So… Discworld #30 (there are currently 39) so hurray for progress! Maybe I’ll catch up by the end of the year.
Wee Free Men concerns a young girl, Tiffany Aching, who lives in a sheep-farming part of the Disc known as The Chalk. He grandmother was a wise if somewhat awkward old woman who knew a lot about sheep. Tiffany stumbles upon evidence that another world is about to collide with the Disc. It’s not going to be pretty and someone needs to do something. Tiffany decides that someone will be her.
Along the way she’s aided by the Nac Mac Feegle, who are the Wee Free Men of the title. We first met these in Carpe Jugulum and they are, I suppose, entertaining though I could never quite get over the obvious stereotype they draw from.
Wee Free Men is another Discworld YA book and again I had the feeling it wasn’t aimed at me. Doubly so because the protagonist is a young girl and there’s a lot in there about not being taken seriously because you’re a) a girl, b) smart/bookish and c) not interested in being a girly girl. All of which is fair enough and a great thing for its target audience, it’s just not who I am, obviously.
That said I did like Tiffany. I also liked her grandmother, who was similar to but identical with Granny Weatherwax (who makes a brief cameo). It’s no huge spoiler to say that a large part of the book took place in a world where dreams and reality inter-mingle and I felt like I’ve seen that done a lot better, including by Mr Pratchett, before. I did however like the the scene where an over-indulgent queen gives a small child every kind of sweet he could ever want, and he freaks out because as soon as he chooses one he’s automatically not choosing any of the others – which is kind of how I feel about choosing the next book to read 😉
7/10 – a Discworld book about witches – therefore fun.
So, I’ve been looking forward to this book for some time. It’s one of Melissa’s favourite books and she’s not the only one to tell me that it’s one of the best Discworld novels.
Night Watch, unsurprisingly, is a Watch book. In particular it’s a Vimes book. It’s very much a Vimes book in fact. Whilst chasing a murderous thief Vimes gets caught up in a magical storm which sends him back in time. He gets to experience a period in the history of the City of Ankh-Morpork from his youth. A time when rebellion is fomenting in the streets and the Watch must protect the public from, well, the public.
A lot of the enjoyment of this book lies on whether or not you enjoy the character of Sam Vimes. Fortunately I do. Here he is at his most Vimes-y. He’s alone in the city but quickly becomes part of, then effectively runs, a Watch house and plays a major role in the ongoing historical events. His sense of command of the situation, his common sense and level-headedness in general, along with the fact that he clearly cares about people, all go to make you like Vimes in this book. There are also younger versions of a few familiar faces from the Ankh-Morpork based books, which is fun.
It is quite a serious book. The jokes don’t flow as quick and fast as they do in other Discworld novels and there’s some grim business takes place. But that didn’t particularly put me off.
However I did fail to see the greatness of this book (and I’m sure it is my failure rather than the book’s). For me it was merely good. Very good perhaps but not great. Still well worth a read though.
One of the things I’ve always thought was very clever about the Discworld is that it’s an entire world. It’s big enough, and like the real world, diverse enough that it can cover virtually any type of story. Certainly you can parody gothic horror, classic fantasy, crime fiction and on and on. I mention this because sometimes the only connection between one Discworld novel and the next is that it’s set on the Disc.
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents is a bit like that. It’s the Discworld’s first ‘YA’ novel and it’s basically a riff on the idea of the Pied Piper, from the point of view of the rats (er and a cat called Maurice). For all that it contains talking animals and a little magic it could easily take place in a generic fantasy world rather than the Disc per se.
Maurice as I said is a cat and a talking one at that. He travels with a band of also talking rats and a ‘stupid-looking’ boy called Keith. Together they perpetrate a scam whereby they turn up at a town, create a very visible nuisance of themselves until Keith offers to play his pipe and lead the rats away, for a reasonable fee. This usually goes very well until they arrive in a town that already seems to have a very serious rat problem and some pretty effective rat-catchers. Soon Keith, Maurice, the rats and a girl they meet along the way are uncovering what’s really going on and it’s not pretty.
