There’s not much else I can say on the subject of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, so there’s not. Of the four installments I’ve read, only Hogfather left a favorable impression on me. I only read this, my fourth, because I’d paid for it all those years ago and wanted to get my money’s worth. This was something like my fifth stab at reading it, and finally I was able to commit myself to finishing the thing.
Though it had nothing to do with a change of opinion. If anything, I grew to like it less with each passing attempt. A character named Moist? A rich family whose last name is Lavish? A character who’s allergic… to the sound… of the word…garlic!? Pratchett might as well have been stopping after every line to gesture and say “huh… huh… that was funny, right!?”
My answer is a resounding no. Pratchett isn’t without a funny bone in his body.Hogfather and Good Omens prove that. I just think that bone, more often than not, is broken, like here. The idea of a former bank robber being hired to run the bank is filled with potential hilarity. But reading the actual story of it, with a dog named Fusspot as the damned chairman of said bank, in one of Pratchett’s most blatantly obvious bits of social commentary, a character named Moist von Lipwig, etc. it exercises none of it.
I’m starting to think Wyrd Sisters, suggested to me by a friend and Discworld enthusiast, will constitute my last try at liking Pratchett before I write him off as a one (and a half, since I only really half-liked Hogfather) hit wonder who I’d be better off avoiding. Don’t expect me to be reading it anytime soon, though. It’s been at least a week or two since I put in my first inter-library loan request, I’ve gotten only one out of the three thus far, and I can’t even put in another until all three have been received, read, and returned. It’s probably for the best, anyway.
Travis Smith’s blog, containing this review, as well as others, photography, and more, can be found here.
Cannonball Read V 