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Snuff (Discworld #39)

4.09 of 5 stars 4.09 · rating details · 13,626 ratings · 1,510 reviews

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse.

And Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on holiday in the pleasant and innocent countryside, but not for him a mere body in the wardrobe. There are many, many bodies and an ancient crime more terrible th...more

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Published (first published October 1st 2011)

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Oct 14, 2011 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: being-human, fantasy, headology, history, monsters

We saw Terry Pratchett at Town Hall Tuesday. He’s frail compared to the man I saw at Kane Hall back in the 1990s, but still sharp. He took questions, and one, predictably enough, was which of his characters he was most like. “In my heart I know it’s Rincewind,” he said, grinning. But then he continued in a more thoughtful vein:

“Twice I’ve kneeled in front of the Queen and she’s swished a very large sword over my head and fortunately, she’s missed every time. When I stood up a knight, a ferrier,...more We saw Terry Pratchett at Town Hall Tuesday. He’s frail compared to the man I saw at Kane Hall back in the 1990s, but still sharp. He took questions, and one, predictably enough, was which of his characters he was most like. “In my heart I know it’s Rincewind,” he said, grinning. But then he continued in a more thoughtful vein:

“Twice I’ve kneeled in front of the Queen and she’s swished a very large sword over my head and fortunately, she’s missed every time. When I stood up a knight, a ferrier, a blacksmith, a soldier in the Crimean War, all my ancestors stood up with me. . . . and you find yourself wondering about your roots and arguing with prime ministers. .

“And that’s the part of me that’s Vimesy.” This man who more or less accidentally became part of the power structure. A peer of the realm. Married to duchess who is on first names basis with most of the powerful since childhood. In this book, Vimes more or less accidentally takes on some of the ways that the powerful stay powerful, both as someone who believes in law that transcends the local power structure, and as a part of the power structure that just happens to be outside of his jurisdiction. It’s good for him he’s got friends in high places. Also in low ones.

This isn’t the sharpest Discworld book ever, and there are those who will not appreciate its earnestness. Vimes goes on vacation and more or less accidentally takes on the triangle trade. Unambiguously hero work.

It is unabashedly one of the darker Discworld books. Not darkness made visible, though The Summoning Dark does whisper dark and helpful things in Vimes's ears. Horrible things happened in the gaps; things the author darkly references but does not explicate. There are unspoken parts of the book that make me squirm.

The villains are also mostly off screen, which is somewhat dissatisfying. One of the things I like about the Discworld books is that the villains are people too. Maybe this time Pratchett could not bear to share their perspective. Or maybe he didn’t want to give us the comfort of really despising them by keeping them vague and mostly off screen.

It felt a little like the pieces that were left over from Unseen Academicals. Like Pratchett is doing his best to bring in all the despised races of fantasy world and show that they’re human too. All parts of ourselves we’ve done wrong by. Like the man said, if humans could fall, why couldn’t orcs rise, after all? Or goblins?

It’s quite utopian in the resolution. Mostly utopian. Except for the realpolitique that very few people are actually punished. Though the spiders might help.

It had one of the best lines I’ve read in a long time, spoken by the Watch’s forensic accountant, A. E. Pessmial, discussing how people can come to do terrible things. “'I'm sorry. I know that I am a small, weak man, but I have amassed a large library; I dream of dangerous places.'"

Pokes quite nicely at Jane Austen, though not as sharply as Unseen Academicals poked at Tolkien. May have been partially inspired by how all the amazing things that her British Empire was doing happened in the silences.

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Oct 17, 2011 Dan Schwent rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pratchett, 2011

Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and his wife Sybil take Young Sam and go on vacation to Sybil's ancestral lands in the country. Fortunately for the Commander, crime soon rears its ugly head and he soon finds himself ensnared in a web of lies, smuggling, and murder! Can Vimes get to the bottom of things before he finds himself at the bottom of the river known as Old Treachery?

