Pratchett II: The Wrath of Om

[SkynJay]

This will be the only time I link this, because I don't want to be that guy, but I am slowly starting a complete reread of the Diskworld series. It will be slow going, because I am not going to read nothing but Pratchett(too many other books I want to read as well), but as I read every book in the series at some time or an other I will be interested to see how my opinions change. I would love feedback if anyone else wants to join me in this undertaking.

[Reposado]

i actually just read discworld in order about two years ago. some of them were rereads at the time. some of them were for the first time. (an it must have been the fourth or fifth read of small gods) so i'm not going to reread again. buuut, most of them are pretty fresh in my memory that i may comment from time to time if i remember and have something to say.

[Galactus]

Read Dodger... It felt... Weak. There was little to the victorian setting that hadn't been done in Ankh-Morpork already. The story itself was pretty trite, and while the characters were fun they were.... Well, pretty much copies of existing Discworld characters most of the time. (or well, to some extent it's the reverse, but you get my point)

IE: There's nothing really new or fresh, and most of the stuff that is good has been done better earlier on.

Also, the historical setting was niggling (yes, he acknowledged that some stuff was deliberately shifted, but where on earth did he get the idea that Marx was russian? AFAIK he never even went there)

There's also the problem I think that as Pratchett has kept on writing he's lost his edge: There's just not the satirical slant that existed in early Discworld stuff, instead it's kind of replaced by dull moralistic preaching (which partially is due to the Dickens pastische I suppose, but gets a lot hairier when you consider the various complexities inherent in a historical setting, Ankh-Morpork can get a way with shit because Pratchett created it, Victorian England actually existed and did stuff, and so what Pratchett choses to include or ignore becomes more of an overt ideological statement)

[burnt hound]

I have looked around for some news about the next discworld novel, but I haven't found anything. Is the next novel Raising Taxes? Because that would be awesome.

[SkynJay]

According to this interview the next book will focus on a new character, and is in the second draft so pretty likely to be the next to go.. He also mentions that he he shelved a possible novel for the time being because he has great character interactions but no plot. I could speculate that is Raising Taxes because it was announced so long ago, but that is just a guess.

Also found interesting that there could be another Aching book,but it would be a full witches book if it happens, because she is grown to much to be YA anymore.

He also calls Snuff one of his strongest books. I will read everything this man puts on page, but we sure don't agree on that one.

[polishgenius]

According to Wiki, Pratchett announced that the next one is a new character and not part of any current subseries.

I'm kind of glad that he's not rushing into Raising Taxes- Making Money was very very similar to Going Postal and I'm not sure what more the taxes concept can add to Moist. I'd prefer to see him in new territory...

[3CityApache]

He also calls Snuff one of his strongest books. I will read everything this man puts on page, but we sure don't agree on that one.

Yeah. That's kinda... worrying. I know most writers automatically think their last work is best, but Snuff is really, REALLY, so much worse than his best, that I don't know what to think.

[MinDonner]

Ugh, yeah, Snuff is one of his worst. And I'm rather delighted to see the back of Moist, too, who I never really liked (and the stories he was involved in were far too pedestrian). There's an awful lot of same-y stories between the regular characters so I'm hoping this breaking-new-ground thing works well. I'm sure he still has at least one more decent book in him.

[Jussi]

SFX Magazine gave a five-star review to Snuff. The book has very positive feedback from readers at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co...57223635&sr=1-1

Snuff isn't one of my favourite Discworld novels, but I enjoyed it more than the previous Vimes volume Thud!.

[lokisnow]

yeah, Snuff is better than Thud. I wonder if Pratchett is thinking structurally, that Snuff is very clean, and doesn't have as many asides and seemingly random side plots that all of a sudden tie in at the climax for a joke or plot payoff?

[Iskaral Pust]

I have a copy of Dodger but have not felt excited enough to push it to the top of my pile. Snuff really dampened my enthusiasm.

[Galactus]

I have a copy of Dodger but have not felt excited enough to push it to the top of my pile. Snuff really dampened my enthusiasm.

Oh, it's definitely better than Snuff.

[Iskaral Pust]

Oh, it's definitely better than Snuff.

Having now read it, I agree. Dodger re-used a lot of material from Ankh-Morpork but it was still pretty decent and much better than Snuff. His plots generally are kind of trite like in Dodger and it seems like Vimes (especially in Night Watch) and Granny Weatherwax were the only characters that had much depth.

I glimpsed an alternate reality where Pratchett never never used the Discworld parody and instead wrote a long series of humorous historical fiction set in Victorian England. It wasn't too dissimiliar but it lost a certain something in some of the parodies of modern culture.

[Jussi]

From Discworld Monthly:

I received a call from Rob Wilkins (Terry's business manager) from the middle of a Narrativia (Terry and Rob's new media production company) board meeting this week. We talked about many new and really exciting things that I sadly can't tell you about yet as the ink hasn't dried on the contracts... but what I can say is that the team at Narrativia have been working very hard and hope to be able to report some exciting news by the time the next issue comes out. So keep reading.

