Review (Discworld): Snuff

Only 2 more books left to go O_O

This is going to be a bit of a ‘as the thoughts come’ dump of a review – apologies in advance.

I’d heard quite a bit about Snuff before reading it. It’s one of the Discworld’s I’m completely fresh never read before, and the only Vimes one I hadn’t read yet! I’d heard that Vimes was a bit out of character (more on that later) and seen discussions about Pratchett’s embuggerance affecting this book. I also had a strange impression that it was a sort of ‘Cluedo’ type story (Which I’m going to be totally honest I wish it WAS more like that).

So first up there are some strange things about Snuff. I do think there were impacts of Pratchett’s situation – but just to be clear, it is not like ‘oh my goodness, who wrote this??’ there are just some different styles, as I noted some reviewers point out there is considerably more swearing. I noticed this in later Pratchett books, and I don’t know it is reflects a determined decision, potentially his own anger or indeed just a sign of slightly less thoughtful prose – in the same vein there are also some more crass gags which I noticed in Thud! and Unseen Academicals. Some of the subplots are malnourished and the story is chunked very strangely which I will bring up soon.

So the next thing I want so say about Snuff is I LOVE the initial setup. Something odd about Discworld novels is they don’t really have a lot of what I would call ‘grounded’ settings. Pratchett is a master of vibes , the obvious example being Ankh-Morpork. We all have a good feel for how the city is, its sluggish river, its shanty buildings. But its not really spelt out exactly where everything is, or how it looks. Vimes’ (or more accurately Sybil’s) country estate is described differently. It’s very vivid and almost whimsical. I really enjoyed the first part of this book because it really played with Vimes being a bit fish out of water, but not stranger in a strange land styles, more grumpy police guy suddenly romping his estate.

Sadly this style doesn’t really continue – and like I said I would have loved a Cluedo type whodunnit plot set in this way – but the story does continue in slightly more Discworld fashion.

Spoilers ahead as I explain the plot chunking and Goblins.

Unseen Academicals introduced us to the race of goblins but ultimately Orcs as a relatively unmentioned and not central group. Racial tension and harmony has long been a theme of Discworld novels. But in Snuff its a bit odd, largely that we’ve already had big steps with Trolls and Dwarfs – and now we have Goblins brought up as yet another species that needs to be included. It’s not an unwelcome theme precisely – but the story begins with Vimes feeling uncomfortable with his high station (and many of the peasant folk share the sentiment) but that topic isn’t really addressed as Vimes reverts back to a ‘copper’.

I’m rambling a bit but let me explain – the first part of the book covers Vimes visiting his country home, he tries to relax however comes into conflict with a local blacksmith and then after sniffing out some suspicious discovers not only the smithy missing but evidence of a murder. The sense of the book is that its supposed to about Vimes becoming a bit more Vetenari-like, operating like an authority rather than a beat-cop who happens to be a duke. However the story struggles with this a bit, as the plot quickly turns to Vimes discovering the Goblins about the place, and how they are treating as commodities / slave labour.

It’s not that a murder can’t have a bigger implication, but a few things are clunky about the tale – the emotional whiplash is severe, we go from Vimes semi comically not fitting in as Duke very well, to abruptly finding out that a race of creatures are getting slave traded including it seems all the perils of that. This section sees Vimes largely pouncing on people and tough talking them into revealing what’s going on. I think this is where people are saying he seems to be a bit out of character, as Vimes is usually more upfront or violent in self-defence. He comes across a bit like Jack Bauer (24) in this book.

From there we have a 3rd arc which is perhaps more typical Vimes action, where he battles the baddies on boats which again isn’t bad but just kinda sits weird to me, it feels like each sections setup doesn’t match the following (e.g. 1. Vimes is an awkward Duke, so he investigates somewhat lawlessly, then he battles people on boats, section 2 doesn’t resolve section 1 and so on)

Which brings me to the following dark. I didn’t realize it came back in this book (it appears in Thud as a sort of demon/state of mind) – it makes sense of the level that he his looking out for Goblins who live in dark caves – but its also an odd fit, e.g. it doesn’t have much to do with anything happening except Vimes; ‘darkness’ It kinda annoys me Vimes’ character development over the last few books. It’s great that we get so many Vimes books in this series but I feel like his original character arc of a basically good but severely cynical and downtrodden man, switches to a sort of weird ‘inner darkness’ it darks in Night Watch (IMHO) where there are several references to Vimes’ “Beast” as if he is one bad decision away from evil – then continues with the Following Dark. I feel like Vimes true struggle isn’t his inner evil psychopath, its him understanding how to balance everyone else’s evil to function in the world.