When I first started this book I was very aware that the language was aimed at a YA audience. However that faded fairly quickly as I became engrossed in the story. I will say that this is quite dark for a book for younger readers. It does have some disturbing scenes. However the humour is there as are the likeable characters.
I know I often complain that Pratchett has apparent difficulty ending a book and there’s really only two endings here, which is not that many compared to some, but I would have preferred a single show-down/climax and then a coda. That said I enjoyed the book overall. There’s some interesting thoughts here about leading/following, the need for and dangers of stories.
7/10 – a good story that works for old-not-so-YA-ers like ne.
TBR is up again to 255 (from 254) because I had a Christmas Amazon gift token to spend.
The Last Hero is the next in my on-going quest to catch up on the Discworld books.
Just like in the legend on our world, fire on the Disc was stolen from the Gods. Cohen the Barbarian, the eponymous hero of the title, has decided it’s time to take it back. Unfortunately this leads to the very real possibility that the Disc will be doomed and so a team from Ankh-Morpork attempt to stop this from happening by launching a spacecraft to loop around the Disc and land on Cori Celesti the home of the Gods.
So essentially what you get is a series of jokes about heroes and getting old (which we’ve seen before but ok) and a pretty decent Apollo 13 parody.
The Last Hero is subtitled “A Discworld Fable“. I’m not quite sure what makes it a fable. Perhaps the publishers were just looking for something to describe it with due to its different format. Which is that it’s a large 176-page book with lots of illustrations and full page pictures. However it’s not a graphic novel and the text is complete in itself. The pictures, as nice as they are and they are very well done, are illustrations only. You could read just the text and not miss out on anything. Also it’s a Discworld story in exactly the same way that any of the others are. It just happens to be shorter. So a novella yes, fable well maybe.
I mention this only because I struggled with the form-factor a little. I’d’ve preferred an ebook or a regular sized paper-back. So the irritation of handling a ‘big book’ for what was an ok-ish but short Discworld story detracted from the overall experience.
I am hoping that the Discworld books, or my enjoyment of them, picks up again. Reading Rivers of London reminds of what it used to be like to read a light, fantasy-themed book with lots of humour and good characters. However for the umpteenth time I must note that I don’t know that it’s Pratchett’s writing that has changed or just that I’m too familiar with it. That said I did enjoy this, just not as much as I’d hoped.
6/10 – a shorter story that could have happily lived in a smaller book imho.
I originally started this review with “I didn’t plan it but it turns out that my 26th book is Discworld #26 Thief of Time” – except I’d miscounted, it’s my 27th. Anyway this was a book I was looking forward to because I knew that it was a favourite of many people. There’s perhaps one more Discworld book that I am looking forward to in this way and that’s #29, Night Watch.
Thief of Time is a story about the History Monks and how they manage Time on the Disc. It’s about a young apprentice to Lu Tze, the Sweeper, who first appeared in #13 Small Gods. It’s also about the building of a clock so accurate that it follows the tick of the Universe.
I almost don’t know how to review Discworld books any more because I keep coming back to the same themes, that they’re good but I don’t love them like I once did, that I’m not sure if that’s the books or me, that maybe I just know the patterns of humour too well, that they’re always at least pleasant and some are excellent.
So by reputation this was supposed to be an excellent one and whilst it’s toward the better end, particularly of the Discworld books I’ve read lately it didn’t blow me away.
There’s a lot of fun to be had though and I wouldn’t want to put anyone off.
Yay! Discworld #25. And I’m now into the 21st Century with my catch-up.
The Truth is an Ankh-Morpork centred novel about the arrival in the city of the printing press and the newspaper industry. I knew that this was one of Melissa’s less favourite discworld books and so I was prepared for it to be not that great. So maybe partly because of lower expectations I actually quite enjoyed it.
It was a little odd to have a story in which Vimes and Vetinari appeared but were not a huge part of the plot. There were a couple of new characters that seemed to be a bit over the top just for the sake of it. But I quite liked the protagonist, I liked his assistant/romantic interest and I enjoyed a couple of the other minor characters.
