Raising Steam: (Discworld novel 40) (Discworld series) by Terry Pratchett (MOBI)

Description

‘I could tell which of my fellow tube passengers had downloaded it to their e-readers by the bouts of spontaneous laughter’ Ben Aaronovitch, Guardian The Discworld is very much like our own – if our own were to consist of a flat planet balanced on the back of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle, that is . . .Change is in the air for Moist von Lipwig, swindler, con-man, and (naturally) head of the Royal Bank and Post Office. A steaming, clanging new invention – a steam locomotive named Iron Girder, to be precise – is drawing astonished crowds. Suddenly it’s a matter of national importance that the trains run on time. Moist does not enjoy hard work. His input at the bank and post office consists mainly of words, which are not that heavy. Or greasy. And it certainly doesn’t involve rickety bridges, runaway cheeses or a fat controller with knuckledusters. What Moist does enjoy is being alive, which may not be a perk of running the new railway. Because, of course, some people have OBJECTIONS, and they’ll go to extremes to stop locomotion in its tracks.____________________The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Raising Steam is the third and final book in the Moist von Lipwig series.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I am a devoted Pratchett fan. I’ve probably read them all at least three times, including most of his other fictional work (Strata, Carpet People, Bromeliad Trilogy). Pratchett is not always at his best–Jingo, Monstrous Regiment, Making Money–and has recently… well… been off his game.Making Money was a prime example of forgetting who your character is. Like in this book the main protaganist is Moist von Lipvig, confidence trickster extrodinaire. Moist’s first book–Going Postal–was one of Pratchett’s best. A rolicking tour-de-force that ended up making you feel like it was a “who done it?” Or, more exactly, a “how done it?” In Making Money a key plot element is Moist’s inability to handle people. Excuse me, who was this guy? An inept middle level bureacrat? Or the man who could convince the city a cart could move at the speed of light?In this novel Moist is back with a vengence, playing a role that no one could ever conceive of any other Pratchett hero doing. He is in his element, leading the steam engine to it’s fullest potential with publicity and haggling–people handling. We also see more about his character, stuff that has been there all along but now finally sees the light of day. Way to go Sir Terry. At first I didn’t like the inclusion of the second recycled character–Sir Harry King–but now I realize that in a unique way he was also the only man for the job.I also love the way the goblins–introduced in Snuff–are more fully developed. Like “real” goblins they are master craftsmen, and now they are being treated as equals. What should happen? Well, I won’t spoil the book for you.But finally, and the real reason I’m writing this review. Do you know what Jingo and Monstrous Regiment had in common? They are both about war. Sir Terry just can’t get it right. Perhaps serious topics can’t be handled. Like… say… Terrorism? Nope. In this one reactionary dwarves (introduced in Thud!) start a terrorism movement. Finally, someone helps us understand why people might join such a movement. How the masters would work, the deep forces that inpire insanity like this. I feel like I understand that much better now. On a casual level, and of course the terrorrist movement ends in one book (I wish) but I am so proud of him, and I loved the book.So why only four stars? Because after I finished this book I couldn’t re-read it right away. Why is that bad? Well instead I started reading one of my ho-hum’s, Lords and Ladies. And I noticed almost immediately that the attention to detail was much finer, much more precise. The footnotes made me laugh out loud, That’s what makes me keep re-reading Pratchett, the detail. Here, it wasn’t there.But an awesome book. A wonderful re-use of several characters and a wonderful topic. I understand so much more about railroads, terrorism, and the characters involved. I just wish… it was a little better.(My last 5 star review would go to Thud! In fact I’d like 6 stars for that book.)

⭐The citizens of Ankh-Morpork are often looking for something new to entertain them and in Raising Steam they find it in the shining steam locomotive. Young Dick Simmel has succeeded where his father failed at taming steam and has introduced Disc world to the wonders of the locomotive. He brings his invention to waste management tycoon, Harry King who sees the potential and soon railroads are being built across the plains, much to the delight of train spotters, train buffs and goblins alike. But not all is happy in Disc World. There is growing influence by the old school dwarfs who are stirring up trouble by convincing impressionable young dwarfs to burn klacks towers. The crags look the new order of dwarfs living next to trolls living next to humans in Ankh-Morpork with distain and soon trouble is starting.From the early days of Discworld, there was magic in the land that has threaded things together. Gollums made of clay, wizards at war and a world carried on the back of a turtle. But as time (and books) have gone by, there has been a unification of sorts. Dwarfs no longer fight Trolls, goblins are accepted and there is even a vampire in the Watch. Now we are seeing these manmade steam engines bind the world together further. Seafood from Quirm arrives fresh and the railway is planned for Uberwald. The crazy, slapstick world of the early books has become a 19th century society.If you are a Terry Pratchett or a Disc World fan, then you are not going to be disappointed by the latest book in the series. Like Going Postal and Making Money, Raising Steam is told from the perspective of Moist von Lipwig. Raising Steam features the return of many of the favorite Disc World characters including Vimes and the Watch, the Wizards, Vetinari, Sir Harry King, Adora Belle Dearheart and others. I enjoyed the witty writing that reminded me of the earlier Discworld books written before Snuff and Thud. And there are lots of funny footnotes including a poke at Thomas the Tank Engine.If you are new to Disc World, then I would still recommend this book, but only after you read some of the earlier books such as Going Postal, Making Money, the Fifth Elephant, Thud and Snuff. The storylines of these earlier books are referenced over and over in Raising Steam and so the reader would benefit with knowing the earlier stories. The reader would also benefit from reading Feet of Clay and the other Watch, but these would be more to fill in more of the background.Overall, another fun read from Terry Pratchett. I found it better than Snuff and Unseen Academicals and I hope that this is not the last we hear of Discworld.