So the story kinda promises to develop Vimes a little further to kind of give him a bit of a sendout as perhaps more of a nobleman rather than an action packed copper – but it just kind of fizzles as yet another Vimes adventure, including once again learning that Vetenari (and Sybil this time) kinda setup of the whole thing. Its hard to really feel much about the Goblins as they were barely already introduced – and while their plight is truly awful its odd to have them in this standalone fashion. It’s not like the Dwarf and Troll conflict which was building throughout the books.

I mentioned subplots before. There really aren’t many in Snuff, there is a very strange Ankh-Morpork thread where Colon is possessed by a Goblin ‘Ungue’ which doesn’t add much to the story except for an excuse to bring the rest of the watch onto the page, which normally I’m all for – but as mentioned already Carrot in particular is lower than a minor character and there isn’t much fun to be had in this story. There is a brief diversion where Vimes meets some eligible bachelorettes and tries to get his head around high society but again its a passing reference, and the majority of the story is about Vimes kicking butt so it was a bit head shaking to be reminded of the ladies in the ending pages.

This all probably makes it seem like Snuff wasn’t great – but its actually just fine. I wouldn’t say it reaches the heights of other Guards books but like I said other people’s review had made me think this one was a bit of a disaster – instead I found It’s definitely got strange moments but its was a good read!

Weekly Writing Roundup: Where did February Go? 2024

Today we have Weiland on Backstory, a thread on rare writing advice, It was all A dream, how to save your darlings, and a ‘rules’ post

A Writer’s Comprehensive Guide to Backstory

This is a really useful read – I liked the section on ‘how much backstory?’ It’s a question that could probably prompt a hundred pages of advice… My thoughts are you need to consider genre, character and conclusion. Genre is an easy one – 90% of the time you can look at your genre and make a call. e.g. horror doesn’t tend to lean into tonnes of backstory, but tends towards that ONE big fatal flaw of a character. Epic Fantasy however leans heavily into backstory, often requiring history of character’s whole family (I’m not saying it must but its a common genre trope). Character seems obvious, buts its a question about where the development of the character lies. A lot of stories don’t need any back – but many hinge on something in the character’s past – its a bit of a paradox The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a great example of a story loaded with ‘back.’ You might ask why such a story doesn’t start earlier – its about how current action is framed by the backstory, and that the backstory might not provide much in the way of narrative action. Finally to continue with the same book as an example – conclusion. Basically how does the backstory influence the conclusion of the story (light Spoilers coming) Harold’s journey ends in a strange bittersweet but ultimately good conclusion that is flavoured but all the past events leading to it. IF you’re debating backstory think about how it will impact the conclusion, will it hype it up? Create interesting twists?

Phew went on a bit for that one!

What is a good piece of writing advice that’s also extremely rare to hear?
byu/TheRedditGirl15 inwriters

Not much to add – just a good thread to peruse.

“It was a dream” twist
byu/msladec inwriting

This is an interesting ‘red flag’ trope – my first thought on this is that perhaps this technique is something that is a little different between the scene and the page. Screenplays have a performative visual element – and to some extent the enjoyment of a movie or show is very much the experience in the moment. So a ‘dream’ twist could absolutely still be annoying but YOU still had the experience.

Writing by contrast is an active process for the reader – writers don’t necessarily present an experience for you they spark your own internal one. Therefore when it was all just a dream this creates a weird internal conflict. It’s not just what I showed you that was a dream – everything YOU were thinking about and picturing was actually a dream.

What Taylor Swift’s Vault Tracks Can Teach You About Not Killing Your Darlings

I think “save” your darlings is ironically not the opposite of “kill” your darlings – its doesn’t necessarily fix rigid thinking about a WIP, but I do think keeping a ‘vault’ is a great technique. Sir Terry Pratchett according to his assistant and biographer had a “pit” where various ideas and passages got dumped, sometimes for use and reuse.

Writing Rules That Beg to Be Broken

I confess I’m not the hugest fan of this post (because it starts with a few ‘rules’ and then is about 50% just a lengthy ramble, but who am I to judge). But anyone who has been following me knows that my stance is that writing rules are really useful to know, understand and eventually take your own stance on them.

