The Great Discworld Reread 20-24

Dec 25, 2016 16:00

In honor of Sir Terry Pratchett (GNU) I am conducting the Great Discworld Reread, in which I read, in chronological order, every Discworld book ever written that I can possibly get my grubby little hands on. This is the (long overdue) fifth installment of reviews (the first one can be found here, the second one here, the third here, and the fourth one here.). I really need a Discworld icon. Let's begin.


Maskerade

I love Maskerade. I mean, what's not to love about it? It's the witches and a blatant parody of Phantom of the Opera, with more reference to the book than the show, but a lot of foolishness and entertainment nonetheless. On a more meta level, it's about masks and identity, about who you are and who you believe you are and why those things are different, and a minor commentary on celebrity culture, because Pratchett never talks about one thing when he can talk about three.

Agnes Nitt has left Lancre and travelled to Ankh-Morpork to make her fortune as an opera singer. Agnes happens to be an incredible singer, and also to have a wonderful personality, which two qualities do not combine well in the increasingly looks-centered culture of the opera. Agnes finds herself ostensibly a member of the chorus, but singing for a dim-witted and reedy-voiced beautiful girl named Christine. In the meantime, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, having lost Magrat to Lancre royalty, travel to Ankh-Morpork to recruit Agnes to their coven. Hilarity, murder, and Greebo ensue.

I find I like this book even more as I grow older. It's a takeoff of Phantom of the Opera and all the inherent silliness in that book and show, which is extremely funny. Even more funny, it sends up the inherent ridiculousness that is opera at all. Plus, the witches turn up and are awesome as usual. And under all that, it's mostly about finding out who you are, who you really are at the diamond-hard core of your being, and what you really, really want out of life, and how you get that, how you reach for your happiness without compromising yourself. Plus there's Greebo and the Librarian and secret police. Definitely a favorite.


Discworld Mappe

This is much like The Streets of Ankh-Morpork in that it's a map of the Discworld, that comes with a little booklet talking about the world and forwards written by Pratchett and Briggs. The booklet makes quite a bit of fun out of European explorers (discovering places, as people who had lived there for millenia couldn't be said to have discovered it really) and it's a fun little thing to look at, but again, not really necessary to enjoy the series as a whole.


Feet of Clay

Ah, Feet of Clay. What a wonderful book this is. I do love the Watch books more than the others, but even then I think Feet of Clay is particularly good. It is concerned with kings and free will and slavery, and the tendency of humanity to bend at the knees in the presence of monarchy or aristocracy. That last one is a long-running thread in the Watch books, but I think it's a little deeper and a little more thoughtful here, as befits a book written later in Pratchett's career.

A priest and the curator of the dwarf bread museum have been murdered, apparently by a golem, which cannot hurt people by its very existence. This baffles Commander Vimes of the Watch. He's also baffled by the poisoning of Lord Vetinari and the apparent elevation of Nobby Nobbs to an earldom. And as we all know, when Commander Vimes is baffled, Commander Vimes is angry. He's even angrier because it's pretty obvious from the start who is behind at least half of the book's crimes; Vimes just has to prove it. Feet of Clay is much more a howdunnit than a whodunnit, which is part of why I like it so much.

Another part is the two-pronged plot. There's the fairly straightforward poisoning plot, whereby Lord Vetinari is apparently the victim of a very slow assassination attempt by means unknown (which, true to form, Vetinari figures out at least fifty pages before Vimes does). Then there's the one concerning the golems, a much more complex and painful plot that it's difficult to explain properly without spoiling the book. Suffice to say that the golems will make you cry at least once.

Other reasons: this book introduces Cheery Littlebottom, one of my very favorite Watch characters. It features Terry Pratchett's signature dog Latin as a plot point. Vimes's sheer reputation scotches a particular scheme, which made me laugh. Wee Mad Arthur features prominently-- either he or Buggy Swires or both are apparently lost Nac Mac Feegle, which makes SO MUCH SENSE. Feet of Clay is a little heartbreaking and a little heartwarming and just generally a very good story while still meditating on kings and free will.


Hogfather

It's Christmas Day and the second day of Hanukkah, so it seems appropriate to write up Hogfather. For those of you not familiar with Discworld, Hogfather is the Holiday Book. It largely satirizes Christmas, but there's bits and pieces of Yule in there. More importantly, Hogfather is about belief. It's about the power of belief and the necessity of it, the dark places it comes from and the sweetness and light it can become, and what happens when belief dies. So for those reasons it's very important to me, as belief is the next thing to stories, and the power of belief is the power of stories.