I always forget how good Terry Pratchett is during the year or years between new books. To the outsider...more Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and his wife Sybil take Young Sam and go on vacation to Sybil's ancestral lands in the country. Fortunately for the Commander, crime soon rears its ugly head and he soon finds himself ensnared in a web of lies, smuggling, and murder! Can Vimes get to the bottom of things before he finds himself at the bottom of the river known as Old Treachery?

I always forget how good Terry Pratchett is during the year or years between new books. To the outsider, it would be easy to dismiss the Discworld books as silly fantasy novels. While they are silly, the Discworld books always deal with real issues as well. In this case, slavery and drugs. Snuff raises questions of what it means to be sentient, human rights, and the evils of looking the other way when something bad happens.

Pratchett's writing reminds me of P.G. Wodehouse's more with each passing book. I lost count of the clever lines. I even noticed reference to Tombstone ("I don't think I'm going to let you arrest me today."), Deadwood, and Jane Austen.

The characters are what drive the Discworld stories. Good thing, because they could easily degenerate into mindless silliness otherwise. Sam Vimes and his relationships with his family and the people of Ramkim were what made the story. Vimes' pep-talks with Feenie about what it means to be a copper, his caring tolerance for his son's fascination with poo of all kinds, and his feelings toward the goblins showed why Pratchett is more than just a fantasy writer.

The plot itself was pretty good. A goblin is murdered while Sam Vimes is on vacation and he starts pulling at threads to find out why, leading him to discover smuggling and corruption. The disgusting religion of the goblins is explored and, by the end, society is changed. Goblins haven't been touched upon very much in the Discworld series so far and I'd say Pratchett did a great job developing them in Snuff.

I can't pretend this book was perfect, though. The last fifty pages dragged a bit. That's about the only gripe I have, actually. It's the best Discworld book in years and if Pratchett doesn't manage to write another City Watch book, it'll be a good way to end things.(less)

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Dec 29, 2012 Tfitoby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: black-as-night, fantastical, funny, favourites

#4 Favourite Read of 2012

“Little crimes breed big crimes. You smile at little crimes and then big crimes blow your head off.”

There was a PC game released back when a PC was still a relevant piece of computing technology going by the name of Discworld Noir, I only played it a little while before my machine gave up the ghost but I suspect that even a Discworld title called noir was not as dark at its heart as this novel.

There's still an awful lot of humour to contend with but Sam Vimes is up agai...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Curt Hopkins Hopkins rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, police-procedural, city-watch

Even battling early-onset Alzheimer's, Pratchet is as good as any 10 novelists fighting ennui and indigestion. "Snuff" is the latest City Watch story in the Discworld series. The only other story that rivals it is the witches and I still prefer Commander Sam Vimes. "Snuff" is as good as any book in the series.

The City Watch series is the best set of police procedurals ever written. The emotional realism and detail is beyond compare despite the fact that the aforementioned watch consists, in add...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Tana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Spring, 2011

OH MY GOD, just logged on and saw that this finally has cover art.

I've been waiting for this book since...well, for a really long time. Not nearly as long as some people, I know, but GOOD LORD this wait might actually be worse than the tension and neuroses that afflicted me while counting down to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Also, chickens! A lifetimer! VIMES IS ON A SHIP! I'm not really sure what's going on.