That’s all for this week folks!

Weekly Writing Roundup 17.2.2024

Great video by McNulty – I think especially because we often don’t focus on scenes as much in writing advice. Something that stood out is the ‘cheat code’ scene where characters have cheap solutions to problems. I think sometimes writers get mislead in problem solving their plot, their character’s solutions don’t need to be mind blistering complex or amazing, but they do have to be meaningful to the character. e.g. where they brave, did they swallow their pride, did they embrace the dark side or not?

“It was a dream” twist
byu/msladec inwriting

The classic writing “no no” but something I’m curious about is what could potentially make it was ‘all a dream’ actually work. As I write this I realize that most dream wake-ups bring the character right back to where they were at the beginning of the story. What’s less tropey and dumb is if the ‘it twas all a dream’ actually bring us to a waking world that is different. e.g. its the antagonist dreaming or something.

In fiction, how important really is it to be accurate about things like law, police procedure, business, etc.?
byu/somnipathmusic inwriting

This is an interesting question because I think most people argue that you should be pretty accurate, however my main point is that you want to be ‘accurate’ to your story. (although always important not to be jarringly bad obviously). Almost all fiction has a certain about of unrealism, its about things being believable in context. For an oldie take The X-files. Very little is realistic about that including the procedures of the FBI, however Mulder and Scully’s strange relationship with the hierarchy of the organization is acceptable enough to sit comfortably with the story.

So I’m going on a limb here and guessing many readers will be aware of Zero Punctuation/Yahtzee? There was a recent(?) exodus from the parent org (The Escapist?? I often get the names mixed up) ANYWAY, the familiar dulcet tones are really interesting explaining a more general topic than just acerbic video game reviews, and I’m here for it. The focus is on plot twists in video games but has good insights for all writing. Uh even the last point.

That’s it for this week – take care all!

(ARC): The Little Time Allotted Us

This is going to be a really tough book to review – I wanted very desperately to like this book, however found myself ultimately thwarted.

First issue is simply a matter of ‘Too much’. Our MC has memory loss, a probation officer implanted in their head, a complex sci-fi political landscape (spacescape?)– which was already a lot, and then Time Travel? Multi-Verses? I’ll come back to this again, but the sheer amount of things going on, particularly things that potentially confuse the narrative, (e.g. the MC having memory gaps and a voice in her head), I’m not saying that it would be impossible to pull off a good story with this amount of baggage – its just unfortunately this book doesn’t.

I think the problem comes with lack of grounding in the prose. A lot of the words on each page were dialogue or stream of consciousness / internal voice. This created a really weird effect – kind of like talking heads syndrome, except that when something DID happen it was often really jarring and noticeable, like “holy sh*t someone just got their leg cut off!” or “that person just got disintegrated by a “doctube” (still not entirely clear what a doctube is, was it like a hyperfast uber gondola??). It wasn’t always ultra violence, there were actually some VERY cool spaceship battle scenes, but they were few and far between when this book desperately needed more.

Or rather just more scenes where concrete things were happening. After a chaotic first few scenes it seemed like a massive chunk of this book were characters talking about things, but not actually showing many of these happening. I got the feeling that the intention was to create a sort of emotional whiplash that war can create where you don’t witness much of the atrocity firsthand, but I also wonder if it was just that hard to keep track of who was doing what that it created a sense of being disconnected from the story (again not helped that one character was a voice in another character’s head).

Which coming back to the first point, having a head-hopping, universe AND time hopping narrative was just all too much to keep track of. I genuinely had to flick back and double check I hadn’t misread that indeed time-travel was happening in this story too. The final quarter of the book was much more grounded and really did have a good pacing – but it was held back by having a lack of foundation – it was an interesting lesson in writing how books need: not only clear stakes but also clear choices for the MCs. When it came down to the final confrontation it felt stilted because I honestly didn’t know what the characters were capable of, can they time travel or multi-verse travel or both, or neither?

Then there are a couple of inexplicable decisions about the story. The tone is somewhat all over the shop, the jokes are genuinely funny as are the quips but they feel out of place against the rest of the story, there is even a moment where the MC asks themselves “what’s wrong with me” when they find humour in a corpse, and the line just felt a bit too self referential, like the character was aware they were a novel character or something. The epilogue abruptly has some of the best grounding and vivid setting description of the whole darn book, and its like why is this great material left till the end!?