⭐As a long time fan of Discworld, I have always found the characterisations wonderful, particularly given Terry Pratchett’s wonderful ability in writing dialogue. The way characters develop over a series of novels – the witches and the night watch in particular – is what makes Discworld engrossing. I bought this to finish the Moist von Lipwig series, which started so well with Going Postal and Making Money.Wow, was I ever disappointed! Dialogue is stilted and out of character, the narrative is confused, and the main Discworld players go absurdly off point with little (and not so little) asides. There’s a glimmer of a good Discworld novel in there somewhere, but only a really die hard fan could enjoy this. It is very much NOT representative of Pratchett’s writing style.Random characters from other series appear to give their two pennies’ worth. Lu Tze pops up briefly to have a word with Mustrum Ridcully, on the lines of ‘Isn’t it a bit early in history for railways’, ‘No, if railways have happened, then it’s time for railways’. Then nothing is heard from them again.The ‘gang’ encounter a tribe of gnomes (remember Buggy Squires and the Nac Mac Feegle?), who emerge fearfully from their holes after one of the many ‘battle scenes’, and randomly offer the information that they make shoes. ‘Did you say you make shoes?’ asks Moist. ‘My railway workers need big boots.’ The gnomes agree to make hobnail boots in return for being left alone. Not very gnome-like. And that’s it. Totally random.Vetinari, usually so inscrutable, lays bare his worries, motivations and internal struggles to anyone who will listen. Some tyrant…Make no mistake, this is very badly planned, written, and edited. All writers rely heavily on their editor, who is a very important part of producing the final product. But in this case there are 3 possibilities.1) Terry Pratchett wrote this but it was uncharacteristically rubbish, and his editor didn’t point it out for some reason.2) It is the work of a ghost writer, possibly from Pratchett’s skeleton notes, and Pratchett’s editor thought it was the best a third party could do.3) Pratchett’s editor tried to put something together from Pratchett’s notes, was reluctant to leave anything out, and therefore it wasn’t properly edited.Look, it’s not terrible. In terms of story, it’s the next logical move for Moist von Lipwig. It’s an interesting move towards the future for Discworld, the history of which has basically been story of human endeavour from the dark ages up to industrialisation, crammed into about 30 Discworld years or so. If Sir Terry hadn’t been so ill it would probably have been very different, and we would all be looking forward to the next 3 books. As it stands, it’s not worthy of the man, being badly written and badly edited.Fans, used to Terry Pratchett’s usually crisp style, will struggle but like it in the end. And I’m sure it will spawn a whole load of fan fiction, which will probably be fun.Basically, as a fan, I’m only a bit miffed at paying the Kindle price. I would consider the paperback price a waste of money.As a standalone book, I would give this 1 or 2 stars. I gave 3 because it at least is Discworld. Just not as you know it…

