Snuff

Oooo, I'm looking forward to this one. I love the books with Sam Vimes in and can't wait.

Anyone know exactly when this one will be released?

And... just to make sure I'm prepared for it when it does, I am currently re-reading the entire Discworld series! :D
 
Thank you Pyan :)

I'll be ringing that date on my calendar too... although it just seems too far away :eek:
 
Waterstones are bringing out their own copy, it's the Gold edition (with a gold dust jacket) with an exclusive story in it.

And it is on thursday the 13th Oct. both the editions will be released.
 
Not to sound insensitive, I think it's time for Terry Pratchett to retire. I just finished Snuff, and found it a large, incoherent, charmless story that tries to be about a hundred different things, and loses interest with each and every one along the way. This is the general direction the books have been going at least since Making Money.

The plot is essentially that Vimes and Willikins walk around the countryside kicking ass at zero personal risk, against some kind of mad killer villain with unclear motivations (like Carcer (Night Watch), Cox (Nation) and the Cunning Man (I Shall Wear Midnight) - this is really becoming a recurring trope).

The theme of the book is very important: The goblins, last seen in Unseen Academicals, are being persecuted. Again, Pratchett uses fantasy minorities to draw our attention to real-life minorities. The treatment of the goblins in Discworld give strong associations to modern-day treatment of Roma.

But the execution is by and large weak. Most conflicts simply solve themselves. Particularly the issue with Colon, which at first seemed promising, only to be solved off-page.
 
I wouldn't buy Nation and the last Tiffany Aching, and I wasn't over-impressed with Unseen Academicals, but as I'm a sucker for Vimes, I bought Snuff the other week -- but whereas in the past I'd have put everything aside and read the book immediately, I've not even glanced at it yet. I'm hoping it's not as bad as you say -- but for me his increasingly heavy-handed preaching is beginning to pall, in any event.
 
Where's the short story ?

I think the Altzheimers has finally got to him. The basic story isn't bad, but where's the laugh-out-loud humour, the neat little twists and Pratchett's trademark friendliness that makes the reader a welcome guest in the story rather than a detached observer ?

I'm not saying I've wasted my money, or that's four hours of my life I'll never get back, the book's still reasonable - but the fact remains that everything that made a, 'Discworld,' novel what it was is gone. UA was mediocre and this is worse.

Pratchett's turning into a literary Muhammed Ali - living on past glories long after he should've given up.
 
I've picked up Men at Arms after reading Snuff to remember how good Terry Pratchett is/was/can be at his best......Snuff very adverage at best...
 
Sir Pratchett's even mediocre works are still way better than tripe dished out by most other fantasy writers. However, I do agree that it will be even better if further stories are constructed on less safer/ familiar plots( but still retaining the warmth, mind you)... perhaps a much more terrible,darker.. an apocalyptic level evil villian/entity/challenge...more people involved ...country witches/magicians/ city admin...all in one plot... multi volume miniseries....just imagine Lord V and Granny W(+Nanny O) in the same tag team... each trying to get the last word in... ROFL
 
canreadrite said:
Sir Pratchett's even mediocre works are still way better than tripe dished out by most other fantasy writers.
Click to expand...
I've gone along with this for a while, but I don't think this can be said about Snuff. It's not better than much else.
 
Ive just finished reading snuff and didnt think it was all that bad, certainly not as good as his previous work it was a lot darker and left me feeling slightly depressed, still alot better than anyone else out there at the minute
 
I liked it on the second reading. I can't get on with UA though.
 
I think a bit more of 'Sam form Cockbill street', rather than 'Captain/Commander Vimes', came through. And I was surprised to 'see' summoning dark have such a significant role, I had thought it had been more-or-less consigned to Vimes' background now.
 
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