It’s tough, because the premise and ideas in this book are amazing, the potential in the story is huge but it feels like it needed a major editorial sweep or two.

(ARC): Eye of the Ouroboros

Eye of the Ouroboros is an intriguing tale, as it feel very much like the story pulls us through a few genres. At first we have a sort of isolated horror “what’s in the woods” vibe. As the story progressing a more X-files / almost espionage style and then as the story concludes more of a sci-fi horror finale.

While they may sound confusing at best, Bontrager really pulls it off – in fact I’d say its one of the highlights of this story is that is goes different places, and isn’t afraid to mix tropes up a little. Overall the story is creepy as hell and Bontrager does a great job at not only suspending our disbelief at the supernatural elements, but also having a touching human side to the story. This is harder that it seems to make happen, especially with horror as a genre often lamented for its lack of significant characterisation and motivation.

This is the first story I’ve read in ages that actually gave me goosebumps and the ending most definitely will stick with you! Most highly recommended.

Weekly Writing Roundup: 10.2.2024

The Burgeoning Science of Search and Rescue

Ha ha, bit of an off-topic today, I saved this in my blog because did you know? when I was 19 I ‘found’ myself lost on the West Coast of NZ? Just over 20 years ago now! Really interesting little article and book recommendation about “lost person behaviour”

Back to writing

Burned Out on the Business of Writing? 6 Insights to Rediscover Joy and Passion

A very vulnerable post from Weiland, the bit that stands out to me is imposter syndrome. This week I’ve been working on setting up a subreddit for Lonely Power Poles, and even though its literally just the very same blog posts I’m putting here just in a different place on the internet I still felt/feel quite anxious like “wow why am I trying to draw attention to myself” (also raises a very strange thing about the internet that it is almost like a literal physical place in that where people ‘are’ and how spaces exist)

Avoid Random Acts of Content

Oh superbum! did I already do this on this very post? Admittedly I found the title the best part of this post. It is worth considering what people are drifting around your content for. Unless you’re a celebrity they probably aren’t too concerned about the day-to-day of your life. I have from time-to-time done off-topics on this blog and I don’t think its the end of the world – but it remind me of that recipe trope that was going around a few years back where recipe blogs were getting dissed for including the writer’s life story before they actually gave you a recipe. “Grandma taught me how to mix this cookie, she was a spy in WWII and slaughtered dozens of….”

It’s a funny example (or perhaps successful after all I’m still talking about it) of perhaps trying too hard to leverage social media presence for cross purposes. It’s a funny quirk of human nature that no-one cares about your life story if they are just looking for a good cookie recipe, BUT if you secure yourself as the most popular cookie baker in the world THEN people probably will show interest in your biography – but usually its one before the other, not both at the same time (this does give me a funny image of a bunch of cookie eaters having a strange shared knowledge of Username123’s WWII grandma, but none of them actually caring that much)

On Book Hoarding and the Perilous Paradox of Clutter

This reads more like a horror! An account of growing up with a book hoarder parent.

The 12 Best Book Covers of January

I don’t office focus on book covers so here’s a few top ones!

Rebecca Solnit: How to Comment on Social Media

Please note this is satire (I think)

That’s all for this wee folks – hope you are doing well!

(ARC): The Atrocity Engine

Let’s just get this right out of the way – Atrocity Engine is not the deepest of stories, nor the most original (unless you include the depths and originality of the splatter-horror). I was quite intrigued by the premise, however while there are a couple of good supernatural ideas, for the post part Atrocity Engine is more campy and comedic than badass (and I’m not 100% sure its supposed to be).

The plot is cobbled together with various Men-In-Black and buddy-cop tropes, to the point where I swear the author genuinely couldn’t be arsed and was like “yep we’re gonna have some backstory, but don’t expect too much”.

While this all sounds very negative, the story is fairly rip-roaring and if you ARE looking for shallow but very VERY gruesome horror then this is the book for you. I liked a couple of the supernatural concepts like ‘Brother Nothing’ and while they were tropey the MCs visits to supernatural bars and marketplaces was mostly fun (didn’t think I’d read a book today where a zombie dude was defeated by having his puss sores poked to oblivion but here I am).

Review: 4th Wing

To say that this book is creating a buzz, is a bit of an understatement… I’m not even on Booktok and I’m aware its popular and doing the rounds on there. My bookish workmates were talking about this, and one lent me a copy.

