Raising Steam
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| Doubleday |
Terry Pratchett
2013
Other Terry Pratchett Reviews- The Colour of Magic - The Light Fantastic - Equal Rites - Mort - Sourcery - Wyrd Sisters - Pyramids - Guards! Guards! - Eric - Moving Pictures - Reaper Man - Witches Abroad - Small Gods - Lords and Ladies - Men At Arms - Soul Music - Interesting Times - Maskerade - Feet of Clay - Hogfather - Raising Steam - A Blink of the Screen - Sky1 Adaptations- Dodger - The Long Earth (w Stephen Baxter)
“The aristocrats, if such they could be called, generally hated the
whole concept of the train on the basis that it would encourage the
lower classes to move about and not always be available.”
After somehow reaching the mid-way point (well, almost) of this little blog's travels through Terry Pratchett's epic Discworld series with Feet of Clay, I now have both the pleasure and discomfort of reviewing a new (six months old, basically new by this blogs' standards) installment for the very first time. The pleasure of course comes from my familiarity with the universe and this chance to analyse the progression of Pratchett's most contemporary ideas yet. The discomfort comes from the knowing itch in the back of my brain that's preparing me to start negatively criticising it, despite the solid fact that this is bound to annoy the majority of the people reading this and put them off ever coming to this site again. Let's preface that by saying that overall I did like it, just not as much as I wanted to.
Bringing back one of his more successful later additions to the reoccurring Discworld cast, professional swindler-turned-involuntary civil servant Moist von Lipvig of Going Postal and Making Money was a safe bet, thematically fitting perfectly with the ongoing development of the city of Ankh-Morpork. Furthermore in that respect I think Raising Steam could actually be considered a landmark novel, where the fruits of Pratchett's labour over the past ten years in pushing his fictional universe forwards technologically and philosophically come to pass with the advent of the Discworld's first railway system.
When a young engineering genius named Dick Simnel from the backwaters of Sto Lat brings his mastery of steam to the big lights of Ankh-Morpork, it quickly catches the eye of the city Patrician who quickly reognises the potential of the invention and places Moist in charge of its development. The idea of the railway takes the city by storm, leading to an ensemble cast of previous Morporkian characters taking supporting roles (including, of course, the ubiquitous Commander Vimes) in the excitement. Pratchett makes full use of the rich history of his own writing on almost every level, taking important plot points from recent novels like Snuff and Thud! to continue the themes of repression and equality amongst the various intelligent fantasy species of the Disc, particularly the trolls, dwarves and goblins; not something that greatly appeals to me these days I'm afraid, thanks to my disappointment with the aforementioned recent novels.
In contrast, very much appealing to me were unexpected references to other, less topical Discworld characters from legends such as Rincewind, to more surprising characters like Lu-Tze (of Small Gods & Thief of Time) and Queen Keli (Mort). I loved each and every one of these mentions, particularly early on. In fact, for the first third of the book I was very optimistic that it was going somewhere interesting, but as it progressed I became less and less of a fan due to the general direction and style that Pratchett seemed to be settling into, all of which culminated in my growing disinterest.
The real problem I had with Raising Steam, the problem relegating the book in my estimation from an interesting, progressive and worthy fortieth installment in this longest of long running series to a faltering, just-another edition really became apparent later on in the book as the direction of the plot and characters became clearer. Moist remains the main character throughout, but the main supporting (and returning) characters of Vimes, the Patrician and Harry King are heavily involved as Pratchett expands his plot from just being about the invention of the steam engine to connect with the themes of recent books regarding the wars between trolls and dwarves, and of more specific social issues in their societies.
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First of all, the selection of strong, independent and incessantly wise characters surrounding Moist (who has already been well established as a rogue genius) may sound like a fun idea on paper but in practice became very annoying to me after half the book; the constant words of wit and wisdom from so many characters; seemingly ending every conversation with something uniquely smart and analytical became quite irritating and overbearing. Stylistically I found it to have a huge effect on the book, leaving it feeling unbalanced through its selection of characters with large personalities all fighting for page space while remaining as wise and sharp as possible. It's even more pronounced when it becomes clear that new character Simnel also happens to be a straight-talking sage, as opposed to the many naive and terrified eventual heroes of past coming-of-age themed Discworld stories.
