Jussi Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 If we believe Amazon UK, The Long Earth will be published in June 2012: http://www.amazon.co...18282845&sr=1-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkynJay Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 If we believe Amazon UK, The Long Earth will be published in June 2012: http://www.amazon.co...18282845&sr=1-1Wait, what the hell is the long earth? Time to search this out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jussi Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 The Long Earth was announced last year: http://nethspace.blogspot.com/2010/06/terry-pratchett-and-stephen-baxter.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Well, I really enjoyed Snuff. I'm not going to rank it compared to the series just yet, because my ratings of such tend to change drastically after a week or so and some rereading, but I like it more than Thud! as a Vimes book at least. Some of the subjects aren't quite as cutting edge as he has been known to be - unless he knows something incredibly distressing that I don't, I doubt that an impassioned critique of the slave trade, well worked as it is is going to seem as weirdly prescient as Making Money predicting the credit crunch or Jingo, in 1997, warning against falling into the trap of blanket anti-Arab sentiment in the face of a terrorist act which will be used by the government as an excuse for military action... but it is, nonetheless, funny, moving, and packed full of Vimesy goodness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lokisnow Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 I'm only about 30 pages into Snuff, and my main question is if the hot penny thing is from real life. sounds like the sort of fucked up aristocratic thing that Pratchett likes to include. So, here's my theory after thirty pagesPeople are Smuggling Snuff in unguant (or whatever the goblin stuff jars are called) via the river that goes through Vimes' estate. This is going to trigger a goblin war. The hermit knows the goblins. The urns on the bridge are goblin pots maybe? And the household staff is completely in on the whole thing, trying to help the rich avoid taxes. The sextuplets will be important in sorting out the mess, especially Jane, who as plain Jane got utterly no mention from Sybill other than a name, I can't wait to meet Hermione the lumberjack, and the girl that likes frogs is probably a witch in training. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanrn Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 Nearly as wrong as my theory Vimes was going to end up as the God of the Goblins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon AS Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 Nearly as wrong as my theory Vimes was going to end up as the God of the Goblins. :lol: He's a po lees man delivering just ice, does he really need to become a god? I actually latched on to a lot of the same red herrings that lockesnow did, although maybe they aren't really intended to be red herrings at all? I can't make up my mind whether Vetinari intended the outcome of Vimes' vacation to be this far reaching or whether he was for once caught up in the events to some degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lokisnow Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Good book. It struck me as very straightforward for Pratchett, not as sideways and convoluted as so many of the discworld books are. It feels more copper-y in a way. It was almost bombastic and cinematic, at times wordy. At the same time it didn't ever quite get me by the emotional heartstrings, despite the emotional issue at play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinDonner Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Pretty poor IMO. I mean OK, it was a reasonably compelling read and a page-turner in the usual manner, but the plot was contrived and rather patchy (the slavery aspect seemed kinda shoehorned in, with a whole new species invented for the purpose), the villain almost exactly the same as the one out of Night Watch, and - worst of all IMO - the jokes apparently straight out of a 1970s sitcom. Do we REALLY need an entire subplot about overbearing wives and husbands going "yes dear"? An epic failure of a Jane Austen reference/attempted satire just for one last-page punchline? :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lokisnow Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 actually my favorite part of the whole book might be the single scene of Vimes telling the daughters to stop sitting around waiting for a man and go out and make a life for themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinDonner Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Really? I was appalled by that. Putting Austen characters into a completely different social setup and then lambasting them (in an oh-so-self-congratulatory way) for being stupid misses the point of both social satire AND literary parody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alguien Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 I liked this one, overall. I mean, it would be hard for me not to like a Vimes book. But I'm not sure how I rate it. Some random thoughts: I enjoyed the bits with Young Sam. Funny and cute. Jesus Christ, but Willikins the butler received a lot of screen-time in this one. And there was a bit of an inconsistency there too. He told Vimes not make him a copper--well, he's on the provisional Watch constabulary in Thud! iirc. I don't know--felt a bit out of nowhere. I liked the term "Feegle-free" Stratforth was like a poor man's Carcer--but even less developed. What was up with the magic goblin? This one, more than any Discworld I'd read before, relied on previous books. The Following Dark and Wee Mad Arthur's heritage retcon were fairly central plot points. Nobby and a goblin!?!? I didn't mind the Jane Austen send up. Pride and Extreme Prejudice made me smile. (and roll my eyes) I liked it better than Chekhov's Cherry Orchard in Fifth Element. