Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
Felt like the “Bang Suck Duck” etc cuisine was racist in its attempt to be funny, happy to be wrong about that, but otherwise once again enjoyed the wry adult I.e. bureaucratic humor and Sybil is my main lady I gotta find the books with more of her in them.
Hilarious, laugh out loud funny, I’d forgotten just how brillian Pratchett was, how piercing his eye and his humour were. A comment on marriage and raising a young child as much as genocide and bigotry, Snuff sees long time Pratchett favourite Vimes on holiday, where he doesn’t relax until he has a crime to solve. One of the joys of Pratchett is the ability to ignore any messages you might read into in the story, and just enjoy the endless humour.
As usual Vetinari is pulling the strings in the background, and the Watch are caught in a thread of their own, but this is Vimes’ story, as he is now comfortably navigating marriage, he turns his attention to his young six year old son, who is fascinated by poo and is brilliant portrayed as a six year old in all their uncomplicated way should be.
Horrified at having to take a holiday, the Duke of Ankh finds himself out on his wife’s country estate. For a man born, bred and raised in the city, it is an alien environment, and so he gropes for something to right himself, a crime. Naturally he doesn’t have to wait long as a mutilated goblin body is found and Vimes himself is arrested, you can imagine how that goes.
This follows on fairly closely from Thud! which I read some time ago, but it didn’t matter too much. There is a lot of introspection from Vimes, as he realises he is a thin line away from the schemers and murderers he brings in, but ultimately he is the moral compass in Pratchett’s Discworld. As he pulls at the threads and unravels the country idyll, he is ably assisted by Willikins, the gentleman’s gentleman, himself a very able killer and Chief Constable Upshot, the country copper who suddenly finds himself out of his depth but positively runs up the steep learning curve.
As he does so well, Pratchett pulls the Goblins into his world, he’s done this before with Golems, trolls, dwarves, stereotyping them almost to the point of parody, but not quite making a mockery of them. In fact all the races Pratchett writes about are as fatally flawed as the humans, who he also mocks mercilessly. The Goblins themselves, beaten down so much as to be permanently dejected and in wait for the blows to rain down, are still shown to have their own culture and beliefs that pull them back from being, well, just Goblins.
Tears of the Mushroom looked back at the picture and then back at Young Sam and then at the face of Vimes. She tucked the picture carefully into her apron and pulled a small, iridescent pot. She held it out to Vimes, her hand trembling slightly, and he found himself taking it gingerly in both hands. Then Tears of the Mushroom said in her strange voice, like a living filing cabinet, ‘Hearts have given.” Which almost brought Vimes to his knees.
He thought: it could just as well have been her head grinning on the pub wall! Someone is going to burn!
The chase hots up as Vimes chases both the killer and the bigger fish pulling the strings, all the while being ‘guided’ by Sybil who herself is very much the old coppers equal.
What I love about Pratchett, is that even when he follows a formula, as in here where Vimes chases Stanford who keeps getting away, Vime’s knows he will be back, it doesn’t seem formulaic, the humour and awareness of complete lack of it seem to put Pratchett in a league of his own.
I was immensely sadden to hear he had died, the discworld series is probably the greatest series of books by anyone, with barely a bad book in the whole series (if pushed, I would probably say Monstrous Regiment didn’t seem as funny as the rest) and it’s truly sad to know that the great mind behind it has passed away. Even though he concentrated much more on Vime’s and Moist Von Lipwig in the later books, what made the Discworld such a great series was the vast cast of characters who each had books of their own, the wizards and the librarian, the witches and Death were all part of the fabric of a world that I would love to visit for real, and almost feel I have, such is the power of Pratchett’s writing.
R.I.P Sir Terry, thank you for all the joy you have given me.
(blog review here)
As usual Vetinari is pulling the strings in the background, and the Watch are caught in a thread of their own, but this is Vimes’ story, as he is now comfortably navigating marriage, he turns his attention to his young six year old son, who is fascinated by poo and is brilliant portrayed as a six year old in all their uncomplicated way should be.
