Another impressive book-haul, this month. Also rather varied, too, which is always nice. As per usual, I can’t read them all instantaneously, so here is an initial, first-look at the books that are coming soon to the blog and to bookstores/-shelves near you.
Another clutch of interesting books.
A nice mix, actually. I’m really trying to broaden what I feature on here – who knows how successful I will be in that endeavour. Partly, this is because my day-job involves reading a fair bit of SFF, which means I’m finding myself drawn more to thrillers (e.g. John Sandford) and (literary-)fiction. I’m still going to be reading plenty of SFF, of course (my interest in that is never going to go away). I just hope I can at least somewhat keep on top of all of these titles. Maybe I need to get some more writers involved.
Anyway, here’s what has turned up in the first few days of October…
Following on from today’s two other posts about Terry Pratchett, I reached out on Twitter to a few bloggers to get their thoughts on Sir Terry’s work. Here is what they had to say, as well as some of my own thoughts on one of the greatest, most-beloved fantasy series.
In the second post in the Terry Pratchett appreciation series, soon-to-be-debut author Django Wexler writes about his love of the Discworld series and Pratchett’s writing as a whole.
“On Pratchett” by Django Wexler
“Write a couple of paragraphs about your favorite Discworld books.” I should have seen the trap in that one. It’s hard for me to pick favorites at the best of times, but starting with the Discworld canon it’s an impossible task. For starters, there are so many of them, and almost all of them are so good! I have more Terry Pratchett books in my personal library than any other author. It’s not even close – there are at least two shelves-worth just for Discworld. I started reading them in high school and never stopped.
This is the first post in a mini-series focused on the work of Terry Pratchett, which will go up on the blog over the course of this week. Here, Tom Lloyd (author of the Twilight Reign series) discusses the impact of Pratchett’s writing on his own…
“On Terry Pratchett” by Tom Lloyd
Terry Pratchett has an entirely unique position in my book collection. I’ve got beautiful folio editions of Tolkien, a hardback collection of the Malazan Book of the Fallen, several first editions by BB I’m saving to read to my daughter, but the tatty, much-read Pratchett paperbacks still reign. For starters, I own more of his books than anyone else’s – they almost rival my own for the number of copies I have – and secondly, they’ve been read more than any other’s. I rarely re-read books, I’m a slow reader and simply don’t have the time, but whenever I’m stressed or too tired to keep up with a new book, I’ll grab a Pratchett as I head to bed. It’s a habit my wife’s taken up and a testament to the quality that some have had over a dozen re-reads and remain enjoyable. They’re not perfect, with fluctuations of style and missteps aplenty, but still I’m not convinced millions of readers and a knighthood is sufficient recognition for his body of work, given the sniffy attitudes of the large chunks of the reading public.
This is my 1,000th post on Civilian Reader. Which is pretty cool. I’d never expected to keep the blog going this long – nor did I ever expect it to become even remotely as popular as the stats suggest. I started it as a way to write about the books I was reading, more in order to keep my hand in at writing during long, empty stretches of my PhD (months of reading, followed by couple-of-week-blitzes was my normal approach to each chapter).
I’m not sure what I actually intended to do with this post. Perhaps ramble on at length about Lessons Learned, Milestones, and other self-indulgent topics. But the more I thought about it, the less interesting I thought that post would be.
Instead, I thought I’d offer just a quick few thoughts on some books that marked important milestones in my reading history before I started the blog, and have therefore not featured (or at least, not since people actually, you know, started reading it…). They are not always the best examples of any given genre that I’m fond of (a couple of them certainly aren’t), but they each hold a very special place on my shelves, and always will.
I’d love to read The Long Earth at some point. In the meantime, check out this interesting interview from The Guardian (conducted by Alison Flood), in which Pratchett and Baxter “hold court on the writing process, the nature of collaboration, the beauty of hard science-fiction literature and creating the start of a trilogy”:
Haven’t done this sort of post in a while, but I thought I would as I am surprisingly on the ball for November’s releases (which makes a nice change, given my low rate of reviews recently). Five have stood out particularly for me this coming month (all but one of which I already have). They’re not the only releases for November that are interesting, though, so here’s a simple list and some thoughts for the coming month.
