'Tang-P'Tang's words had arrived as: "remember when Pacha Moj hit his uncle with big rock? Like that, only more worse."

    ...

    He wasn't sure why lots of people would want to hit Pacha Moj's uncle with a big rock, but it definitely escalated the pace of technological progress.

    Pages 380-381.

    Vorbis changed people. Sometimes he changed them into dead people. But he always changed them.

    Pages 385-386.

Appearances of Death count: 12.

(Endnote: The Discworld's pantheon includes Fedecks, the god of messengers.)