⭐If, as I do, you ignore his ‘young adult’ output, this is the last Discworld novel. I’ll be perfectly blunt about this – the only reason this is not the worst Discworld novel is because Snuff came first. The contrast in style with their immediate predecessor, Unseen Academicals; indeed with the rest of the canon; is unmissable & unmistakeable. I’ll go so far as to say that if this were handed to you in plain covers with all the names changed from the recognisable Discworld ones, you might possibly think it was an attempt at imitating Sir Terry’s humour. You simply wouldn’t recognise it as his writing.He was always, until the end, a sharp & witty writer; witty both in the sense of being humorous & of being intelligent, barbedly so at times. As an author, he was an elegant assassin with a dancing pen. Not in Snuff or here. The prose, the plot, the humour are all lumbering, cumbersome, ponderous, never mind that instead of sharp comment, his themes in both books are overt & clumsy moralising, essentially along the lines of “Why can’t we ignore each others’ differences & just get along?” He went from being an assassin to being a troll, crudely whacking you over the head with a club.It’s moot as to who actually wrote these last two books. The ideas are undoubtedly his, but the style is so radically different; hopelessly, horribly laboured, over-written, over-explained; that you can’t help but wonder whether the actual words were his, or those of his ‘assistant’. The point is moot because, obviously, he approved them both, but it’s difficult to imagine he would have released works like this in his prime. With these two final books, he was, I am sad to say, very much at the nadir, not the peak, of his powers.Raising Steam is marginally the better of the two, but it remains still a 4/10 book that suffers badly by comparison with the rest of his work. There are idiotic impossibilities & implausibilities, apparent continuity errors e.g. what we’re briefly told about Adora Belle’s infancy doesn’t sit well with what we’ve previously been told about the history of the clacks in Going Postal. There are constant random insertions (never mind the overuse of footnotes that add nothing to the story & next to nothing to the humour) that have little or nothing to do with the plot & everything to do with the moralising (a human & a dwarf getting married, a troll & dwarf meet, apparently decide to leave their spouses & go off together, etc; and there’s the utterly, utterly dreadful “Railway Children” interlude – if you know the film or the book, you’ll recognise it immediately & it’s impossible to understand why Sir Terry allowed such an appallingly poor piece of prose to be published). It’s clumsy & disjointed.The humour, as with Snuff, relies far too much on lame wordplay & weak puns. The worst example is “loggysticks”. We’re told that Dick Simnel has invented the concept of logistics. It’s a feeble pun anyway, but once the realisation strikes you that everyone who uses it will have heard “logistics” spoken & likely will never have seen it written down, it fails utterly to be funny, especially since it is repeated several times. Poor use of language, I am afraid, is a constant theme. One of the most marked departures from previous work is the dreadful verbosity of characters, particularly familiar ones such as Vetinari. Everyone had their individuality, and part of that individuality was how they spoke. Now, there’s a ‘well’, a sir, a my lad, a my friend, a repetition of this ilk in pretty much every single damn bit of dialogue, and everyone over-explains & lectures in everything. Take the name away & every character sounds the same.But then characters are another issue – they’re such dreadfully one-dimensional caricatures. Take the major new introduction. Dick Simnel. Dick is the son of Ned Simnel who featured briefly in Reaper Man. Who spoke perfectly normally, as did everyone in his part of the world. But Dick is a caricature. Dick is a railway engineer ”Oo invented t’railway” & therefore is a bluff, blunt, “Ee bah gum” Yaaarkshuure man (& although he never uses the whole phrase, he does “Ee” & “by gum” separately several times). And that, really, tells you all you need to know about him, which says a great deal about the book.Inevitably, if you are a Discworld fan (& if you are not, then why you are reading this!), you will have to read this. There’s still enough of the old Terry in this that it isn’t a waste of time. But don’t expect too much of it.

⭐Very disappointing – not a patch on his previous work. In honesty I only read the full book, partially out of respect for his previous work, partially hoping it was just a slow-starter and partially because I’m a tight Yorkshire man who paid a fiver for a few kilobytes of text.Rhetoric aside, this appears to be the work of a ghost writer who has a character guide, a basic story but unfortunately no imagination. The “exciting” action scenes were so dull they were over before I realised they were supposed to be an action scene. One book left to finish my collection and I don’t know whether I can bear it…

⭐When I first read the book I tended to agree with the poor reviews saying it was a shadow of former brilliance etc. Having re-read it recently I have completely changed my mind. Ok it’s not quite as good as Going Postal and Making Money but the were brilliant. Thud and 5th Elephant are not as good as Night Watch and Guards Guards (imo) but they are still very, very good. On the second read having forgot what people said about it I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. The character development of Harry King and even more so the Goblins were excellent. I will admit Moist and Vetinari were occasionally a little out of character, a little less rounded than usual. However this can be over looked because the plot and humour is still there it’s bursting with fun and adventure. If like me you are a TP fan and have not read this because of other reviews give it a go. Forget what’s been said and try not to compare. Read it and enjoy it for what it is. Sadly there will never be another.

⭐I am working my through Terry’s works – just like my bagging of Munro’s quite a few to go. This one had a good pace throughout and did not get too serious as some I have read do. It was quite funny if one knows much about railway history but a high level of humour even if you do not. As always plenty of innovative creations in things and characters. Certainly took me away from the real world but sometimes I think Terry could have ruled the world very succesfully, other than those who take themselves to seriously – I am sure he might have encouraged them over the edge of the world to leave us to get on with things with much more pleasure.

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