Terry Pratchett’s next novel, of course! Following up from my previous post about Sir Pratchett’s next Discworld novel, which will feature Sam Vimes back at its centre, the artwork has now been unveiled! So here it is:
[Thanks due to Adam at The Wertzone, where I saw this first.]
The next Discworld novel to be a new Vimes novel!
It feels like an age since Sam Vimes was the focus of a Discworld novel, but he is back as the star of Snuff, published in October 2011. Snuff is the ninth novel in the City Watch/Guards series, following on from the excellent Thud! (2005); and it will be the 39th Discworld book overall.
Here’s the synopsis:
According to the writer of the best-selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse.
And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder.
He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, and occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment.
They say that in the end all sins are forgiven.
But not quite all…
No artwork available as yet, but I’ll keep an eye out for it, and feature it on the site as soon as possible. Needless to say, the Guards have always been my favourite series-within-the-series, and I can’t wait for Snuff.
In other Pratchett news, The Long Earth series is going ahead (two books – one an omnibus of two novellas, one full-length novel) – a collaboration between Pratchett and well-known and successful science-fiction author Stephen Baxter, the first book should see an early 2012 release.
The third Discworld live-action adaptation
Moist von Lipwig is an exceptional con artist faced with a difficult life-choice: the hangman’s noose or Lord Vetinari’s offer to become Ankh-Morpork’s next postmaster.
Hoping for an easy escape, Lipwig chooses the Post Office, but soon discovers that it’s understaffed, overflowing with undelivered mail and notoriously hazardous to a would-be postmaster’s health. But you can’t keep a good conman down and, despite the best efforts of Clacks’ Chairman, the devious Reacher Gilt, Lipwig is determined to turn around the fortunes of the ailing postal system.
It’s not going to be easy, but assisted by Junior Postman Groat, pin-obsessed Stanley, beautiful chain-smokeing Adora Belle Dearheart, and an army of golems, there’s always a plan for a man who’s prepared to push the envelope…
This is the third TV adaptation of a Terry Pratchett novel and, finally, they seem to have got it mostly right. Hogfather was pretty good, even if the acting was a little too hammy for my taste; and The Colour of Magic was rather terrible, which meant I never finished watching it (the actors hammed it up way too much, and even Jeremy Irons was a huge disappointment).
The actors cast in Going Postal, however, are quite brilliant. Richard Coyle’s Moist Von Lipwig is totally believable as a loveable rogue, pulling of the role with only a hint of overdoing it; David Suchet (onetime Poirot) is dastardly villainous as Reacher Gilt – featuring more in the second episode than the first; Claire Foy’s Adora Belle Dearheart is superb, and is extremely close to how I imagined the character, getting just the right mix of righteousness and goth-laden charm; Charles Dance is brilliant as Lord Vetinari, the ruler of Ankh-Morpork, and certainly miles better than Jeremy Irons’s portrayal in The Colour of Magic, which was surprisingly stupid (with an utterly ridiculous lisp thrown in for gods-only-know-what-reason). The only character that bothered me was the banshee, but I also can’t think how else to have done him. The golems are well-designed, and Mr Pump is both intimidating and (at the end) rather sweet.
Of course, even at three-hours long, everything from the novel couldn’t be covered or included, but the producers have done a great job of teasing out the main elements needed to make the story work in the short time-frame. Some of the best jokes are missing (the case in all adaptations of Pratchett’s work – whether live-action, or in the cringe-worthy cartoon versions), but that’s not a problem – Going Postal is still funny, wry, extremely watchable, and never dragged.
For those who buy the 2-DVD special edition, here’s a list of the extras/bonus content included:
• Exclusive Terry Pratchett Introduction
• Deleted Scenes
• Blooper Reel
• Image Gallery: props, set drawings, storyboards
• Cast, Crew and Terry Pratchett interviews
• Director audio commentary
A must-see for all fans of the Discworld novels, this is certainly the best adaptation thus-far, and is thoroughly entertaining. The cast, the writing, and also the production are superb – the attention to detail that has gone into making the set is phenomenal, and everything just works so well, bringing the Discworld vividly and realistically to life.
Adaptations always fall short of expectations, and will never be as enjoyable or as loved as the novels. Going Postal comes close, but still falls just short. That being said, I really hope they adapt the next Moist Von Lipwig novel (Making Money) in the near future. Or maybe the City Guards novels.
