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Title: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett ISBN: 0-06-001235-8 Publisher: HarperTrophy Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.45 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Pied Pier meets NIMH on Discworld
Comment: The Amazing Maurice (a cat), some educated rats, and a stupid looking boy have been running a con involving plagues of rats and a kid who pipes them away for a price.
Sounds simple, but this is form the imagination of Terry Pratchett. The cat and rats can think and talk (the rats have been eating the garbage behind the wizardry school). The title characters have just arrived in a strange new town. There seems to already be a plague of rats although Maurice and company cannot find any.
If there are no rats, who is stealing all of the food? Where did the rat tails come from that the Rat Catchers have been turning in? What is really behind everything? Can the boy be as stupid as he looks?
All of these questions, and more, are answered in typical Pratchett style in this new tale of the Discworld.
A quick and entertaining read (with uncharacteristic chapters) that catches the reader at the start like a terrier catching a rat, and doesn't let go until it's all over (like a terrier with a rat). A must read for Pratchett fans.
Rating: 5
Summary: clever allegory and thought-provoking story
Comment: A friend gave me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a book about rats. Was I ever surprised when I opened the cover and started reading. It is not just about rats.
Pratchett has done his work. I believe him when he says that he read loads about rats before beginning this. But not only the rat part is accurate. When he describes rat writing (pictograms, could be hieroglyphic-like), it parallels the history of the development of human writing. The rats in this story provide a kind of microcosm of how human society might have developed; their dreams of utopia do not come from out of the blue. The rats have their version of a holy book, a keeper of the flame, and of course their characters are all very different and sometimes conflict. Baseness, greed, and corruption all figure in the story, and the rats need to discover how to deal with this new threat called EVIL (as the book's back cover will also tell you).
Although the mentally-mutated (smart) rats naturally figure prominently in the story along with a mentally-mutated cat (Maurice), I think that it also works as an allegory. You can read this story either for face value or more deeply. In the latter way, I think that Terry Pratchett critiques current society. It's funny that reading about rats would make one question humanity, but that's what happened to me!
In a way this book is about having dreams and trying to fulfill them, and getting disillusioned along the way but not giving up. However, it has no morality overtones and despite its seriousness, it is also pretty funny (take the tap-dancing rat named Sardines, for instance). The story ends on a happy note too but it isn't overly saccharine. In a way, it's like pop philosophy and a good story rolled into one.
I was also able to read this story without knowing anything at all about Discworld.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Exciting and Thought-Provoking Novel
Comment: Maurice doesn't really know how he became so intelligent and chatty. After all, he used to just be a normal cat. But now he's a genius, as are the rats that he goes from town to town with. No humans, except for the stupid-looking kid (Keith) accompany them on their journeys, as they try to swindle money from towns, because, you see, Maurice is a criminal mastermind, and also quite money hungry. But when they happen upon a town called Bad Blintz, they realize that it truly lives up to it's name. As there are people there who are some of the worst that you'll ever meet. Now Maurice, along with his educated rodents, and the stupid-looking kid, and a new friend, who just happens to be human, are preapred to turn the town of Bad Blintz upside down, and make the residents wish that this "Pied Piper" and his gang had never set foot in their cozy city.
Terry Pratchett is a true science fiction genius. THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS takes you on a journey into the minds of rats, cats, and even dogs, and reveals what they think of humans, each other, life, and the world in general. Maurice is a character whom will stick in the minds of all, young and old, as will his entertaining companions, Dangerous Beans, Peaches, Darktan, Hamnpork, and even the stupid-looking kid. A must-have book for all who enjoy a good science fiction novel here and there. Or if you're just looking for an entertaining novel featuring a gang of exciting, talking animals.
Erika Sorocco
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Title: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett ISBN: 0060012366 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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Title: Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett ISBN: 006001315X Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett ISBN: 0060013125 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: The Last Hero : A Discworld Fable by Terry Pratchett, Paul Kidby ISBN: 0060507772 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Bromeliad Trilogy : Truckers, Diggers, and Wings by Terry Pratchett ISBN: 0060094931 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.99 |
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