380 pages
English language
Published Dec. 8, 2013 by Doubleday UK.
To the consternation of the patrician, Lord Vetinari, a new invention has arrived in Ankh-Morpork - a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all the elements: earth, air, fire and water. This being Ankh-Morpork, it's soon drawing astonished crowds, some of whom caught the zeitgeist early and arrive armed with notepads and very sensible rainwear.
Moist von Lipwig is not a man who enjoys hard work - as master of the Post Office, the Mint and the Royal Bank his input is, of course, vital... but largely dependent on words, which are fortunately not very heavy and don't always need greasing. However, he does enjoy being alive, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse...
Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man wi' t'flat cap and sliding rule who has an interesting arrangement with the sine and cosine. …
To the consternation of the patrician, Lord Vetinari, a new invention has arrived in Ankh-Morpork - a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all the elements: earth, air, fire and water. This being Ankh-Morpork, it's soon drawing astonished crowds, some of whom caught the zeitgeist early and arrive armed with notepads and very sensible rainwear.
Moist von Lipwig is not a man who enjoys hard work - as master of the Post Office, the Mint and the Royal Bank his input is, of course, vital... but largely dependent on words, which are fortunately not very heavy and don't always need greasing. However, he does enjoy being alive, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse...
Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man wi' t'flat cap and sliding rule who has an interesting arrangement with the sine and cosine. Moist will have to grapple with gallons of grease, goblins, a fat controller with a history of throwing employees down the stairs and some very angry dwarfs if he's going to stop it all going off the rails...
Not my absolute favourite Discworld, but an enjoyable read and a real love letter to the railway, some of the passages were full of clear love & romance for trains.
2.5 stars, and because it's Terry Pratchett I just can't bring myself to round down as I usually do.
The railroads are a perfect topic for Discworld, and it's quite nice, actually, that the series ends with such a significant symbol of modernization; it's something like a promise that the turtle will keep swimming and Discworld will keep turning and its inhabitants will continue their inevitable push toward modernity, even if we no longer have the good fortune to read about it.
But LeBron help me, I got bored with this and it was a slog to finish. The last 20 pages or so were more enjoyable, perhaps just because it was a relief for the plot, such as it was, to have its loose ends tied up and for the whole thing to be, blessedly, over. The much-beloved core characters were "off", and it was really the secondary characters …
2.5 stars, and because it's Terry Pratchett I just can't bring myself to round down as I usually do.
The railroads are a perfect topic for Discworld, and it's quite nice, actually, that the series ends with such a significant symbol of modernization; it's something like a promise that the turtle will keep swimming and Discworld will keep turning and its inhabitants will continue their inevitable push toward modernity, even if we no longer have the good fortune to read about it.
But LeBron help me, I got bored with this and it was a slog to finish. The last 20 pages or so were more enjoyable, perhaps just because it was a relief for the plot, such as it was, to have its loose ends tied up and for the whole thing to be, blessedly, over. The much-beloved core characters were "off", and it was really the secondary characters that were more entertaining this time around -- Harry King and Dick Simnel in particular -- maybe because there aren't as many expectations around those characters and you don't have to worry about whether Terry "got them right".
It's a bit disappointing that this is the last we're left with of Discworld. That said, we were granted dozens of brilliant books about a magical world and the funny old people who inhabit it -- Raising Steam doesn't undo that.
Playful positive Pratchett, the good side of technological industrial progress well parodied and personified.
I only finished it because it was Pratchett. Plodded along for most of it except the last few chapters which you could see coming a mile away.
A bittersweet read. Has a little of the tone of rounding things off and tidying up some characters. A long book packed with 'stuff' Lots of allusions as you would expect.
It's hard to review this book objectively, knowing it's the second last Discworld book that will ever be written by Pratchett. I enjoyed it, and it brings back many well-loved characters. However, it's definitely not a good place for someone new to the Discworld to start.
Raising Steam continues the Industrial Revolution theme with Moist, this time introducing the steam engine. It has a familiar feel as it's similar in many ways to the other books which have done this - treating the new technology almost like a sapient entity trying to establish itself in the Discworld, and being met with the usual mix of confusion, skepticism, and chaos. There wasn't a lot new in this book; it felt more like a comfortable visit for people who are already fans of the world, and almost a last meeting and goodbye to some of the characters we won't be seeing again …
It's hard to review this book objectively, knowing it's the second last Discworld book that will ever be written by Pratchett. I enjoyed it, and it brings back many well-loved characters. However, it's definitely not a good place for someone new to the Discworld to start.
Raising Steam continues the Industrial Revolution theme with Moist, this time introducing the steam engine. It has a familiar feel as it's similar in many ways to the other books which have done this - treating the new technology almost like a sapient entity trying to establish itself in the Discworld, and being met with the usual mix of confusion, skepticism, and chaos. There wasn't a lot new in this book; it felt more like a comfortable visit for people who are already fans of the world, and almost a last meeting and goodbye to some of the characters we won't be seeing again with Pratchett's passing.
I love Terry Pratchett and particularly the previous Moist books.... This one was a good story and fun and interesting, but there wasn't enough Moist Von Lipwig for me. As with any Pratchett book - definitely worth reading (and you will certainly enjoy it).
Enjoyed although I felt the story was a little disjointed.
Still loved it's Pratchett