Pyramids, mummies, and assassins collide in this stand-alone Discworld novel
Being trained by the Assassin's Guild in Ankh-Morpork did not fit Teppic for the task assigned to him by fate. He inherited the throne of the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi rather earlier than he expected (his father wasn’t too happy about it either), but that was only the beginning of his problems...
Pyramids was the seventh Discworld novel, and is one of my favourite stand-alones in the series, although for some reason I’ve not re-read it that often. With my new-found commitment to reviewing older novels as well as new releases, I thought there was no better time to unearth Pyramids.
As always, Pratchett’s humour is spot on – even though this was an early novel, it didn’t suffer from the pun-and-joke-heavy nature (some might say ‘saturation’) of Colour of Magic, as it was clear the author was starting to become much more confident and comfortable in the world. There are still moments where the jokes, puns and gags come a little too fast and frequently, but for the most part, this is a well-balanced comic fantasy novel.
The novel starts with Teppic’s Assassins’ Guild final exam, interspersed with flashbacks to his time at the school, and memories of his father. It’s a good introduction to the Assassins’ Guild, offering an amusing portrait – particularly the importance of fashion, as interested in clean lines as clean kills:
“All assassins had a full-length mirror in their rooms, because it would be a terrible insult to anyone to kill them when you were badly dressed.”
Teppic’s memories of the school are great, and should bring a sense of nostalgia to anyone who went through (at least) the British school system – only, minus the instruction on the many ways to inhume someone... He’s an interesting character, and the novel follows his attempts to come to grips with his new-found divinity and position as King, in a land he knows little about. He was more comfortable and at home in Ankh-Morpork, yet his duty requires him to remain in Djelibeybi. He has to re-learn customs, language, and how to deal with his blinkered subjects and domineering High Priest. And then they build the largest pyramid ever, and everything goes… quantum…
We are also treated with Teppic’s father’s opinion on assassination and politics, how he justified sending his son away to learn at the Guild. King Teppicymon XXVII, Djelibeybi's god-Pharaoh, ponders the issue, and
“felt that while assassination was probably worse than debate it was certainly better than war, which some people tended to think of as the same thing only louder.”
Teppicymon’s a great character. As death on the Discworld is a rather subjective matter, he hangs around his body while it is being embalmed and mummified. It’s an interesting perspective that one wouldn’t really have thought about writing. He gloomily watches his own mummification, but slowly grows accustomed to the process (the exchange about which wrapping-cloth to use was particularly amusing among a selection of very funny scenes), not to mention acquiring an interest for his former subjects for the first time. The embalmers he listens to are very funny, very good caricatures of working-class temperament and thought-processes. We learn that Teppicymon was worried when he was alive about how he would explain if the sun didn’t rise, if the river didn’t flood, or crops didn’t grow. It can’t be often that someone like this suffers job/performance anxiety.
The Kingdom of Djelibeybi, which Teppic inherits, is a well-crafted parody of ancient Egypt, and Pratchett clearly had a lot of fun playing with the history and so forth.
“two miles wide and one hundred and fifty miles long, which was almost entirely under water during the flood season, and threatened on either side by stronger neighbours who tolerated its existence only because they'd be constantly at war if it wasn't there.”
The ‘science’ and economics of pyramids, living and dealing with camels, a nation of high-superstition and fear of the gods… this is really fertile ground for punning and satirising, and Pratchett makes the most of his subject material. I don’t think many pages went by without a single laugh, chuckle, or smile.
In Dios, the High Priest, Pratchett has turned his imagination to the Grand Vizier who does not so much pull strings from behind the curtain, but rather pushes his king behind it. He’s a different character than many Grand Viziers (most notably, all High Priests, apparently, are very clear about being different, higher creatures), but it’s clear that Pratchett drew on such characters to inform this parody and distillation of the Machiavellian subordinate. It’s amusing to read Dios’s reactions whenever Teppic takes initiative, or tries to be personable with his superstitious subjects, bringing his ‘foreign thinking’ home.
Any review of a Pratchett novel could be endlessly filled with snippets of the author’s text, so quotable is his writing – for example, Pyramids contains one of my favourite descriptions of human beings: “little bags of thinking water held up briefly by fragile accumulations of calcium”. You’ll also learn about the unlikely, greatest mathematicians on the Disc (which is another great, Pratchett-ian touch).
