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Discworld – Book XXXIX
Terry Pratchett

Doubleday (Transworld UK)
15 October 2011 / ISBN: 9780385619264
Fantasy/Humor
Amazon US || UK

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde


Sam Vimes has handed in his badge and contemplates a future of rural bliss with terror and loathing. No, he has not retired or been given the sack; he is going on vacation for a couple of weeks to Ramkin Hall. The countryside does not appeal to this city slicker and so it is with some delight he finds himself standing over his first corpse…or rather horror and disgust. Something definitely smoky is going on, not to mention politically incorrect and he is determined to get to the bottom of it…

It is always difficult to review a bestseller, because nobody is going to start reading the Discworld books at this late stage and everybody else reading this review is a hardcore fan. There are perhaps more smiles and nods than outright laughs in this extremely thoughtful book that looks at prejudice, class privilege and greed as only Mr Pratchett can. To say much more would be to spoil the story, which loses some of its momentum by being overlong, not a problem normally with this author. Vimes has never been quite so voluble, and he seems to make a long speech about policing, the law, and the rights of sentient beings or whatever on nearly every page but the old magic is still present in spades. Nobody can do it quite like Mr Pratchett and every part of this series seems to have grown legs and taken off by itself so the Discworld seems to be remarkably real. Perhaps the biggest treat is a thrilling description of a river in full spate, surely a more original concept than the well-worn storm at sea. If you enjoy Mr. Pratchett’s work for a good laugh and a satirical look at fantasy clichés then you are a decade at least behind the times; read this instead for a thought-provoking look at our own times and, if you are a writer, a lesson on how to make an imagined world seem real.

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Reviewed 2011
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