A post for everyone on the Flist that reads
The new Terry Pratchett book is called Nation. The main character is an island boy called Mau. The other main character is a young white girl named Daphne (except her name is actually Ermintrude). I'm a big Pratchett fan, most of you know that. This is not my favorite of his books. There were parts that made me laugh (this is not unusual). There were parts that made me go "how in the hell does he do that?" (this is also not unusal, it's most of why I love reading his books). There were a few parts that made me cry, that was not usual.
This story deals very much with loss. The first chapter is essentially a catastrophic travesty that wipes out a bunch of people. And the rest of the story is people working through grief. A predominant theme is struggling with faith and religion in the face of that loss. There are some wonderful human observations made (as is usually the case in a Pratchett book).
A criticism I'm sure the book will receive is that it is anti-religious. Generally speaking I find that to be a positive thing. Now while Golden Compass was criticized for being anti-religious it was really more anti-church. Nation is less about being against religion or against church and much more about people. It's about how people work. The amazing things that people have done. And the amazing way that people work. Pratchett is such a wonderful observation of the nature of people and the nature of societies. I am so tremendously jealous of his observational skills and his ability to so clearly illustrate and describe some really complex things inspire my awe. If I ever meet him in person I'll prbably be nothing but gibberish and fanboy. I've been impressed by the artistry of a lot of people. None of them have a damn thing on Pratchett.
This story deals very much with loss. The first chapter is essentially a catastrophic travesty that wipes out a bunch of people. And the rest of the story is people working through grief. A predominant theme is struggling with faith and religion in the face of that loss. There are some wonderful human observations made (as is usually the case in a Pratchett book).
A criticism I'm sure the book will receive is that it is anti-religious. Generally speaking I find that to be a positive thing. Now while Golden Compass was criticized for being anti-religious it was really more anti-church. Nation is less about being against religion or against church and much more about people. It's about how people work. The amazing things that people have done. And the amazing way that people work. Pratchett is such a wonderful observation of the nature of people and the nature of societies. I am so tremendously jealous of his observational skills and his ability to so clearly illustrate and describe some really complex things inspire my awe. If I ever meet him in person I'll prbably be nothing but gibberish and fanboy. I've been impressed by the artistry of a lot of people. None of them have a damn thing on Pratchett.