My reviews of Discworld books risk getting samey (like the books themselves?) so I’ll leave it there I think. I’ll try to save myself for the books that make more impact, and I believe #26 is supposed to be very good.
So we’re up to Discworld #24 – only 15 books behind now!
Fifth Elephant is a City Watch novel. Or actually it’s a Vimes book with some appearances by other Watch characters, notably Carrot and Angua.
Vimes is sent as Ankh-Morpork’s ambassador to Uberwald for the coronation of the Dwarves new Low King. However when he gets there he becomes involved in solving a crime, the theft of a precious cultural artefact. This in turns leads to him being embroiled in political machinations and a power struggle between the Dwarves, Vampires and Werewolves who are the various ruling factions of Uberwald. As the plot unfolds Vimes finds himself fighting just to stay alive.
The early part of the story, is centred on this theft which functions both as a pleasing “locked door” mystery, and a gentle fun-poking at the idea of “locked door” mysteries. I enjoyed both elements.
I also liked the character interactions especially between Vimes and Lady Sybil, but also between Carrot and Angua – whose family is from Uberwald (remember she’s a werewolf). As ever Vimes is a character I enjoy, though he is a little too competent at times. However there were at least a couple of how’s-he-going-to-get-out-of-this? situations where it was luck or someone else that effected his escape/rescue rather him just being super-cop.
It’s an interesting problem, perhaps unique to a series like the Discworld books, because if I read this book as a stand-alone I wouldn’t have an issue with Vimes coming out on top – he’s the hero. So despite not having the raw strength of a werewolf, the powers of a vampire, the fighting skills of an assassin or sheer numbers of the dwarves, he wins through, mostly on his wits. As I say this shouldn’t be a problem, and it wouldn’t be…
…except there’s this niggling thing because I know there are other Discworld books where the protagonist is a Wizard or a vampire or an assassin and the story is from their point of view and it seems like magic or the dexterity and skills of a trained killer, or supernatural ability or whatever becomes the final word in competency. And maybe that’s all ok. Maybe it can be any of those things in different stories and really it is just about pov, but somehow I feel like I back in my days of Buffy fan discussion arguing who’s stronger than who, or what[1]. Anyway that’s all probably just me.
This was one of Pratchett’s “many endings” books, which I’ve mentioned before as being a weakness for me. I think I mind it less here but there are several plot strands that get set up and when what I think is the big climatic scene, which ties up say 2 or 3 of them, there are still a few left to wrap – which is does but in a relative sedate fashion. I think at a certain point[2] you have to accept that’s his style and at least live with it.
Overall it’s an enjoyable book. Not my favourite Discworld, not even my favourite Watch book[3] but definitely worth the read.
7/10 – Discworld delivers another solid fun read.
[1] Classic case would be the ‘cage’ in the Library which at various stages contained various monsters, at least one of which managed to escape by forcing his way out and was then bested by another who was never able to get out of that particular cage.
[2]book 24 perhaps?
[3]Guards Guards![4]
[4]at least so far. I’m told Night Watch is excellent.
Carpe Jugulum is the 23rd Discworld book and as you’d expect from the title is concerns vampires (or vampyres as they prefer it – they’re trying to be “modern”). It’s also a Lancre Witches book which is a good thing as I’m a fan of Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg and Wyrd Sisters is probably my 2nd favourite Discworld book. (Mort, since you ask).
The book begins with the preparations for the christening of King Verence and Queen Magrat’s baby. Unfortunately the King invited a family of vampire nobility and inviting vampires in is one thing we all know you shouldn’t do. Perhaps even worse is that although they sent an invite to Granny Weatherwax it went astray. Not inviting the Kingdom’s most powerful witch may have been as catastrophic as inviting blood-sucking fiends.
Into all this arrives an Omnian priest Mightily Oats who has been summoned to perform the christening. He’s an interesting character defined more by lack of certainty than actual belief. Oh and we have the 4th member of the Lancre coven, Agnes Nitt, who’s in two minds about everything, literally.
