SOUL MUSIC, by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett again shows his unmatchable inventiveness in SOUL MUSIC. A young harpist, a good druid boy, moves to Ankh-Morpork, the biggest and sleaziest town in all the Discworld. His harp is soon broken, forcing him to get a guitar as a replacement. He falls in with Cliff, a rock-eating troll drummer, and with Glod, a dwarf horn blower. Soon they are playing "Music with Rocks In," a intoxicating type of music never heard before. Could it be that the guitar possesses the soul of the player, Imp y Celyn? After all, y Celyn means "of the holly," and "imp" is a small growth, a shoot; one might even say, wait for it, wait for it, a Bud. And it's perfectly good Welsh! One wonders how long Pratchet has waited to play that card.

Almost as long, perhaps, as the scene in The Cavern, a dive owned by the troll thug Chrysophase, where the band gets prepped for their gig. They're served snacks, and another card is played: they get three types of beer, smoked rat sandwiches with the crusts and tails cut off (dwarfs love rats), and for Cliff, a "bowl of the finest anthracite coke with ash on it." Badabing badaboom. The rest of the plot, which has something to do with Buddy's guitar keeping him alive when DEATH's timer runs out, and everyone in Ankh-Morpork, including wizards and barbarians, in love with the new music, really doesn't have to make much sense. It's pure Pratchett fun.