"No One Noticed the Cat" by Anne McCaffrey

A cute little fairy tale featuring a cat, which Anne McCaffrey apparently wrote for her granddaughter. It’s a fairy tale. With a cat. And it’s cute. I’m a sucker for a story with a cat. It has an evil stepmother, and royalty and nobility, and they all get into a bit of trouble, but it works out in the end, and nothing particularly surprising happens. Oh, and it’s very short, so I read it while I was waiting for a delayed flight - and I’m glad that I did. It’s a fairy tale. Did I mention that it has a cat?

My rating: ★★★☆☆

"Guards! Guards!" by Terry Pratchett

An amiable and, at times, quite rich story of average people doing the best that they can. But with dragons. Captain Vimes of the Night Watch leads a very small rag-tag team of men, who do their best to keep out of trouble while pretending to keep the residents of Ankh-Morpork safe during the night.

Into this mix comes Carrot - an earnest new recruit brought up by dwarves - and the summoning of a dragon by someone in the city who would rather have more power for themselves.

The result is a very well constructed and engaging plot, with Pratchett’s trademark irreverent humour, and not an insubstantial set popular culture references. There’s plenty of peril (fire breathing dragons will do that), some extension of Discworld lore, and a few new characters entering the mix. I particularly like the extra depth given to the Patrician, even with the very small part he plays in this story - and the librarian (a firm favourite of mine anyway) shows a surprising command of multi-dimensional travel.

Vimes is world-weary but seems to want to do a good job - and he is one of the more real characters in the story. The rest of the members of the Night Watch are largely interchangeable (I genuinely couldn’t really remember who was who, and it didn’t seem to matter). The introduction of Lady Ramkin is very welcome as one of the old moneyed establishment figures of Ankh-Morpork, albeit in a somewhat clichéd down-to-earth “old money” homey way.

The story is fun, but ultimately doesn’t have much to say (there’s a slightly heavy handed attempt to compare the brutality of dragons towards people to the worse brutality that people show to each other), and the resolution of the dragon-related plot is quite weak. I am, however, quite interested in the ongoing story of the Night Watch in future books, and will welcome any development of the Patrician (although I wonder whether, much like the character of Death in the Discworld books, that less may be more).

Competent but unremarkable.

My rating: ★★★☆☆

"Pyramids" by Terry Pratchett

An amiable standalone story set in Discworld. When his father dies, Teppic becomes the unwilling king of a small country steeped in tradition - with one of those traditions being interring their dead in increasingly elaborate and expensive pyramids. Dios is an overbearing high priest, who railroads Teppic into building a pyramid of previously unheard-of massive proportions for the late king. But this is in a world where pyramids really do have mystical power, and there are consequences to building such a large one.

While this is a Discworld novel, it’s rightly marked as a ‘standalone’ novel, as it doesn’t really rely on any of the Discworld lore that’s been established in the previous books.

It is a relatively lightweight plot-driven story, with a likeable cast of central characters: Teppic, who wants to bring modern conveniences to the old kingdom (like plumbing, and comfortable bedding); Dios, who vehemently clings to the traditions that he has overseen for his entire lifetime; and Ptraci, the somewhat predictably feisty love interest. It’s an undemanding story, that ticks along at a good pace, replete with the hallmark witticisms and pleasing turns of phrase that Pratchett excels at.

There’s some fun to be had with the naming, as always: a camel called You Bastard, and a place called Djelibaybi both made me smile every time I read them. And anyone who has seen the UK sitcom “Yes Minister” will recognise some of the power plays between Teppic and Dios.

And that’s it, really. If there was anything profound hiding between the pages, then I missed it.

My rating: ★★★☆☆

“Wyrd Sisters” by Terry Pratchett

The witches are in good form in this fun-packed caper. They’re doing their best not to meddle, as the king of Lancre is deposed by a power hungry duke, and the witches are left holding the baby. Literally.

The mysterious baby that the witches find themselves with gets left in the care of the kindly leader of a travelling band of actors, and their fates are intertwined with the duke and the kingdom of Lancre, ably assisted (not meddling, honest!) by the witches. The story is littered with Shakespeare references - most strongly Macbeth, with the three witches, and the duke obsessively cleaning the blood from his hand - to little snippets and references to other plays, as the playwright in the band of actors crafts subtly familiar lines into his plays.

There are also nice little touches of satire creeping in, as the duke realises the power of language to “reinterpret” history, and attempts to use the mass media of the time (travelling theatre) as a form of propaganda. The book was written in 1988, but I suspect if it had been written after 2020, the phrase “fake news” might even have appeared. The satire, however minimal, is done with a deft hand and is full of humour.

