A book review isn’t the sort of post I usually write, but I’ll give it a shot! I’m a huge fan of Terry Pratchett books. If you’ve never heard of him, he’s a very famous British author, and his most popular work would be the DiscWorld series.Here’s a quote about the disc:
“The world travels through space on the backs of four elephants that stand on the back of a giant turtle.”
The Disc World books are the sort of novels which a complete newbie can just pick up at any point, and have a read. They’re really funny, and each one is a standalone story. However, once you get into them, reading them in order really helps. I’d have to say I think the best novels are the “Guards” series, with Captain Carrot being a particular favorite of mine.
I’m writing this post as I’ve just read “Nation,” Pratchett’s latest novel, and I wanted to write a bit of a review. I will state outright that it is not in the Discworld saga – it is a completely standalone novel. I picked up Nation at midnight one night, just as I was heading to bed, and wanted to do little light reading to clear my head. Well, my plan backfired, and I set the book down at 5am, when I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I finished it the next day.
I’ll not give away too much about the plot or anything, as if you’re reading this you might be interested in reading the book too. Basically, it centres around a island-born teenage boy and a young “trouserman” girl, after a tsunami. If you’d like to read a bit more about this book, check it out on BoingBoing.net.
One of my favorite Pratchettesque styles are the “footnotes.” There were a few in Nation, but definitely not as many as in past novels.
I also happened to notice that there is a “Nation” island on second life! I tried to play Second Life a few times, as I heard it was so popular…. but I never really got into it.
If you’d like to buy Nation, it’s at quite a few stores, for example Amazon.ca, or Chapters. The price may change from the time I write this and the time you click through. Just make sure to price compare before you buy.
I’d give Nation 5 stars out of 5. Are you a Terry Pratchett fan? If so, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
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