Pages 1-32 Summary

In Terry Pratchett's Small Gods, the God Om rises from his existence as a lowly tortoise and back into godhood. His disciple Brutha rises with him, becoming the leader of a newly enlightened nation.

As the novel begins, the narrator examines the relationship between eagles and tortoises. Eagles are known to drop tortoises from great distances, using gravity to shatter the animal's protective shell. Since this seems like more trouble than eating less-armored prey, the author concludes that the eagle must enjoy tormenting tortoises. He foretells that, thanks largely to the eagle's sadism, a tortoise will one day learn how to fly.

High in the Ramtop mountains, within a hidden monastery, lives an order of long-lived monks whose sole purpose is to control, observe, and record historical events. The monastery's 493rd Abbot orders his subordinate, a senior monk named Lu-Tze, to...