It is well-established that Terry Pratchett has a universe in which he can
be, and is, as diverse as he wants to be, especially with regards to ethnicity
and race relations. Nevertheless, it is hard to place a slim, athletic,
straight-forward Yorkshire engineer in the midst of trolls, goblins, dwarfs,
vampires, fat policemen, etcetera (he's Yorkshire to my mind at least, as that's
where I also hail from); in a land where everybody is universally extreme,
mediocrity is not a virtue that can be emphasised enough.
This is a pre-industrial age in which the bright son of a bright but fatal
engineer picks up his father's work and invents the steam engine, nay,
fully-formed railway locomotive. In the first half of the book the concept
gains traction (very quickly) in the societies that inhabit Discworld, and is
pushed along by the prototypical industrialist and politician each of whom seek
to collaboratively further their own prospects in the world, along with their
top management. The second half of the book sees the new technology's impact by
managing to convey a King to one of his most distant outposts which is on the
verge of falling from his realm. It turns out to be an epic voyage as the train
finds itself under attack at every step and turn. The track itself is still
being completed as the journey starts, and provides some extra complication to
the plot. There are times where an encounter seems to go crash, bang, whollop,
and an army is defeated, but in the main Pratchett manages to keep the prose
flowing and invents enough interest that monotony and triviality are kept at
bay.
The closing pages sees the King declare her true self as a female, re-take
the throne of her distant land, and everybody lives happily ever after. While
the final showdown is deliberately anti-climatic, Pratchett imbues the scene
with such humanity that the book closes on a poignant apex so sharp it cuts to
your own outlook and makes you believe that, from now on, the world is a better
place. |