I was smiling and chucking the whole way through this book. And while the overall story arc was largely predictable from the beginning, the journey was very enjoyable. The characters were all solid, and it’s lovely to see the three witches having their own distinct characters, as more of the witch lore is established. I’m looking forward to enjoying in the later books in the witches sub-series.

My rating: ★★★★☆

"Sourcery" by Terry Pratchett

A story of wizards in Discworld when a “sourceror” emerges - someone who can harness the enormous power of the very source of magic. And, of course, power corrupts. When the use of such powerful magic starts to unravel reality itself, it is up to our collection of unwilling and accidental anti-heroes to save the day.

The hapless wizard Rincewind, mainstay of the first two Discworld novels, is one of the central characters. He is quickly joined by Conina the Hairdresser, who is surprisingly handy with a sword (and anything else that could possibly be construed as a weapon). Amongst the supporting cast, a few old favourites make an appearance: the Luggage, the Librarian, and, of course Death.

If this had been my first Terry Pratchett book, I’m not sure I’d be inclined to read any more. This might be because I’m not especially engaged with the wizards as a set of characters (including Rincewind himself), and this may be why I also didn’t really enjoy The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. To me, there’s nothing inherently enlightening, funny, or relatable about the wizards: they are selfish, lazy, privileged, beaurocratic, and stuffy - and Pratchett’s undoubted skill at injecting humour into their characters only really brings my opinion back up to ambivalence.

Not only does this story suffer from featuring the wizards, but it features the worst aspects of their character - so the rest of the book was going to have to do some heavy lifting for me to enjoy it. Unfortunately, the other aspects of Pratchett’s style and storytelling didn’t tip the balance for me. In fact, the redeeming qualities I would have otherwise expected in Pratchett’s writing also seemed to be subdued, and I found myself only rarely chuckling at the kind of concisely funny turn of phrase that Pratchett usually turns out in abundance.

It felt very much like he was tired, or fulfiling a contractual obligation, or just having a bad day.

I do love the Librarian, though. How you can get so much emotion from an orangutan who can only say “Oook” (or occasionally “Eeek”) is a testament to Pratchett’s writing.

My rating: ★★☆☆☆

“Mort” by Terry Pratchett

I will always enjoy Terry Pratchett’s character of Death, but I would have preferred him as a main rather than supporting character in this serviceable but unremarkable Discworld story.

Death decides to take on an apprentice, and chooses Mortimer, Mort, or simply “Boy”. While Death takes advantage of having an apprentice by having some well earned “me time” amongst normal folk, Mort engages in some unsurprising hormone-driven hijinx, as an obvious consequence of being an adolescent without the self-control to handle the power he’s been given.

The plot is amiable, and the pacing is perfect. But the central adventure has all the hallmarks of the kind of YA that I don’t enjoy - characterised mainly by a lack of sophistication in the main character. There are also a couple of plot glitches around the character of Ysabell: why Death is essentially imprisoning her; and, an infeasible instant emotional about-face at one point. And, for me, this would be languishing in 2-star territory were it not for the richness and inventiveness of the world-building, Pratchett’s writing style (I always enjoy his tone and turn of phrase), and, of course Death, who is marvellous, and loves cats. Oh yes, and Binky.

"Equal Rites" by Terry Pratchett

In a world where the number 8 is magical, the eighth son of an eighth son is a wizard. Enter Eskarina (Esk), who inconveniently comes along as the eighth daughter of an eighth son, and “everybody knows there’s no such thing as a female wizard”.

I absolutely loved this. OK, so this is an “underdog makes good” story, and the broad strokes of the plot will come as no surprise (Esk can only be trained as a wizard in the Unseen University - a famously misogynistic organisation that has never admitted women. I wonder what will have happened by the end of the story?) But the characters are an absolute joy, the plot and pacing are solid, the development of Discworld lore is fascinating, imaginative, witty, rich, and just very rewarding as world-building - especially in the knowledge of the pay-off in the 30+ books in the series.

I’m always slightly nervous when one of the main characters in a story is a child. But Esk doesn’t suffer from the unsophisticated naivety that could have made the story a chore. While the naivety is there by necessity, Esk still brings a richness and sophistication to the story telling through the inherent and intuitive understanding she has of her magical inheritance. This lifts it from being the predictable YA coming of age tale that I feared it might be.

And Granny Weatherwax is clearly a star in the making. I get the sense from reviews of later Discworld stories that her character development is something to look forward to.

