Nation

Fans of Terry Pratchett will find this very different. Set in the South Seas of a parallel universe in the 19th century, it describes how a local boy and English girl thrown together in the aftermath of a tsunami cope and develop.

What is most different to Discworld is the lack of comedy, a few

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mild situational jokes but basically a fairly straight story. What does show it up as Pratchett work is the commonality of themes and in particular the importance of children thinking for themselves.

The style is typical of Terry Pratchett's books for young readers, very easy to read but not afraid of long words or difficult concepts. It does draw on history, science and the history of science in a way that regular readers will recognise and overall I would regard it as a good read for children, with enough in it to be a reasonable diversion for adults.

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Having never read anything by Pratchett before, despite meaning to, I was keen to try ‘Nation’ as soon as I saw it on the list of Carnegie Medal nominees. Although it seems to be marketed to young teens, the range of reviews on Amazon suggests that it suit adults equally well, as I believe

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Patchett’s writing normally does. As this writer is best known for his ever growing Discworld series, it is important to note that this book is a stand alone and does not form any part of that series of stories. This has led several dedicated Discworld readers to conclude ruefully that although ‘Nation’ is a good read, it’s just not quite on a level with Pratchett’s previous writing. If that’s the case (which I doubt simply because I know how disappointing it can be to pick up a book expecting to find a new addition to a series you love and discover that it is something else entirely) then I must read his latest Discworld instalment soon, as this book is superb.

The premise(s)

A teenage boy, Mau, is returning from the Boys’ Island to the Nation, his home, where he will be given his man soul in a traditional coming-of-age ritual. While he travels between the two islands, a freak wave erupts and destroys his world by killing all the inhabitants of the Nation. Devastated, Mau retreats into himself as he explores the wreckage of his homeland and struggles to accept what the Gods have done to him. Believing himself to be without a soul and with no way of ever achieving manhood, Mau begins to reflect on the rules of his Nation as he tries to achieve a kind of normality. How can he live now?

Meanwhile, a ship is turned away from England, which has become terribly infected by Russian Influenza. The King is dead and a little known law in the Magna Carta states that his heir must step onto British soil within 9 months in order to prevent the crown being seized by another country. The Men of Last Resort are on the case and the ship is soon under new orders. Can they find the heir in time?

Another ship, The Sweet Judy, (manned by a crew who were not very sweet,) is caught up in the tsunami and crashes onto the Nation. Alone and frightened, but sure of her dignity and her place in the world, Ermintrude Fanshaw watches as a strange and shockingly underdressed boy buries the dead. She tries inviting him to tea and considers whether or not a chaperone needs to be alive or simply present to make a meeting between them suitable. Ermintrude, who soon throws off her uncomfortable name for the simpler ‘Daphne’, is confident that her father will find her despite the fact that there are 80 islands in the Mothering Sunday Islands. But when? And how is she to conduct herself in the meantime?

Life on an island

If it sounds a bit complicated, then be reassured that it isn’t really. (Although I will admit that the switches of perspective in the first few chapters did make it a bit difficult for me to settle into the story at first. I am an impatient person and I could not see how the disparate storylines were related or indeed relevant, which frustrated me.) The vast majority of the action takes place on the Nation as Mau and Daphne learn how to communicate and begin to question their expectations and beliefs. It was fascinating to learn about their respective attitudes and amusing to see the way they interpret the world around them so differently. One instance that had me laughing out loud (there were several) was when Daphne drew a picture inviting Mau to tea and Mau interpreted the picture easily…to mean something completely different. Their innocence is charming and their deliberations engaging.

As the novel continues, other characters begin to arrive on the Nation, seeking sanctuary. Each of them contributes something to the story and allows Daphne and Mau to continue on their journey to adulthood. Some of the characters are amusing, some are sympathetic and some are simply evil. The range kept my interest and allowed for more of a focus on how one interacts as part of a community rather than as a friend. Mau in particular has to learn how to become more politic and to consider that the Gods he now struggles to believe in may have a purpose that he has never anticipated.

Set in 1860, the novel presents a world that is at once very similar to ours and subtly different, allowing Pratchett to create a powerful story that recreates our own history and has the potential to engage readers in deep philosophical and historical questions. The western world is portrayed as invasive and overly concerned with building an empire, while the writer suggests that supposedly primitive cultures are really anything but. I found that I really enjoyed reading the book and that, while I was certainly aware of the moral messages the book promotes, the writing never felt didactic or overtly moralising.

