In which Death decides to take an apprentice and introduces us to his adopted daughter. There is a wizard who isn’t very good at being a wizard — no, not Rincewind, the other one — and a princess who is dead but is very much alive. Hilarity and beautiful language are the two trademarks of all Pratchetty novels and this one was no different.
This is the third Discworld novel to feature Moist von Lipwig as a protagonist. I've listened to the first, Going Postal, many times and fully expected to love Raising Steam. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work for me.
In this book, the Discworld gets its first locomotives. Dick Simnel, a self-taught engineer, invents and improves the things, spending a great deal of time on his pride and joy, Iron Girder (while listening, I thought it was spelled Iron Gerda). Sir Harry King, looking for something more respectable to attach his name to than waste and sanitation, agrees to finance Dick's project, and Vetinari assigns Moist von Lipwig to the project as a government representative. Moist's charm and quick thinking come in handy as he struggles to get the land agreements necessary for the locomotive project to be successful. Meanwhile, Vetinari is adamant that the train must go to Überwald, and his timetable may be tighter than even Moist can handle. Dwarfish fundamentalists in Überwald and Ankh-Morpork add another level of difficulty.
Raising Steam was just as quotable as any other Discworld book, and, once again, Stephen Briggs' narration was fabulous. Unfortunately, I haven't yet read Thud! and Snuff, both of which I think might have provided the background for the tensions between the dwarves and trolls and the status of the goblins. Also, the steam locomotive stuff didn't interest me much, in part because I'm just not a train enthusiast, but also because Moist didn't really have much to do with any of it.
In Going Postal, Moist was the driving force behind the resurrection and improvement of the Ankh-Morpork postal service. I loved seeing him think on his feet. He constantly raised the stakes and acted far more confident about his chances for success than he really was. In Raising Steam, most of the nitty gritty details of the trains and railway were worked out by other people. Moist was primarily on the sidelines. He was an important character – his negotiation skills were vital – but he felt more like one small part of the whole than like the driving force behind all of it. I missed seeing him have a more prominent role, and Dick Simnel and the others just weren't interesting enough to me to make up for that.
Before I wrap things up: this was the first Discworld book that prompted me to wonder where the same-sex couples were in the series. There was a moment that made me think a couple characters were going to turn out to be a secret gay couple, which made me realize I couldn't recall any gay or lesbian couples in the series, so it was all the more disappointing when my suspicions about those two characters turned out to not be correct. It didn't really affect how I felt about the book, but I did see it as a missed opportunity.
All in all, Raising Steam was disappointing but not necessarily bad. I think I liked it more than the Rincewind books, but less than most every other Discworld book I've read. However, I do plan on giving it another go after I've read Thud! and Snuff, just to see if that improves my opinion of it.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
Day 20: Name a book you've read that has multiple genres or cross-genre appeal. (Fusion)
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This was a fun one! Also, really hard to pick, because a lot of my favorite books are ones that are hard to classify because they do cross so many different genres. (A lot of the time genre classifications just seem like a way for publishers to market books and can seriously get in the way of books finding audiences (paradoxically)).
Alif the Unseen is a book that very few people have read, which is a shame. It is delightful. It crosses so many genres it must have been a nightmare for publishers. It's a hodge podge of fairy-tale, mythology, religion, fantasy, coming of age story, and techo-thriller (the main character is a hacker on the run from the government). It's also got a smidgeon of political, class, and gender explorations. It's a bountiful chest of treasure, basically, and it's beautifully written to boot.
The Complete Maus was one of the best graphic novels I read last year, and the way it mixes history, biography, and the speculative nature of portraying NAZIs as cats, and Jews as mice, is kind of a wonder to behold.
The Rook is a super-fun book from debut Australian author Daniel O'Malley. It's a hybrid mystery/thriller that also has paranormal and urban fantasy elements mixed in, with just a smidge of governmental conspiracy. It's also one of the most well-done first person narrators I've ever seen.
Guards! Guards! is my favorite Terry Pratchett book (so far -- I've only read up to #15 in Discworld, so maybe I haven't even read my favorite yet). All of his books are cross-genre, mixing his own personal brand of humor and satire in with fantasy, and whatever thing he is currently aping. In this one it's police stories, with the bumbling Night's Watch, and it is gloriously wonderful.
I also wanted to include Steelheart because it's my most recent read of the cross-genre sort (excepting Outlander, which I haven't finished yet). It's really interesting to see the way Sanderson mixes the tropes of YA lit, superhero stories, and dystopias together into one. (Not to mention the caper thing . . . damn if I don't love a good caper.)
Books I "have" to read by December 31st, even though literally nothing will happen to me if I don't. It is completely arbitrary and motivated solely by my OCD.
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