Non-Discworld

Nation

Nation is Terry Pratchett’s most recent release. A children’s book that centers around a completely new set of characters, the novel will be set on a small island, and will feature two survivors of a tsunami. Terry Pratchett read an excerpt out loud to his audience at the Bath literature festival in February 2008. An audiobook version is also available.

Reviews are generally favourable, as one from BlogCritics.org says, “the whirligig sense of adventure coupled with the definitive off-kilter humor for which Pratchett is known are abundant throughout this tale…. Nation is both broad in the concepts and ideals into which it delves while at the same time specific in the details of this alternate history world. The characters are a mixture of the alarming, funny, and endearing, ranging from a cranky island priest and shipmates-turned-pirates to cannibals, yet all are utterly believable even in their outrageous natures.”

Another BlogCritics.org review is also favorable, saying “Nation is a beautiful mix of coming-of-age, religion, truth, and culture on a round world. Similar to Lord of the Flies and The Blue Lagoon, but opposite of them at the same time, Nation is easily devoured…. Nation has none of the delightfully corky manner that a Discworld book would. Instead, it‚Äôs more somber, with more overwhelming themes in destroying the foundation of an entire culture. No worries though, the humor and enchantment of Pratchett‚Äôs twists and turns aren‚Äôt absent.”

A review at SalisburyPost.com says, “The story is written with characteristic Pratchett humor, if somewhat muted compared to the usual Discworld zaniness.”

“It starts out tentatively, awkwardly self-aware,” says this BattleCreekEnquirer.com review. “Once the story kicks in and the characters are allowed to move about freely, though, Nation is a big, breathing, entertaining novel.”

Business-Standard.com reviews the book, saying, “Mau is constantly questioning his gods. Daphne has been doing the same since the death of her mother. In a book that tells us that ‚ÄúTwinkle Twinkle Little Star‚Äù is a good song for a child because ‚Äúit began with aquestion‚Äù, this questioning of everything becomes, for Pratchett, something of a moral imperative. Nation begins and ends with pictures of the stars, and on the last page is printed a map of the world with South at the top. Pratchett will not condemn characters who shrink from having their world turned upside down, but they‚Äôre never the ones he chooses as his heroes.”

Another BlogCritics.com review points out some of the historical notes of the book, saying, “Pratchett is opening his reader’s eyes to the fact that Europeans were not the first great explorers of the world and that we need to be careful in making judgements on a people simply because they dress and look different than we do. Unlike so many writers though, Pratchett has incorporated this “lesson” so thoroughly into the story that you never feel like you are being preached at or being told how to think. Rather he carefully builds his arguments by allowing us to see everything through the eyes of his characters. It’s their reactions to circumstances, the thought process they go through to form their opinions, that gives the reader the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the world.”

A South Africa review says, “While Nation could at worst be described as “Blue Lagoon meets Captain James Cook”, Pratchett’s spin on it elevates it to something a little better than a six-word pitch for a film.”

“This is a tendentious book,” says James Hynes of the New York Times, “but in the least annoying sense of the word.”

Michael Dirda’s review in the Washington Post says that “Pratchett’s latest examination of some fundamental questions about religious belief, the nature of culture and what it means to be human” is “at heart a novel of ideas, a ferocious questioning of vested cultural attitudes and beliefs.”

Bookmark It

Hide Sites