Book Review: Raising Steam

Author: Terry Pratchett
Title: Raising Steam
Publisher: Doubleday
Publish Date: March 18, 2014
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: Edelweiss
Book Blurb: 

Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man with a flat cap and a sliding rule. He has produced a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all of the elements-earth, air, fire, and water-and it's soon drawing astonished crowds.

To the consternation of Ankh-Morpork's formidable Patrician, Lord Vetinari, no one is in charge of this new invention. This needs to be rectified, and who better than the man he has already appointed master of the Post Office, the Mint, and the Royal Bank: Moist von Lipwig. Moist is not a man who enjoys hard work-unless it is dependent on words, which are not very heavy and don't always need greasing. He does enjoy being alive, however, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse. Moist will have to grapple with gallons of grease, goblins, a fat controller with a history of throwing employees down the stairs, and some very angry dwarfs if he's going to stop it all from going off the rails…

Review: It is hard to believe that Raising Steam is Pratchett's 40th Discworld novel.  This novel stars one of my favorite characters from this series, Moist Von Lipwig.

Thanks to the tv movie for Going Postal, I've a perfect picture of Moist and his wife

This novel shows Discworld coming into a more modern age, with the steam engine build by Mister Simnel. This book doesn't have quite the laughs that Pratchett's earlier works have, but we must remember that there are forcing beyond his control that affect his writing.

However that doesn't stop this from being a powerful novel about how new technology affects people, whether embracing the new ideas or being fearful of them. Pratchett does a wonderful job bringing those emotions to life.

I love that Moist is the character he chose to help this story along. I love this guy and it was great to see his relationship with Adora Belle. Oh and when Moist saves the kids from the train tracks! Splendid.

If you haven't ventured to Discworld, you'll want to start further back, because there are so many people you need to meet before you get here, but if these characters are old friends, you'll enjoy the ride with this one.

Rating: 4 flowers

Book Review: The Unadulterated Cat

Author: Terry Pratchett
Title: The Unadulterated Cat
Publisher: Orion Publishing
Publish Date: Sept 26, 2002
Buy: Amazon

Book Blurb: The Unadulterated Cat is becoming an endangered species as more and more of us settle for those boring mass-produced cats the ad-men sell us - the pussies that purr into their gold-plated food bowls on the telly. But the Campaign for Real Cats sets out to change all that by helping us to recognize a true, unadulterated cat when we see one. For example: real cats have ears that look like they've been trimmed with pinking shears; real cats never wear flea collars ...or appear on Christmas cards ...or chase anything with a bell in it; real cats do eat quiche. And giblets. And butter. And anything else left on the table, if they think they can get away with it. Real cats can hear a fridge door opening two rooms away ...

Review: Anyone that loves a feline or felines in general will get a kick out of this book. The writing is typical Pratchett, complete with all the footnotes you expect from a Pratchett book.

The book is also wonderfully illustrated by Gray Jolliffe, whose drawings of cats really bring the humor across.

This book had me laughing out loud, because Pratchett is spot on about cats and all their idiosyncrasies.

There are two types of people that will love this book. People who like Pratchett's writing and people who love cats.

Both will find this book hilarious, and though it isn't up there with some of Pratchett's Discworld Sci Fi offerings, you will find yourself laughing out loud as you read.

A great book to read and clear you mind. Just pure fun!

Rating: 5 flowers

Book Review: Hogfather

Author: Terry Pratchett
Title: Hogfather
Publisher: Harper Torch
Publish Date: Sept 8, 1999
Rating: 4 stars
Book Blurb: What could more genuinely embody the spirit of Christmas (or Hogswatch, on the Discworld) than a Terry Pratchett book about the holiday season? Every secular Christmas tradition is included. But as this is the 21st Discworld novel, there are some unusual twists.

This year the Auditors, who want people to stop believing in things that aren't real, have hired an assassin to eliminate the Hogfather. (You know him: red robe, white beard, says, "Ho, ho, ho!") Their evil plot will destroy the Discworld unless someone covers for him. So someone does. Well, at least Death tries. He wears the costume and rides the sleigh drawn by four jolly pigs: Gouger, Tusker, Rooter, and Snouter. He even comes down chimneys. But as fans of other Pratchett stories about Death (Mort, Reaper Man, and Soul Music) know, he takes things literally. He gives children whatever they wish for and appears in person at Crumley's in The Maul.

Fans will welcome back Susan, Death of Rats (the Grim Squeaker), Albert, and the wizardly faculty of Unseen University, and revel in new personalities like Bilious, the "oh god of Hangovers." But you needn't have read Pratchett before to laugh uproariously and think seriously about the meanings of Christmas.

Review: Everything is a little different in Discworld, but they have their own kind of Christmas, it is called Hogswatch and its man in the big red suit is the Hogfather!