Work has been completed on The Long War (the sequel to The Long Earth) and as reported later in this issue will be released in June.

Terry and Rob have locked themselves away and have been working extensively on the next full adult Discworld novel - they are making good progress and the words are really steaming along. I can also confirm that this novel will NOT be Raising Taxes.

Some of the newspapers have reported that Rhianna Pratchett will take over writing Discworld novels after Terry stops. Rhianna and Terry actually meant that Rhianna is well placed to concentrate on co-writing the adaptations for Narrativia and working on spin off works because of her in depth knowledge of Discworld. Rhianna has no plans to write Discworld novels as she feels Discworld these should remain her father's legacy.

[Werthead]

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

A band of travellers from Ankh-Morpork have arrived in the town of Bad Blintz. The band consists of a boy with a flute named Keith, a tomcat called Maurice and a lot of rats. A lot of very smart rats. However, as the town suffers from a curiously well-timed rat infestation and Keith and Maurice prepare to enact 'the scam', it becomes clear that something else is at work in the sewers and tunnels under the town. Something that takes an interest in the curiously smart rodents...

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents was Terry Pratchett's first Discworld novel aimed at younger readers, released in 2001. It was, arguably, the novel that finally broke Pratchett in the USA, where it won the Carnegie Medal and won more notice than his previous books (which had been a cult success at best). Subsequent Discworld books began to hit the New York Times bestseller lists, finally giving Pratchett some Stateside success after almost two decades as Britain's biggest-selling author (well, until the arrival of a certain J.K. Rowling).

It's an interesting novel, most notably because Pratchett makes exactly zero concessions to his apparently intended audience. The novel is written in the same manner as his adult books and in fact is actually among the most disturbing Discworld novels, with the revelation of the antagonist in the book being one of Pratchett's more revolting moments. It may have talking rats in it, but the tone is closer to Watership Down (complete with some pretty savage fights and deaths) than to Beatrix Potter. Pratchett seems to do this deliberately, with the rats' belief in a utopian future of animal cooperation stemming from reading a children's book called Mr. Bunnsy Has An Adventure, which becomes a totem of their tribe. Pratchett paints the internal divisions of the rat gang and each character in some detail, with his traditional economic-but-effective storytelling. The book has a darker tone than most of his novels, and whilst there are still a few laughs here, it's a more intense book than many of the Discworld series.

It's also quite snappy, coming in at a breezy 270 pages, avoiding the bloat some of the more recent Discworld books have suffered from. Pratchett sets up his plot and characters, tell his story with impressive depth and characterisation and gets out all in the time that some more traditional fantasy authors are still using to clear their throats.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (****) is Pratchett at his more impressive, telling a darker story than normal but with his trademark wit and skills at character-building. It's also a complete stand-alone, with no connections at all to the rest of the Discworld series and can be read completely independently. It is available now in the UK and USA.

[SkynJay]

The Amazing Maurice was actually first mentioned in Reaper Man, and it is suggest that the Patrician actually fell for it and paid him. Now the man seems almost omnipotent, but early on, not so much.

[Werthead]

The Amazing Maurice was actually first mentioned in Reaper Man, and it is suggest that the Patrician actually fell for it and paid him. Now the man seems almost omnipotent, but early on, not so much.

That was the 'real piper', not the Maurice/Keith scam which seemed a fairly recent innovation. The real piper actually shows up at the end of Maurice and is outwitted by the rats.

[The Pita]

I bought Snuff, kind of hesitating. The truth is that I've disliked every Pratchett book since Nation, and I kind of figured he'd lost his touch due to obvious reasons.

I was wrong.

Snuff is excellent. The drop in quality is something that occasionally happens to Pratchett (See: Equal Rites, Monstrous Regiment. God did he drop the ball with those), and Snuff is up there with almost all of the other Watch books. Not as good as Night Watch, but definitely better than The Fifth Elephant (Is that the one with the werewolves?). Very glad that Pratchett hasn't lost his touch. I'll pick up a copy of Dodger when I see it in softcover.

Should I bother with any of his collaborations?

[Werthead]

I kind of figured he'd lost his touch due to obvious reasons.

There's been an interesting development on this. Pratchett has a certain variant of Early-Onset Alzheimers that primarily affects eyesight and coordination, but does not cause a long-term degeneration of the brain in the same way as 'proper' Alzheimers. Pratchett is still ill, of course, but he may still live out a full lifespan with all his marbles intact and will be able to give us many more novels to come.

[Mikkelinski]

As far as I've gathered from interviews he no longer types himself, but has someone to do it for him (dictating, is that the word?). Or maybe that was just The Long Earth, I can't really recall.

Pratchett has always been on my toplist, and while I don't consider him any stronger now than Sourcery onwards (he does swing a bit, I'm not the biggest fan of all the witches books and some of Rincewind are weaker than Vimes, which is not really criticism since it's still wicked awesome), he certainly hasn't gotten any weaker overall either.