“Raising Steam,” was the penultimate novel in the Discworld series, before, “The Shepherd’s Crown,” which dealt with the passing of Nanny Ogg, possibly deliberately to parallel Terry’s own passing.
 
To my eyes, this book investigates the futility of the far right in trying to turn back the progressive multiculturalism in the world. A group of renegade Dwarves who think that progress has led them to abandon what it means to be a true dwarf, are running a guerilla war trying to disrupt progress. The renegades will play while the King is away, and the race is on to get the King back to the Scone of Stone before too much damage is done.
 
In aid of this, the new fangled steam engine is employed, along with decoys and a fair chunk of fighting. In with this are echoes of humanity and moral introspection typical of later Pratchett works. Personally, I found the Discworld series starting with hilariously twisted observations on everyday society and as it progressed the sharp wit was replaced with a deeper look at humanity and the morals which drive us. Had Pratchett lived, I believe he might have taken a look at the other side of the coin, the far left and political correctness; which I believe he did occasionally swipe at, but that’s just a guess.
 
The end of this book was a bit of a disappointment for me, personally; not unlike the protagonist waking up to find the whole thing had been a dream. It was a logical conclusion... that being insofar as logic could ever be applied to the Discworld, but I can't help feeling a bit empty inside at the end.

Once it had been a dream, it had been nearly realized before being abandoned, and many lost their lives looking to harness it until one young man succeeded.  Raising Steam is the penultimate book of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, as Moist von Lipwig helps along the technological marvel of locomotion created by Dick Simnel that is monetarily supported by Harry King and pushed by Lord Vetinari early on especially to reach Uberwald which becomes imperative as the Dwarfs verge on civil war.

Young Dick Simnel saw his father killed while trying to control steam, but after years of reading and later technological tinkering he succeeded in creating a locomotive engine and a means to use it on rails.  Dick then heads to Ankh-Morpork and the wealthy Harry King to get support, which the latter is happy to do.  Soon train fever hits Ankh-Morpork and Lord Vetinari calls on Moist von Lipwig to utilize the invention to the betterment of the city, in no uncertain terms.  Like always Moist’s mind begins seeing the possibilities in the new technology and begins helping Dick and Harry come up and implement ideas, but soon Vetinari begins pressing Moist to get things moving faster.  All the while, dwarf society is splitting between fundamentalist and pragmatists resulting in attacks on such technological marvels as the clacks and the new railway.  Then after the fundamentalists launch a coup when the Low King is at summit, it is only with the railway that the “King” is able to return to put down the coup and change dwarf society.

While I enjoyed the character of Moist in his previous two books, this book was not really a Moist von Lipwig book though he was the main point-of-view.  In fact this book very much needed the reader to know the events that happened Thud! and Snuff, which were both Watch driven books especially as Sam Vimes featured heavily in the latter part of the book.  The story was not bad, but the twists and turns were predictable and some random scenes were in fact plain random as they never played in the overall plot of the book.  There was a hint of Pratchett attempting to make a commentary on religious fundamentalism with the acts of terror, but because of political climate of the time he wrote he watered it down a lot.  However, the biggest drawback is that the humor was lacking especially as Pratchett included every person or group that have been featured prominently in the series, save the Witches, almost as if he wanted to show them on last time just in case.

Raising Steam is not the worst Discworld book—Eric—and it is close to being one of the best.  Honestly, the story is fine, but seems to take longer than necessary.  In previous books the reader could forgive this fact because of the great humor, but as stated before that is lacking.  This book is for long time Pratchett fans and anyone interested in getting into Discworld is encouraged to find an book in the first three-quarters of the series to read first and work their way to this one.

Raising Steam is the third and final book in the Moist Von Lipwig subseries of Discworld, and the second-to-last book in the entire series.  In this book, we meet a new character by the name of Simnel who has invented the steam engine and introduced the concept of fast travel by train.  Meanwhile, there is more unrest between the traditional and modern dwarfs.

