The Soddit

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The Soddit or Let's Cash in Again is a 2003 parody of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, written by A.R.R.R. Roberts. The book jacket states: "Following on (inevitably, some might say) from the frankly unlikely success of Bored of the Rings comes a new book from an entirely different author that parodys (sic) Tolkien's other (and undoubtedly shorter) masterpiece."

The book consists of primarily slapstick-style jokes, with characters of slightly different names from the original ones (for example, Bingo as opposed to Bilbo) and a slightly altered main storyline. As the book progresses, the story departs further and further from the original storyline that it parodies. It is also illustrated in 'Glorius Mono-colour' (again stated on the book jacket) by Douglas Carrel.

[edit] Plot summary

The story starts with a peaceful Soddit called Bingo who is visited by a wizard and a party of (bizzarely) dwarfs who ask Bingo to come with them on a quest to 'The Only Mountain' where 'Smug the Dragon' lives. After a few drinks, Bingo accepts, not knowing what they were actually searching for."Gold, boyo gold, la ,lookk you"

On the way, they have many adventures and close shaves. Bingo finds a 'Thing ®' that was created by the Evil Sharon and is potentially the most evil Thing ® in the world.

Bingo steals the Thing ® and continues to escort the dwarfs and the hastily sickening wizard to the only mountain, where horror strikes.

[edit] Standard edition

343 pages, miniature edition. Published by Gollancz of the Orion Publishing Group, London, England. ISBN 0-575-07554-6.

The story was also produced in Abridged Audiobook form by Orion Audio Books. The product contains three CDs, runs for 4 hours, and is read by Mark Perry. ISBN 0-7528-6165-4.

[edit] Parodies

In 'The Soddit' there is a small message claiming that it is not "The first few minutes of a prolouge of A MAJOR NINE-HOUR EPIC!!!". Also, at the end, it has various fake books being advertised, including 'The Spuddit' which is a parody of 'The Soddit' where the parts are taken by potatoes. However, this is a joke and there is no such book (as yet).