Terry Pratchett, Paul Kidby, Patrick Couton: ROUBLARD (Paperback, 2013, ATALANTE)
Paperback, 416 pages
Published Oct. 24, 2013 by ATALANTE.
Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett's Dodger, a Printz Honor Book, combines high comedy with deep wisdom in a tale of one remarkable boy's rise in a fantasy-infused Victorian London. Seventeen-year-old Dodger is content as a sewer scavenger. But he enters a new world when he rescues a young girl from a beating, and her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England. From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd, to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery. A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad sees a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's Dodger. Seventeen-year-old Dodger …
Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett's Dodger, a Printz Honor Book, combines high comedy with deep wisdom in a tale of one remarkable boy's rise in a fantasy-infused Victorian London. Seventeen-year-old Dodger is content as a sewer scavenger. But he enters a new world when he rescues a young girl from a beating, and her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England. From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd, to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery. A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad sees a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's Dodger. Seventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London's sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl -- not even if her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England. From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery. Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett combines high comedy with deep wisdom in this tale of an unexpected coming-of-age and one remarkable boy's rise in a complex and fascinating world. - Publisher.
The first time I tried to read this I gave up, not sure why. This time I was much more captured by a fun victorian romp through London sewers with the origins of many well known dickens characters.
I loved the little bits of history peeking out of the story.
Not quite a retelling of Dickens' Oliver Twist, but more of a telling-along of it. We follow Dodger - not quite artful yet - becoming the hero of Fleet Street, Rescuer of Damsels in Distress (or at least one Damsel), and acquaintance of Charlie Dickens.
More serious that Pratchett's Discworld, Dodger still manages to incorporate historical facts, fantastic fiction and smart nods to Britain's greatest newspaper bits, stories and novels.
It’s easy to see a lot of Ankh-Morpork in the streets of Victorian London, but this story is far from the tales of Discworld. I found it very slow and didn’t find Pratchett’s rendition of Charles Dickens or Dodger that engaging. However, as always, there are some wonderful observations hidden away in what is otherwise a fragrant adventure in the sewers of London. I think overall, it would suit a younger audience.
Pratchett makes many connections between Dodger and those whose professions are considered above the board. Politicians and journalists as just as much “on the dodge” at times. The idea of making a living searching poo for a few coins being better than life as a chimney sweep or even the workhouses, really hits home the awful poverty of city life in Victorian times.
I found the most interesting aspects were the real people, however dramatized they might be. …
It’s easy to see a lot of Ankh-Morpork in the streets of Victorian London, but this story is far from the tales of Discworld. I found it very slow and didn’t find Pratchett’s rendition of Charles Dickens or Dodger that engaging. However, as always, there are some wonderful observations hidden away in what is otherwise a fragrant adventure in the sewers of London. I think overall, it would suit a younger audience.
Pratchett makes many connections between Dodger and those whose professions are considered above the board. Politicians and journalists as just as much “on the dodge” at times. The idea of making a living searching poo for a few coins being better than life as a chimney sweep or even the workhouses, really hits home the awful poverty of city life in Victorian times.
I found the most interesting aspects were the real people, however dramatized they might be. Such as Angela, heir to the Coutts fortune yet unmarried and doing her bit to help the poor help themselves. Such a very modern woman for the times. There was also Henry Mayhew who went on to write an eye-opening study of the poor in London, Benjamin Disraeli, who would become Britain’s only Jewish prime minister and Sir Robert Peel, head of the new brand of policemen. Joseph Bazalgette, the engineer who would one day improve the sewers of London, gets his first taste of the bowels of the city when Dodger takes him toshing.
There were also some characters borrowed from literature or, if you like, urban legend such as Sweeney Todd. Dodger himself isn’t exactly the Artful Dodger, but I get the idea he is perhaps meant to be the inspiration for Dickens’s character. And, of course, Charlie Dickens has quite a large role in the story too.
I'm sorry to say I wasn't impressed by Dodger.
It was an interesting attempt to write about the real basis for Ankh-Morpork, 19th century London.
We have many of the Discworld archetypes but something doesn't work and I don't think it's the less fantastic setting.
Dodger is simply invincible, there is no tension there is no adversity.
In a book about a suer rat making it big, there is no struggle there is no hardship.
Dodger's way to the top is paved with well intentioned adults that help him overcome any possible hurdle.
Dodger himself is perfect in every way, no one can challenge him if he gets into a fight, no one even lase a hand on him, if he wares a disguise no one notices if he breaks in to a house he can walk around as a pleases and no one will notice and if there is …
I'm sorry to say I wasn't impressed by Dodger.
It was an interesting attempt to write about the real basis for Ankh-Morpork, 19th century London.
We have many of the Discworld archetypes but something doesn't work and I don't think it's the less fantastic setting.
Dodger is simply invincible, there is no tension there is no adversity.
In a book about a suer rat making it big, there is no struggle there is no hardship.
Dodger's way to the top is paved with well intentioned adults that help him overcome any possible hurdle.
Dodger himself is perfect in every way, no one can challenge him if he gets into a fight, no one even lase a hand on him, if he wares a disguise no one notices if he breaks in to a house he can walk around as a pleases and no one will notice and if there is a chance of getting into trouble, he is after all a member of the wrong class in 19th century London... well there's always someone with serious clout to smooth the way for him.
I had a similar problem with Terry's latest Discworld novel
[b:Snuff|8785374|Snuff (Discworld, #39)|Terry Pratchett|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1302694636s/8785374.jpg|13659124], Vimes has become too powerful and there is no sense that he may fail, that he is in someway an underdog fighting powerful adversaries.
Compare Dodger's journey out of the suers to that of the Rats in another Prattet YA book, [b:The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents|34534|The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Discworld, #28)|Terry Pratchett|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1168566225s/34534.jpg|1179689]. Compare Vimes in [b:Guards! Guards!|64216|Guards! Guards! (Discworld, #8)|Terry Pratchett|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347382469s/64216.jpg|1128601] to Vimes in [b:Snuff|8785374|Snuff (Discworld, #39)|Terry Pratchett|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1302694636s/8785374.jpg|13659124].
Yes Vimes is a developing character and does gain more power in each successive book he appears in, but I think that only in [b:Snuff|8785374|Snuff (Discworld, #39)|Terry Pratchett|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1302694636s/8785374.jpg|13659124] did he become invincible.
Initially very confused about the mix of fictitious and historical, but enjoyed it once I just relaxed and stopped trying to analyse each anachronism and cease playing 'pin the history on the character'. Sort of a Dickensian Forrest Gump, colourfully illustrating a piteous existence while being wonderfully unaware or uncaring of one's lot. Also I want a pat on the head for knowing about Cloacina prior to reading this lovely little book. Thank you.
