Here, Pratchett has crafted a clever parody of the Pied Piper of Hamelin story, with of course, some Discworld twists, turns, what haves you (not the Brothers Grimm but rather the Sisters Grimm). Channeling Orwell in Animal Farm and Daniel Keyes Flowers for Algernon, Pratchett has again returned to the ubiquitous phenomena of animals becoming sentient after living and eating in and around Unseen University. Seems the residual magic boosts the critter’s intelligence and provides a fecundity of fictional MAGIC for all us Discworld aficionados out here. Maurice the cat and his band of smart RATS have teamed up with Keith the teenage piper to swindle some Uberwald villages. There are over 40 books in the Discworld series, of which four are written for children. The first of these, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, won the Carnegie Medal. Although Maurice sees nothing wrong with this hustling business, the rats find it immoral, and convince Maurice that this town will be the last one they rob. Dangerous Beans – an albino rat who has acted as a kind of spiritual leader for the Clan since they became intelligent after eating rubbish from behind Unseen University. Darktan observes that Dangerous Beans is the Clan's much-needed philosopher, finding and "disarming" dangerous ideas for the group. For example, Dangerous Beans is the one who they all turn to for answers to questions of rat cannibalism, stealing, and the phenomenon of dreaming. He is also the interpreter of the rats' "bible", a children's book called Mr. Bunnsy Has An Adventure, which depicts rats and other animals living in harmony with humans, speaking and dressing like them. When Malicia observes that this book's utopian society is entirely fictional, Dangerous Beans and his assistant Peaches run off in despair.

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It's a good read. Smart. Funny. And pleasantly stand-alone. It's easy to see why he won the Carnegie award for it. As the rats move into the town's underground, they discover an overwhelmingly large number of rat traps, but no live keekees (rats who can't talk or think). But something is not quite right towards the middle. I think things went all pear-shaped with the introduction of the disembodied voice that turns out to be a Rat King, a phenomenon I would have much preferred to remain ignorant of. The whole rat-king business doesn’t seem to quite fit, or maybe I’m just to squeamish to handle the idea of a bunch of live rats with their tails fused together. Ew. In any case, the disembodied voice business just didn’t jive with me and felt out of place in this story. I very much enjoyed Terry Pratchett’s first foray into young adult literature. I know he’s written a handful of YA books (many of them also set in the Discworld), but I wish he had written more. He was very good at it!

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Maurice – an intelligent cat who leads the group of rats. He is cunning and manipulative and has a very good (but cynical) understanding of how the world works. Late in the novel, he guiltily admits that he accidentally ate one of the intelligent rats of the Clan early in their history, and thus became sentient himself.

The Amazing Maurice - Wikipedia

Rats! They’re everywhere: in the breadbins, dancing across tabletops, stealing pies from under the cooks’ noses. So what does every town need? A good piper to lure them away. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database The best part about this book, aside from criminal talking animals, is the existential crisis all the rats are going through. They all have names like Dangerous Beans and Hamnpork and Sardines, but some rats are smarter and more enlightened than others. So there’s this whole thing about rats learning what it means to be people and not rats that was as moving as it was ridiculous. It also works really well as a contrast against the “villain” of the book, a rat king, which was disgusting, don’t google it it’s a real thing.This is his first YA Discworld book although I think that label is put more for marketing purposes. This is one of his darker works and like all good Discworld book there is so much going on beneath the surface. Behind there is story of clash of generations, finding one identity, spirituality and religion and Pratchett's realistic (or pessimistic if you are an optimist ) view of humanity and much more and his signiture cynical humor . Terry Pratchett’s Discworld arrangement has topped British smash hit records for a considerable length of time and has a sizable fanbase in the United States too. Presently with “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents” Pratchett extends Discworld from grown-up dream to youthful grown-up dream too.

Maurice Edition The Unadulterated Cat: The Amazing Maurice Edition

Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my FINISHING THE SERIES! list. A well-upholstered ginger cat, a team of talking rats and a slightly half-baked human team up to extort pest control fees from a series of villages. But the self-described “amazing Maurice” (voiced with flamboyant affectation by Hugh Laurie) is a cat with a devious plan: he has no intention of sharing the ill-gotten gains with his rodent colleagues. However, when peril looms, in the form of a “rat king” in the town of Bad Blintz, Maurice belatedly discovers loyalty to his squeaky buddies. The book opens with Amazing Maurice (a sentient cat), a group of talking rats (the Clan), and the human boy Keith travelling in a mail coach to a small town called Bad Blintz. The group plans to enact a scheme they have used many times before, where in the rats pretend to infest the town and Keith poses as a rat piper to lead the "vermin" away for a small sum of cash. Although Maurice sees nothing wrong with this hustling business, the rats find it immoral, and convince Maurice that this town will be the last one they rob. Upon arriving in town, the group discovers that the people are convinced of a massive rat infestation, and have spent much of their savings on two rat catchers. Despite their efforts, food continues to disappear from the town. As the rats move into the town's underground, they discover an overwhelmingly large number of rat traps, but no live keekees (rats who cannot talk or think). Aboveground, Maurice makes similar observations, including that many of the rat tails the rat catchers display as proof of their successful hunting are in fact shoelaces. Maurice and Keith meet the mayor's daughter Malicia and introduce her to the talking rats.This movie was strange and disjointed and had some weird religious and cult themes. Overall it was just not good or entertaining. I'm not sure what was up with the less interesting kid people of the story. I KNOW Pratchett can do better than this. In fact, he can do amazing (see the Tiffany Aching series for pretty much the coolest little girl heroine from like ever). Enough about the stupid humans.

Maurice Movie Review | Common Sense Media The Amazing Maurice Movie Review | Common Sense Media

Maher, Kevin (29 June 2023). "The Amazing Maurice review — meta gags ruin rat caper". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460 . Retrieved 30 June 2023. Milligan, Mercedes (9 December 2022). " 'The Amazing Maurice' Makes Its Way to Sundance". Animation Magazine . Retrieved 2 February 2023. As in all of Pratchett’s books, though, there is a lot going on besides talking rats and some dubiously naïve villagers. This is also one of his darker outings, which again makes me wonder about this being marketed to wee ones, unless Pratchett in his INFINITE AND IMPRESSIVE GENIUS makes that point, it is the young ones who can still get the irony of sentient rats pretending to be led away by a fake flutist.

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I've only got a couple more Discworld books I've not read, both part of the Tiffany Aching y-a series. And then I will (after many years of negligence) be 100% up-to-date with the series!