Customer Reviews

The Bromeliad (Truckers Omnibus Edition)

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This is the first Pratchett book I have ever read. It has sat on my shelf for 10 years, & I finally read it. I can't believe I waited so long. It was soooo funny. I never wanted to put it down, or to stop reading it. I wish that he had continued his tales of the nomes. I was just smiling so much as I read the book. How the simple things in life can be so easily twisted around & taken for their face value is so amusing. If you like humor with a good story, then this is the book for you. It is supposed to be a childrens story, but I find that to be far from the truth. It is a book for everyone of every age.

Pratchett fans beware. This is not Discworld.

But Terry Pratchett it is, this story of the tiny nomes who are about to lose their home. Not just their home, but the provision of all their needs: a department store that is their entire universe. The incredibly detailed and very funny story of their escape and eventual trip into space was originally published in three rather short books. This omnibus edition makes a medium to long single book that you'll want to finish in one reading. And then read again.

I remember reading a news story about three kids about three years old who drove a car out into the street: one pushed on the accelerator, another turned the steering wheel, and the third moved the gearshift lever. Nomes are way smaller than three year old kids. Also way smaller than the Wee Free Men. So how many nomes does it take to fly a Concorde? A lot more than three. Read it and find out. You won't regret it.

I've never been a huge Pratchett fan. His science fiction books are good enough if I don't have anything else on my list although quite frankly I enjoy paging through this internet Pratchett annotations site. The late Douglas Adams's works are snappier and less dated--I ame in awe of Adams's devastation of heavy metal music in a chapter or two, but Pratchett took rather longer to slam a genre or two in _Soul Music_.

Except for the _Bromeliad Trilogy_ where in 400 pages of gentle humor Pratchett shows that you don't need to go into outer space to create a new world. It's a story of nomes, who are four inches tall but move ten times as fast as humans. Their deity is Arnold Bros.(1905) because that's what it says on the store window outside where they live. We find out they have a sort of Bible(quotes make headers for the chapter) and also try to discover signs from Arnold Bros. (one says "If You Do Not See What You Require, Please Ask.")

But one day they find out the store(which some sects think encompass the whole world) is about to be demolished, and this takes us on a journey where everyday human conveniences are objects of wonder. Part of the fun of reading is to see how soon on the page you can figure out the object described. The other part is watching their faith in Arnold Bros. buffeted as they learn about humans, our language and conventions we take for granted, technology, and nature in Diggers(another dramatic escape at the end) before a climactic meeting with Grandson Richard, 39, in Wings.

I can't say this is indicative of Pratchett's work, but it is certainly my clear favorite at about the same length as a Discworld novel with at least as much drama and humor.

Unknown to the humans, they share the Earth with another intelligent race, the nomes. The reason they don't know about the nomes is that they are four inches tall, and live at a pace ten times that of humans. This is the story of Masklin, and other heroic nomes who lead their people out of the dangerous world of humans, in search of their home. In the course of this story the overcome great obstacles, all with wit and humor.

This book is actually a collection of three book: Truckers, Diggers and Wings. The stories showcase Terry Pratchett's wit and humor, his ability to examine the human experience from a very different viewpoint. The action is gripping, and the humor outrageous. I highly recommend this book.

Although I enjoy the Discworld novels this trilogy will always stand out as T.P's best work. It's funny to the point where you can annnoy people around you, it's easy to read (and compelling)so you get that "just one more chapter feeling".

I won't spoil the book with details but T.P's descriptions of 4" high people with problems in a full size world are excellent.

One more thing

Log off now and go borrow it, steal it or even buy it but READ IT!

Thank god. I started reading Pratchett when I was younger, and I loved it. Now I'm not sure if the discworld series is loosing it's edge, or maybe I'm just growing out of it, but with every new discworld book, I become increasingly disillusioned with the whole thing. The style, for me,(and I'm sure for old tezza himself) is just getting a bit tired. Not so with the nomes trilogy. It's a proper old time heart warming story. (A Story, remember Terry? not just a paycheque.) I'm sure that you can pick up all you need to of the narrative from the other reviews, and if other reviewers also like his other stuff, well that's just fine. I don't mean to take any thing away from the books for them, I'm sure Pratchett has already taken enough.

I recently read this book and found it utterly charming. It was the first work by Pratchett I read that was not a Diskworld novel. I found the same dry wit and wonderful humor in The Bromeliad. It was written for younger readers, and like all good juvenile fiction, it is a story that is told on several levels--easy enough for young readers, but compelling enough for adults.

The story is about a family of "nomes" who meet a large population of nomes living in a department store, which they believe to be the whole world. Adventures follow, and the hero must struggle against "nomish nature" as much as against the wide world. Of course, like most good fantasy, there are plenty of parallels to real life, but the author doesn't need to hit the reader over the head with them. As for the title, a bromelaid is a flower that grows in the rain forest. How is that related to 4 inch high people in England? Read the book to see how the author ties it all together.