Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

Rating: 3 & ½ Stars

Pratchett weaves a tangled web. Not only does each novel have interwoven plots, but each fresh book picks up the threads of ideas and characters from his preceding works. Like much of Discworld it is messy, chaotic, yet with an underlying unity of vision.

Moist Von Lipwig, former conman, who first made his appearance in ‘Going Postal’, has despite his reluctance had ever further eminence thrust upon him by the Patrician of Ankh Morpork – Lord Vetinari. Lipwig is now officially in charge of the Bank, the Post Office, and the Mint. It only stands to Vetinari’s reason that he should also take on the responsibility of Discworld’s latest invention – the Steam Engine.

Pratchett thereby continues the theme of the evolving history of Discworld, and Ankh Morpork, in particular. 

We’re now a long way from the investigations of the species-diverse Watch, and the eldrich antics of the Wizards and Witches. What he has in his sights is an economy in tumultuous growth, say, akin to the industrialization of Victorian England, but at hyper speed. The burgeoning of one industry inevitably leads to the mushrooming of several others.

If nothing is as unstoppable as an idea whose time has come, the world borne by the Giant Turtle is being engulfed by a tsunami of new ideas, bringing together people, species, and cultures as never before. No surprise then that there are those who fiercely resist the changing times. The Grags, the ‘deep down Dwarfs’ are the ultra-orthodox of Dwarfdom, many of whom strive to keep others chained to the same darkness in which they have imprisoned themselves. Peace on DW hinges on quelling the discontent metastasizing in the Dwarf community.

It hinges therefore on men and women of good will and intention who are even more single-mindedly undeterred from their purpose than their adversaries. Thankfully they’re never in short supply in Pratchett’s books.

Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Rating: 3 & ½ Stars

It’s been a while since I read a new Pratchett novel, having missed the last one. Not that it matters; Discworld is the kind of place that tends to stay with you. Give it an inch, and it will take over your whole head.

Those readers who are familiar with the series know that it has three main branches – Wizards, Witches, and the Watch. I’m partial to the last, since I’m an admirer of the city of Ankh Morpork, that great smelly melting-pot of humanity and other related species. That’s really the thing, isn’t it; scratch the surface of a human and you’ll never know what will raise its snarling head – it could be a werewolf, vampire, zombie, or any one of the denizens that populate Discworld. ‘Human’ as we understand the term is but a thin veneer. That’s something that doesn’t escape the sinister but elegant mind of Havelock Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh Morpork. Samuel Vimes, on the other hand, is more your average Joe, or at least, he’s trying very hard to be one, against all evidence to the contrary.

Vimes, the cynical, tough copper is now, thanks to the machinations of fate, the Duke of Ankh Morpork, Commander Samuel Vimes etc. etc. The titles are rather tiresome, but they do allow Vimes the privilege of being the confidant of those in high places. In ‘Snuff’, he finds himself on an enforced vacation, rusticating and playing the role of country squire. But as the saying goes in the Watch, where there’s a copper, there’s a crime, and sure enough, he gets a whiff of it before long. When the Commander decides to serve justice, he is not stingy-handed about it.

I miss the old Vimes – he was well-suited to the mean streets of Ankh Morpork. Now, his legend seems to be snowballing beyond control. It leaves me wondering - my word, what will be thought of next to add to his glory and redoubtable reputation? This apotheosis of Vimes makes me uncomfortable, because it can only be achieved by the sacrifice of Vimes, the common man.

I also miss the old Pratchett.  Though I won’t say he’s lost his edge, his most recent books definitely lack the cheeky, sideways Brit wit, the sparkling zaniness that transformed the lowly craft of punning into high art. There seems to be an extra dose of sentimentality as well. All this does not necessarily mean that the new books are lesser, only that they are different. On the plus side, if the younger Pratchett showed off his wicked humor and impudent intellect, now he reveals his heart. Either way, it’s a win-win situation for his fans.

Related Reading:

‘The Secret River’ by Kate Grenville

The best fantasy is never divorced from the sorry truth of reality. Grenville, in her award-winning book, paints a haunting picture of the ethnic conflict in newly colonized Australia. Pratchett talks in terms of species conflict. By any name, bigotry dehumanizes all parties involved.

http://noa-betweenthelines.blogspot.com/2011/08/secret-river-by-kate-grenville.html



The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Rating: 3 Stars

Swimming gently through space is the great turtle A’Tuin . On his back stand four gigantic elephants on whose back is balanced a circular disc of a planet. Is this making sense yet? If it doesn’t, congratulations, you’ve gained entry to Discworld, where the reigning order is Chaos, and the only reliable guide is the road map to enchantment. To give you a sample of Pratchett, his theory of the Multiverse might suffice:

An alternative favored by those of a religious persuasion, was that A’Tuin was crawling from the Birthplace to the Time of Mating, as were all the stars in the sky which were, obviously also carried by giant turtles. When they arrived, they would briefly and passionately mate, for the first and only time, and from that fiery union new turtles would be born to carry a new pattern of worlds. This was known as the Big Bang hypothesis.

Though I wouldn’t rank this book with Pratchett’s  best, you couldn’t guess that it was the first of many books in the Discworld series, the reason being that there is nothing even remotely tentative about Pratchett’s writing. He dives in with aplomb, and the bemused reader is swept along in the contrails of his imagination.

‘The Color of Magic’ gives us a broad overview of the geography and nature of Discworld. The magic in this fantasy series is of a most slippery sort, not something to be tamed, but a wild and elemental force that rules all of Discworld, but is more perceptible in some areas than others. It is the kind of world where anything can happen and usually does. 

This book is loosely divided into four parts. In the first, 'The Color of Magic', we meet Twoflower and his reluctant wizard guide, Rincewind. Rincewind is a bright underachiever with a certain atavistic instinct for survival. He is our hero, for lack of a better word. In ‘The Sending of Eight’ the many gods of Discworld have some sporting fun with the hapless duo. Rincewind is unfortunate in many respects, except that he has found favor with the most powerful goddess of all, known only as the Lady, but whose last name might be Luck. In 'The Lure of the Wyrm', Rincewind and Twoflower team up with Hrun the Barbarian. In the last, 'Close to the Edge', the two fall into the clutches of the astronomers of Krull, who have come up with a device to determine the sex of A’Tuin (Well, wouldn’t you want to know?)

Though Discworld may teem with the stuff of fantasy legends – heroes, magic, dragons, beautiful women; if you’re looking for the obvious, you’ll never find it in a  Pratchett book. He doesn’t have the most accessible of styles, and is by no means easy reading. In fact, his books should come with a cautionary label, something along the lines of, Warning: An acquired taste that may flare into a full-blown addiction.