Pratchett’s written style is clear, simple and evocative. It is at once easy and strangely pleasant to read; I would sit down to read a bit of the book with breakfast and still be sat there two hours later. It is not necessarily that the storyline is gripping, although it is highly engaging; it is the fact that it is well written and genuinely interesting. The dialogue and interaction between characters is convincing. The events, despite their often fantastical nature, are believable within the context of the situation Pratchett has set up.

The ending is at once inevitable and beautiful, and the novel concludes with a chapter which brings events up to the modern day and acts as a kind of conclusion. It is a fitting end to the story and, though the events may be predictable, that only makes them the more powerful and, oddly, realistic.

Finally there is an entertaining Author’s Note in which Pratchett reflects on the realism of a few snippets from the book. This is short but contains some interesting details and is worth reading.

Conclusions

This is the book I enjoyed reading the most out of this year’s crop of Carnegie books. It is well written, imaginative, creative and philosophical without ever insisting on anything. The central characters are not merely sympathetic: they are admirable as they discover their strength and respond to the challenges around them. The story begins with a creation myth and partly the book explores the value and significance of religion, but it does it in a way that is integral to the storyline and allows the reader to reach their own conclusions. Highly recommended.

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Pratchett takes on imperialism, religion, women, men and fate.

He does it well, and with greater grace than I can explain without spoilers. Just read it because I told you so, okay?

This is an alternate history story, but so close to possible reality that it was hard to be sure. It starts with the legends told by people of the Nation, a very small island of natives who did not know any people of the rest of the world, in a time when the British Empire spanned the globe. There

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is a great tidal wave. Mau, a boy about to become a man of the Nation, has just completed the trial that separates boys from men, and is out on the open sea when the wave strikes. He survives, but none of his Nation do - they are swept away by that wave. Riding the wave was a British ship, which crashes upon the island. Only one teenaged girl survives from that.

They each learn how to live in this new world, but it is a different tale than that of The Blue Lagoon. They accumulate a new Nation from the flotsam of survivors from other islands. There are adventures, and they learn the secret of the island and of Mau's Nation. The ending is not pat, or quite what one expects, but satisfying and proper. Recommended.

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Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease in December 2007. I didn't find that out until mid-2008, which was kind of like when Robert Jordan died and I didn't find out for months, except that I couldn't care less about Jordan whereas the

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thought of Pratchett becoming an empty husk of a man without any memory or awareness makes me legitimately sad. He is truly one of the finest living writers, and easily the greatest English satirist since Swift.

Inevitably, as I read his latest piece of work, I was wondering if the disease was already beginning to affect his mind. Nation is a very different novel from most of Pratchett's books. It's not Discworld, for a start, and it seems to be missing a lot of the typical puns and humour that are present in every second paragraph of the Discworld novels.

Nation takes place in an alternate version of our own world's 19th century, on a remote island in the South Pacific simply called "Nation." The protagonist is a young tribal native called Mau, who is returning home to Nation after a month-long stay on an uninhabited island as part of his initiation into manhood. When he arrives home, however, he discovers that a tidal wave has killed every living soul on the island, and left behind a shipwrecked British vessel with a teenage girl as the sole survivor. As refugees from neighbouring islands begin to arrive on Nation, Mau finds himself thrust into a leadership role, while still struggling to cope with the trauma of losing his entire tribe.

Angry with the gods, Mau begins to question their existence, and the many traditions and beliefs that he has taken for granted his entire life. This is the key theme of Nation: a defence of the scientific method, encouraging you to think in different ways, to challenge what you are told, and to reject blind faith. That's not all there is to it, of course, and I'm not sure whether to call it an atheistic or deistic or humanist narrative. It's more complicated than that, like life itself, as Pratchett is wise enough to display.

The lack of humour was intentional, I think. It's not gone entirely, just toned down from the average Discworld novel, and it works just as well. Nation is a very good book, readable on a number of different levels, and enjoyable whether you're a philosopher or a teenager. It's not as good as some of the finer Discworld novels (Night Watch is his magnum opus and I doubt he will ever top it), but Pratchett's still got it... for now.

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Summary: Nation is set in an alternate version of the south Pacific ocean during the late 1800s. Mau is a boy - soon to be man - who is caught up in a tsunami during his manhood rites. When he returns to his home island, his village and everyone he's ever known is gone, swept away by the wave.

