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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Snuff by Terry Pratchett, A Discworld Novel

Okay, so as my two readers have probably forgotten by now, several weeks ago I reviewed the wonderful world of Discworld as a whole and hopefully got a few people interested. All of this was in anticipation of the newest book, Snuff: A Novel of Discworld. (Again, I apologize for our shameless plugging of books in the attempt that we shall get some sort of commission off of it through Amazon. Seriously, though it's a hardcover book for $14, so pretty good price in my opinion.) Anyway, so if I recall correctly I received my copy on Thursday, October 14th and finished it by Monday, October 17th. I know, slow of me but I wanted to savor this one. "But Kalpar!" You are surely exclaiming at this point, "If you finished the book on the 17th, why is this review only coming out on the 26th?" That's a very good question my dear readers, and you alway have the best questions. The answer is simply I am writing it here on the 18th but due to a large influx of smut from Katie and Sharon, my review got pushed to the 26th. So blame them, it's all their fault.

Anyway, dear readers, after getting past my normal first paragraph of madman rantings you are probably wondering my opinion on the book. Well thank you, dear readers, because people very rarely ask my opinion. Now Sam Vimes has been my favorite character for a very long time, mainly because of his personal morality. Vimes isn't afraid to fight dirty if he has to, having grown up on the streets of Ankh-Morpork, but he's also got his own moral code. He will follow the law to the best of his ability at all times, and while he might have to bend the law he never breaks it. Furthermore he hunts down those who break the law with extreme prejudice, regardless of their social standing. (And this is an important thing because many of the nobility of Ankh-Morpork think themselves above the law....at least until Vimes or his men come knocking at their front door.) At the end of the day he is a man of his principles and has certain values he holds as absolute. I really admire that in a character and feel that he, and the rest of the Watch characters, are rather well-written. Now, is this book going to be on my list of favorites for Vimes? Probably not, no. But to be fair this is the eighth of the novels dedicated to Vimes and the Watch, not including the novels where they have cameos, so it's one among very good company. I think that overall the book is really good and has some really good moments, but I still like
Night Watch and Thud! just the slightest bit better.

Oh yes, I should probably tell everyone what the book is about. Well Sam Vimes is finally taking a holiday at the insistence of his wife, Lady Sybil Ramkin. (Who, I might add, is a really great character when the spotlight is on her.) So Vimes, Lady Sybil, and their son Young Sam pack up and head off to Ramkin Hall out in the country. Being a city boy born and bred Vimes is rather out of his element and wishes that he could do some good old fashioned policing, even if he is supposed to be on holiday. Vimes soon comes across incredible challenges when he finds a goblin girl murdered on his property, and ends up fighting the societal assumption that goblins are nothing more than vermin and thus killing them is not a crime. Like most of his novels, Sir PTerry adds the right amount of social commentary to a solid story and produces a thought-provoking and interesting novel. I do have an issue with one thing in specific Vimes does in this novel, however to explain it would spoil both this book and
Thud! so I'm sorry but I'm going to have to avoid discussing it here.

My final thoughts are that this is another fine example of the Discworld series, and although it won't be in my small list of favorites it is still a good example of the series. If you're still new to Discworld in general, or Vimes in specific, I don't suggest you pick up this book. However if A'Tuin and Vimes are old friends of yours, it's well worth the investment. I give it four sheep.

BAK

2 comments:

  1. hehehe Ben said "large influx". *elbows Sharon* Did you hear him?

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  2. He did, didn't he? Of course we are proving his point about the smut thing...I prefer to say I like descriptive romantic interludes. Smut just sounds so...oh, hell...smut pretty much sums it up!

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