September 28, 2011

Also, to whomever put that quote over there on the...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Anne Toronto1 rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Snuff" (Discworld series 39) by Terry Pratchett has double meanings: extinguish (candle, life) or tobacco to sniff (cause sneeze). Serious issues, humanity and sorcery, are tackled with humor. Commander (and reluctant Lord) Sam Vimes, arrives with family for holiday at his wife Sybil's country estate, and senses evil afoot. Amid son Sam's silly pre-occupation with poo, encouraged by meeting his favorite author Miss Beedle, are base crimes: kidnapping, murder. But the submissive goblin class are...more "Snuff" (Discworld series 39) by Terry Pratchett has double meanings: extinguish (candle, life) or tobacco to sniff (cause sneeze). Serious issues, humanity and sorcery, are tackled with humor. Commander (and reluctant Lord) Sam Vimes, arrives with family for holiday at his wife Sybil's country estate, and senses evil afoot. Amid son Sam's silly pre-occupation with poo, encouraged by meeting his favorite author Miss Beedle, are base crimes: kidnapping, murder. But the submissive goblin class are treated as vermin, without legal status. Their unggue religion creates beautiful pots to store bodily wastes, even nail-clippings, but not teeth.
The power of such preserves is more believable after reading Witches and Magic-makers by Douglas Hill. Photographs from ancient artifacts to present day markets, across the Americas, Africa, Asia, illustrate long-standing and existing beliefs. We may wonder why, but people do accept unreal facts.
The writing style is cobwebby complicated and repetitive (to me). After many Discworld books, the author has many details to keep track of and incorporate. I hope the Alzheimer disorder does not worsen and deteriorate the quality, like Agatha Christie's work suffered by her last.

Spoilers:
Jiminy bar-keeper and retired Colonel Rust try to warn off the newcomer. Sam finds a brutally killed goblin girl, source of copious blood, evidence for the corrupt local council to mislead their village inspector. Young Feeney arrests Sam, who recently publicly vanquished quarrelsome blacksmith Jethro, now vanished.
Meanwhile city watchmen Carrot and Angua search suspiciously wealthy cigar factories. Sergeant Colon starts acting goblin-like after he grips and cannot release a miniscule goblin jar in a cigar from Bewilderforce Gumption. Blue Feegle Wee Mad Arthur flies to Howandaland wilderness to investigate reports on mass evacuations of unwilling goblins.
Miss Beedle's best student, Tears of the Mushroom, has a heavenly hand at the harp, like the victim did. Lady Sybil can invite movers and shakers to a soiree. Can music change society perception of goblin humanity? (less)

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Oct 31, 2011 Saga rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pratchett's latest induced a fair few laughs, but felt structurally weak, even a tad disjointed. While Vimes still upholds the position of one of my favorite Discworld characters ever, his role was a tad overdone in an almost superhuman-ish fashion, which makes it harder to identify with the rugged, stubborn cob character I originally fell in love with. The whole Goblin rights issue seemed also like an infirmer repetition of Unseen Academicals' acceptance of Orcs, topped with one of the most uni...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Lachlan Smith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was expecting this book - the 39th in the Discworld series! - to show signs of Terry Pratchett's Alzheimer's syndrome - I was expecting it to be scattered, contradictory and repetative. However, it was none of these things. The story left me wondering whether there was any end to Terry Pratchett's monolithic imagination!
Sam Vimes, the commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch (Ankh-Morpork is the largest city on the Discworld, a flat disc supported by elephants in turn supported by an enormous...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Nick Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One day, one very sad day, Sir Terry Pratchett will be taken from us by the progression of Alzheimer's disease. I hope that day is a long time in coming though, since as he gets older and fights against the dimming of the light he simply gets better. I have read all his books and in this tale he returns to one of my favourite characters in the bizarre world on Amkh Morpork; Sam Vimes, Commander of the City Watch. Actually that His Grace, The Duke of Ankh, Samuel Vimes to you lot (but don't call...more

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Jan 06, 2013 P.d.r. Lindsay rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pratchett gets better and better. Here he is again pointing out humanity's stupidities: racial prejudice,snobbish beliefs in superiority, why the rule of just law is important and why violence breeds violence, yet all done with humour.

It was a great read. Sam Vimes is his usual grumpy heroic self, and even on holiday in the country he finds a major injustice to put right. Young Sam, his son, was a delight to read about. The Vimes-Ramkin family grow and develop from book to book as do the charac...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Robert Delikat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi

This was one of those bargain basement books that I picked up because I knew I needed to read some of Terry Patchett's Discworld. Little did I know at the time it was the 39th installment and I had no experience with any of the previous 38. So how fair of a review could this possibly be I do not know. I am told each Discworld installment should stand on its own.

