Thursday, June 13, 2013

...in books

Review
Snuff
by Terry Pratchett

First sentences:
The goblin experience of the world is the cult or perhaps religion of Unggue. In short, it is a remarkably complex resurrection-based religion founded on the sanctity of bodily secretions.

Summary:
According to the writer of the best-selling crime novel ever to have been published in the city of Ankh-Morpork, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse.
And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible than murder.
He is out of his jurisdiction, out of his depth, out of bacon sandwiches, and occasionally snookered and out of his mind, but never out of guile. Where there is a crime there must be a finding, there must be a chase and there must be a punishment.
They say that in the end all sins are forgiven.
But not quite all..
.
source: Goodreads

My opinion:
Many years ago a colleague of my dad came to visit us and brought Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sister. He knew that I loved to read and he adored the Discworld series so he thought that I needed to be introduced to this wonderful world – and he was right!
Since then I religiously collected all the Discworld novels, maps, books dealing with the Discworld and I even have a planner (which I never used because he’s just too pretty).

I recently read Terry Pratchett’s 39th and latest Discworld novel Snuff and it is as brilliant as the others. The main character involved is Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. Terry Pratchett’s books mostly star a specific group of characters like the Witches, the City Watch, Death, Rincewind or the Wizards of Unseen University. I think Terry Pratchett is a genius – seriously. He is my number one on my auto-buy list and until now I devoured and loved all the books I read by him.

Snuff now tells the story of Sam Vimes who is forced by his wife and Lord Vetinari, Ankh-Morpork’s Patrician, to go on holidays to the countryside. Sam Vimes is not excited because he is a copper by blood and hates being away from the city and from crime. Fortunately crime finds him even when he’s on holidays and together with Wilikins, his faithful manservant, and the local copper Feeney Upshot, Sam fend for justice and equality of all living creatures.

Writing a review for a Discworld novel is pretty hard and I know that I cannot do them justice. So I will leave it like that and tell you only one more thing.
If you like slightly weird but highly entertaining fantastic, science fiction-y type of books you should check them out. You don’t need to read the Discworld novels according to the publication dates because they are all stand-alone novels. I highly recommend starting either with Wyrd Sisters, Going Postal!, Mort or Guards! Guards!

Snuff is the 39th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett (for a full list of title click here).

For more information about Terry Pratchett visit his Homepage, Facebook and Twitter page.

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