Product Description

Other children get given xylophones. Susan just had to ask her grandfather to take his vest off. Yes. There's a Death in the family. It's hard to grow up normally when Grandfather rides a white horse and wields a scythe - especially when you have to take over the family business, and everyone mistakes you for the Tooth Fairy. And especially when you have to face the new and addictive music that has entered Discworld. It's lawless. It changes people. It's called Music With Rocks In. It's got a beat and you can dance to it, but...It's alive. And it won't fade away.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7167 in Books
• Published on: 1995-05-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From the Back Cover
Discworld is about to rock...

Deputising for DEATH was never going to be easy, not least when he has gone walkabout in search of the Meaning of Life - without even leaving a forwarding address. But for his granddaughter, Susan, it becomes even more difficult when she breaks one of the cardinal rules of the family business - don't get involved!

All around the Disc, crowds are shouting for Buddy Celyn and The Band With Rocks In. They are in the grip of a new and dangerous music and Buddy is under its thumb. It's alive, it changes people - and it won't fade away.

Grain by grain, Buddy's time is running out and Susan has to save him - it's not going to be easy when she looks more like the Tooth Fairy than the Grim Reaper...

Soul Music: The Illustrated Screenplay is the perfect accompaniment to the acclaimed Channel Four/Cosgrove Hall series of Terry Pratchett's bestselling novel and what's more it's got lots of pictures in (154 to be precise).

About the Author
Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular authors writing today. He lives behind a keyboard in Wiltshire and says he 'doesn't want to get a life, because it feels as though he's trying to lead three already'. He was appointed OBE in 1998. He is the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series and his trilogy for young readers, The Bromeliad, is scheduled to be adapted into a spectacular animated movie.

Customer Reviews

Rock'n'roll comes to Discworld
It had to happen some time. We'd already talked about movies (Moving Pictures) and gods (Small Gods), so it only could be matter of time before Pratchett dealt with that other passtime, music. And he does it very well too. But I thought this book didn't actually concentrate on music that much and spent more time dealing with Death's disappearance. The introduction of Susan, Death's grand-daughter, by adoption, is a brilliant idea, and having her take over the business is a genius touch. The bits which are about music are well written and funny, but it all draws itself to a rather disappointing end. Not one of his best, but still very good nonethless. (P.S., for all those who have read it, did you realise that Llamedos, where the lead singer comes from, is not a Welsh name, but sod-em-all written backwards?)

One of the Discworld greats
This is the sixteenth book in Terry Pratchett's series on the Discworld - a flat world, supported on the backs of four massive elephants riding on the back of a planet-sized turtle. Anything hilarious can happen here, and eventually does.

In this book, Death (capital "D", he's the man, or rather the anthropomorphic personification) disappears, and his granddaughter (that's another story) is forced to pick up the family business. But, there's something very strange going on here. A young man who was supposed to die has been strangely saved by music, and the music now owns him. It has all happened before, somewhere else, but now it has come to the Discworld - sex and drugs and Music With Rocks In!

This is one of Terry Pratchett's masterpieces, and that is really saying something. I like all of the Discworld books, but several are special, like this one. This is a great book, laugh-out-loud funny with lots of great references to rock music and movies. Beyond that, though, the story is very entertaining, and will keep you sitting up at night turning pages (like it did to me).

This is one of the Discworld greats, a book that I highly recommend to all fans of great fantasy literature!

One, two, one, two, many, lots...
Soul Music is (along with Hogfather) my favourite Discworld novel. I first read it at the age of twelve, and finally, five years later, someone got it through their heads to get it for me for Christmas.

The book revolves around a young man called Imp y Celyn (who's name translates roughly to "bud of the holly"), who journeys to Anhk-Morpork in a bid to become the greatest musician in the world. In the city, he meets a troll named Lias (who is incapable of counting to four) and a dwarf named Glod Glodsson (who's only in it for the money), and together, they form The Band With Rocks In. Thier style of music, dubbed "Music With Rocks In", takes the Discworld by storm, causing it's inhabitants to become obsessed with songs such as "Don't Step On My New Blue Boots" and "Good Gracious Miss Polly". Even the wizards in the Unseen University have been tranformed by it, with the Dean painting his bedroom black and weaing a studded leather robe that says "BORN TO RUNE".
Many aspiring Music With Rocks In bands spring up in The Band With Rocks In's wake, such as "We're Certainly Dwarfs" and a band that changes it's name so much they just end up being known as "Ande Supporting Bandes".
Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler also appears, eager to exploit the new fad to make himself a quick fortune.

Only thing is, Music With Rocks In is alive. And it's the only thing stopping Imp from meeting an early death.

Meanwhile, Death has joined the Klatchian Foriegn Legion in a bid to forget, and it's fallen to his granddaughter, Susan Sto-Helit, to take on the Duty. And she's more interested in saving Imp from his "Live fast, die young" destiny, which causes a lot of trouble for Albert and the Death of Rats.

All in all, Soul Music is a hilarious book and one of the best in the Discworld series, with many puns on well known aspects of music.