The Bromeliad: "Truckers", "Diggers", "Wings"

From the First Book of the Nomes, Truckers where the nomes have to face up to the harsh reality that their comfortable and somewhat lazy lives beneath the floorboards of mankind are threatened; through to Diggers where the battle for survival really begins; culminating in Wings as the intrepid Masklin, with the aid of the electrical Thing, plots to return the nomes to Home on a Ship that will take them back to the stars where they belong, Pratchett never fails to excite.

With his amazing sense of the ridiculous and his sly, witty, ironic wordsmithery this intelligent and occasionally totally ludicrous three-in-one fantasy combo certainly does nothing to detract from Pratchett's reputation as one of the coolest and cultiest writers of his era. --Susan Harrison

Well, not these. These are Nomes, thank you very much, and as you will discover they certainly don't have fishing rods. Well...maybe they do if you think of bins as a metaphorical fish pond and a rat as a real treat of a meal.

The story basically follows Masklin and his band of 'outside' nomes who travel indoors (although the Store nomes don't believe in outside so they reckon Masklin is mad). The book follows the trials of this little band of ten inch folk until their eventual adventure. To say more would spoil the story but it is well worth a read. Children will love it and adults will find an excuse ("I was going to read it to my kids, honest!).

Buy it, read it and wonder whether those small blurs really were mice.


Arnold Bros (est. 1905) will provide   February 5, 2004
Robert Holm (at home behind my keyboard)
8 out of 12 found this review helpful

The Bromeliad Trilogy incorporates the three small novels about the "nomes" that Pratchett wrote in 1989 and 1990 - Truckers, Diggers, and Wings. They are not Discworld books, but are set in the real world, in England. There are no added frills, just the three original books reprinted in one volume.
The nomes are tiny humanoid creatures who move and talk much faster than humans. In Truckers, most of them live under the floorboards of a department store, but we are first introduced to the hero of the story, a young nome named Masklin, who leads his rag-tag band of (mostly elderly) rural nomes on a journey (by hitching a ride on a truck) to escape the hardships of living out in the countryside. Masklin and his nomes end up in the department store, where they encounter the more "civilised" nomes living there. The store nomes think that the Store is the entire universe, created for their benefit by their god, Arnold Bros (est. 1905). The only problem is, the store is about to be demolished in 21 days, and getting the store nomes to accept this and to understand that they must leave the store is no easy task, since most of them are convinced that nothing exists Outside and that, in any case, Arnold Bros (est. 1905) will provide. Does this way of thinking sound suspiciously familiar...?
In Diggers, the nomes try to adapt to life in their new home, in an abandoned quarry (after their spectacular escape from the store at the end of Truckers). But soon enough, the quarry is reopened by the humans, and the nomes find themselves in great danger for a second time. Meanwhile, Masklin, together with two other nomes, Gurder (a priest) and Angalo (a scientist), have gone off to look at an airfield, and the days pass without the trio returning. The quarry nomes get into a lot of trouble, attracting attention from the humans, and finally making an attempt to flee again. In the very last moment, they are saved in a rather spectacular way when Masklin, Gurder, and Angalo return. The adventures that the three wayward heroes had during their long absence are recounted in Wings.
The Bromeliad Trilogy is in its entirety a wonderful commentary on the close-mindedness of religious dogma, and the inability of the religious mind to see the real world and accept reality. As such, these books are very good. But they also suffer from the same flaws as most of Pratchett's early books, that they are too brief and hurried. But they are well worth reading, and highly recommended.


Laugh... I nearly fell off my chair!   August 13, 2003
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Which, of course, resulted in me getting strange looks from other members of my class (except, of course, those who had already read the books). Truckers, the first book, is very much Pratchett's interpretation of the world; and it's hysterical. I sincerely reccommend this book to people of very all ages.


Little people get into big trouble, and out again   April 23, 2003
Kurt A. Johnson (Marseilles, IL USA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

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.