Book:Truckers

Truckers
Cover art by Josh Kirby
Co-author(s)
Illustrator(s)	{{{illustrator}}}
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	September 1989
ISBN	0385269617
Pages	192
RRP	£6.99
Main characters	Masklin, Grimma, Gurder, Angalo de Haberdasheri
Series	Bromeliad
Annotations	View
Notes
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Blurb

'Outside! What's it like?' Masklin looked blank. 'Well,' he said. 'It's sort of big -'
To the thousands of tiny nomes who live under the floorboards of a large department store, there is no Outside. Things like Day and Night, Sun and Rain are just daft old legends.
Then a devastating piece of news shatters their existance: the Store - their whole world - is to be demolished. And it's up to Masklin, one of the last nomes to come into the Store, to mastermind an unbelievable plan that will take all the nomes into the danger of the great Outside...

Plot

Nomes are tiny people who live in a human world. For them, time passes at a tenth the speed that humans feel it pass, and thus they move quickly and never get noticed. Masklin, Grimma, Granny Morkie and Old Torrit are the remaining members of a dwindling tribe of nomes who live by a motorway and own a mysterious device called The Thing. One day, Masklin persuades them to ride away on a lorry which takes them to the Arnold Bros (est. 1905) department store in Grimethorpe.

The department store is home to a great civilisation of nomes. The nomes and their ancestors have lived inside the store for so long that they are unsure if the world outside even exists. Each department has a nome tribe with a matching name, and "Arnold Bros (est. 1905)" is viewed as being a deity. They are greeted by Angalo de Haberdasheri, a member of the Haberdasheri clan. He takes them to see their father Duke Cido de Haberdasheri. They are turned away by the Duke and wander through the corridors beneath the floors of the shop.

The Thing touches some electric wires, which recharges and activates it. It reveals it to be the computer of Starship Swan, which brought the nomes from another planet. The Thing explains that they are descendants of the ship's crew, who were marooned there thousands of years ago when the ship broke down. The Thing also reads radio signals and reveals that the department store is about to be closed and demolished.

Masklin faces a difficult task of convincing the other nomes that they must leave the shop. Only when the Abbot of the Stationeri is convinced by the Thing are they finally able to get the message through. They decide to flee by stealing one of the lorries that parks outside the shop, using pieces of wood and string to reach the controls. With instructions from The Thing, Masklin and Grimma train a group of nomes to operate the controls. As workmen begin clearing the shop, the nomes board the lorry and drive erratically through Grimethorpe and out in the countryside. The nomes abandon the lorry just before the police catch up with it and escape to an abandoned quarry. The nomes begin a new life at the quarry, while Masklin watches planes at a nearby airport and begins planning a way for the nomes to head home.

Characters

• Masklin
• Grimma
• Granny Morkie
• Old Torrit
• The Thing
• Dorcas del Icatessen
• Gurder
• Angalo de Haberdasheri
• Duke Cido de Haberdasheri
• The Baroness del Icatessen
• The Count de Ironmongri
• The Abbot of the Stationeri
• Bobo
• Vinto Pimmie

Other stuff

• First book in the Bromeliad series
• Originally published in Great Britain by Doubleday.
  Copyright (c) 1989 by Terry and Lynn Pratchett

Movie

There is a stop-motion animated movie version of Truckers, produced by Cosgrove Hall in 1992. At the moment, Dreamworks has the film rights to Truckers, and also to Diggers and Wings.