|
I think he still has a habit of not deciding what he wants a character to be. Vimes, Nobbs and Fred Colon are handled in a hamfisted way. He seems to want Vimes to be a barely controlled animal that is just as vicious and single-minded as the criminals he seeks to stop but then he'll go and lapse into a caricature of a Sam Spade routine. Nobbs and Colon come out of their Laurel and Hardy schtick long enough to serve as big arrows to plot points before falling back into character as barely sentient paper weights. I was really annoyed by Going Postal. The characters were pretty decent but the ending was just too hokey with "THESE ARE THE SPIRITS OF THE CLACKSMEN WHO DIED" tripe. It seemed like at first he wanted to make fun of the internet and the rampant investing in technology that happened in the late 90s but then decided to make the novel into something totally different. I think the main evil guy was just too two-dimensional. He seemed to represent uncaring, selfish BIG BUSINESS but just seemed piratical and thin. It was the same way with Thud!. The characterization of the Waiting Dark (or whatever it was called) seemed tacked on. I really enjoyed the way that he fleshed out Koom Valley and the cultures of the trolls and dwarves, though. I think that his most fully realized book has to be Small Gods, though.
|
#
¿
Aug 12, 2007 19:36
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 05:46 |
|
|
Fatkraken posted:I think it's because it's Pratchetts only really no-holds-barred criticism of organised religion. I never thought of it that way. I think I like it because Small Gods was where Pratchett really solidified the process and effects of belief in his world. His previous attempts at nailing it felt rushed, incomplete and more like he was evolving the idea as he went along. It's also the only self-contained book that is any good. Pyramids and Moving Pictures can't even compare. I think Small Gods, Witches Abroad and Men At Arms were really defining books for the main characters in the series that they dramatically changed it for the better. I also think that he has yet to really to take the wizards of Unseen University and make them more dimensional than the Keystone Cops with magic.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2007 20:12
|
|