The number one bestselling final adult Discworld novel sees trains come steaming into town.
Terry Pratchett was the acclaimed creator of the global bestselling
Discworld series, the first of which, The Colour of Magic, was
published in 1983. In all, he was the author of over fifty
bestselling books which have sold over 100 million copies
worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and
screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the
Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood for services to
literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his
greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.
www.terrypratchettbooks.com
“Consistently funny, wise and clever. . . . Rewarding to both
longtime readers and novices, filled with characters who leap off
the page and metaphors that make you laugh out loud. . . .
Pratchett's appeal isn't just his roller-coaster plots but the
depth of his ideas.”
—Sam Thielman, Newsday
“Salted among all the treacle miners and nascent trainspotters are
some serious ideas about technology and the irrevocable changes it
brings. . . . While exploring questions about the unintended
consequences of technology, Pratchett also blasts fundamentalists
who resist all progress. But mostly he seems to be having fun with
words in the very British strain of absurdist humor that he has
made his own. And 40 books in, why not?”
—Sara Sklaroff, The Washington
Post
“A delightful fantasy send-up of politics, economics and finance,
as the Discworld gets a railway and complications ensue. . . . A
lovely homage to the courage at the core of technological advance.
. . . Pratchett melds politics, finance and the occasional dark
turn with his fantasy and humor, and as ever his footnotes are not
to be missed. . . . How many writers are more fun to spend
time with?”
—Ken Armstrong, The Seattle Times
“A spectacular novel, and a gift from a beloved writer to his
millions of fans. . . . A tremendous synthesis of everything that
makes Pratchett one of the world’s most delightful writers.”
—Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing
“What began with a farcical satire of pseudomedieval fantasy has
become a Dickensian mirror of contemporary western society. . .
. Raising Steam is the latest transformation of a
remarkable fictional world that has evolved and grown with its
creator—and it shows how, in the way of many things invested with
devotion on the Disc itself, the Discworld has taken on a life of
its own.”
—Karin L. Kross, Tor.com
“From the first, the novels demonstrated Pratchett's eye for
telling detail and the absurdities of the human condition. . .
. He remains one of the most consistently funny writers around; a
master of the stealth simile, the time-delay pun and the
deflationary three-part list. . . . I could tell which of my fellow
tube passengers had downloaded it to their e-readers by the
bouts of spontaneous laughter.”
—Ben Aaronovitch, The Guardian
"Terry Pratchett’s creation is still going strong after 30 years. .
. . Most aficionados, however, will be on the look-out for in-jokes
and references from previous novels—of which there is no shortage.
Discworld’s success, like that of Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster
stories, has never been driven by the plots. . . . It is at the
level of the sentence that Pratchett wins his fans.”
—Andrew McKie, The Times (London)
“A brash new invention brings social upheaval, deadly intrigues,
and plenty of wry humor to the 40th installment of Pratchett’s
best-selling Discworld fantasy series. . . . As always, Pratchett’s
unforgettable characters and lively story mirror the best, the
worst, and the oddest bits of our own world, entertaining readers
while skewering social and political foibles in a melting pot of
humanity, dwarfs, trolls, goblins, vampires, and a werewolf or
two.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred
review)
“Brimming with Pratchett’s trademark wit, a yarn with a serious
point made with style and elegance.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Leavened with Pratchett’s usual puns, philosophical quips, and
Discworld in-jokes, the story offers an amusing allegory of Earthly
technology’s many seductions.”
—Booklist
Praise for Terry Pratchett
“Terry Pratchett may still be pegged as a comic novelist, but . . .
he’s a lot more. In his range of invented characters, his adroit
storytelling, and his clear-eyed acceptance of humankind’s foibles,
he reminds me of no one in English literature as much as Geoffrey
Chaucer. No kidding.”
—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book
World
“Given his prolificacy and breezy style, it’s easy to underestimate
Pratchett. . . . He’s far more than a talented jokesmith,
though. His books are almost always better than they have to
be.”
—Michael Berry, San Francisco Chronicle
“Nonstop wit. . . . Pratchett is a master of juggling multiple
plotlines and multiplying punchlines.”
—Ken Barnes, USA Today
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