The Ankh-Morpork City Watch is a fictional police force within the Discworld series and is commanded by the protagonist Samuel Vines. V...more

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Oct 25, 2011 Erastes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

about ¾ of the way through and enjoying myself immensely. You'd have to be a real Sam Vimes fan I think though to truly "get" the book and to enjoy it as much as I am, it's classic Vimes and it shines a light on him away from Ankh and his job there. I know he's been away before, to Uberwald--but he was on official business at the time and here he's acting under his own steam even though he's justifying it! :D

Willikins is brilliant, as is Sybil as ever and Young Sam is exactly how he should be--t...more about ¾ of the way through and enjoying myself immensely. You'd have to be a real Sam Vimes fan I think though to truly "get" the book and to enjoy it as much as I am, it's classic Vimes and it shines a light on him away from Ankh and his job there. I know he's been away before, to Uberwald--but he was on official business at the time and here he's acting under his own steam even though he's justifying it! :D

Willikins is brilliant, as is Sybil as ever and Young Sam is exactly how he should be--that one has a career as Ankh-Morpork's Sherlock in a few years - he's a copper to his boots and has a much more inquiring mind. Vimes wants to know whodunnit, but Sam wants to know - yes, and what was the rope made of that helped dunnit? More when I've finished!
==================
Ok - I've finished, and I've knocked a star off, because...

Well, that was… interesting.

90% of the book was wonderful. There was so much to love: Sam, of course, not realising until right at the end that he’d been micro managed—AS USUAL, by Vetinari with a big dollop of help from Sybil, Sam’s darkness and his real fear that it might take over, The Summoning Dark and the way it may—or may not—be living with Sam. Young Sam is just glorious and he made me tear up once or twice, he’s a copper (or will possibly be, as essayel pointed out) Ankh’s Sherlock in years to come) to his boots. He’s going to have an Interesting Life, that’s for sure. Lesbian couples, “the poo lady,” marvellous snobby country people and honest country folk… so much to love.

But…

I felt that part of the book was simply MISSING. There is so much that is introduced and then left up in the air that all the way through I was expecting an explanation, and simply never got it. This isn’t like Pratchett, he doesn’t always expound everything about a people—we’ve learned much about trolls and dwarves and other races over the course of the books, but generally we are told What We Need To Know At the Time. And I didn’t feel that we were told all we needed to know about the Goblins. I EXPECT a mystery and a half with Pratchett, things are usually vague in the beginning (like, for example in Hogfather where we are gradually given glimpses of events happening but much doesn’t make sense until after the Tooth Fairy's house is breached.) But there are things in Snuff that are simply never explained—other than “oh that’s Goblin Magic” or something.

I didn’t understand the correlation between smuggling Troll Drugs and tobacco and Goblin pots – unless the pot was put into the tobacco as a desperate measure like a message in a bottle? But then if that was the case, how did they think that they’d be found?

And I found the ending part to be—odd. Rushed, and that’s not something I’ve accused Pratchett of before. I didn’t really get what he and Sybil were doing, and why they had to do them seperately, and as for Vetinari’s last talk with Vimes, it was SO Out of Character it seemed to be written by someone else.

I guess I’ll have to read it again, just in case i’m being incredibly dim.(less)

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Apr 09, 2012 Marian Allen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Every author has the right to produce the book he or she has inside. It doesn't have to meet reader expectations or desires. What disappoints one reader will delight another. The only responsibility a writer has is to the work.

Other Terry Pratchett fans have told me that SNUFF is wonderful; they loved it.

I can't argue with that. All I can say is, if the rating is based on whether or not I, me, myself liked the book, the answer is no. I didn't.

Is Pratchett's signature sideways humor almost totall...more

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Oct 12, 2011 Kate O'Hanlon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Okay it's Pratchett, so the fact that it's good is a given.
And yet... I think Pratchett has overmined the seam of 'oppressed species shows that they are as human as you or I'.
And... I thought so when I read Unseen Academicals so to see him retread this ground again is a little disappointing.

