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Title: Snuff
Author: Terry Pratchett
Genre: Satiric fantasy
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: Vimes goes on vacation, which predictably doesn't last long before someone turns up dead.
Thoughts: With so many visits to Discworld, new novels in the series are less an exploration of a new concept and more just a visit with old friends.
This one in particular is a retread of old themes. Vetinari wants something done and so moves people around like his personal chess board. Vimes discovers that someone has done something that may or may not be illegal, but is certainly immoral, and goes on a righteous crusade. Nobbs and Colon yet again accidentally stumble into a key clue (to the point that a lampshade is hung on it). The secondary villain is a psycho nutjob not dissimilar from Mr. Teatime, and the primary villain (who scarcely appears) is a pompous immoral as not dissimilar from Gilt. Sybil refuses to let Vimes have bacon sandwiches, Willikins is impressively polite while shooting people, and a naive youngster grows up and becomes competent under pressure.
More lampshades are hung on the fact that there are very few races left to look down upon. In previous books, trolls, werewolves, vampires, zombies, golems, dwarves, orcs, and the Nac Mac Feegle have been rehabilitated and proven to be people and drafted into the watch. When goblins are mentioned in the first chapter, is there really any guess where this is going to go?
There are some amusing bits, and some clever bits, and some charming bits. There are also some points brought up and then left unresolved, such as the matter of Stinky and of Vimes' relationship with the Summoning Dark. Key dramatic scenes happen offstage as well, including the confrontation with the main villain (who barely appears).
Also, the copyediting is atrocious. I know enough about publishing to know that there are a number of different reasons why something this error-ridden can get to press, so I'm not going to point fingers. But there are some serious issues with punctuation, quotation marks in particular. These aren't minor grammatical errors, these are punctuation marks very blatantly missing, repeated, or in completely inappropriate places. Something went embarrassingly wrong.
If you are a Discworld fan and you need your fix, this will provide it. It's sweet and homey and lets us watch Young Sam grow up a bit. But on its own, it's not particularly strong and probably isn't worth the time. I enjoyed it, as I enjoy revisiting these characters. But Pratchett himself is not in the best shape these days, and I'm truly sorry to say it's beginning to show.
Author: Terry Pratchett
Genre: Satiric fantasy
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: Vimes goes on vacation, which predictably doesn't last long before someone turns up dead.
Thoughts: With so many visits to Discworld, new novels in the series are less an exploration of a new concept and more just a visit with old friends.
This one in particular is a retread of old themes. Vetinari wants something done and so moves people around like his personal chess board. Vimes discovers that someone has done something that may or may not be illegal, but is certainly immoral, and goes on a righteous crusade. Nobbs and Colon yet again accidentally stumble into a key clue (to the point that a lampshade is hung on it). The secondary villain is a psycho nutjob not dissimilar from Mr. Teatime, and the primary villain (who scarcely appears) is a pompous immoral as not dissimilar from Gilt. Sybil refuses to let Vimes have bacon sandwiches, Willikins is impressively polite while shooting people, and a naive youngster grows up and becomes competent under pressure.
More lampshades are hung on the fact that there are very few races left to look down upon. In previous books, trolls, werewolves, vampires, zombies, golems, dwarves, orcs, and the Nac Mac Feegle have been rehabilitated and proven to be people and drafted into the watch. When goblins are mentioned in the first chapter, is there really any guess where this is going to go?
There are some amusing bits, and some clever bits, and some charming bits. There are also some points brought up and then left unresolved, such as the matter of Stinky and of Vimes' relationship with the Summoning Dark. Key dramatic scenes happen offstage as well, including the confrontation with the main villain (who barely appears).
Also, the copyediting is atrocious. I know enough about publishing to know that there are a number of different reasons why something this error-ridden can get to press, so I'm not going to point fingers. But there are some serious issues with punctuation, quotation marks in particular. These aren't minor grammatical errors, these are punctuation marks very blatantly missing, repeated, or in completely inappropriate places. Something went embarrassingly wrong.
If you are a Discworld fan and you need your fix, this will provide it. It's sweet and homey and lets us watch Young Sam grow up a bit. But on its own, it's not particularly strong and probably isn't worth the time. I enjoyed it, as I enjoy revisiting these characters. But Pratchett himself is not in the best shape these days, and I'm truly sorry to say it's beginning to show.
