Doubleday
Featuring: Lord Vetinari; Moist von Lipwig; Harry King
375 pages ISBN: 0857522272 EAN: 9780857522276 Kindle: B00FIN0TGY Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
Terry Pratchett, the prolific fantasy author revisits
Discworld, one of the
most beloved literary worlds. Previous books focused on
wizardly occurrences, travel, a dwarfish printing press and
Death taking on the guise of the winter Hogfather, to
mention but a few. So what could be new about RAISING
STEAM?
Moist von Lipwig who was pressured into revitalising the
Post Office by the dictator of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari,
is a busy man. His wife Adora runs the clacks, or
communication towers, which are a recent innovation but
have become inordinately popular. Moist, a former con-man,
also oversees the Mint and Bank, keeping his nose clean
lest Captain Vimes of the Watch set a werewolf guard onto
him. Now a plain-speaking self-taught engineer turns up
with the steam-powered engine which he has created. He's
brought it from his mountain homeland by putting it on
wheels which run on rails. Travel and goods shipping could
be within reach. Moist instantly sees the possibilities for
prosperity. Harry King, the refuse collector tycoon, is
also a plain-speaking man and he wants to elevate himself
from the 'where there's muck there's brass' situation. He
decides to finance railways, and Moist works to grease the
metaphorical wheels.
Lord Vetinari enjoys fresh seafood and watercress as much
as anyone, so the first major rail is laid to Quirm which
is famous for lobster, wine, cheese, onions and avec. Now
lobster can reach Ankh-Morpork not in three days, but
before the ice it's packed in has melted. Tensions are
rife however - the Low King of the dwarves is facing
rebellion in the dark mountain passages, and outlaw radical
dwarves are burning down clacks towers and killing the
staff. Vetinari is keen to avoid a resumption of war
between dwarfs and trolls. He orders Dick Simnel the
engineer to lay a railway to the kingdom of the dwarves.
And if it doesn't happen fast, Moist will pay the penalty.
While this is less funny than some of Terry Pratchett's
previous outings, I enjoyed the way that the well-realised
tale explores the social good brought by railways, from
understanding of others to housing and employment for
workers. Wizards don't feature, sadly, and the reader can
get tired of the many 'as it were' comments slipped into
the narration and the dialogue. Discworld fans will
of
course want to read RAISING STEAM and ride the latest craze
along with their favourite characters.
Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the
man with a flat cap and a sliding rule. He has produced a
great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power
of all of the elements—earth, air, fire, and water—and it’s
soon drawing astonished crowds.
To the consternation of Ankh-Morpork’s formidable
Patrician, Lord Vetinari, no one is in charge of this new
invention. This needs to be rectified, and who better than
the man he has already appointed master of the Post Office,
the Mint, and the Royal Bank: Moist von Lipwig. Moist is not
a man who enjoys hard work—unless it is dependent on words,
which are not very heavy and don’t always need greasing. He
does enjoy being alive, however, which makes a new job offer
from Vetinari hard to refuse.
Moist will have to grapple with gallons of grease,
goblins, a fat controller with a history of throwing
employees down the stairs, and some very angry dwarfs if
he’s going to stop it all from going off the rails . . .
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