Book Excerpt for the Day

    There were such things as dwarf gods.  Dwarfs were not a naturally religious species, but in a world where pit props could crack without warning and pockets of fire damp could suddenly explode, they’d seen the need for gods as the sort of supernatural equivalent of a hard hat.  Besides, when you hit your thumb with an eight-pound hammer, it’s nice to be able to blaspheme.  It takes a very special and strong-minded kind of atheist to jump up and down with their hand clasped under their other armpit and shout, “Oh, random fluctuations-in-the-space-time-continuum!” or “Aaargh, primitive-and-outmoded-concept-on-a-crutch!”

    (from Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett)

  9½*/10.  The complete review is here.

.