Tag: Stephen Briggs

A Hat Full of Sky

A Hat Full of Sky

by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2004); audiobook ready by Stephen Briggs (2004)

Book cover: “A Hat Full of Sky” by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2004); audiobook ready by Stephen Briggs (2004)

Tiffany Aching again proves a winning protagonist, her precocious powers stemming from nothing more innate than a clear, logical, inquisitive mind. While the threat feels real, Pratchett has fun with the Nac Mac Feegle. Granny Weatherwax’s character benefits from an outside perspective.

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2001); audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (Isis, 2001)

Book cover: “The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents” by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2001); audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (Isis, 2001)

Only nominally a children’s book. Pratchett puts a sardonic spin on the Pied Piper fairy tale, foregrounding the rats so as to take humans down a notch. Narrator Stephen Briggs soups up the audiobook by using his Sam Vimes voice for Darktan.

The Fifth Elephant

The Fifth Elephant

by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 1999); audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (Isis, 2000)

Book cover: “The Fifth Elephant” by Terry Pratchett

A relatively dour instalment that, uncharacteristically, loses a little upon re-reading. As per many City Watch stories, much rests upon Vimes’s world view (good) and a slow-burning mystery (muddled). The grating Fred Colon subplot serves only to highlight the paucity of humour.

Monstrous Regiment

Monstrous Regiment

by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2003); audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (Isis, 2003)

Pratchett_Monstrous Regiment

Pratchett marries a senseless war with a young female protagonist of insight and independence, thereby taking aim at the way men in particular—and stupid people in general—make a mess of things. A droll standalone (albeit that Vimes makes a cameo).

 

 

Going Postal

Going Postal

by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2004); audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (Isis, 2004)

Pratchett_Going Postal

One of the more focussed Discworld novels, and all the better for it. Pratchett cannot help being funny but the humour here is less discursive than usual. Instead we have new characters, incisive social commentary, and a beguiling story of personal redemption.

 

 

The Wee Free Men

The Wee Free Men

by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2003); audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (Isis, 2003)

Pratchett_Wee Free Men

Behind all the humour, Pratchett sneaks in the quite moving story of a nine-year-old girl coping with loss. Tiffany Aching is a protagonist to watch out for, while Granny Aching is one of the finest characters ever to appear only in memory.

 

 

Making Money

Making Money

by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2007); audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (HarperAudio, 2007)

Pratchett_Making Money

Pratchett, in the midst of a sequence of novels aimed as much at modernising the Discworld as making merry, pits former confidence man Moist von Lipwig against Ankh-Morpork’s banking sector. The telling is droll but by Pratchett’s standards the story is uninspiring.

 

 

I Shall Wear Midnight

I Shall Wear Midnight

by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2010); audiobook read by Stephen Briggs (Isis, 2010)

Pratchett_I Shall Wear Midnight

Though not among the funniest of the Discworld novels, I Shall Wear Midnight nevertheless upholds Pratchett’s near-ubiquitous drollery, rustling from within a serious treatise on intolerance and antagonism and other such weak points of human nature. Stephen Briggs proves a volant narrator.