It also really didn't help me that I haven't been interested in the slowly progressing development of the dwarfs thing that Pratchett's been advancing since The Fifth Elephant way back in 1999. I've just always found it mostly dull I'm afraid, not the sort of thing I want from my Pratchett books. I suppose these past twenty or so reviews I've put together show that I'm far more interested in the coming-of-age stories revolving around the fantasy aspect- kind of odd that I'm not normally a fan of traditional fantasy literature, but then the genre is so widespread in so many aspects of popular culture that I suppose I actually am- rather than this straightforward attempt by the creator to seemingly move the core of the universe forward from a sort of mishmash of medieval and renaissance aspects into a Victorian industrial revolution. I say use the word 'core' because we're just talking about Ankh-Morpork, leaving a fuller world surrounding it.
On that note, while I was ultimately disappointed with Raising Steam overall I'm still a big fan of the Discworld universe and the work of Terry Pratchett. Maybe it's unlikely these days that he's going to fulfill my personal wishes for future books exploring and expanding the ethereal, magical aspects of the world but I'll still be picking up each new book in the series for as long as he keeps doing them.
.jpg)
In contrast, very much appealing to me were unexpected references to other, less topical Discworld characters from legends such as Rincewind, to more surprising characters like Lu-Tze (of Small Gods & Thief of Time) and Queen Keli (Mort). I loved each and every one of these mentions, particularly early on. In fact, for the first third of the book I was very optimistic that it was going somewhere interesting, but as it progressed I became less and less of a fan due to the general direction and style that Pratchett seemed to be settling into, all of which culminated in my growing disinterest.
The real problem I had with Raising Steam, the problem relegating the book in my estimation from an interesting, progressive and worthy fortieth installment in this longest of long running series to a faltering, just-another edition really became apparent later on in the book as the direction of the plot and characters became clearer. Moist remains the main character throughout, but the main supporting (and returning) characters of Vimes, the Patrician and Harry King are heavily involved as Pratchett expands his plot from just being about the invention of the steam engine to connect with the themes of recent books regarding the wars between trolls and dwarves, and of more specific social issues in their societies.
First of all, the selection of strong, independent and incessantly wise characters surrounding Moist (who has already been well established as a rogue genius) may sound like a fun idea on paper but in practice became very annoying to me after half the book; the constant words of wit and wisdom from so many characters; seemingly ending every conversation with something uniquely smart and analytical became quite irritating and overbearing. Stylistically I found it to have a huge effect on the book, leaving it feeling unbalanced through its selection of characters with large personalities all fighting for page space while remaining as wise and sharp as possible. It's even more pronounced when it becomes clear that new character Simnel also happens to be a straight-talking sage, as opposed to the many naive and terrified eventual heroes of past coming-of-age themed Discworld stories.It also really didn't help me that I haven't been interested in the slowly progressing development of the dwarfs thing that Pratchett's been advancing since The Fifth Elephant way back in 1999. I've just always found it mostly dull I'm afraid, not the sort of thing I want from my Pratchett books. I suppose these past twenty or so reviews I've put together show that I'm far more interested in the coming-of-age stories revolving around the fantasy aspect- kind of odd that I'm not normally a fan of traditional fantasy literature, but then the genre is so widespread in so many aspects of popular culture that I suppose I actually am- rather than this straightforward attempt by the creator to seemingly move the core of the universe forward from a sort of mishmash of medieval and renaissance aspects into a Victorian industrial revolution. I say use the word 'core' because we're just talking about Ankh-Morpork, leaving a fuller world surrounding it.
On that note, while I was ultimately disappointed with Raising Steam overall I'm still a big fan of the Discworld universe and the work of Terry Pratchett. Maybe it's unlikely these days that he's going to fulfill my personal wishes for future books exploring and expanding the ethereal, magical aspects of the world but I'll still be picking up each new book in the series for as long as he keeps doing them.
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