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However, he's not alone on the island; a British ship has been shipwrecked on the island by the tsunami, with a British young lady as its only survivor. Daphne (the young lady - or "the ghost girl", as Mau calls her) knows all of the finer points of etiquette, but must come to terms with the fact that nothing in her breeding has prepared her for survival on a tropical island. Mau, the last survivor of his people, must not only figure out how to live without a village to support him, but how to live with the death of everything he knows, and with the capricious gods who would allow such a terrible thing to happen. Only together do they have any hope of rebuilding the world and the life washed away by the wave.

Review: I liked Good Omens well enough, but after reading my first few of Pratchett's solo novels, I didn't understand what all of the fuss was about. They were fine, but they didn't strike me as anything special. But, now that I've listened to the Tiffany Aching books and Nation, I can describe myself as a full-on fan. (Maybe I only like Terry Pratchett as read by Stephen Briggs? It's a distinct possibility; he's a wonderful narrator who really complements Pratchett's sense of humor.) In any case, Nation was wonderful. I loved the science and history of science aspect of it, and how it was accessible to young adult readers but not dumbed down. I loved that there were real moral, emotional, and philosophical dilemnas that the characters had to wrestle with, and that they don't find any easy answers. I loved the characters themselves - particularly Mau, who I now have a bit of a crush on. I loved that the novel managed to be both hilarious in its dry, witty way, as well as heartbreaking, occasionally even at the same time. I loved that Pratchett managed to deal with a lot of thorny issues, like colonialism and atheism, without getting overly moralizing or forcing his point of view about any of them. But what I particularly loved was the sensibility of the book - to quote what I said in my review for Wintersmith, the characters "just generally seem to have their head screwed on right." It's a book that values - and encourages - independent thought, both in its characters and in its readers, and I can only wish that more books did the same.

The only thing I didn't entirely love was the plotting. I was completely enthralled for the first half or so of the book, when it was still very survival-story heavy. (My Side of the Mountain got me hooked on survival stories at a young age and I've never fully recovered.) I stayed absorbed during the middle section, but by the last third of the book, when more people begin to show up, I felt like the plot lost a little of its steam. I was still listening intently, mostly wondering how Pratchett could possibly wrap things up satisfactorily (he did, although not at all in the way I was expecting), but the story didn't feel nearly as urgent as it had in the earlier parts. Still, on the whole, I really enjoyed this book, and suspect it will be one of my top picks for the month, if not for the year. (...and, for those of you who have read it: I have absolutely caught myself muttering "Does Not Happen!" whenever something I'm working on isn't going my way.) 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: It's similar in outlook to Pratchett's Tiffany Aching books, obviously, but also I think to Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, although Nation is less preachy and more open-ended than those. I'd recommend Nation to just about everybody, actually, but particularly those who are looking for an excellent young adult novel that can make you laugh and cry and, most importantly, think.

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After a devastating tidal wave, Mau's world is turned upside down. He is the only one left of the Nation, a small island in the middle of the ocean. With him on the island is Daphne, an English 'ghost girl', the only survivor of a shipwreck. The two adolescents must survive as best as they can by

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learning about each other and themselves, trying to make sense of the world, and struggling with questions of faith and suffering.
Nearly all of the characters vacillate between atheism, agnosticism, and faith. The characters, including the lesser ones, are relatable because we all struggle with our standards and perspectives that often do not fit the world around us. This book raises many questions about the roles of gods in the events and tragedies of life, but does not really provide any answers. Nation is somewhat unsatisfying in its resolution of the characters' questions and struggles, but this is because it mimics life. For many of us, these questions are never answered fully in life. The handling (or, some might argue, non-handling) of the issue is related to one of the book's other themes: sometimes, just being is enough. I thoroughly enjoyed Terry Pratchett's Nation and found it to be a book filled with grief, humor, memory, faith, agnosticism, beauty, science, and politics, all of which combine to make a memorable story that will stay with the reader.

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Nation is not a high calibre Pratchett novel, however it is a worthy one shot novel about an alternate history, full of interesting characters and lore. The author is certainly enjoying himself here, building heroes of a new Nation. The first third sets the scene and offers interesting perspectives

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of other cultures. The central third is hard going at times, absolutely necessary for the novel, however dry on humour and heavy on plot. The final third is fine Pratchett indeed. The characters are let loose, with vibrant narrative and discourse, and the story unfolds in unimaginable and interesting ways. Nation is a book saved by its latter parts and it's worthwhile getting there.

