The Amazing Maurice is one of the very few Discworld books I hadn't read before the death of Terry Pratchett, and for some reason I thought it was a relatively minor work. Maybe I was fooled by its labeling as a children's book, or maybe the title made me expect something cuter, or for even younger ages. But I should have known better; anyone who's read the Tiffany Aching books knows that Pratchett makes little distinction in subject material, writing, or theme between his "adult" and his "young adult" books, and The Amazing Maurice is no exception. In theory, The Amazing Maurice is Pratchett's take on the story of the Pied Piper, only with the cat and mice being intelligent, the piper being mostly a front, and the whole operation being a scam. But when the crew decides to pull one last job before getting away and end up in a town where something darker is lurking, everything goes haywire. As you'd expect from Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice is pretty frequently hilarious, playing with the expectations we have about stories, having a gleeful blast with its intelligent creatures, and just generally subverting expectations every chance it gets. But also as you'd expect from Pratchett, it's thematically rich, dealing with the ramifications of bettering yourself, fighting with your own nature, the risks of believing stories and fables, and so much more. And then, when you least expect it, it gets dark, with the creatures dealing with a very different evil than you might expect, and one that explores the book's themes in a rich new direction. In short, it's Pratchett doing what he always does, and taking a theoretically simple story and making it funnier, more complicated, and just plain richer than it has any right being. And while it's not a top-tier Discworld book, it's still a really good one - and it's worth remembering that even a mediocre Discworld book (of which there are maybe 1 or 2, tops) is better than almost anything else you'll read. It may not be Mort or Thief of Time, but it's funny, engaging, thoughtful, charming, hilarious, exciting, thrilling, and just typically great.
- Josh Mauthe
- Josh Mauthe