There is also some very clunky writing and a lot of characterization that seems very at odds with previous books. I found it hard not to read without thinking constantly about Pratchett's illness and wonderi...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Kimberlibri rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

At the very first a regular reader of Pratchett can tell that he might have had help on the actual writing of this novel. Unseen Academicals was the same. The constant, but hilarious, footnotes aren't nearly as numerous and the style seems more formalized than the previous Guards books. However, after a certain point (and I cannot tell you when that point is) I completely forgot about analyzing style and fell, once again, into another wonderful Terry Pratchett work.

Loved it. Will always Love Te...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Bayla rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: discworld

Vimes goes on vacation - but being Vimes, and people being as they are, he uncovers a horrible crime and needs to dispense justice. It was lovely to see more of Lady Sybil (who is amazing) and young Sam (who is adorable), and to see some more interaction between Sybil and Vimes than is usual. I also appreciated, in this book, seeing how far Vimes has come, in some ways - from cordially despising all non-human species to fighting for them, seeing justice as the same despite species or race or any...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Garrett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As of this writing, Snuff is the most recently published Discworld series, coming after a recent installment in the Witches and Tiffany Aching story lines. This time around we're back to the gritty, vastly more violent and appreciably smoky world of Commander Vimes. While Aching's books deal with moral and ethical ambiguities, Vimes and the Watch seem like Pratchett's outlets for the ethical litmus tests: murder, slavery and general violence. Pratchett handles these themes adroitly through the p...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Dawn Peers rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: amazon-reviewed

"Pride and Extreme Prejudice"

I know fans of Pratchett have been a little disenchanted with his more recent novels. Some people are fans of certain types of Discworld novel; the Death books, Witches, Rincewind, or the Watch. I am a massive fan of the Watch novels and was delighted to have one with Sam Vimes again in full cynical focus.

This was a first for me as, as far as I can recall, Watch novels do not rely too heavily on events from the past to assist with goings-on in later novels. But Snuff...more

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Mar 10, 2013 Aya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 09, 2013 Daniel O Jones rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Just finished reading Snuff the overnight. The 39th book in the popular Discworld series, it is the 8th City Watch story as always involving by Commander Sam Vimes.
---Full Title "His Grace, His Excellency, The Duke of Ankh; Commander Sir Samuel Vimes" and when serving as Ambassador for Ankh-Morpork, he is also referred to simply as "His Excellency", and is also nicknamed "Blackboard Monitor Vimes" and "Vetinari's Terrier" (or hammer).

Ahem, anyway... the book is everything we have come to expect...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

Snuff is one of the latest “Discworld” books crafted by master storyteller Terry Pratchett. I read a few of these novels a few years back and successfully fought my inclination to immediately read every single one of them. Why? Was I desirous of creating frustration? Heck no! I only wanted to spread the fun and mirth out over time.

Friday, Feb 15th was a particularly trying and vexing day for me. Imagine my glee when I spotted Snuff on the library shelf. I scooped it up knowing full well that it...more Snuff is one of the latest “Discworld” books crafted by master storyteller Terry Pratchett. I read a few of these novels a few years back and successfully fought my inclination to immediately read every single one of them. Why? Was I desirous of creating frustration? Heck no! I only wanted to spread the fun and mirth out over time.

Friday, Feb 15th was a particularly trying and vexing day for me. Imagine my glee when I spotted Snuff on the library shelf. I scooped it up knowing full well that it would inject some levity into my life. And I was not disappointed.

This book is primarily about Sam Vines: Commander of the Anhk-Morpork City Watch, husband to Lady Sybil, and Duke of Anhk. But we like him best for the low-born, practical copper that he is. Defending the weak, the poor, the downtrodden, and those races that have been here-to-fore considered scum, if not outright enemies.

