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4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"It always embarrassed Samuel Vimes when civilians tried to speak to him in what they thought was ‘policeman’. If it came to that, he hated thinking of them as civilians. What was a policeman, if not a civilian with a uniform and a badge? But they tended to use the term these days as a way of describing people who were not policemen. It was a dangerous habit: once policemen stopped being civilians the only other thing they could be was soldiers. “ — from Snuff by Terry Pratchett
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Terry Pratchett did the absolute best world building. This was another wonderful book.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
such a delight. everytime I read a Pratchett novel, I'm reminded that I should read him more often l. Delightful, funny, wise and uplifting.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Reading this one broke my heart a little, I think. I've loved the Watch series of novels; as I said earlier, Night Watch is my favourite Pratchett so far, with Thud! a very close second. But Snuff is different from other Watch books. I don't read other reviews before I start a Pratchett book, I want to make up my own mind. So the changes, especially in the latter half of it, were a surprise, and I can see why a lot of other readers peg this one as the book where Pratchett's dementia really starts to become evident. And it's such a loss to the world — he was an genius writer, and it's gutting to know that this is the last Vimes/Watch adventure (except that they will show up in other books, but it's not quite the same).
The change is partly to Vimes, and partly to writing style overall. Vimes is still Vimes — but he's a little more wordy, offering speeches in long paragraphs instead of his usually pretty economical communication. And this is a Vimes novel more than a Watch-as-a-whole novel, too. Nobbs, Colon, Carrot and Angua do show up, but they're bit players this time around; it's not as much an ensemble cast as usual. It's felt like that's been a trend, but it was really pronounced here. Overall, the writing and plotting overall is just not as tight and brisk as usual; there's some repetition and meandering, especially around the Vimes/Willikins dialogues that felt really out of character for Pratchett.
The end in particular felt oddly sentimental. I don't know when in the process of writing novels Pratchett was diagnosed, but the end of this one felt like he was giving Vimes an ending as a character — a happily-ever-after scene as he goes off on holiday and gets what could become quite a hobby in riverboat piloting. It's something he'll be able to retire to, you know? And past Vimes would never have considered retirement, so this felt like Pratchett saying his final goodbye to a loved friend, and letting the reader see it.
::sniffle::
The plot carries on with one of the themes for the Watch series — inclusion. Vimes, the reluctant employer of dwarf, troll, w...erewolf and vampire, goes all in on goblin rights because everyone deserves justice. He doesn't need to like them, he just needs to bring the murderer of a goblin girl to justice. The fact that the local goblin population has been subjected to atrocities before now is brought to light; not just the perpetrators but the enablers are brought to book.
Somewhere out there in the multiverse, there's a Terry Pratchett who wasn't afflicted with the embuggerance, and he wrote a cleaner version of this story, without the wandering and dilution. I hope readers in that dimension treasure it.