The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents: (Discworld Novel 28) (Discworld Novels)

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Terry Pratchett’s first Discworld “story” designating it as written for children (followed by the wonderful Tiffany Aching sub-series) but I would submit this is YA territory, no warm fuzzy Disney moments here.

Nor what happened to the eight blind keekees who were freed when Maurice bit through the tail-knot that merged them as Spider: did they regain their individuality, become comatose, or just drop dead?According to the Word of God above, the pronunciation of Maurice's name makes this a shout-out to the 80s-90s era spokescat of Nine Lives cat food company. It could also be a reference to Morris Dancing, an activity heavily steeped in the Discworld canon. This happened to be my first Pratchett book and why I did not love it, I still found myself greatly enjoying it whilst I read it. I do have this hunch where I think that absurdist fantasy(is that what you call it?) is probably not my thing. Whether I will like it more the more kind of these books I read or not, I’ll have to see but compared to what is considered as ‘normal’ fantasy, this is really far out there as many people have already noted. Maurice senses a voice which tries to enter his mind and causes the rats to start behaving like normal rats ("keekees") to the dismay of Dangerous Beans, who is also depressed to learn that Mr Bunnsy Has an Adventure is just a children's story. Dangerous Beans and Peaches rescue Keith and Malicia, while Darktan leads a group out to rescue Hamnpork. Hamnpork is rescued after being severely injured in the coursing ring, while in the process Darktan has a near-death experience after being caught in a trap. Hamnpork dies of his injuries soon after and Darktan takes over as leader. Maurice, a streetwise tomcat, has the perfect money-making scam. He's found a stupid-looking kid who plays a pipe, and he has his very own plague of rats who are strangely educated, so Maurice can no longer think of them as 'lunch'. And everyone knows the stories about rats and pipers... The Amazing Maurice was Terry Pratchett’s 28 th Discworld novel but his first for children and won the prestigious Carnegie Medal. Pratchett said this was much harder to write than any of his previous books. A funny and mischievous twist on the traditional tale of the Pied Piper, this is a delightful introduction to Discworld and a celebration of the power of story. Pratchett was photographed as ‘Just William’ for the Story Museum’s 26 Characters exhibition in 2014.

Early-Bird Cameo: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (and their scam) were first mentioned in Reaper Man, although most people reading it assumed Maurice was a human conman who trained rats.Confronting Spider the Rat King is so horrifying, it robs some of the Clan of their speech and sentience. This is also the fate of Ginger, a talking cat in The Last Battle, when he comes face to face with the demon/god Tash. Keith – called the "stupid-looking kid", Keith is an orphan raised by the Musician's Guild. He goes along with Maurice's scheme mainly to have something to do, although he is very defensive of his rat family.