Being still rather recently married to the highly intelligent Lady Sybil (and wealthy beyond his dreams of avarice as a result) there is a lot of martial “advice” and by-play in all of the later novels centering on him. He is without a doubt one of my most favorite characters (not that Havelock, Lord Vetinari isn’t a favorite, too). One expects to have a “right good time” reading about his escapades.

This book takes Sam and family out of his beloved (and raunchy) city and plops him down in the pastoral wonder that is the countryside (of which he owns quite a bit). While ostensibly this is a vacation, we are not surprised that it becomes a fully-fledged investigation and cleansing of the rural sins that the locals have committed for as long as anyone can remember.

I won’t put in any spoilers (even marked ones), but I found the story to be as entertaining as I wanted while making a very serious statement about injustice and bigotry. Now that’s writing.

It’s easily a 4-star book and perhaps 4.5. It may not be your genre but if you are ever in need of a bait of masterful writing set in the bucolic spaces, then lift up a copy and enjoy. And, yes, it did make me smile despite all the bad stuff happening that day.
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Feb 19, 2013 Sanya Weathers rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

This should be a two star. I can't quite bring myself to give Terry Pratchett two stars.

The fact is, though, this book is missing something. Several somethings. There's a certain...polish, to a real Discworld novel.

This reads like a particularly high grade of fan fiction. The basic elements are there. The characters are almost right, but they're missing something at their heart, the thing that made them feel real. The multiple layers of meaning are also missing.

The humor feels forced in places...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After 'I Shall Wear Midnight', I was getting a little worried that Pratchett was losing his touch. It was charming, but a bit weak, and not quite on par with his other work in my opinion.

Snuff, on the other hand was fantastic - very enjoyable, and a little addictive. The only thing I couldn't figure out was why it was called Snuff - sure it featured from time to time, but I couldn't say it played an important part in the story, unless I'm missing some subtlety! Vimes' evolution as a character ha...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Danica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: what-i-read-in-2013

Hm, in my last review I said that out of the last four books I had read, there wasn't one without some fatal flaw. I was wrong; I had forgotten that the fourth book was Snuff.

What can I say? Terry Pratchett started out writing very funny satires of society and science-fiction. Most authors - literally, I cannot think of another exception - would either continue writing the series that was making them so much money, and get increasingly hackneyed and become stereotypes of themselves, or would gr...more Hm, in my last review I said that out of the last four books I had read, there wasn't one without some fatal flaw. I was wrong; I had forgotten that the fourth book was Snuff.

What can I say? Terry Pratchett started out writing very funny satires of society and science-fiction. Most authors - literally, I cannot think of another exception - would either continue writing the series that was making them so much money, and get increasingly hackneyed and become stereotypes of themselves, or would grow out of it and start writing other books.

Terry Pratchett is the ONLY person I have ever seen stay within the same series and world that he had originally created and grow - tremendously. And the world and the characters grow with him. Sam Vimes, the protagonist of this one, is my favorite example of this. He began as a thinly written alcoholic... perhaps not two-dimensional, but close, as were all of the characters in those days. Two and a half dimensions, because they all had some little twist that made them closer to real.

And without losing any of the traits and experiences he had at that time, he has become a deep, complex, and deeply explored human being. We've seen him struggle to beat the demon rum, we've seen how he grew and changed in sobriety, and we've seen him grow and change even beyond that, as he soars upward in society and at work and struggles with what those changes mean to him.

While the Discworld series is still hilarious and full of both subtle and obvious commentary on our own society, it's also become a source of actual novels. You could pull out many of his more recent books - particularly Thud!, I Shall Wear Midnight, Night Watch, or Monstrous Regiment, most of which give me goosebumps and/or make me cry every time I read them - and read something stunning that stands alone, even though it is also a richer read within the context of the series.

Night Watch was the turning point for the series, I think, ten books ago. Instead of the usual sci-fi comedy that the Brits invented, it was this funny but intense and intensely moving journey through a history that is not even ours, and a tale of friendship and inner demons and ordinary heroism that very much is. Almost everything he's done has been like that ever since.

