The Truth; Guards! Guards! (Terry Pratchett) ***/ more fun than TV

[livingbyfiction]

The city of Ankh-Morpork is a fun place for fantasy sociologists.  It is a city on the cusp of modernity, discreetly steered by the Patrician, Lord Vetinari, who is absolutely exquisite in the manner in which he does not interfere.

In The Truth, the rumor goes around that the dwarves have found a way to turn lead into gold.  In fact, they do it the

Comments

[lesliesage]

I got halfway through Mort and decided it wasn't going to make me a better person. But I agree it's better than TV. And I have watched a lot of TV.

[livingbyfiction]

Thank goodness not all of life is about betterment of self. Some of it is about chocolate and opulent liqueors, and disposable laughter.

[livingbyfiction]

On third thought, maybe it does slightly make the reader a better person. Most of the books (but probably not Mort) are about institutions. The Truth is about the newspaper. Making Money is about the mint. Going Postal is about the post office and all modern telecommunications. The other books cover the police department, the university, the religions, the various ethnicities, and many other aspects of Ankh-Morpork. Terry Pratchett embeds quite a lot of political philosophy and practical sociology

[lesliesage]

Well, he can stay on my list; it's just a lower priority. I can't watch TV anymore because it takes half my concentration and then bores it, whereas a book takes my whole concentration, so it's twice as bad when boring. So I don't really do diet lit. When I'm in the mood for light-hearted entertainment, I watch over-produced action films. I think Pratchett is obviously very intelligent and rather clever, and if that comes through in saying something about man, so be it. I've just been skeptical about his popularity. Same for Card, even. I absolutely adore the Ender series, but he knows he can get away with cranking out shit, and he's even written about how he can crank out shit, and some of his stuff is such shit... its depressing. It's not hard to picture Pratchett feeding an adoring public the same formula over and over, and my reading hours are finite. Maybe I lose something by thinking that way.