I could quote endlessly from this novel, but I shall just leave it with – you need to read this. Pratchett’s gift for writing – puns, prose, characters, everything – is on perfect display, and makes Pyramids a pleasure to read. The novel isn’t quite Pratchett’s best, although it was getting there. I still think his Guards novels are better than any other – a little less farce, better storytelling, superb characters and interplay between them, and more established, confident writing – but Pyramids is one of the better stand-alone novels in the Discworld series.
Filled with great satirical wit, Pyramids is a fun read, and highly recommended.
Two posts from two bloggers I follow have caught my eye, so I thought I’d consolidate my responses to these memes into one post. The first, from The Speculative Scotsman, is a pretty short one, which I happened to be talking about yesterday with Alyssa (my newest writing-slave reviewer), so I liked that it was timely:
As reviewers, do you read other reviewers' reviews before composing your own?
Simple answer: no. In fact, I rarely read any reviews anymore, despite subscribing to so many RSS feeds from book bloggers. I guess it’s partly to avoid being (sub)consciously influenced by what people I respect have to say (which is actually limited to only a very few bloggers – who shall remain nameless, because we can’t be inflating any egos now…). It’s also because this site is predominantly reviews, so I would rather read more news and opinion pieces than reviews of books I might be reading, or will read in the future. It is, however, a weird feeling to discover a review that’s so similar to one I’ve written. I think the only reviews I read now are for books I’ve already read and/or reviewed. This can often be unhealthy, as I end up wishing my reviews were so insightful or, in some cases, literary (it’s a long time since I last studied literature, and I have a weird complex about not knowing all the proper phrases, sometimes). I do still read a lot of non-fiction reviews; not to influence my own, but mainly because I need to decide on what to buy for my PhD and my ever-growing collection of books on the US Presidents…
* * *
The second meme, which I came across in a post by Adam Christopher, is a little more involved and fun – and made me think of the “Top 5s…” from High Fidelity for some reason. There are a handful of books and/or series that could have been the answer for almost every question (Terry Pratchett, Scott Lynch, etc.), but I’ve tried to be as varied as possible to keep things vaguely interesting. So here are the questions (in bold) and my answers to each:
One Book that Changed my Life
This was quite an easy choice: James Clavell’s Tai-Pan, which I reviewed a little while ago, because it made me fall in love with reading ‘proper’ books. It had the unfortunate side-effect of also making it difficult to find other books as good or enjoyable for a while, but it is still a firm favourite and definitely a book that changed my life: mostly because it made me want to write.
I shall add another, which is important for a different reason. Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora, which opened my eyes to fantasy fiction again, and is also one of my favourite books of all time. It’s just brilliant and works on every single level for me. It is also one of the books I recommend most to other people…
… Except for everything Discworld by Terry Pratchett, which also goes in this category. Pratchett’s books showed me that ‘comic’ fantasy didn’t have to be ridiculous to be enjoyable, and that it could be intelligent and many-layered behind the jokes and gags. An exceptional talent who deserves every word of praise he’s ever received and more.
One Book you have to read more than once
Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned. I consider these novels as one, because I never read one without the other. They were re-released recently through Sphere, but I’ve been reading them for years. I even remember reading them in New York, when I lived there – one of my favourite winters, actually: the snow was deep and made the city even more beautiful, and I wandered the city, stopping at various coffee-shops to read my way through Rice’s first five vampire novels.
Lestat and Queen were written just as Rice was really taking off and producing her very best novels – her gift for description, atmosphere and scene-setting (perfectly employed in these two novels) are still unsurpassed, and she’s able to evoke powerful images and impressions of her characters’ emotions and also the different times and locations brilliantly. True, the series waned in impact as it continued (though I still really enjoyed Merrick, which properly brought her other series – The Mayfair Witches – into the timeline). I’ve read these two about four times, now, and I think I’ll be doing so again in the Autumn, when I’m hoping to get a review of the first five Vampire Chronicles written (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief and Memnoch the Devil).
One Book you’d want on a Desert Island
I’m thinking something really long… If I had to choose something right this instant, I imagine I’d end up picking Justin Cronin’s The Passage, because it’s really long and I’ve only heard very good things about it.
