Jay Stevens

One of Pratchett's weaker books, in my opinion. Starring a completely new cast of characters, with a few minor cameos from a few older ones, the book starts where a girl joins the military a la Mulan.<br/><br/>Eventually, she finds out that she is not the only one in her squad who is secretly a female.<br/><br/>Then, one by one, it turns out that everyone in her squad is female. This is stretching my suspension of disbelief near its breaking point, but I'm willing to go along with it for now.<br/><br/>But at the end of the book, almost every single major character is female. The only major character I can think of that isn't a lady is a Lieutenant whose name is Blouse. Even the characters who had been made out to be obviously male at the beginning of the book turn out to be chicks.<br/><br/>Now, I understand one or two. Maybe even, by coincidence, an entire squad. But near the end, it no longer has any impact when someone's a girl, yet each revelation is as drawn-out as if it were the first, and each one is made out to be as if it were a surprise. By the final third of the book, my suspension of disbelief was completely shattered.<br/><br/>You would think that someone would have noticed, since apparently this had been going on for years. Girls don't exactly have deep voices. They stuff their pants with socks to give the illusion that something is down below the belt, but it would seem that no girl in the entire country is gifted in the upper torso department.<br/><br/>However, despite its flaws, it is a Pratchett book. And like most Pratchett books, it is a decent, funny book. The analogy that one can never have a bad pizza comes to mind.<br/>But, sadly, this is probably one of his lesser works. If you just want Pratchett, try Mort, Reaper Man, or Hogfather (I may be a bit biased in what stories I recommend). This book should only be read if you're running out of Pratchett books to read.

T'was an okay read, although in my opinion not as strong as some of the other books. The Witches in general, I feel, serve as poor main characters (at least in the two I've read so far). Reading books revolving around them feels more like a chore to get to the next book involving someone else than anything else.<br/>That said, there are many good bits, like in any Pratchett novel. The Shakespeare jokes are appreciated, both the obvious and subtle. Tomjon is likable, as is his fathers' ghost, but I feel that the Witches themselves are more annoying than anything else.

Entertaining, as always. An interesting take on cultures mirroring Classical Greece and Egypt, with all sorts of history gags such as Greece and what is assumed to be Persia going to war with each side building an army of wooden horses and hiding troops inside of them, each hoping that the enemy will take them into one of their cities while simultaneously talking about how they aren't going to be dumb enough to fall for it.<br/>The take on the different Egyptian gods is also a more subtle joke that requires a little knowledge about the history of Ancient Egypt to get; at a certain point in the book, all the gods of a thousand pharaohs become real, and the joke is how there are so many different gods all assigned to the same task over the years that none of them are quite sure how exactly they're going to go about it. This mirrors how the mythology of the real-life Old and New Kingdoms became unified, making everything a lot more confusing when it came to figuring out which god was in charge of what.<br/>There are also some bits about the stand-in for the Greeks, who have a council made up of stand-ins for people like Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Sophocles, Plato, et cetera. Naturally, all these people have togas and beards, and naturally, all their discussions turn into massive arguments where nothing gets done. They are ruled by a "Tyrant," who is a democratically elected leader under the principle of one man, one vote: there is one man who elects the leader (the leader), and he casts one vote to elect him for four more years, and it is hailed by all as a great leap forward in democracy (again a dig at Athens' system, which was remarkably similar, although not quite as extreme).

Not quite as good as the two before it. The characters weren't as strong, and the one-liners were altogether a bit less frequent.<br/>The entire thing felt as if it were exposition for books to come; retconning some stuff from the first two books to prepare for another book in the future. No idea if I'm right or not, but that's how it felt to me.<br/>Not that it was a bad book; it wasn't. But I felt it was weaker than the first two, the characters were less developed and there was less comedy overall (other than a few sex jokes, which felt a little like cop-outs).

Of the two I've read so far of this series, they are giving The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a very good run for its money (although I must say I am partial to Hitchhiker's a TINY bit more, but this is certainly VERY close).

Rather abrupt changes with little to no flow between them, although the anecdotes themselves are fine. It wasn't quite what I was expecting; I had assumed the "other essays" mentioned were essays about writing, when in reality they were just whatever Twain had thought of at the moment, including his views on ESP.<br/>This makes sense, however: at the time this was published, Twain was going completely bankrupt. He was churning out piece after piece to make ends meet, these essays among them. The diminishing quality truly does show.