literature.cafe chat

Having been sick and in and out of hospital for the last month I've churned through a few.

I've re-read the City Watch sequence from Pratchett's Discworld. Which is "Guards Guards", " Men at arms", "Feet of Clay", " Jingo" , "The fifth elephant" "Night watch", " Thud" and "Snuff"

I don't think I can say anything more perceptive than a thousand reviews have but it was wonderful watching both the development of the main character (Sam Vimes) and the author himself. There's about 20 years and probably 40-50 books between Guards which was about his 4th book, and Snuff which was released in 2011 while still at his peak and before Alzheimers claimed him.

His writing style becomes more assured but also more incisive, more cutting, and to some extent his anger at the injustices in our world that he satirises in the discworld domain becomes more forceful, more pointed.

Sam Vimes progresses through a beautifully relatable growth cycle but remains a deeply flawed real character. Never a perfectly buffed and grommed character he does strive to be the best he can be.

Highly recommended.

If you've never read Terry Pratchett he's a satirist and humourist. He uses the device of a fantasy world to reflect the issues of our world back to us in a form that allows him to skewer the hypocrisies and mental double think we allow ourselves. All his books are onions. At the first layer is a light read any teenager can get a giggle out of, but there's always more layers: puns and plays on words, references to "roundworld" (our existence) and philosphical analysis.