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinDonner Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Yeah, don't get me wrong, Pride and Extreme Prejudice made me chuckle. But was it worth the buildup? Not in my opinion. Also yeah Willikins. I much preferred it when it was sort of subtly implied that he was a badass who now worked as a butler. Having it brought to the fore so very much just seemed crass and unnecessary, not to mention the moral cop-out of the ending. So it's kind of fine to let the bad guys get summarily murdered as long as Vimes doesn't sully himself by doing so? That shit worked in Buffy because the moral ambiguity was built in, but Pratchett always seems to be trying to impart Lessons and that was just incongruous and kinda wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alguien Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Also yeah Willikins. I much preferred it when it was sort of subtly implied that he was a badass who now worked as a butler. Having it brought to the fore so very much just seemed crass and unnecessary, not to mention the moral cop-out of the ending. So it's kind of fine to let the bad guys get summarily murdered as long as Vimes doesn't sully himself by doing so? That shit worked in Buffy because the moral ambiguity was built in, but Pratchett always seems to be trying to impart Lessons and that was just incongruous and kinda wrong. Agree with every word. In Night Watch, Vimes has such a struggle NOT to just kill Carcer because, as he puts it, when he breaks down, it all breaks down. (almost reminded me of Batman with the Joker) Yet when he hears how Stratford was murdered he simply says, "I will never ask Willikins where he was last night." Really? That's it? It does seem like a copout. Don't think Bruce Wayne would feel that way if Alfred murdered the Joker. Granted, the man did try to kill (or at least maim) young Sam. Yet remember Vimes psychotic IWILLKILLYOUKILLYOU moment in Thud! when he thought the dwarf assasin had taken baby Sam? It was extraordinarily powerful, one of those brilliant moments where Pratchett captured the intense fear (at least so I imagine, having no kids myself) that a parent feels if their child is in danger. Yet when he subdues Stratford he seems remarkably restrained. There did seem to be character inconsistencies and some of the jokes were a bit more blunt than is usual for Pratchett. Still, I enjoyed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lokisnow Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 What was up with the magic goblin?Right there in the first line of the book, unggue is a resurrectionary belief system. Really? I was appalled by that. Putting Austen characters into a completely different social setup and then lambasting them (in an oh-so-self-congratulatory way) for being stupid misses the point of both social satire AND literary parody.I think the point was lambasting them for being so trapped within their own worldview they don't see the bars of their prison. It's not about satirizing it or parodying it, but that glorifying that society is glorifying another form of control, it works thematically with the goblin bits and was a nice aside, I thought. The goblins think they deserve their lot in life and so do the girls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerec Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Spotted my post earlier in this topic about not yet re-reading Equal Rites. Still haven't. But after reading I Shall Wear Midnight, I'm more likely to now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alguien Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Right there in the first line of the book, unggue is a resurrectionary belief system. So... its the ghost of a goblin? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon AS Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 My biggest problem with Snuff was that it seemed to run out of plot about halfway through. After that it just took forever to tie it all up, with characters travelling back and forth and the villain escaping a few more times to keep some kind of threat alive.Also, is it just me or is Vimes getting cockier and cockier in physical confrontations despite allegedly getting on in years? It's like he's aware that he's the hero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lokisnow Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 So... its the ghost of a goblin?I'm not sure. I think he was resurrected because he had kept unggue or he's the manifestation of unggue, since he starts glowing before he's crushed by the villain. the moral cop-out of the ending. So it's kind of fine to let the bad guys get summarily murdered as long as Vimes doesn't sully himself by doing so? That shit worked in Buffy because the moral ambiguity was built in, but Pratchett always seems to be trying to impart Lessons and that was just incongruous and kinda wrong.I'm not so sure, the lengthy Veternari scene at the end explains they can't prosecute for a crime that wasn't a crime when the crime was committed, hence the non-legal means used on the villain and Rust. Sure they could have prosecuted the villain for pirating and drug trafficking, but does that provide justice for the murdered goblins? But I agree that Vimes keeping his hands clean and eyes closed is... disturbing. Do the circumstances of being unable to hold him accountable for his crimes in the legal system make it more understandable? perhaps, but I'm a bit disappointed Pratchett didn't just lock him up and throw away the key. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alguien Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 Didn't Vetinari basically condone or give implicit approval to have Gravid Rust killed via poison Foureck spider? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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