Susan Sto Helit, Death's granddaughter who we last met in Soul Music, has graduated from school and taken a job as a governess. Her life is steadfastly rational and non-supernatural, except when she absolutely can't avoid it. On Hogswatch Eve, she absolutely can't avoid it, as the Death of Rats (who we first met in Reaper Man) turns up to tell her that the Hogfather is gone and her grandfather is impersonating him. This lays the groundwork for a brutal satire of Christmas interwoven with the aforementioned meditation on the nature of belief and a brief but very pointed discussion on monsters and real monsters. Also features the Assassins and the Auditors (last seen in Reaper Man, I believe).

Hogfather is not my favorite Discworld book, but I think its moral is. At the end, Death says that humans need to believe in things that aren't true, like justice and mercy and compassion, in order to become human, and I think this is completely true. We may not be an inherently just or merciful or compassionate species, but we made up those stories and for the most part we live up to them, because we believe it. It's a great book, and now's a great time to read it.


Jingo

Jingo is yet ANOTHER Discworld book I didn't like as a child and have come to appreciate a lot as an adult. Part of that is, of course, that I became aware of and saw part of "Lawrence of Arabia," which makes a lot of the jokes funny or funnier. Part of it is my study of history, in which many wars began just like this (and I also understood the extended reference to the Kennedy assassination a lot better). And part of it is just that Jingo is a much more adult book than a lot of the other Discworld books (which is neither a compliment nor a complaint, merely a fact).

In Jingo, the sunken island of Leshp arises from the deep, and is claimed simultaneously by Klatch and Ankh-Morpork. Attempts at peace talks result in the attempted assassination of Prince Khufurah, the brother of Klatch's great leader, and then riots, and then war. Commander Vimes cannot be having with this, and his investigations eventually bring him and the greater portion of the Watch to Klatch's deserts, chasing the truth of the assassination attempt. Meanwhile, Vetinari shanghais Colon and Nobbs, and with the help of genius inventor Leonard of Quirm, takes a Going Under The Water Safely Device (Leonard's not great at names) to Klatch by way of Leshp. Everyone collides in the desert on a great battlefield, and... well, it's Pratchett, isn't it?

Features 72-Hour Ahmed, who is a delight in and of himself, and a brutal critique of nationalism and jingoism. Pratchett thinks they're both idiotic, especially jingoism, and in the current political climate it's kind of nice, in that dark humor we're all gonna die way, to read someone who agrees with you. It's not exactly a fun book to read, particularly now, but it's a good one.


The Colour of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Equal Rites
Mort
Sourcery
Wyrd Sisters
Pyramids
Guards! Guards!
Eric
Moving Pictures
Reaper Man
Witches Abroad
Small Gods
Lords and Ladies
Men at Arms
The Streets of Ankh-Morpork
Soul Music
Interesting Times
Maskerade
The Discworld Mappe
Feet of Clay
Hogfather
Jingo
The Last Continent
Carpe Jugulum
A Tourist's Guide to Lancre
Unseen University Diary
The Fifth Elephant
Death's Domain
The Science of Discworld
Nanny Ogg's Cookbook
Ankh-Morpork City Watch Diary
The Truth
Assassin's Guild Yearbook and Diary
Thief of Time
The Last Hero
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
Fools' Guild Yearbook and Diary
Night Watch
The Science of Discworld II
Thieves' Guild Yearbook and Diary
The Wee Free Men
Monstrous Regiment
(Reformed) Vampyres' Diary
A Hat Full of Sky
Going Postal
The Art of Discworld
Thud!
The Celebrated Discworld Almanack
The Science of Discworld III
Where's My Cow?
Wintersmith
Making Money
The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld
Ankh-Morpork Post Office Handbook and Diary
Lu-Tze's Year of Enlightenment
Unseen Academicals
I Shall Wear Midnight
Snuff
The World of Poo
The Compleat Ankh-Morpork
Raising Steam
Mrs. Bradshaw's Handbook
The Discworld Atlas
Turtle Recall
The Science of Discworld IV
The Folklore of Discworld
We-R-Igors: First and Last Aid
A Practical Manual for the Modern Witch
A Blink of the Screen
The Shepherd's Crown

This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/410901.html. Please comment over there if possible.

the turtle moves, gnu terry pratchett, the great discworld reread

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