Carpe Jugulum is certainly a lot of fun. It has some interesting things to say about Faith. I’m not sure there was anything radically new in it. As I’ve said by this stage, book 23, we’ve touched on most of Pratchett’s favourite subjects before, so there’s a lot of familiar ground. But these are characters I enjoy spending time with. I liked the vampires, I like Agnes and I still like Nanny and Granny – though her black-and-white belief in her own rightness pushed me on that.
As with other recent Discworld reads I found I enjoyed the story more than the humour which felt a little predictable in its patterns and rhythms, though there were still laugh out loud moments such as:
‘Indeed?’ said the Count, turning to his son. ‘Right about what, prey?’
I smiled at the subtlety.
8/10 – a fun romp with enjoyable characters and some thoughtful ideas about faith, right and wrong – and the importance of a nice cup of tea.
Today is one of those days when I have free time and there’s very little I have to do, plenty I could or ought to do but not much I really want to do, so I end up feeling restless.
I think they call them Sundays.
So in lieu of anything actually useful or interesting I thought I’d write in my blog. You lucky, lucky people!
Discworld II
I spent a fair amount of yesterday and today playing Discworld II. It’s a game from 1996 that in order to play I had to install an emulator called scummvm. In fact I own the game, used to play it on my first PC[*], but I still have to play it through the emulator.
It’s a point-and-click adventure game of the kind I’m not sure they make any more. If they do they’ll be web-based these days.
It still holds up well. Mostly I think because it’s well written and acted. It’s got Eric Idle playing Rincewind and Rob Brydon doing most of the other male voices with Kate Robbins most of the female ones. The basic gameplay is that you have to collect a series of items in order to fulfil quests. Getting the items usually involves using other items in combination and interacting with the game characters in a few predefined ways. When you complete a task there’s often a little “cut-scene” where the action plays out as a little movie.That makes it sound dull but it’s the humour in the dialog, in the scenarios and the cut-scenes that makes it entertaining for me. The puzzle element less so. Sometimes it feels like you have to “use” an item with every other possible item in every location before you figure out what to do. Of course there are clues in the dialog if you spot them, and there is a sort of logic to most of it. It also helps if you’ve read the books.
I did cheat a little towards the end. There are four acts an an epilogue and I used a walkthrough for one item in act four and for the epilogue (which only consists of about 3 or 4 actions in any case)
Anyway it was fun. How much of that is nostalgia and how much the game I don’t know.
And since this has sort of turned into a review –
8/10 – this non-gamer enjoyed this retro game.
(goes back to change title of post)
[*]Sort of. I played Discworld on my first PC. It was one of the first things I did with it. Later when Discworld II came out I needed a higher-spec PC to play it. I ended up upgrading mine more or less sucessfully (though I did blow up my flatmate’s CPU along the way).
There’s something I feel I need to get out of the way — especially since I shall probably be reviewing at least a couple more Discworld books in the next few weeks[1] — so if you just want to get to the review then by all means skip down to the picture of the book cover and the sentence beginning ‘So to the book itself‘
I remember when my good friend Dawn lent me the first Discworld book The Colour of Magic. It was 1987 and I was temporarily between university courses and unemployed. I read it in a day because it was that rare and delightful thing, literally un-put-downable. I’d never read anything quite like it before. I was only 19 but still I was an avid, if quite narrow, reader.
Over the next decade or so I read every new Discworld book as soon as it came out[2] in paperback[3] and whilst they weren’t always great they were always pretty reliably good. A pleasant familiarity with the author’s voice and themes, and of course great characters.
But gradually I found that I was reading them less quickly. What had been devouring them in great chunks, if not at a single sitting, had become a little each day. But then my circumstances had changed. I was no longer a student and the 15minute bus ride to work and the 10-20mins before I fell asleep at night seemed more appropriate than staying up until the early hours. A small part of me even liked eking out the pleasure over a longer period. After all, even at Mr Pratchett’s prolific rate you’d still have months to wait for the next one.
