Snuff! (spoilers!)

[Odjn]

So Pratchett's new book came out! It kinda sucks. Sybil, Vimes, and Willikins talk and act radically differently. Goblins are like orcs in that they are specially and magically talented at something. It kind of feels like Pratchett wrote bits of the book (footnotes return, some hilarious bits) but someone else finished it off.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I'm only about 100 pages through but massively disappointed. I didn't like Unseen Academicals very much (or a series of random events as I like to call it) but this is much worse.

Nothing has happened so far in the book- like literally nothing. It just Vimes meandering around the countryside making Vimes jokes that we've seen before. While books don't have to have a plot to be good, that is one of the strengths of Pratchett and without one his books just kind of fall apart..

The worst bit is that he repeats the same jokes few jokes over and over again and jokes that have been done to death in other books (there are about 20 "Willikens is a butler but used to be violent" jokes in the first 30 pages or so). Maybe if you hadn't read any of the other books there might be some funny moments there, but even then the sheer repetition killed them.

Also I agree that Vimes and Willikens are a bit off, Vimes in particularly is not as engaging as in other books.

I'm a massive pratchett fan, I get lal his books the day they come out but I really don't enjoy this one. I normally read them in like a day, I've had this for 2 weeks and I've got through 100 pages only.
It's dull, it's not funny, its derivative of his other works but not the good bits, and its just not very good.

[Marc v4.0]

This is depressing news, considering how much it can tell us about his current condition...

[Melfice]

I wouldn't say it was disappointing, but it is a bit off, yeah.

It's almost like Pratchett started out writing this book that happens to have Vimes in it (perhaps it was going to be about Willikens, perhaps young Sam or maybe about Sybil. Or maybe even somebody completely different), but then decided halfway through that it was going to be a Vimes book after all.

That said, I did very much enjoy the book.

I'm guessing the problem is that it's Vimes out of his element, but it didn't show. Like, yeah. He's constantly wondering about the country, but he isn't completely lost. If you've been a city-boy for your entire life, and then dragged into the wilderness of the quiet outdoors, you'd be bewildered (oh, my... a pun!) too! But Vimes picked up the ways of the countryside within the hour, it feels.

[The Sevenshot Kid]

In conclusion, we need to cure Alzheimer's. Like now.

[Meister]

Originally Posted by Odjn

It kind of feels like Pratchett wrote bits of the book (footnotes return, some hilarious bits) but someone else finished it off.

I wouldn't be surprised if that was more or less exactly what happened.

[Fifthfiend]

Originally Posted by Odjn

So Pratchett's new book came out! It kinda sucks. Sybil, Vimes, and Willikins talk and act radically differently. Goblins are like orcs in that they are specially and magically talented at something. It kind of feels like Pratchett wrote bits of the book (footnotes return, some hilarious bits) but someone else finished it off.

I just finished it and... yeah.

It's not even just that the characters speak differently from their usual selves so much as all of them now speak the same as each other, in the same endlessly long declaratory paragraphs where they openly and repeatedly state every character detail or plot-relevant bit of information. One of the things I've always really loved about Pratchett's books is how the characterization really shines through in the dialogue, and I don't mean because the dialogue is "hello there Nobby Nobbs I see that I have caught you in the act of STEALING because you are a BIT OF A NE'ER DO WELL but just because I make a show of being angry at you does not mean that any real consequence will come of it because I understand that you are a bit of a LOVEABLE SCAMP whose HEART IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE."

Like yes Willikins is a badass, we don't need to be reminded every 20 pages.

[Fifthfiend]

If I'm not already damned for thinking it then saying it surely seals my fate, but:

Snuff is basically the Gargoyles: the Goliath Chronicles of Terry Pratchett novels.

[Odjn]

Fifth you were damned the moment you saw a hippie girl walking down the street.

[Marc v4.0]

The worst part about it all is that it isn't even him getting tired of his work or out of touch with his fans or anything like that. We're just losing a brilliant mind.