There is nothing else to say, I think, except that this is THAT kind of book. We get to know Sam Vimes as deeply as we know ourselves; maybe more deeply because we also see bits of how others see him.

Some details I greatly enjoyed:
- Seeing his relationship with his son develop, and his son's personality and interests develop too;
- A new relationship with goblindom for Nobby and Fred Colon;
- The tiny ways in which Sybil, despite her aristocracy, is actually more realistic and open-minded than Sam is;
- A fight against racism that has been a theme throughout the series, but which seems to have departed from being a Lesson For Us Today, and veered into a special Discworld-specific battle;
- Getting to know his gentleman's gentleman much better - another fantastic character;
- Redemption of a kind for Lord Rust and Sgt. Colon;
- And most of all, the moments at the end where Sam was "as happy as a cat full of sixpences" and where he was so happy that "they had to find another cat full of sixpences for him to be as happy as."

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Feb 02, 2013 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sam Vimes has always been and most likely always will be my favorite Discworld character. I quite look forward to Sam Vimes novels, even though they have evolved (with the progression of his character!) through the years. Snuff did not disappoint. While I would hesitate to put it alongside Thud! or (my absolute favorite) Night Watch, Snuff certainly holds its own as a well-fleshed out Sam Vimes book.

We're seeing Sam Vimes the father alongside Sam Vimes the copper, Sir Samuel Vimes, the Duke of...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Shannon rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I wanted to like this. I've loved the guards stories from the beginning, and watching Terry Pratchett grow as a writer. I've loved watching Vimes and the Discworld universe grow. I loved the weaving of the stories in Night Watch and Thud. I was looking forward to more.

This book was dark, with a slow pastoral beginning. I appreciated the similarities between the goblin's treatment by humans, trolls, dwarfs, etc in Discworld and the building of systematic racism in our own society. But there was s...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Milton Soong rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, comedy

Lower to 3 stars if you are not a fan of discworld or funny fantasy novels of the British persuasion in general.

Discworld novels have become its own genre by now. If you don't know what that means it's like your friends who are rabid Monty Python fans, who knows all of the episodes by heart and can parrot (hehe, got that?) any of the skits on demand. Well discworld fans are like that too.

For the uninitiated, it's a fantasy world very much like own, and most novels set out to parody our own. This...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Martyn Stanley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've read all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, going right back to 'The Colour of Magic'. Throughout the series the quality has improved exponentially. The Colour of Magic was more or less a series of satirical scenes, observational anecdotes about life and other fantasy novels, almost fantasy parody, with a loose plot woven around it.

As Pratchett's progressed though, the world has become detailed and refined, the characters more human and the plots have come to have more of a point to the...more I've read all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, going right back to 'The Colour of Magic'. Throughout the series the quality has improved exponentially. The Colour of Magic was more or less a series of satirical scenes, observational anecdotes about life and other fantasy novels, almost fantasy parody, with a loose plot woven around it.

As Pratchett's progressed though, the world has become detailed and refined, the characters more human and the plots have come to have more of a point to them. By that I'm not criticising the early books for not having a point, it's just that the later books tend to have a real world agenda -either to take a satirical look at the history of real world institutions such as monetary systems, journalism or the postal system.

I expected Snuff to read like a somewhat parodical version of 'Midsommer Murders' the protagonist is the already well developed Commander Samuel Vimes, and the story revolves around his uncomfortable relationship with his status of 'Duke' and his inability to 'stop being a copper'. It's a very hard book to put down once you get into it, and you are into it within a few pages. The real point of this one, the argument that Pratchett is focusing on, is the argument against racism and slavery. In some respects the crimes of the perpetrators mirror the crimes of the slavers pre abolition in the early 1700's. It leaves you to question, is morality legality? If something is legal does that make it moral? How about the other way around? In modern society it's easy to see this as black and white, but the truth is more complex, what is more immoral - the man who grows a cannabis plant in his kitche, then smokes it illegally? Or the millionaire business man who utilises complex accounting techniques to legally avoid paying hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of tax on his income?