This book was laugh out loud funny, but most of Pratchett's books are. His alternate reality  really makes you look at "our" world in a different light and in this book, it reminds us a bit of what Christmas is really about and if you take certain things out of our lives..be it Santa or God or whatever, we really will cease to be.

The cast of characters is fantastic in this book, Death is star of the show, taking over for the Hogfather to try to save Discworld. I also loved all the other gods and fairies that kept popping up. The "oh God" of hangovers really was hilarious. I'd tell you more but that would spoil things.

The more stable character in this tale is Susan, the granddaughter of Death, who is trying to figure out just what the heck is going on, while trying to remain a little normal. It isn't easy to be normal when your grandad is Death.

The great thing about the Discworld series is that the books for the most part can stand on their own. That's a good thing, since there are around 40 books in the series.  So if you are in for a little fantasy festivity and some mystery and mayhem, check out this book.

Working My Way Through Discworld

I don't remember when I became a fan of Terry Pratchett, but I have so many of his books in my house that it is really ridiculous, especially as I'm usually not a huge fan of fantasy or science fiction books. (Though I love Doctor Who to pieces)

I was trying sort out the books from the series that I had, and that was a chore

These are the Discworld novels taken from Wikipedia

1	The Colour of Magic	1983	Rincewind	Came 93rd in the Big Read.
2	The Light Fantastic	1986	Rincewind
3	Equal Rites	1987	The Witches, The Wizards
4	Mort	1987	Death	Came 65th in the Big Read
5	Sourcery	1988	Rincewind, The Wizards
6	Wyrd Sisters	1988	The Witches	Came 135th in the Big Read
7	Pyramids	1989	Miscellaneous (Djelibeybi)	British Science Fiction Award winner, 1989[5]
8	Guards! Guards!	1989	The City Watch	Came 69th in the Big Read
9	Faust Eric	1990	Rincewind
10	Moving Pictures	1990	Miscellaneous (Holy Wood), The Wizards
11	Reaper Man	1991	Death, The Wizards	Came 126th in the Big Read
12	Witches Abroad	1991	The Witches	Came 197th in the Big Read
13	Small Gods	1992	Miscellaneous (Omnia), The History Monks	Came 102nd in the Big Read
14	Lords and Ladies	1992	The Witches, The Wizards
15	Men at Arms	1993	The City Watch	Came 148th in the Big Read
16	Soul Music	1994	Death, Susan Sto Helit, The Wizards	Came 151st in the Big Read
17	Interesting Times	1994	Rincewind, The Wizards
18	Maskerade	1995	The Witches
19	Feet of Clay	1996	The City Watch
20	Hogfather	1996	Death, Susan Sto Helit, The Wizards	Came 137th in the Big Read; British Fantasy Award nominee, 1997[6]
21	Jingo	1997	The City Watch
22	The Last Continent	1998	Rincewind, The Wizards
23	Carpe Jugulum	1998	The Witches
24	The Fifth Elephant	1999	The City Watch	Came 153rd in the Big Read; Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 2000[7]
25	The Truth	2000	The Ankh-Morpork Times, The City Watch	Came 193rd in the Big Read
26	Thief of Time	2001	Death, Susan Sto Helit, The History Monks	Came 152nd in the Big Read; Locus Award nominee, 2002[8]
27	The Last Hero	2001	Rincewind, The Wizards, The City Watch	Published in a larger format and fully illustrated by Paul Kidby
28	The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents	2001	Miscellaneous (Überwald)	A YA (young adult or children's) Discworld book; winner of the 2001 Carnegie Medal
29	Night Watch	2002	The City Watch, The History Monks	Received the Prometheus Award in 2003; came 73rd in the Big Read; Locus Award nominee, 2003[9]
30	The Wee Free Men	2003	Tiffany Aching	The second YA Discworld book
31	Monstrous Regiment	2003	Miscellaneous (Borogravia), The City Watch, The Ankh-Morpork Times	The title is a reference to The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women[10]
32	A Hat Full of Sky	2004	Tiffany Aching, The Witches	The third YA Discworld book
33	Going Postal	2004	Moist von Lipwig	Locus and Nebula Awards nominee, 2005[11]
34	Thud!	2005	The City Watch	Locus Award nominee, 2006[12]
35	Wintersmith	2006	Tiffany Aching, The Witches	The fourth YA book.
36	Making Money	2007	Moist von Lipwig	Locus Award winner, Nebula nominee, 2008[13]
37	Unseen Academicals	2009[14]	The Wizards, Miscellaneous (Nutt)	Locus Award Nominee, 2010
38	I Shall Wear Midnight[15]	2010	Tiffany Aching	Fifth YA book

I think I have about half of them, though not totally in order. It is a wonderful thing that these books don't have to be read in order! Right now I'm off to hunt down Going Postal because I'm watching the Sky TV movie from the UK that was out earlier this year. I thought I had that book but sadly I didn't.