Monday, November 19, 2012

Heather Loved This Book Despite The Fact It's Not a Discworld Novel


A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad sees a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's . . . Dodger.

Seventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London's sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl—not even if her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England.

From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery.

Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett combines high comedy with deep wisdom in this tale of an unexpected coming-of-age and one remarkable boy's rise in a complex and fascinating world.


Heather says:
"Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are some of my favorite go-to books when I need a good laugh, or need to take the world a little less seriously. Pratchett has a knack for the best kind of human satire, and for bringing to life incredibly dimensional characters – from Death, to the old witch Granny Weatherwax, to Sam Vimes, Commander of the City Watch.

When I first realized that Pratchett's 50th novel (really? amazing!) Dodger was a stand-alone story, with literally no connection to the Discworld, I'll admit to a brief disappointment. Then I encountered Dodger, his world in the sewers of Victorian London, and his unlikely yet fortuitous meetings with famous (and infamous) historical and fictional people – Charles Dickens, Bejamin Disraeli, Sweeney Todd – and my disappointment quickly turned to pure enjoyment. The story of Dodger's fast and furious rise from the bottom of London's society, to being honored at the very top of that same society, is riddled with good humor, exciting action and complicated intrigue – all in all, an old-fashioned good read."

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