But, to be really difficult, I’d actually take my eReader with me, because I have 90 books on it, and that should keep me going for bit. (I know, there’s always one person who has to answer ‘cleverly’…)
I’m possibly one of the biggest boosters for eBooks, as I adore my reader – so much, in fact, that I’ve rarely considered upgrading it to a new, touch-screen edition. (I’ll admit that I considered ordering a new, slate-coloured Kindle DX, but decided against it. I might also consider the new larger-screened Sony Reader, but it’s not available in the UK, yet.)
Two Books that made you Laugh
This would have to be a Discworld novel. It’s difficult to choose just the one, though. Probably something from the Guards selection: Guards Guards, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, and Thud!
That being said, there are a couple other Discworld novels that have made me laugh. Hogfather, because it is all-round brilliant and I still quote plentifully from it. The Truth, also, is a great novel and I like the central focus on the press and media. Also, it’s a novel that has meant I can’t help but find the name ING Direct funny (just read it, you’ll understand).
One Book that made you Cry
I haven’t cried at a book for years. Sorry, I just don’t tend to cry because of something I’ve read.
When I was younger, however, I did cry when one of my favourite characters in Brian Jacques’s Martin the Warrior (1993) died… It was a series I was completely in love with when I was a kid. Martin the Warrior, the sixth in the series (now at 21 books), was the last that I read. Jacques, as I recall, had a great skill at making his (young) readers feel connected to his characters, despite them being anthropomorphised rodents and small woodland creatures. The memories are just swarming back, now…
Anyway, let’s move on. A couple of things that do make me cry, are the first couple episodes of The West Wing Season Two (I am rather obsessed with that series, and have become very enamoured with the characters during the multiple times I’ve re-watched all seven series), and most recently the movie The Blind Side, which I thought was amazing (and Sandra Bullock definitely deserved the Oscar!).
One Book you wish you’d Written
Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora, for reasons of excellence and sheer imaginative brilliance. Perhaps also Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, because he made an absolute fortune from it. I would, of course, then write books I wanted to, hopefully better, without any fear of worrying whether or not I’d be able to afford to eat again…
Actually, the books I really wish I’d written are the ones I’m planning at the moment. Tentatively under the working series title The Amderlin Chronicles, they’re set in a world of my own making and I hope could be compared – in genre/style/setting (if not quality) – to Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie, James Enge, Brent Weeks and the like.
I’ve just started an complete re-working of everything, so they’re still in the absolute basic stages of writing. I’ve got the basic story of the first three novels, as well as the international affairs environment they are set within, but I’m having difficulty working out the details. Not sure I’ll get too far on these until I’ve finished my PhD, however.
One Book you wish was NEVER Written
Amazingly, I can’t think of anything. I don’t like to be too negative about any books, as I always assume that there is someone, somewhere, who will like every book – even if it’s just the author’s mum. I shall demure, therefore, from answering this question.
Two Books you are Currently Reading
John Sandford’s Storm Prey – the 20th in the Lucas Davenport/Prey series, and shaping up quite well – although, Sandford is unusually giving a little too much detail of a surgery that helps anchor the story as a backdrop (it’s interesting, but do we need that much detail?). I’m a big fan of Sandford’s series, having read most of these in order and in one go, when I discovered them – my first was Certain Prey (released in 1999 in the US, but I read it in 2004).
Evan Thomas’s The War Lovers – perhaps the best book I’ve read about 19th/20th turn-of-the-century US history. Brilliantly written, researched and crafted, this is easily one of my favourite books of the year, and favourite history books ever. Simply amazing. Theodore Roosevelt is one of my favourite presidents, and the portrait of him in The War Lovers is one of the best I’ve come across – Thomas offers neither damning nor a glowing characterisation. TR’s friendship with Henry Cabot Lodge is equally fascinating. Overall, this is a fascinating book on one of my favourite periods of US history. (I will hopefully have the review done very soon, work permitting.)
One Book you’ve been Meaning to Read
As I am wont to do, I’ve done my own thing and come up with two (from an ever-growing list): Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind and Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Both of them have received a ridiculous amount of praise from all quarters – particularly the latter, which has been recommended to me by two of the people whose opinion I value and respect above all others. Considering its size, and the growing pile of books I have to review, however, it keeps getting put to the side. I’ve heard amazing things about Chabon’s writing, but have thus far only read a few samples of his non-fiction articles (specifically, his essays about genre narratives and superheroes).
Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind is a book that has sat on my shelf ever since it came out in paperback in the UK. Unfortunately, it came out just as I started to receive more books for review, which meant I focussed more on getting those read and reviewed than NotW read. I still intend to read it soon, but we know how flexible my plans and timetables can be…
So, that’s my take on these two memes. Hope they were in some way interesting. (Though, in all honesty, they were more self-indulgent than anything else.)
Ah, it’s that time of year again, when more information is released about Terry Pratchett’s next release. This time, it’s another Tiffany Aching novel (young adult series), and it’s called I Shall Wear Midnight. Amazon UK have the artwork, which is below (sorry for the poor quality image, it’s a screen-capture):
I’ve not been able to find a synopsis, although one frequent piece of information is that it is the “concluding” novel of the Tiffany Aching series.
I’ve also managed to find the possible US artwork:
I’ve liked this series ever since the first book, The Wee Free Men. The story was great, the characters interesting and all with the Pratchett magic touch. Particularly for me, the Wee Free Men themselves – or, the Nac Mac Feegle, as they are really known – are a genius creation from an author who has already given us so many interesting creatures and so much entertainment.
I Shall Wear Midnight will apparently be released in the UK on September 2nd 2010 (Doubleday), and in the US on September 28th 2010 (HarperCollins).
So, anyway: Crivens!
[On a slightly-related note, the next Moist Van Lipwig novel will apparently be called Raising Taxes, but not sure when it will appear]
Football Comes to the Discworld, and something strange is afoot…
I suppose it was inevitable, but football has finally come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork. This is not the old fashioned, violent, grubby, pushing-and-shoving football. No, this is a new, faster football. There are proper goals, a new football that beguilingly goes ‘gloing’ when you drop it, and soars through the air, unlike the rock-solid old type which broke feet and heads equally.
Because of an obscure, old bequest made to the Unseen University (Ankh-Morpork’s school of Wizards), the wizards must win a football match, without using any magic. Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully delegates the organisation and training of UU’s team (much like he delegates everything else) to Ponder Stibbons who holds, by his own reckoning, the majority vote on any University Council meeting he must decide to hold (simply because he fulfils so many positions within the university).
The prospect of the Big Match draws in a myriad of characters from the streets of Ankh-Morpork and also the servants quarters of the University. Trev Likely, a street urchin with a talent for kicking a tin can; Glenda, who makes lots of jolly good pies for the Wizards; Juliet, Glenda’s dim but beautiful young colleague in the Night Kitchen (with an awful, Holly Golightly accent), who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been. And then there is the mysterious, erudite, and eternally eloquent Mr. Nutt. No one knows much of anything about Mr. Nutt, not even himself, worryingly. All he knows is that he must attain worth, and can do pretty much anything. Then Ponder Stibbons asks him to help with the football preparations…
Unseen Academicals, the 37th Discworld novel, is a wonderful return to Unseen University. After a considerable absence, it was nice to finally be among the wizards again. The faculty continue to amuse, parodies as they are of university Dons and Fellows. Even poor Rincewind – the star of the first handful of Discworld novels, as well as others – who, as the new “Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography” has “no students and no real duties other than to stay out of trouble”. The whole cast of them remains wonderfully inept and food-obsessed. Add to this the fact that the Dean has moved on to head a rival university, and tensions (not to mention Ridcully’s blood-pressure) are high. I was disappointed that they seemed to fade a bit out of the story in the second half, though.
The cast below-decks – Trev, Glenda, Juliet, and Mr. Nutt – provide a different approach to Unseen University, as we are given a glimpse into how things actually work, and what sort of people keep the place running. Each character is different and very well rounded. Nutt, especially, is one of the best additions to the Discworld in a long time (though, Moist Von Lipwig is pretty great, too).
