Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Nation -- Terry Pratchett



Another excellent book from Mr Pratchett. As most readers of Pratchett will be aware, this is not one of his Discworld books, but of course he couldn’t resist injecting a touch of the fantastic. It seems as if he started out with all good intentions then by chapter two just couldn’t resist sticking in one of his footnotes – this one about a tree-climbing octopus, then later on we get the sail-fin crocodile. The fantastical elements are quite sparse, however, on a parallel Earth where Moby Dick is a true story and where the weight of history, of the dead Grandfathers, has power to affect the present … or maybe not.

If you like Terry Pratchett’s stuff you’ve probably already bought this. If you don’t get it, then possibly not, though this one is perhaps the one in which you will ‘get it’. There’s wry humour here and, as always, wisdom. And if you haven’t heard of Pratchett I have to wonder what cave you’ve been living in for the last 30 years.

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