Horrified at having to take a holiday, the Duke of Ankh finds himself out on his wife’s country estate. For a man born, bred and raised in the city, it is an alien environment, and so he gropes for something to right himself, a crime. Naturally he doesn’t have to wait long as a mutilated goblin body is found and Vimes himself is arrested, you can imagine how that goes.
This follows on fairly closely from Thud! which I read some time ago, but it didn’t matter too much. There is a lot of introspection from Vimes, as he realises he is a thin line away from the schemers and murderers he brings in, but ultimately he is the moral compass in Pratchett’s Discworld. As he pulls at the threads and unravels the country idyll, he is ably assisted by Willikins, the gentleman’s gentleman, himself a very able killer and Chief Constable Upshot, the country copper who suddenly finds himself out of his depth but positively runs up the steep learning curve.
As he does so well, Pratchett pulls the Goblins into his world, he’s done this before with Golems, trolls, dwarves, stereotyping them almost to the point of parody, but not quite making a mockery of them. In fact all the races Pratchett writes about are as fatally flawed as the humans, who he also mocks mercilessly. The Goblins themselves, beaten down so much as to be permanently dejected and in wait for the blows to rain down, are still shown to have their own culture and beliefs that pull them back from being, well, just Goblins.
Tears of the Mushroom looked back at the picture and then back at Young Sam and then at the face of Vimes. She tucked the picture carefully into her apron and pulled a small, iridescent pot. She held it out to Vimes, her hand trembling slightly, and he found himself taking it gingerly in both hands. Then Tears of the Mushroom said in her strange voice, like a living filing cabinet, ‘Hearts have given.” Which almost brought Vimes to his knees.
He thought: it could just as well have been her head grinning on the pub wall! Someone is going to burn!
The chase hots up as Vimes chases both the killer and the bigger fish pulling the strings, all the while being ‘guided’ by Sybil who herself is very much the old coppers equal.
What I love about Pratchett, is that even when he follows a formula, as in here where Vimes chases Stanford who keeps getting away, Vime’s knows he will be back, it doesn’t seem formulaic, the humour and awareness of complete lack of it seem to put Pratchett in a league of his own.
I was immensely sadden to hear he had died, the discworld series is probably the greatest series of books by anyone, with barely a bad book in the whole series (if pushed, I would probably say Monstrous Regiment didn’t seem as funny as the rest) and it’s truly sad to know that the great mind behind it has passed away. Even though he concentrated much more on Vime’s and Moist Von Lipwig in the later books, what made the Discworld such a great series was the vast cast of characters who each had books of their own, the wizards and the librarian, the witches and Death were all part of the fabric of a world that I would love to visit for real, and almost feel I have, such is the power of Pratchett’s writing.
R.I.P Sir Terry, thank you for all the joy you have given me.
(blog review here)
If it has to be the last city watch book, I'll take it. It's one of the best anyway. I'll miss them.
adventurous
funny
fast-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:
No
I love Pratchett. I was thinking whether I give it 3 or 4 stars but then I decided to go with 3 because Terry can do better. It was a little bit too dark for my liking but that might be only my personal problem.
The book reminded me very strongly Feet of Clay, which was a better book, because it was original concept then and Snuff feels a little recycled. also, Feet of Clay have one huuuge advantage over Snuff - Captain Carrot.
However, even a weaker Pratchett's book is much better than 90% of books out there.
If you want a more complex review check my blog (I'm not sure I can post a link right here but it's in my profile).
The book reminded me very strongly Feet of Clay, which was a better book, because it was original concept then and Snuff feels a little recycled. also, Feet of Clay have one huuuge advantage over Snuff - Captain Carrot.
However, even a weaker Pratchett's book is much better than 90% of books out there.
If you want a more complex review check my blog (I'm not sure I can post a link right here but it's in my profile).
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Lesson learned Mr Orwell, no animal is more equal that the other.
Great read, great lesson
Great read, great lesson
I liked it considerably better than his really early works, but it didn’t have half the punch my favourites have had for me (“Night Watch” and “Going Postal” especially). I’m not totally sure I could have got through it during my current lack of ability to focus on books, were it not for it being an audiobook on my commute.
