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Nov. 26th, 2012 10:17 amThe Truth is the first Discworld book that I own in hardcover, which means that it officially marks the point in my childhood where I caught up with Pratchett!
What it also means now is that it marks the point where my Pratchett books don't fit neatly in my tiny designed-for-paperback P-Z bookshelf and my roommates judge me for valuing an alphabetical cataloging structure over proper storage of my books. ANYWAY. The Truth is one of the ones I'd forgotten how much I liked! An incomplete list of things of reasons why:
- William de Worde, a dude who was raised with a lot of privilege and a lot of prejudice, and is aware of that and is trying really hard to be a better person than he was raised to be -- and often screws up precisely because he is trying so hard, and because no matter how hard he tries there are still ways in which he doesn't get it. And he gets called on that a lot, and keeps trying, and does not expect cookies for it, and I appreciate that enormously.
- Sacharissa Cripslock, INTREPID LADY REPORTER, emphasis on both 'reporter' and 'lady', who learns over the course of the story that if a naked man runs through your sewing circle meeting it is always very important to get his name for the paper. I like lady reporters. I also like that William is the tender-hearted, anxious one who is concerned about the morals of what they are doing, and Sacharissa is the one who points out that newspapers need to make a profit.
- Otto von Chriek, vampire photographer. I don't actually know why I like Otto so much, I just do.
- continuity! This is so relatively rare in Discworld I feel it deserves an extra pat on the back. Someone did die in the war with Klatch!
- the fact that no one actually develops into a better person over the course of the book -- in fact, they might well actually develop into worse people -- but they do develop into better reporters.
- the fact that the Watch are antagonists in this book. I love when authors let major characters dislike each other! It is the opposite of the thing I have dubbed Irritating Person Syndrome, that rule wherein anybody who dislikes the protagonist is automatically a bad person and will inevitably turn out to be a traitor, spy, or other variety of miscreant. (Mercedes Lackey loves Irritating Person Syndrome.) I love William very earnestly going out of his way to be annoying to Vimes and blow up Angua's scent of smell and so forth. It warms the cockles of my heart.
I am actually really sad that there are no more Plucky Newspaper Adventure Discworld books; I would gladly have seen this be the start of a sub-series. (I would much rather William than Moist, to be honest, although perhaps I will feel differently once I have re-read the Moist books. Sorry Moist!)
What it also means now is that it marks the point where my Pratchett books don't fit neatly in my tiny designed-for-paperback P-Z bookshelf and my roommates judge me for valuing an alphabetical cataloging structure over proper storage of my books. ANYWAY. The Truth is one of the ones I'd forgotten how much I liked! An incomplete list of things of reasons why:
- William de Worde, a dude who was raised with a lot of privilege and a lot of prejudice, and is aware of that and is trying really hard to be a better person than he was raised to be -- and often screws up precisely because he is trying so hard, and because no matter how hard he tries there are still ways in which he doesn't get it. And he gets called on that a lot, and keeps trying, and does not expect cookies for it, and I appreciate that enormously.
- Sacharissa Cripslock, INTREPID LADY REPORTER, emphasis on both 'reporter' and 'lady', who learns over the course of the story that if a naked man runs through your sewing circle meeting it is always very important to get his name for the paper. I like lady reporters. I also like that William is the tender-hearted, anxious one who is concerned about the morals of what they are doing, and Sacharissa is the one who points out that newspapers need to make a profit.
- Otto von Chriek, vampire photographer. I don't actually know why I like Otto so much, I just do.
- continuity! This is so relatively rare in Discworld I feel it deserves an extra pat on the back. Someone did die in the war with Klatch!
- the fact that no one actually develops into a better person over the course of the book -- in fact, they might well actually develop into worse people -- but they do develop into better reporters.
- the fact that the Watch are antagonists in this book. I love when authors let major characters dislike each other! It is the opposite of the thing I have dubbed Irritating Person Syndrome, that rule wherein anybody who dislikes the protagonist is automatically a bad person and will inevitably turn out to be a traitor, spy, or other variety of miscreant. (Mercedes Lackey loves Irritating Person Syndrome.) I love William very earnestly going out of his way to be annoying to Vimes and blow up Angua's scent of smell and so forth. It warms the cockles of my heart.
I am actually really sad that there are no more Plucky Newspaper Adventure Discworld books; I would gladly have seen this be the start of a sub-series. (I would much rather William than Moist, to be honest, although perhaps I will feel differently once I have re-read the Moist books. Sorry Moist!)