At a certain point I stopped reading them. Although it never really felt that way, it just felt like I’d had the latest book waiting to be read lying around a long time, long enough for the next one to come out. Around about the same time I was “branching out” and trying to read other authors and other genres. A year or two after that I’d moved down here and I was tending to fall asleep after watching TV and reading generally had gotten squeezed out[4].
After that I always felt that one day I’d get back into reading again and go through my Discworld backlog and catch up. I was vaguely aware that some books were getting good reaction and that there were new “great” Discworld books but I also knew that I, in my anal way, would have to plough through all the less-great ones rather than read out of order[5]. M., herself a Discworld fan[6], added to this because she was still reading every new book when it came out and had her own favourites. I understand though that she herself has now gotten a few books behind and is a little less enthused.
So what? Why does any of this matter? Well of course it doesn’t, except to put in context the vague feelings of guilt I have about not utterly loving each new Discworld book. Yesterday I read most of Jingo, having started it (again) on Friday. But it was less about the sheer joy of this new thing, this wonderful humour, or even familiar pleasures, than it was about another 400pages and something to do on a Bank Holiday where it was too hot to feel energetic.
It was fun – more of that below – but there was also a sense of knowing the well-worn rhythms of Pratchett’s writing style. I could see where the jokes were coming from and they made me smile mostly, occasionally I found myself thinking “yeah, yeah, get on with the story”.
Forgive me Terry, I have not kept faith and have grown weary. However I do plan to read at least two more Discworld books so perhaps I can learn to love them again. Or at least see them with fresher eyes.
So to the book itself…
Jingo
Jingo is the story of a war between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch. It starts with the re-surfacing from the sea of an island called Leshp, which quickly becomes the source of (flimsy excuse for) a territorial dispute.
From a Discworld point of view what you need to know is that this is primarily a Watch book. So the key characters are Vimes, Carrot, Angua, Nobby and Colon, together with some new Klatchian ones. And although I said it was about a war, it’s really about the political intrigue leading up to war, and, since this is a Watch book, ‘political intrigue’ is really a fancy term for crimes by posh and/or foreign folk. So we’re firmly in Vimes’ country here.
Apart from Pyramids, an early favourite, I tend to prefer Discworld books that stick to one setting[7] and Jingo takes place partly in Ankh-Morpork, partly on board ships and partly in Klatch. I think I preferred the Ankh-Morpork sections, perhaps because that feels more properly like Vimes’ natural setting.
I was all set to give this book a lower score, I was telling myself that I hadn’t enjoyed it as much as I should (see above) but then within the last fifty pages something happened. First what I had thought might be Pratchett’s common inability to get to an ending turned out instead to be a proper ending – even though we had hit the climax of the story some ways before, the final sections played out in what seemed a natural and pleasing way. It didn’t feel overlong.
Second it ended – no spoiler this – on a scene with Commander Sam Vimes of the Watch reminding me that I actually like this character, and that itself reminded me that what Terry’s great at is creating characters that you want to spend more and more time with.
Oh and of course – war is bad.
7/10 – Vimes of the City Watch brings a whole new perspective on the phrase “prosecuting a war”.
[1]Ship of Fools book club are doing Carpe Jugulum in July and I realised that I’m only 2 (now 1) books away from that so I decided to alternate between discworld and non-discworld books between now and then.
[2]Well at first. Keep reading.
[3]Hardback always felt like an extravagant waste of money to me. Now that I am reading again and can afford hardbooks I tend to buy Kindle versions instead.
[4]Which is kind of odd. The time in my life when I had the most free time was the time when I seemed unable to find enough of it for various things, including reading.
[5]There are those that suggest that there are other orders in which to read the books rather than strictly by publication date. I tend to ignore these mad voices.
[6]Though how this term could apply to someone who hadn’t even read Mort when I met her, I don’t know.
[7]Given that The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic both do this and are easily amongst the best of the books this is blatantly false. However, these are also different from the others in that they are pretty much a tour of the Discworld making jokes along the way, joined loosely by plot. Later books are actually stories in their own right with a proper beginning, middle and end[8].
So… Discworld #30 (there are currently 39) so hurray for progress! Maybe I’ll catch up by the end of the year.