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Kearsten says: This was quite interesting - a boy, coming back from his solo initiation to manhood, survives a tsunami in a small canoe. But when he returns to his island, hoping to see his family and the others of the Nation, waiting to complete his initiation, he is met with an empty beach and

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the complete destruction of his village. His desolation nearly kills him, until he discovers that his island holds one other survivor - a young white girl, the only survivor on a ship that, carried by the wave, has been marooned on the island. Can these two - separated by culture, language and fear - come together and rebuild a Nation?

Wonderfully written, scary and uplifting, I couldn't decide who I liked more - Daphne, in her stubborn refusal to freak out, or Mau, in his stubborn refusal to let Lokachu (sp?), the god of death, win his soul...if he even has one any more...

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On a small island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean lives the Nation, an ancient tribe of people whose lives are bound by tradition and belief in gods and rituals. Mau, a young man of the Nation, is returning to his island from a month spent alone preparing to become a man when a huge tsunami hits,

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destroying his village and everyone he’s ever known, but sparing him and his canoe. Also spared is Ermintrude, a young woman from England, whose ship is wrecked on the island by the wave, killing everyone onboard except Ermintrude and a rather foul-mouthed grey parrot. Ermintrude, too, has lived a life hidebound by tradition, and, finding herself hundreds of miles from her own people, is able to reinvent herself and break free of the strictures of ladyship instilled in her by an overbearing grandmother. Renaming herself Daphne, she and Mau tentatively forge a friendship based upon mutual loneliness and need. As other survivors from nearby islands trickle into their refuge over the weeks and months that follow, the two youths learn to communicate, learn leadership, learn to become more than they ever believed possible, and learn many secrets about the history of Mau’s people, the nature of belief, and the often complex relationship between science and religion.


Wonderful, powerful, and filled with touches of Pratchett’s trademark sly wit and wisdom, “Nation” is a treasure and an utter delight, sure to be enjoyed by adults of all ages.

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It took me a while to get around to reading this. I think I was putting it off because it wasn't a Discworld novel, and I'm a huge fan of Discworld. But it does exactly the same thing that all my favorite Discworld books do - takes some major issue that we face in our society, and transplants it

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into a fictional context where you can leave all your prejudices and pre-conceived notions behind, and actually look at the issue with unclouded eyes. And somehow he manages to wrap all this social commentary in a gorgeous little story that is so much fun to read that I could hardly put it down.

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This was my first experience with Pratchett and it will not be my last. After hearing about him for years, I decided I just had to read something of his.

It took me a minute to get into the book. I wasn’t sure what to expect and at first I wasn’t sure what to make of the story. It centers on

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Maw, the only survivor of the Nation, which is destroyed by a tsunami. He is left alone, disconnected from all he has ever known and he’s at once filled with grief, confusion and anger. He turns to the Nation’s gods for answers and is left feeling more lost than ever.

The plot really picks up when we meet Daphne (really Ermintrude, but she hates that name, so she says her name is Daphne.) She is a British girl whose ship has crashed on the island. Her relationship with Maw reminded me so much of Peter Pan and Wendy. She’s prim and proper at first and he is baffled by her ways, but soon they find a balance and develop a wonderful friendship.

The best parts of the book, for me, were the interactions between those two. Once they moved past their initial impressions they realized they could learn so much from one another. I also loved seeing Daphne gain confidence in herself. She was such a great character; part girl, part woman, trying to come to terms with her own grief and grow up at the same time.

With absolutely no spoilers included I do want to say how much I loved the ending. The characters grew on me throughout the book and by the end I felt so invested in them. The ending definitely increased my rating of the book and my overall love of it. So if it feels slow at first, definitely give it time.

I have to say I was really impressed with Pratchett. He has a similar writing style to Neil Gaiman (whom I adore) and the delightful sense of humor of Douglas Adams. So clearly he’s destined to become a favorite. He also manages to balance humor and a deeper message, which I really value in an author. I think that can be a hard thing to accomplish and he seemed to do it effortlessly. At first I didn’t even realize he had slipped such important issues into the fold of the story, but once I did I was really moved by the points-of-view he brings up. I’m looking forward to trying out his Discworld series, which I’ve heard is great.

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I admit that I hadn't read much Pratchett before buying this book, but now that I've finished reading Nation, I want to see more of what this man has done and can do. (Shame for now I have other more pressing books to get to.)

Nation was an enjoyable read from start to finish. It's a book that

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presents thinking in an intelligent and wonderful way and messes with the perception of meaning, right, and wrong. It's a culture clash seen from both ends, and by the end you can't help but see both sides as right, wrong, and foolish at the same time. It challenges faith, ignorance, history, culture, and a whole host of other issues in such pleasant ways that you could have spent the last 50 pages being preached at and you'd have enjoyed every word of it!

