Nation by Terry Pratchett Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Nation
Book Review: Pratchett on autopilot
Summary: 2 Stars
I was really looking forward to this one - it's not often that Pratchett ventures outside of Discworld, so I wanted to see what he did with a new setting.
The result is a mixed bag. Think Robinson Crusoe in Discworld, and you're almost there. The novel fails to excite; characters are at best two dimensional, the moral tone is tired and the jokes fall flat (the bad puns have matured like vinegar). Emotionally I couldn't form an attachment to any of the characters, even in the aftermath of the wave. The isolation and loss traditional to shipwreck fiction never really materialised, and the end was a predictable anticlimax.
It definitely suffers in comparison to his other books for younger readers - Hat Full of Sky is in a different league.
Book Review: Terry Pratchett back in form - a great read
Summary: 5 Stars
After "Making Money", which was a bit of a let down on account of its formulaic nature, this is Terry Pratchett back in his usual great form. The characters are fresh and engaging and the book is an entertaining and compelling read, much like the old adventure novels, but with lots of TP style humour. Read it! You will not regret it. Book Review: Jaw-dropping
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the funny things about Terry Pratchett is how easy it is to take him for granted. It's probably a truism to say that he hasn't really written a truly bad book. It could be levelled at him, however, that during middle-period Discworld books like Jingo, he was running on autopilot to some degree. All that changed around the period of The Truth and Thief of Time, where suddenly he seemed to find another gear entirely, which has given us wonderful Discworld novels such as Night Watch and the sublime Going Postal, not to mention the series of related Discworld stories starring Tiffany Aching and the Nac Mac Feegle.
Nation is a product of this later, and ongoing, period, but it is something of a departure. It isn't even a Discworld novel. Instead, it appears to take place in our own world, or some parallel version of it, with a distinctly mid-Victorian feel.
The root of the story is The Wave and how it is seen from the viewpoint of both Mau and Ermin...sorry, Daphne (don't worry, it gets explained later in the book). Mau is the sole survivor of The Nation, returning from the ritual exile that begins each boy's initiation into manhood to find his whole society has been wiped out by The Wave. At the same time, the ship in which Daphne is travelling, the Sweet Judy, is wrecked upon the same island during the same [literally] cataclysmic storm.
Apart from just trying to stay alive in the first place, Mau also seems to have to contend with the voices of The Grandfathers calling out to him; actually, ordering him around might be nearer the mark. Survival in these conditions isn't easy, from finding something to start a fire to worrying about the predations of the Raiders. And then there's the Ghost Girl, who wears trousers and carries the portable roof. How do you keep The Nation alive from there? Against the odds, Mau, the Ghost Girl and the others who gradually begin to arrive seem to start making a good fist of it. But there are still enormous obstacles in the way...
Nation is a book overflowing with ideas and, in the end, is one of a more humanist inclination. That is not to say that it is not a spiritual book: quite the opposite. Spirituality is talked about an awful lot, as is the need to be curious and to ask questions about the world around you. Indeed, along the way, the reader gets a more than adequate (and cunningly insinuated) grounding in the workings of scientific method. There is also no cliched happy ending, just a real one, with a rather nice epilogue as it happens; it's nice not to have a cop-out.
For me the standout part of the book is its beginning, and the aftermath of The Wave. Rarely has Pratchett written so powerfully, or indeed so bleakly. There is real emotional force and sadness in his description of Mau's return to his destroyed village home. This is the starting point for another of the book's wider themes: the change from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to knowledge: adolescence. Here, Nation reminded me a great deal of Philip Pullman's his Dark Materials (particularly The Amber Spyglass ). Indeed, like HDM, I would say that Nation isn't a "children's" book at all, just a book that both children and young adults would enjoy reading.
As one would expect from TP, none of this is done in a pompous or po-faced way. He rather has the habit of sidling big ideas like these into his books under cover of gags. After all this time, it's fairly safe to say he hasn't lost his touch. I'd even go as far as to say that, especially because of its beginning, this may be the finest thing he has written (and this, remember, is the author who was responsible, with Neil Gaiman, for the wondrous Good Omens). Given his track record that is saying something, but I think it may be true.
Unreservedly recommended.
Book Review: Not An Elephant in Sight..
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this book on order for months - and I rushed home to rip open the package and get reading when it arrived from Amazon.
And there was no Discworld.. No turtle, no elephants, no witches, no dwarves - nothing - nothing but Terry and his beautiful, perceptive way of understanding and writing about human nature, life, the universe and everything..
I get the feeling that what he has gifted us with, this time, was too important to be hidden cunningly among the wonderful characters and humour of the discworld series. Although the Tiffany Aching books are pretty special, and give my favourite (Small Gods) a run for its money..
What Terry Pratchett doesn't know about people, quantum physics and spiritual philosophy isn't worth knowing.. And the way he engages us, and leads us through both his stories, and the breadth and depth of life and being human, in this place - and at this time - speaks of both love and poetry. This is a beautiful book - and it was worth going in to work half asleep - because I couldn't put it down and get myself off to bed until I'd finished it. Highly recommended.
Book Review: entertaining
Summary: 5 Stars
I usually buy Pratchett books to be entertained for a few hours,most live up to my expectations as did Nation,the man can certainly tell a story I was transfixed from first to last page which surely what a book should do,others have commented on the storyline,so I,ll just say read it and be drawn into a new world of Pratchett