It's here! The all new Discworld novel arrived this morning, and in true
style, I've finished it already.
These books are enormously popular, and it's not hard to see why. The
Discworld has gone from being merely a parody of more established fantasy books,
such as Lord of the Rings, to a comment on the world we live in today. This
particular Discworld book is about war, but it's also about men and women in the
armed forces, the peculiarities of the class system, and many more things
besides.
Several familiar characters appear, including Commander Vimes, Angua, and
William De Worde from The Truth, but it's new characters who get the
most attention. The principle character is Polly, a young lady who dresses up as
a boy to join the army and find her brother. Of course, things swiftly become
more complicated than that...
Pratchett spins another excellent story, taking the group of characters
through nearly 400 pages of well written literature. And in some ways that's the
best thing about this book. It's literature. It's not just a story with
a lot of jokes in it. It reminds me of what might have happened if Douglas Adams
had the same work rate. Pratchett has gone from being merely good, to extremely
good.
With a signing tour in England coming up, several more books in the works and
five books in the Readers Top 100, it seems Terry Pratchett is going from
strength to strength. Long may it continue.