All in all, this is Pratchett at his best, and Commander Vimes at his best, there are plenty of twists and turns and some good solid character development, though I enjoyed the later discworld books, which examined the history and development of journalism, monetary systems and the post - I enjoyed this far more, I wholeheartedly recommend it.(less)

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Jan 03, 2013 Aaron rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sam Vimes is my favorite Discworld character. I love the guards books. I've noticed that they are usually where Pratchett writes satire on politics and society as a whole. They tend to take on heady, big, topics, like liberty, oppression, racism, or unthinking patriotism. I really think that they're a more natural fit for a "this race is just as worthy as humans" than the wizards books are. However, this was the first of Terry Pratchett's books that I've read where I started to feel like I could...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Helen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, humour

No-one has mentioned the fact that Pratchett must have read "Life on the Mississippi" and the whole sailing down Old Treachery could have been written by Sam(!) Clements. Interesting that the cover has Sam in the wheelhouse along with the 'complicated' chickens rather than any of the other possibilities. I think my review will lack somewhat because I have not read Unseen Academicals yet and some reviewers feel that this is just a second take on the material he addressed there. I don't know abou...more No-one has mentioned the fact that Pratchett must have read "Life on the Mississippi" and the whole sailing down Old Treachery could have been written by Sam(!) Clements. Interesting that the cover has Sam in the wheelhouse along with the 'complicated' chickens rather than any of the other possibilities. I think my review will lack somewhat because I have not read Unseen Academicals yet and some reviewers feel that this is just a second take on the material he addressed there. I don't know about that other book, of course, but the material here on slavery was clear and no one is going to argue with what he says. I found it interesting that it wasn't the idea, the logic of anti slavery that did away with it but the personalising of it. It was the goblin musician who convinced people that goblins could not produce that beauty if they weren't "human-like", that is with reasoning minds. The situation paralleled what happened to the First Nations people here in Canada, right down to the buckets of water and beating if they were heard using their own language and as Sam says, it's even worse when gods are involved because the people doing it are sure it is for the sufferers own good, that they are being "saved." There are always a few people like Miss Beedle undermining the status quo, thank goodness, although even she is trying to change the goblins.If you live in a dirt tunnel cleanliness is next to impossible and if you have only what you pick up what is around then clothing isn't going to be either fashionable or clean. I wondered if there was an element of concern for the Romany people in there, too. In other words all the people who have been repressed, imprisoned and/or belittled by the white races forever. Not to forget that all groups have other groups they look down on, so insert whichever groups you're familiar with.
The whole sailing down the river and the damn slam is derived, as I said, from Samuel Clements' "Life on the Mississippi" which details the life of a river pilot and explains why Clements thought it was far and away the greatest life in the world. Sam, you notice, feels the same way and he has a chance to relive the experience. This part of the book is a straight forward adventure story with as much excitement as anyone could want. It is not Pratchett's usual style and I think he wanted...no, I don't know what he wanted and he seems to have disappointed some of his regular readers, but this is one I'll read again and again. The only reason it lost a star was that there wasn't as much laughter as usual and I do enjoy his word play. I did not find the book dragging, though.(less)

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About Terry Pratchett

Sir Terry Pratchett sold his first story when he was thirteen, which earned him enough money to buy a second-hand typewriter. His first novel, a humorous fantasy entitled The Carpet People, appeared in 1971 from the publisher Colin Smythe. Terry worked for many years as a journalist and press officer, writing in his spare time and publishing a number of novels, including his first Discworld novel,...more

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“Goodness is about what you do. Not who you pray to.” — 58 people liked it

“I tell you, commander, it's true that some of the most terrible things in the world are done by people who think, genuinely think, that they're doing it for the best, especially if there is some god involved.” — 31 people liked it

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Snuff (Discworld #39)

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