I laughed a lot more while reading Unseen Academicals than I remember with some of the more recent Discworld novels. However, the plot didn’t seem as gripping as some of his previous Discworld outings. There’s a lot going on, for sure, but the story doesn’t move along at the sort of pace we’ve become used to with Pratchett’s writing. This might have something to do with the increased frequency with which we switch between perspectives, and the number of people’s eyes we see through. The characters remain intriguing and interesting – the Patrician and Librarian remaining two of the best characters ever created, by anyone. The dialogue is sharp and amusing throughout (his social commentary, certainly with regards to football fans, remains very keen also), filled with clever allusions and puns that will make you chuckle knowingly.
All in all, not one of the best Discworld novels, but Pratchett remains a superior author even with his ‘off’ days. Unseen Academicals will entertain you throughout – and that’s all we can ask from one of the UK’s greatest living writers.
Highly recommended.
It’s the oldest piece of advice in the world, not to judge a book by its cover, but in these fantasy-novel cases it’s almost impossible not to be completely taken with them before you’ve had any opportunity to see them in stores, let alone read them. So, a minor break away from reviewing, here’s a post of previews.
1. Mark Charan Newton’s City of Ruin, the second volume in the Legends of the Red Sun series (synopsis, etc., can be found at the author’s website, here):
2. Also from Tor/PanMacmillan is Col Buchanan’s upcoming Farlander (March 2010). It’s not quite as eye-popping as Newton’s, but there’s something about it that is darkly, beautifully evocative:
3. From Orbit, we have Daniel Abraham’s re-released The Long Price series, Shadow & Betrayal and Seasons of War (January 21st 2010). Some people on the blogosphere have said the covers don’t reflect the content or story of the book, but I think they’re great. Bit Hollywood, perhaps, but I think they work perfectly well. 
4. It’s almost that time of year again, when the world benefits from the latest of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. This time, in Unseen Academicals (October 1st 2009), I believe the wizards at Unseen University discover football (or soccer, for our friends across the pond).
5. The next non-Games Workshop-related release from the excellent Dan Abnett, released through new publishing imprint Angry Robot, is Triumff (October 1st 2009), in which Mr Abnett messes about with history and introduces us to an excellent eponymous new protagonist:
6. Finally, a novel that’s actually already out (review pending), but one with an excellent cover, and that’s Amanda Downum’s The Drowning City (Orbit):
With luck, we’ll get you reviews of all of these at the earliest moment possible. Happy reading in the meantime.
Terry Pratchett takes a break from his Discworld series to bring us something a little different
On the way back from his coming-of-age ritual, islander Mau’s Nation is wiped out by a tsunami. Brought with it, the schooner Sweet Judy is dragged through and over the island’s rainforest. Only one person is left alive.
Mau, who doesn’t wear a whole lot, comes across a woman who wears far too much and talks incessantly. The result is lots of misunderstandings. But, with the Nation gone, the two of them have to forge a whole new Nation, from scratch.
Nation is not your typical Pratchett novel. Like the Discworld, it is set in an alternate universe, only this one is still largely based on our own.
We still have Pratchett’s trademark wit and humour, his quick style, and good plotting. His wonderful inventiveness remains intact, also – even small things like the octopus arbori (tree octopus) are brilliant, especially given their inability to differentiate between coconuts and a person’s head.
My one criticism of Nation is that it takes just a little while to really get going – after the excellent introduction, and even though there are plenty of jokes and asides that will at least raise a smile, I found that it took some time for me to care much about the characters.
I can’t believe I’m writing this, given the unassailable position Pratchett usually has in my opinion, but I would only give this a cautionary recommendation. I laughed often, and was amused frequently, but for some reason this book didn’t hook me as his others do. Usually, I get through a Pratchett novel in about a day, maybe two if I have a lot of other things going on, but this one took me a long time to get through (hence the considerable gap between reviews on the site). Maybe, having read and reviewed quite a few thrillers in a row, I had difficulty making the transition back to fantasy.
It's also marketed as a children's book, which is quite surprising, given its very dark subject matter. Pratchett's children's books do often deal with very adult subjects, but compared to other “children’s” material out there, this is closer to Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book than anything else. Perhaps the subject matter is why I struggled to get into it: it has to be lighter on laughs. Also, I think that Pratchett is so at home in his Discworld that his occasional forays further afield can lack some of the obvious pleasure he takes in his creation, and perhaps that is why Nation failed to sparkle for me.
Still, even a slightly-below-par Pratchett is worth ten lesser writers, so don't be put off: Nation is worth a read.
