Raising Steam

Terry Pratchett

Average Rating 7/10 (1 Review)

To the consternation of the patrician, Lord Vetinari, a new invention has arrived in Ankh-Morpork - a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all of the elements: earth, air, fire and water. This being Ankh-Morpork, it's soon drawing astonished crowds, some of whom caught the zeitgeist early and arrive armed with notepads and very sensible rainwear.

Moist von Lipwig is not a man who enjoys hard work - as master of the Post Office, the Mint and the Royal Bank his input is, of course, vital... but largely dependent on words, which are fortunately not very heavy and don't always need greasing. However, he does enjoy being alive, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse...

Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man wi' t'flat cap and sliding rule who has an interesting arrangement with the sine and cosine. 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 going off the rails...

The new Discworld novel from Britain's number one bestselling writer sees the Disc's first train come steaming into town.

'Laugh-out-loud funny... A chuffing wonderful book..'

'The genius of Pratchett is that he never goes for the straight allegory. . .he remains one of the most consistently funny writers around; a master of the stealth simile, the time-delay pun and the deflationary three-part list. . .I could tell which of my fellow tube passengers had downloaded it to their e-readers by the bouts of spontaneous laughter.'

Review by Nigel (14) Rating 7/10)

Review by Nigel
Rating 7/10
I must admit that while Moist (Mister Slightly Damp to the Goblins) is one of my favourite characters this, unfortunately, is not one of my favourite Discworld© novels. All the ingredients are there with the Disc’s own fledgling Industrial Revolution starting with the arrival of steam in the form of the railway, the indomitable Moist von Lipwig is put in charge to deal with the inevitable shenanigans and a host of new characters, as well as many old favourites. The Dwarfs act out their part as the Luddites of the piece hankering for an earlier and better time when everyone knew their place, which tended to be at the end of some weapon or other. When the King of the Dwarfs is deposed while away fraternising with the ‘enemy’ in Ankh-Morpork the railway has to come to the rescue to deliver him home in time to avert a return to the old ways and the constant fighting.

The first two thirds of the book deal with the taming of steam and the development of the railway while the last third follows the Low King’s return home to claim the throne... and an interesting revelation.

As I say, all the ingredients are there and the story is good but for me it just didn’t seem to flow as well as some of the other Discworld© stories. Long time fans will probably understand this while anyone reading this as their first Discworld© will enjoy it immensely.
Nigel ( 2014)