This book spends a lot of time talking about trains: building trains and railways, operating trains, the benefits of trains, train safety, and so forth.  This is not, to me, a particularly exciting topic, and sometimes I had trouble pushing through the book.  I was interested enough that I didn’t want to abandon it, especially not so close to the end of the series, but it put me to sleep a few times.  I was also on my second week of business travel and pretty worn out in any case, so maybe this had as much to do with me as it had to do with the book.

Vetinari, a character I’ve greatly enjoyed since his first introduction, gets quite a bit of page time in this book, but for some reason he didn’t seem like Vetinari to me.  Normally he’s more taciturn.  He manipulates and influences people with a few pointed words, with silence and perhaps some intimidating looks, and with visual aids.  That's one of the reasons I enjoy his character so much.  In this book, he had a tendency toward detailed monologues and explanations, and there were one or two weird sections where he sounded like the CEO of a company using corporate buzzwords.

It wasn’t a bad book, and there were parts I enjoyed, but it wasn’t at the level I’ve come to expect from the Discworld books.  Combine that with a topic I wasn’t that interested in, and I just didn’t enjoy this as much as the previous books.

Terry Pratchett has always been a hit-or-miss writer for me. This one was a clear miss. I expected so much from it. I enjoyed the two previous novels about Moist von Lipwig – Going Postal and Making Money – but this book didn’t even come close.

It has two interlocking story lines. One – the arrival of steam power on Discworld and the building of trains and railways. Two – the dwarves’ resistance to the advent of progress, both technical and social. Some of the old-fashioned dwarves want to return to the good old days, when dwarves had nothing to do with humans or trolls. The proponents of such a regime call themselves grags and embark on the campaign of terror and subversion to drive their point home.

It sounds interesting, but the writing is bad. The novel includes so many points of view, I lost count. It doesn’t read like a coherent story. It reads like a collection of the writer’s notes of what should be / might be considered to develop this novel. There are dozens of short interludes that demonstrate the main concepts of the story. Most of those interludes are tiny scenes, populated by characters that appear only once or twice in the entire book. They don’t propel the plot. They don’t develop the main characters. They do nothing. 

As a result, the story lacks focus. It’s disheveled, unstructured. It also lacks the protagonist. Everyone comes and goes across the pages, most of them the characters I know and love from the previous novels of the series, but I couldn’t figure out whose story it is. All the participants seem cartoonish, interchangeable. Only the names are different.   

There are some highly quotable lines scattered here and there through the text, and the author’s acerbic observations shine, as ever, but other than that, this wasn’t a memorable book. In fact, it was very disappointing. Maybe the author’s developing Alzheimer was to blame for it?

This ought to have been a wonderful read: the fortieth  Discworld novel, featuring Moist von Lipwig and Commander Grimes coming to grips with the invention of the steam train and revisionist Dwarf terrorists, challenging the Koom Valley Accord.

Big themes are brought to the table: how subversion whispers in the dark, spreading fear and denying truth; how there is something magical and dangerous about a new technology; how the men who tinker endlessly and obsessively can become a bigger threat to the status quo than any terrorist and how, in the end, love is a greater driving force than steam.

And yet, this wasn’t a great Terry Pratchett book. Something was missing.

Perhaps is was the righteous anger of “Thud” where the only sane way to win the war was to cancel the battle

“What kind of creature defines itself by hatred?”

Or the irrepressible, maniacal optimism of “Going Postal” where a tyrant puts a criminal in charge of the Post Office because of the criminal sees the world differently

“If you kept changing the way people saw the world, you ended up changing the way you saw yourself.”

Or perhaps it was the mysterious absence from the Watch of Captain Carrot, the world’s tallest dwarf.

Or maybe it was just that this is first time I’ve listened to a Discworld book rather than reading it for myself and the flat narration detracted from the experience.

Whatever it was, it left me disappointed.

It also left me determined to go back an re-read the Discworld books that filled me with joy and tears and a practical human politics: “Guards, Guards, Guards,” “Witches Abroad”, “The Night Watch”, “Small Gods”, “Thud”, “Going Postal”, “The Truth”.