Nation

Paperback, 384 pages

Published Sept. 22, 2009 by HarperCollins.

ISBN:
978-0-06-143303-0
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
441323012

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4 stars (55 reviews)

The sea has taken everything. Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away. But when much is taken, something is returned, and somewhere in the jungle Daphne...a girl from the other side of the globe — is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave. Together the two confront the aftermath of catastrophe. Drawn by the smoke of Mau and Daphne's sheltering fire, other refugees slowly arrive: children without parents, mothers without babies, husbands without wives — all of them hungry and all of them frightened. As Mau and Daphne struggle to keep the small band safe and fed, they defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down....Internationally revered storyteller Terry Pratchett presents a breathtaking adventure of survival and discovery, and of the courage required to forge new beliefs.

20 editions

Review of 'Nation' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I am no good reviewer, and usually I cannot think of something to say beyond getting a good or bad impression on something.

But this time I feel obliged to say that this is a really deep book, I think it can influence it's readers and inspire them to be better than they were before. It speaks of death and calamity, but it is in fact a very humanely done, so that the highlight is on an expectation of a bright future and finding our place in the world rather than grieve and sorrow. It is very nice that the most touching parts are not great troubles, but on the opposite some small details that can not be viewed as troubling in any way.

I would recommend this book to anyone, it has some retro air about it but that does not feel like a stale story, more like a …

Review of 'Nation' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I'd read this before in print form, but picked up the audiobook (read by Stephen Briggs, long time collaborator with Pratchett) and have to say the audio version was brilliantly done and gave real warmth and life to all the characters.

The book itself is a stand-alone, not part of the Discworld or any of Pratchett's other series; it's set on an alternate version of earth, I think somewhere around Victorian times (or the other-universe equivalent thereof). A massive tsunami hits a tiny archipelago of tropical islands including "The Nation", which is the island of the boy Mau, who is returning from his boyhood testing ceremony to become a man. Mau, being in a boat, survives; the rest of his island does not, so he arrives expecting to complete the ceremony to become a man and instead spends days retrieving and putting to rest the bodies of every single person …

Review of 'Nation' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I did indeed like this book. It was, given Pratchett's whole work, nothing out of the ordinary, it was "just another typical Pratchett".

Practically on every page you can see his footprint, a lot of text could appear in any of his Discworld novels, and neither the writing nor the story held much of a surprise, thus only 3 stars.

None of this makes it a book not worth reading, just to be clear. If you like Pratchett, there's a fair chance you won't regret the time spent to read this one.

One of the things that made this book most interesting to me, was the fact that it came out around the time of Pratchett discovering his illness, and, as other reviews mention, you get the impression that you can feel some of the emotional turmoil echo through the book and its characters.

Review of 'Nation' on Goodreads

4 stars

Terry Pratchett's Nation is a marked departure for the esteemed author from his Discworld series of books but presents the reader with many of the same issues and underlying messages as his other works. It's certainly well worth a read and introduces us to some truly memorable characters.

Review of 'Nation' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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 can.

Review of 'Nation' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I have a confession to make: I don't always like Pratchett. I don't even always like all of his Discworld. I'm likely to like, or at least, be able to enjoy, anything with the Watch, the witches, or Death, but Rincewind bores me, and much of his non-Discworld stuff I just can't engage with.

So I approached this novel with a certain amount of trepidation, which was needless. This is a quite decent book, not only as books go, but as Pterry books go.

There is a sort of children's literature, mostly written in the nineteenth century, where a white child or children is lost in the wilderness, and encounters a native child or children (native to whichever wilderness they are lost in, that is) who are for whatever reason also separated from their community. The children band together and become industrious little settlers, building a European style cottage while …

Review of 'Nation' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Any capsule description of the plot of this book sounds inadequate. To really describe this book I'd need about 367 pages, and Terry Pratchett to write it. Fortunately, he's already done that. It's published in book form. It's called Nation. Go read it. Now. It's chock full of the best of Pratchett's stealthy ways of making you think, just a little less stealthy this time. The book is by no means preachy, and tells an excellent story, but it is obvious that, in this book, Mr. Pratchett has crammed in as many hooks to get you thinking as he possibly can. The good part is that, at the same time, he's managed to keep you turning the page, created a world that feels real, stocked it with 3-dimensional characters, made you care about them, AND tied everything up with a bow at the end, all in under 400 pages.

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Subjects

  • Children's Books -- Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -- ( P ) -- Pratchett, Terry
  • Children's Books -- Literature -- Action & Adventure
  • Children's Books -- Literature -- Humorous
  • Children's Books -- Literature -- Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror -- Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
  • Children's Books -- Science, Nature & How It Works -- Nature -- Fiction
  • Science Fiction & Fantasy -- Authors, A-Z -- ( P ) -- Pratchett, Terry
  • Teens -- Literature & Fiction -- Adventure & Thrillers
  • Teens -- Science Fiction & Fantasy -- Fantasy
  • Teens -- Science Fiction & Fantasy -- Science Fiction