Sunday, 20 May 2018

Terry Pratchett - The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents


Rating: 5/5

Review:
Classic Pratchett


Terry Pratchett wrote this for young adults, but this…er…mature adult also enjoyed it very much indeed.

The Amazing Maurice is a cat who suddenly found that he could think and to talk.  He now travels with a group of rats who have been given the same abilities and, with a young boy playing the pipe, travel from town to town doing a sort of Pied Piper act to con the townspeople.  However, they begin to develop a conscience about this and then arrive in a town where something sinister is plainly going on…

It's classic Pratchett: gripping, funny, ingenious and quietly full of some important human and moral considerations.  The portrait of Maurice's behaviour as a cat is very amusing, there are some great side-swipes at the conventions of fairy tales and so on.  And anyway, anyone who doesn't like a story featuring a thoughtful, moral rat called Dangerous Beans is, quite frankly, a wrong 'un.

I've managed somehow to miss out on The Amazing Maurice up to now.  I'm very glad to have put that right and can recommend this warmly to readers of all ages.

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