Now that takes skill!

The final chapter (or epilogue, depending on how you really want to look at it) was quite powerful to me, as it expressed how an entire culture can not only be remade, but made in the first place, by chance encounters, and that the smallest things have the biggest consequences.

I think that if more young people read books like this, they'd enjoy reading more in general. Which is exactly what I'm going to tell my roommate when I pass it off to him to read.

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Nation
By Terry Pratchett
(Audiobook)
Read by Stephen Briggs

Story Title: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Ending: 4/5

Synopsis:
Mau had been getting ready to trade his boy soul in for his man soul when a tsunami destroyed his home. Coming back to carnage instead of a warm greeting from his village, he finds

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death and destruction... and Daphne.
Daphne had been on a Schooner at sea when the tsunami hit, breaking her ship upon the island. Alone and afraid, she discovers Mau burying his dead, and, after one attempt at foolishness, decides he's not so bad, and that they must communicate.
Together, they forge a friendship that will take them from childhood to adulthood, and surpass prejudice to form a Nation.

Character Likability:
Mau: Possibly the most conflicted character in this story, Mau has to deal with having no soul, having no gods, drowning out the voices of the past, dealing with the voices of the present and figuring out how to make a future. By having his people washed away, he finds out more about them than he ever would have had life continued on as it always had. He's a pretty heavy character, and often has to take on serious endeavors.
Daphne: An incredibly likable girl, Daphne had been sick and tired of her role in society... so while at first she makes a hasty choice, she quickly realizes how wrong she was, and that now all the rules have changed.
Ataba: Foolishly holding on to the ways of the past, even though greater things are being uncovered all around him... rushing to keep those things hidden, even if it results in his death... he is an excellent example of what can happen when one closes ones eyes to the evidence around them and instead chooses to blindly follow what they have been told is right.
Other Characters: There are a plethora of interesting supporting characters in this story, all of whom are appropriately wicked, or appropriately pleasant. All of them are enjoyable.

Quality of Writing:
This work has been touted as some of Pratchett's finest... and while the topics are serious, often dark and much heavier than your normal Pratchett novel (honestly, Pratchett often plays with some heavy topics, but he manages to do it so humorously that you're able to laugh at the subject matter without being weighed down entirely by it... he often makes us laugh at ourselves before we know what we're doing) they are still interesting and the story flows smoothly.

Ending:
This one had a bittersweet but realistic ending.

Plot:
This plot deals with a lot of heavy issues. Religion, Individual vs. Society, Civilized vs. Barbaric, the transformation from Child to Adult and where exactly those boundaries lie... and who defines them. It plays with the concept of what actually makes a Nation, and with the ambiguity of defining things like that in the first place. The gods and adulthood are all very similar to the concept of 'Nation' in this novel, all of them being difficult to define. Daphne, herself, goes a long way to debunk a lot of the mysticism behind Mau's culture... when she works out that while there are traditions, like spitting in the beer and then singing the "beer song"... that really, the spit defuses the poison (the beer is poisonous unless it's spit in and sung to) and the song... well, it doesn't really matter which song you sing, so long as it's a specific length, ie, the length of time needed for the spit to react and de-poison the beer... there is a lot of that sort of thing in this book, and at the same time, there are magical elements that cannot be explained away through science. I don't think Pratchett was out to say religion is hokum and science can explain it all away, I think he was just pointing out that it's a wavering line and sometimes things that should be solvable with religion actually require science, and sometimes things that should require science really require some belief. Really, there is a lot to think about in this book, for those who care to really dive into what an author is trying to say... and for those who don't? It's still a really good, touching story about two people who have lost everything, only to find so much more.

Believability of World:
This is Pratchett's first non-Discworld novel since 1996... so a knowledge of his other works is not necessary. You can pick this one up and dive in, it is a stand-alone... and the world it exists in is an alternate version of ours, around the 1860's (It is mentioned that the Origin of Species was recently published)

Audio Quality:

Stephen Briggs does another fantastic job. This is the 3rd Pratchett book I've listened to as read by him, and they have all been amazing.

Overall Grade: B+

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Wow. This is quite possibly Terry Pratchett's best book to date. It's not a Discworld story -- it's set on an alternate version of Earth -- but like the Discworld books, it tells us a lot about ourselves by reflecting us in a funhouse mirror.

If you're a Pratchett fan, read this book as soon as you

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can.

