A review by taranana
Mummenschanz by Terry Pratchett

2.0

“Maskerade“ by Terry Pratchett [2/5]

Before I write the main part of my review I should probably tell you two things.
1. About my relationship to Pratchett's book.
2. About my expectations.

1. I have not read many books by Pratchett (I think besides Maskerade it is probably only The Colour of Magic I have read). But I watched everything related to the Discworld. So I knew the humour and knew I would have some problems with it (as I don't find it very funny most of the time, everything related to Death is great though). So I knew this would probably not a 5 star read for me.

2. This book was recommended to me by some friends on the internet. They know I love Webber's Phantom musical and love Leroux's original novel. So I expected this to be a parody of either Webber's or Leroux's work. I thought it would be not far off from one of these stories. Well. This is probably the biggest problem I have with this novel: my expectations were not meet. Not at all.

So, now on to the review:

Setting fitting references

As you might have guessed from 2. I am a huge fan of musical theatre (and I like theatre and opera too). I really love everything in this book that references plays, operas and pieces of musical theatre. There are e.g. references to Les Miserable or Cats. And Death
Spoilerwears the dress of the Red Death at the end of the book when he comes for the murderer
. I really like how they are all incorporated in the story and it feels very natural.
The setting is also very good. I like Ankh-Morpork's opera house and I think Pratchett did a good job capturing some parts of the atmosphere backstage how it is shown in most modern media (a bit of chaotic but lovely). I would love to visit.

Characters...some familiar some not so much

First things first.
Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax are amazing characters and I like them very much. They are entertaining and amusing characters and their dialogues and interactions with the other characters in this novel are amazing. Especially Granny Weatherwax's character is amazing as she seems to be a stern and strict old lady but also a badass witch who does not need her magic for everything (I am not sure how much the witches actually do in this series but this book does not seem to find their magical abilities that important). I would probably try another of the novels with them.
The other characters would have been fine for me I guess if I had not expected something very different as stated above.
I had hoped for characters who are a bit more like their musical/novel counterparts and this annoyed me especially in the case of Christine and the character that seems to be a very different opera ghost than Erik in the original novel or the musical is.
I am very annoyed with how the opera ghost is not even disfigured. And well...His character is also changed drastically
Spoileras there is not one but two ghosts in this novel and the evil one of them has way more similarities to Erik than the good one
. I am not a fan of this type of parody. I like it much more when the main character traits remain but are ridiculed.

And the same

My problem with the plot is roughly the same as with the characters. I expected something very different. I expected it to be much more like the Musical or original novel but with someone framing the opera ghost for the murders because he is not very nice in every other way. Well...
The plot is nice and it surprised me a few times which I did not expect and that is really good.

In the end this book was not for me

If I had less expectations I would have liked this probably way more. I think it is a solid book, don't get me wrong. But it is not what I expected and wanted it to be.