I’m half-way and enjoying it. If he had wanted, this could have been set in Discworld and been a Discworld book. It’s got his humor and understanding of human nature in it.
I like it.
That’s the thing with Discworld: It’s a big enough world that he could have set nearly any story he wanted in it. And given how successful the Disc has been, it had to have taken some guts to choose not to set it there, because putting “The next Discworld book!” on the cover would have guaranteed sales.
Meh. Bought Nation the second it came out, read it, and have never even looked at it again. Couldn’t tell you a bloody thing about it, whereas I can quote large sections of Unseen Academicals and I fooking HATE that book.
Finished Nation a few days ago and really liked it. I know it isn’t Discworld, but he did a great job. It reads like a Discworld novel set on earth in the 1800’s, really. You could easily take it and re-write it as a Discworld book. Nothing happens in it that would contradict or be out of place in one.
It’s a nice book and I found the ending great, but it did not move me as much as I was expecting.
Reading Soul Music now.
Soul Music
This was an excellent book and my favorite Death novel so far(I’ve read Mort, Reaper Man, and this one).
The Susan storyline was great. I think she’s one of my favorite characters and storylines he’s developed up to where I have read. I love Carrot in the City Watch books a little more, but I really liked Susan and how she affected Death.
The music jokes were a little obvious and not all that original, but the music storyline was also very good.
I really recommend this one. 3 1/2 stars from me.
Obvious or not, I thought the music jokes were hilarious. Soul Music is definitely in my Top 5 Pratchett.
“Born To Rune.”
Personally, I thought Soul Music was a little weak, because it felt to me like just a combination of Mort and Moving Pictures.
It’s also before when Pratchett matured past the use of the Magic Reset Button. I liked the later novels much better, where changes were allowed to stay changed.
I’m just not big enough a music fan to enjoy the jokes, though I do think I got most of them.
Oh, the book contained one of my favorite little anecdotes, contained in a footnote.
I think that captures a lot about human nature and is also an example of what makes Lord Vetinari a sharp and effective leader.
Of course, this is the same man who officially recognized the Guilds of Assassins and of Thieves, because if you’re going to have crime, it ought at least be organized.
I was reading Pyramids, but I had to stop because I decided to try out a book to be a read-aloud for my 6th graders(I am an English teacher).
I switched to The Wee Free Men.
I was going to save the Tiffany Aching books for later because I heard a spoiler exists in them, but I have to read it before I teach it or use it in anyway in class. Anyway, reading it now. Good beginning, but it’s slowed a bit in chapters 4 and 5(wow, chapters in a discworld book!).
The big spoiler is in the last Tiffany Aching book, which is also the last Discworld book–The Shepard’s Crown.
excellent. I’ll be good then.
Yeah, I can’t think of any significant spoilers other than that big one. There’s references (especially to the other Witch books), but nothing really spoily. And in the first Tiffany book, even the references don’t show up until the very end, and basically just consist of Granny Weatherwax showing up to say hello.
Update from me:
The Wee Free Men was pretty good. Not amazing, not my favorite, but pretty good.
I am now reading Good Omens(show coming next year). I have to say, the opening 1/3 was excellent and I could hear Terry Pratchett’s voice clear as a bell. I feel the middle 1/3 has dropped in quality a ton. It feels like a total shift in voice. I know they worked on all of it, but it feels like Neil Gaiman took over there.
Nice book, though. I’m disappointed in the shift away from the angel and demon characters, though.
Don’t be. They really are secondary characters.
Don’t be…what?
I think he means “don’t be disappointed in the focus shift”.
And I saw an interview or something with Pratchett and/or Gaiman where they said that everyone recognizes the portions each of them wrote, and everyone gets it wrong, because the parts that sound like Pratchett were actually Gaiman and vice-versa.
If Gaiman wrote the first 1/3, he did a great job sounding like Pratchett. The wry comments, little life observations, the little asides. Everything sounded like him.
Note: I would now rank Reaper Man higher than Soul Music, though I did enjoy Susan’s storyline in Soul Music a lot.
I can accept any order for those two. Reaper Man is the deeper story, whilst Soul Music is a lot more fun. I’m a sucker for bad puns, so Soul Music generally gets my nod.