Anyone read "Nation"? comments, views?

asiwassayin

Saw it today in the children's section of Waterstones. Have never read any of TP's books but been meaning too - is this the right one to start?

Dreddybajs

It's not really much like the Discworld novels, but I thought it was a good novel (probably aimed primarily towards young adults, but feck that :pac:) - I viewed it as sort of a sad semi-closer to his career though, having read most everything he wrote before Nation. It's a good book, but disconnected entirely from the Discworld series (if you want to get into Discworld, there's a handy reading order here).

asiwassayin

fantastic link by the way. great comments, cheers!

Thanx 4 The Fish

I read Nation and really enjoyed it. Fits a little with Terry's situation too, enjoyable but a little sad I would say.

seagull

For those of you in Dublin - it's going cheap at chapters.

BlitzKrieg

picked this up with unseen academicals in chapters, Read academicals first, but this is the better book I felt.

I've always liked his books for young adults, although its been a while since I've been one, they always have this dark fairytale vibe to them, Maurice and the amazing rodents was very good I thought.

Nation was equally strong, I felt some areas were very safe for pratchett, the issue of faith and gods being something he has covered many times in discworld and his villian has become a stock character varient of carcer from night watch (an issue with unseen academicals aswell) so much so that some lines to describe the character are pretty much identical to ones used in unseen academical (especially the shark and smaller fish passage)


But the plot had a good pace, and while the territory has been threaded before with pratchett, he took a fresh take on it with the new setting. Enjoyable characters and nice visual reoccurances made for an enjoyable read.

WhiteWashMan

I havent read it but I do have it.
Missus says its cracking, so i will read it after making money.

petebricquette

Just finished it tonight. Very very good. I really enjoyed it, apart from the slightly twee tailpiece in the last 10 or 15 pages. It's definitely one to ponder for a little while whereas a good few of the Discworld books you can come back to very quickly.