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oyceterI'm fairly sure everyone can guess why I picked this one up ;).
Rats! How could I possibly resist?
I'm not quite sure why this book is being marketed as YA while Pratchett's other books aren't, but oh well. Marketing is confusing.
I've also only read about two Discworld books before (Wyrd Sisters and Mort), so I'm not very familiar with Discworld. Luckily, this book didn't seem to require too much previous knowledge; though I'm sure some things would have been funnier had I known more.
Anyhow. Maurice the talking cat has got a great thing going with some educated rodents (aka, talking rats). They go into a town with their rather dim-witted boy, the rats go forth and make themselves a nuisance, then the town pays them all a great deal for the boy to pipe the rats away.
I think this is one of the books that might be funnier after I read it the second time. Sometimes it takes a while for this kind of humor to kick in for me. Frex, the first time I read Good Omens, I was thoroughly unimpressed; now I think it's the funniest thing in the world.
That said, the rats were very cool. I was't quite as fond of Maurice, but I adored the rats, from the little nearly blind visionary rat to the big rat leader, and I was particularly amused by the rat army (there's a Light Widdling Squad and a Trap Detecting Squad), and I was actually quite affected by the rat deaths and dangers! Er, ok, I probably would have been even if Pratchett had no skill as a writer whatsoever, just because... rats! But Pratchett makes the rats quite ratty and quite neat. I suspect I come about the book with a rather funny mindset though, given that I think rats are cute and domesticated, with furry, squishy tummies, like my rats ;). But there are some quite ferocious rats in this book! I think Fitz-rat and Fool-rat would do quite poorly here, given that their first instinct would be to run up to the humans to beg for treats.
Uh, yeah, I'm getting a little distracted from the book. Anyway, it's a book on a Pied Piper scam, complete with sentient rats! I was obviously predisposed to like this. (Although the sentient rats of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH are still cooler.)
Rats! How could I possibly resist?
I'm not quite sure why this book is being marketed as YA while Pratchett's other books aren't, but oh well. Marketing is confusing.
I've also only read about two Discworld books before (Wyrd Sisters and Mort), so I'm not very familiar with Discworld. Luckily, this book didn't seem to require too much previous knowledge; though I'm sure some things would have been funnier had I known more.
Anyhow. Maurice the talking cat has got a great thing going with some educated rodents (aka, talking rats). They go into a town with their rather dim-witted boy, the rats go forth and make themselves a nuisance, then the town pays them all a great deal for the boy to pipe the rats away.
I think this is one of the books that might be funnier after I read it the second time. Sometimes it takes a while for this kind of humor to kick in for me. Frex, the first time I read Good Omens, I was thoroughly unimpressed; now I think it's the funniest thing in the world.
That said, the rats were very cool. I was't quite as fond of Maurice, but I adored the rats, from the little nearly blind visionary rat to the big rat leader, and I was particularly amused by the rat army (there's a Light Widdling Squad and a Trap Detecting Squad), and I was actually quite affected by the rat deaths and dangers! Er, ok, I probably would have been even if Pratchett had no skill as a writer whatsoever, just because... rats! But Pratchett makes the rats quite ratty and quite neat. I suspect I come about the book with a rather funny mindset though, given that I think rats are cute and domesticated, with furry, squishy tummies, like my rats ;). But there are some quite ferocious rats in this book! I think Fitz-rat and Fool-rat would do quite poorly here, given that their first instinct would be to run up to the humans to beg for treats.
Uh, yeah, I'm getting a little distracted from the book. Anyway, it's a book on a Pied Piper scam, complete with sentient rats! I was obviously predisposed to like this. (Although the sentient rats of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH are still cooler.)
(no subject)
Fri, Aug. 19th, 2005 12:00 am (UTC)I was very attached to the rats and very sad when they were in danger. And waaaaah, the bad things that happened to them!
I have gotten recs for Hogfather after reading some of the other Death books, and since apparently the Death of Rats shows up....
I am predictable ;).