Pratchett’s writing is an absolute delight. Of course.

My rating: ★★★★★

“The Discworld Graphic Novels” by Terry Pratchett

This covers the first two Discworld books, in graphic novel form. It was exactly what I wanted it to be - a fun, somewhat abridged, adaptation of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. I’ve read the original novels before, albeit a long time ago, so I was already familiar with the characters, and they were brought to life quite well. It was a quick and easy way for me to revisit the first two books, with the extra enjoyment of seeing it all as a graphic novel.

I found myself dipping into the novels a few times, just out of curiosity about the accuracy of the adaptation (was Liessa really dressed like that?), and was always pleasantly surprised - but pleasantly surprised in two ways: firstly, that the adaptation seemed very accurate (yes, she really was dressed like that), but also that the richness, humour, and fun from the books was all coming from Pratchett’s writing. The graphic novel does a decent enough job of, well… telling the story graphically - and is certainly an excellent illustration of the original novels. And while the abridgement suited The Colour of Magic quite well, as the book is a series of short, relatively unrelated episodes, The Light Fantastic felt a little disjoint in places. The thing I found must surprising about my experience of reading the graphic novels, though, was that it made me want to read the original books.

So this graphic novel gave me exactly what I wanted: it was a quick and easy way to revisit those first two novels, to kick off my intended journey through the entire series. And it was nice to see the cowardice of Rincewind, the naivety of Twoflower, the unstoppable tenacity of the Luggage, and the unlikely romance between Cohen and Bethan, all played out for me again.

Has this whetted my appetite for the rest of Discworld? Yes, definitely. Would I read them in graphic novel form if they were all available as such? Probably not.

My rating: ★★★☆☆

"Red Dust, White Snow" by Pan Huiting

I was drawn to this book for the intriguing concept, with the promise of an overlap of reality and fantasy. For me, though, it didn’t deliver on the promise. Ultimately, the encroachment of fantasy on reality turned out to be quite pedestrian, albeit in a light fantasy/sci-fi context. The reveal that happens about three quarters of the way through the book is underwhelming and, while it had philosophical consequences, I didn’t find them engaging.

The style of the writing in many places got in the way of the story-telling: use of language was unnecessarily elaborate in places, and the brief explanations of the meanings (and mythical background) of some of the supporting characters and spirits was unnecessary and jarring. Overall I was left with the impression that the author was showing off with use of language and myth, which I found a little alienating rather than impressive.

The plot was split across two worlds - the reality and the fantasy - although very little actually happened in either world. There seemed little purpose to much of the plot, with rarely any conflict or jeopardy. The main protagonist had some interesting characteristics - notably the deliberate distancing from friends and colleagues. These characteristics supported her willingness to engage wholeheartedly in the fantasy world, but ultimately they were under-explored and unresolved, and I found her difficult to relate to.

An interesting concept, but the book was not for me.

Thank you #NetGalley and Fairlight Books for the free review copy of #RedDustWhiteSnow in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My rating: ★★☆☆☆

NetGalley Review

"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman

This book is a spellbinding tale from a child’s point of view but written for adults. It spans worlds of fantasy and reality, giving a tantalising glimpse of the lives and existence of characters that are older than imagination, from the perspective of a young boy who finds himself drawn into an adventure within which he has very little power or control. The setting is a small country lane, but the scope is vast, with hints of worlds beyond our own.

The narrative is all 1st person - from the perspective of the 7 year old boy. The perspective of a 7 year old boy ought to be childish and unsophisticated, and I would normally avoid tales from a child’s point of view for this reason. But there is a depth and richness to the writing which is very satisfying. There is a maturity to the storytelling which makes it easy to read, while not undermining the image of a youthful and immature narrator.

The fantasy elements aren’t fully explained, and this is consistent with the point of view of the narrator, but the many small insights into the Hempstock family and the world from which they came are rewarding and enjoyable and left me wanting to know more. The story was engaging and the plot moved with a pace that kept drawing me on. I would love to read further stories from this world!

My rating: ★★★★★

"The Cat Who Saved Books" by Sōsuke Natsukawa

I have several issues with this book that prevented me from fully enjoying it, and I don’t know whether to put them down to the translation. I found the style slightly jarring in places - occasionally skipping between somewhat formal language and then something incongruously idiomatic. I also found the anti-book-lover in each episode to be quite clumsily drawn, and the conversations that convinced them of their wrongdoing to be shallow. As I say, it’s not clear whether this is a problem with the original or with the translation, but for me it missed the mark.

My rating: ★★★☆☆