Don't want to spoil anything

Reloc8

I just finished Snuff.

Those who have also done so please give it marks out of ten below. No plot details !

My heart says 6 out of 10 but my head says 4 or 5 with 5 being a reasonably good read (only by TP's massively high standards I stress).

Blackhorse Slim

I haven't read it yet, but I was a bit concerned after reading Unseen Academicals, that it didn't quite flow like a Discworld novel usually does, it felt a little disjointed. Would you say Snuff is similar? I'm planning on waiting until Christmas to get this, to have a new Discworld book to read over the holiday

Daith

I'd go with 4. Same with Thud for me.

Reloc8

Thud I loved.

Unseen Academicals I agree completely with Blackhorse.

I actually found Snuff a let down mostly on the basis that it lacked complexity/depth.

johnnyskeleton

On the pretext of doing some moderation (why can't the posters in this forum break the rules a bit more - all this power and nothing to do with it?) I've been waiting with bated breath for some spoilers on the book.

I'm about half way through. I like it so far, but the fact that I haven't finished it in one sitting shows that it is perhaps not his best work. Better than Unseen Academicals so far, but a bit repetetive of the

Vimes goes to X, finds hostile reception, uses his detectoring to solve crime and appease locals ala The Fifth Elephant, Thud, Monstrous Regiment, Nightwatch (ok, that was back in time but same principle) etc

style of City Watch novel.

Glad to see that he's back on form with the one liners and the Fred Colon / Nobby Nobbs side stories.

JD1763

After finishing it last night, I actually had to sit there and think about whether I really enjoyed it. It's hard to describe how I feel about Snuff, but if I had to, I would say it's missing alot of that old Pratchett magic. I know it's easy to be a critic and I'm trying not to be too harsh since I love Pratchetts books. But...

Characters were a bit flat, the dialogue a bit forced and the humour sorely lacking. I remember reading other Discworld books years ago and laughing out loud. The writing had that much of an impact that ten years later I still remember the jokes and characters fondly. This didn't happen once with Snuff.

Fully agree that the story wasn't original but I can forgive a poor storyline if the writing itself and characterisation are good enough. Sadly not to be. The flow was very disjointed and just didn't meld from one section to the next. There were a couple of points where I was like what the hell just happened or why has that character just appeared out of nowhere. I actually had to flip back to the previous page a few times.

There was also alot of, dare I say it, preordained outcomes. Hard to explain what I mean exactly but along the lines of this 'just happens because I say so'.

The whole book was really Vimes can kick everyones ass and if he can't Wilikins turns up to do it for him. The 'bad guys' were hardly written in at all and were really just filler for Vimes and Wilikins to kick about the place. I miss the 'real' bad guys Pratchett used to write - they had teeth!

Having set out to not be harsh, I realise I've failed abysmally. But having said all the above, its still Discworld, its still unique and wonderful and its still Pratchett. Nothing will stop me from continuing to buy and read his novels or remove Discworld from its pride of place on my bookshelves .

daheff

I was disappointed by Unseen academicals...but will still get snuff


i'm beginning to think that his writing is suffering due to his alzheimers. His documentary on it pointed out that it was getting more difficult for him to write

kylith

I'm glad to find that I'm not alone in being disappointed. I've put my thoughts in the other thread.

Ridley

daheff wrote: »

i'm beginning to think that his writing is suffering due to his alzheimers. His documentary on it pointed out that it was getting more difficult for him to write

He dictates the story to a machine now. I imagine that is where the different feel in writing comes from.

Rob Wilkins did most of the typing for Unseen Academicals so he was the machine prototype.

MrBadger

I really didn't love Snuff, am a die-hard Pratchett fan and will keep buying his books as long as he keeps writing them but it's like his magic way with words doesn't make it through writing by hand to dictation. I also found it pretty grim, same as I Shall Wear Midnight. Would give snuff a 4/10 if it was written by anyone else

gufnork

daheff wrote: »

I was disappointed by Unseen academicals...but will still get snuff

Yeah me too. It was passable i thought, but not amongst his best.

MrBadger wrote: »

I really didn't love Snuff, am a die-hard Pratchett fan and will keep buying his books as long as he keeps writing them but it's like his magic way with words doesn't make it through writing by hand to dictation. I also found it pretty grim, same as I Shall Wear Midnight. Would give snuff a 4/10 if it was written by anyone else

And this was even worse. Easily one of his worst books to date IMO. But then i'm not a fan of essentially following one character through an entire book. There's a whole wonderous (disc)world to play with, filled with some of the best characters ever written and what does he do...?

...Takes one character out of Ankh-Morpork and dumps him somewhere entirely uninteresting with a few bit-part players wandering around in the background(so to speak).

Very dissapointing. I'm getting worried...