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A standalone novel, this was a really beautiful piece by Pratchett. It plays with themes of loss and the creation of society and culture and the ownership of scientific knowledge and the role of religion--all without losing his light humorous optimism, and told through the eyes of two very

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relatable children.

It was a great balance of fun and seriousness, and though the novel sometimes lacked a little cohesion, it tied together well in the end--and I absolutely loved the ending.

Pratchett takes on a lot of themes here, ones which are a little more serious than what's usually covered by him--but he wraps it all up in the end of his author's note when he says, "Thinking: This book contains some. Whether you try it at home is up to you."

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The master still has it.

Not a discworld book! Instead an alternate earth. One result of reading it is realising that really that is all the discworld is as well.

This book should perhaps be better titled "God". Pterry reveals a sceptical view of religion but an uplifting and inspiring one of human

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beings.

Look out for cameo appearances by Einstein, Feynman, Sagan and Dawkins!

Beautifully written with both wit and insight (as usual).

Highly recommended.

This book is now my first thought when I am talking about books and discover to my horror that the other person has not yet read any pratchett. I think that it would be the best introduction to his wisdom.

Four out of five stars on the Pratchett-scale = nine out of five for the every-other-author-scale.

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A rare non-Discworld book by Pratchett. A young boy named Mau, is the only surviver when his village is washed away by a Tsunami. Until he finds Daphne, a British girl washed ashore by the storm. Together they struggle to survive and rebuild a sense of community.

In the beginning Mau's story

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reminded me of "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell (1961). But as more survivers gather on the island it began to resemble "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding (1954). Luckily it doesn't go that badly. Sir Pratchett takes the whole story in a new and surprizing direction with a happy ending (a little too happy in some ways).

I class this book as fantasy only because it takes place in an alternate reality from ours; but it is not a magical reality. Some people might classify it as alternate history science fiction.

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In quite a departure from his Discworld series, Pratchett has written a novel that is at once a gripping survival story and a highly philosophical work, asking questions about suffering, community, conflict, and clashing cultures. Mau has been sent off to spend time alone on a nearby island as part

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of his people's coming of age ceremony. On his way back to his island, a tsunami hits, killing everyone there. At the same time, a sailing vessel from England shipwrecks on the island, it's sole survivor being Daphne, a young lady who was on her way to see her father. One by one, survivors from neighboring island nations begin to gather, and Mau finds himself in the position of being their default leader, even though he sees himself as caught between manhood and boyhood, not having finished his initiation rite. Daphne, too, ends up handling the responsibilities of an adult. Their two cultures alternately battle and blend, as the ship is stripped of its material goods and technology, which are used by the islanders in their efforts to survive. In the process, they build a new amalgamated culture from their separate ways of life. A book which begs to be read more than once.

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A Crusoe-like adventure story of young Mau. He comes to the island to see what is left after the tsunami and he must decide whether he is a man now . Mau must deal with what new things he must face as it appears the island is deserted. I think it I was younger I might have liked the story more but

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it didn't hold my attention all that long.

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To start, I should just mention that I'm not a discworld fan. I've read Mort and a couple others, and they just don't do it for me. That said, Good Omens is one of my favorite books ever. That said, the only reason I picked this up was due to Patrick Rothfuss proclaiming "it's a gift from god."

It

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is.

This book was brilliant. I only wish it had been around was a kid so that I could have read it with the naivety of youth. Still, I was very impressed at how well Pratchett mixed his offbeat humour with a more driving narrative than I've grown to expect from him. His experience and talent as a writer shine through in this book.

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A little darker, definatley fewer elements of slapstick humor than his other YA books

Imaginative story of an island nation in the South Pelagic Ocean that has been wiped out by a tidal wave--except for one boy named Mau. Other survivors come and populate the island, including Daphne, an English girl who was on a ship to join her father, the colonial governor of a nearby English

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outpost. Alternate universe resembles the English Empire of Victorian times-- but fantastical details are purely Pratchett's own, as the reader finds out about the sophisticated civilization of the people of the Nation, their travels across the globe in small boats, and the legacy that they have of their discoveries.

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I've been putting off writing this review because I have complicated feeling about this book. Unlike most Pratchett books, this one took me a while to get through. While the humor and great characters are all there, this book has an undercurrent of anger, and the subject of that anger is one I

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struggle with myself often. So this book hit close to the bone for me.

Like most of Pratchett's "young adult" books, this one is more than challenging enough for adults. The themes, in particular, are very heavy. But children reading at a more surface level will enjoy the interesting story, comedic moments, and the respect Pratchett shows his younger readers.

Recommended for all.

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