Snuff: Discworld, Book 39 (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

Commander Vimes is sent to the Shires to his wife's estate for a holiday. But crime seems to follow him anyway and when he finds that a murder has been committed he starts to bring city justice to the country. This means dealing with hot-headed blacksmiths, the poo lady and a Chief Constable who is an expert in Bhangbhangduc, and those are just the "good guys".

Reviewers have said that Sir Terry's books of late are very hit and miss, that they are not as funny as they used to be. They are certainly much longer and less punchy. The humour is much more droll, but more importantly the books are much more thoughtful. Unseen Academicals started the story of racism, with an Orcish footballer who had all the traits of a certain England forward. This time it is the Goblins and how attitudes can be changed, taking them from being vermin to being people. They reflect the times they are written and the issues that are important to Sir Terry.

These are much more serious books, there always was an underlying moral sense to Discworld but in these latest books it is the morality that is more important than the humour. These are morality tales with the real bits left in. In Vimes' world he cannot wave a magic wand so everything turns our better - so he has to take a much more pragmatic route. This makes the book much more thoughtful and much slower than the mad-cap early Discworld, so while they are no longer 5 stars for humour, they are 5 stars for their emotional commitment and making you think.

I am a Pratchett addict; I took my first dose in 1976 with 'Dark Side of the Sun' and have read everything he's written since (and went back to read 'The Carpet People' and Strata') I read the Nome Trilogy - I even bought 'The Unadulterated Cat'!

For a time in the 90s he spoiled me for other fantasy writers; his style was (to me) so accomplished that others couldn't begin to match him. The earlier Discworld books, from #01 'The Colour of Magic' to #10 'Moving Pictures' were wonderful romps with a hugely imaginative drive. 'Equal Rites,' 'Wyrd Sisters' and 'Guards! Guards!' were the absolute pinnacle of comic fantasy.

Later books (with occasional returns to the earlier broad humour) were darker, more thoughtful and with a more philosophical edge. Gradually the humour became less important to the story - the books were still funny in parts, but the Discworld became less magical and more a distortion of our own world, tackling in more detail real issues such as class, racism and sexism - prejudice in all its ugly forms. He even created a new 'ism' - speciesism. He was at his best in this period when he was angry about prejudice in books like 'Small Gods,' 'Lords and Ladies' and 'Feet of Clay'.

Even the 'lesser' works (again, to me! I know it's subjective) such as 'Soul Music', 'Hogfather' and 'The Last Continent' had enough of the classic Pratchett mix of wisdom and gags to satisfy most of us.

I feel the last great Discworld book (for adults) was 'Thief of Time'. The last great book for younger readers was 'The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents'. Both of these were classic Pratchett, filled with imagination and brio.

And then... things started to change. The Tiffany Aching books were, increasingly, becoming just a little less vivid and gripping in their execution. The Moist von Lipwig books were pretty good, but a little too long and under-edited. 'Monstrous Regiment' was (to me!) muddled and the characterisation was weak. The lightness of touch that characterised earlier books was gone; the moralising in the stories became more blatant and heavy-handed.

'Unseen Academicals' - well I hate football so maybe some of the humour went over my head. Not bad, but not great.

Now, this book... well, it's ok. I like Vimes a lot, and thought he acquitted himself well in 'Snuff'. The plot was as usual fairly convoluted but worked well. The pacing was a little off - some passages went at a snail's pace, others seemed rushed and incomplete. Young Sam is a great character, developing nicely, and it was nice to see Willikins in all his bruiser glory.

The dialogue is the greatest change in Pratchett's style - where it used to zing off the page and allow you to really identify with the characters, it now seems a little stilted and over-complex.

Having said all this - even a substandard Pratchett is considerably better than most other writers' masterworks... I will always buy a new Terry Pratchett book and take what enjoyment I can - and there is always a great deal of enjoyment, just a little less than in the past. I still must have my regular Pratchett fix...

I've been a long-time fan of Pratchett ever since getting his first novel The Colour of Magic back in my early teens, and I can honestly say that it's a rare thing to come away with a slight sense of disappointment after finishing one of his books. The sheer fun and whimsy of the early Discworld novels seems to me to have given way to a slightly more darker more muted world, and where once you could expect gag after gag spilling off nearly every single page, now there is a bit more slightly heavy-handed moralising and exposition to get through before you find any gems to remind you of those earlier stories.

Don't get me wrong, I still liked Snuff and there is still much to enjoy in the characters, old favourites like Vimes in particular, but in terms of where I'd rank this in the Discworld series as a whole, I'd have to say somewhere around the middle of the list, tending towards the lower half.

My son is reading the book at the moment and appears to be enjoying it (though some of the more adult ideas pass him by) so even if Snuff is slightly below par for Pratchett, it's still got plenty to offer and, if you're a fan of the series, still worth a read. If you're new to Pratchett, well you're probably better off going right back to the beginning and enjoying the pure unadulterated fun of those early novels.