However I was a bit sceptical about this new “Romantasy” genre, (I assume 4th Wing is in this genre, for… surely are obvious reasons) being a curmudgeon I was concerned the genre mean bad fantasy and bad romance, in either order.

So I have to say I was beyond pleasantly surprised by this book! It makes me laugh a bit at myself and my standards – Fantasy as a genre is often super-serious at least in the sense there is an almost overwhelming demand not to be “anachronistic” (i.e. making dialogue, names, an character behaviour ‘fit’ with a sense of the middle ages).

In 4th Wing its feels like Yarros was just like ‘stuff it: this fantasy world is going to be filled with horny 20-somethings’ and you know what? It’s Silly, and at times a little eye-rolling. But it WORKS. It’s odd when hopeful dragon riders aren’t using dialogue from 1000 years ago but hey w/e.

But just to swerve from the romance for a moment – my gosh the fantasy elements in this are brilliant. This book is the case study for all the aspiring fantasy authors trying to figure out world-building. The info is never dumped, the world building is intriguing and well linked to the story, there were zero moments where I was like ‘alright I’m actually not interested in the magic or the history of this place’ this is the first book I’ve read since Lord of the flippin Rings where I am actually interesting in more lore and depth!

Here’s the thing, its not that any of the ideas are particularly original or amazeballs in themselves, but the way the plot, characters and world all fit together is done brilliantly (OK I did like the sassy dragons on their onesomes)

4th Wing also stands out in fantasy story telling as an MC that earns her stripes. No ‘chosen-one’ trope here, but nor is she a constant underdog. Again like the world-building there perhaps isn’t too much OG here, but its just done soooo well, this book deserves credit.

A couple of quibbles – but not really critiques of the book per se, more of a “fan reaction” to the story, I felt like some parts of the romance were mayhap a bit predictable, I hoped for more twists, but then again maybe the fun of this book just made me a bit greedy.

Apparently the sequel is already out!? I’ll have to cool down a bit but looking forward to seeing if the quality is maintained / improves and seeing what on Earth happens to the world’s most cynical dragons.

(ARC) River Mumma

Alicia has been out of grad school for months. She has no career prospects and lives with her mom, who won’t stop texting her macabre news stories and reminders to pick up items from the grocery store.

Then, one evening, the Jamaican water deity, River Mumma, appears to Alicia, telling her that she has twenty-four hours to scour the city for her missing comb.

This book hooked me pretty quickly with a main character who couldn’t be arsed being social at a local party – all while SKA of all things blasted over the music.

It’s quite a fun romp, the juxtaposition of supernatural and real is a good riff on various matters, although (ironically) I wouldn’t have minded a deeper dive. The ‘Duppy’s’ (ghosts) are really interesting and cool, but the story’s frenetic pacing and more comedic approach gives a Ghostbusters Vibe rather than Haunting of Hill House. (there’s even a Pitch Meeting reference of all things “super easy barely an inconvenience”)

And there isn’t too much else to say about River Mumma, which is probably the main flaw is there simply isn’t much else to this book. There is enough potential of a full novel length here, but the story is played as more for laughs, it does prevent the book from becoming too heavy, but actually I would have liked a bit of heft!

Weekly Writing Roundup 3.3.2024

Somewhat relevant to my previous post

But also…

Onto some actual resources!

5 Reasons Marketing Is Hard for Writers

I think one of the reasons (or 1.5 of the reasons) is that paradox that writers need to be supremely arrogant to think they have something worth putting into the world, while also being infinitely humble to accept feedback and bad reviews. Marketing punches that itch just as bad as writing.

But also a sense of imposter syndrome… that if you have to ‘market’ your book you’re actual book is subpar and you’re being disingenuous.

Designing Thriller and Mystery Twists That Work

This is an interesting article – focussing on twists by considering villains ‘truth’ its a slightly different way of looking at things which is always useful for writers.

And finally

Which side and why?
byu/Meteorstar101 inwizardposting

Am I engaging in toxic masculinity when I choose staff? Wands seem tiny and weak, unlike chad tree branch staffs (or maybe I just like Gandalf too much)

That’s it for this week!

Well almost, tried making an AI banner for this blog (power pole with no wires surrounded by cabbage trees)

AI does not know what cabbage trees are…