Terry Pratchett - Snuff

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Classic Pratchett

Snuff was written when Terry Pratchett was already suffering from the dementia which eventually killed him, but it’s still very good indeed.

This time, Sam Vimes is persuaded to go on holiday to his and Sybil’s country estate, where, inevitably, he feels completely out of his element, but his copper’s nose tells him that something is badly wrong. An excellent, entertaining story emerges in which some familiar themes emerge: the equality of everyone before the law, the importance of law itself, the abhorrence of racism and slavery, the policeman’s moral dilemmas and so on. It is, in the best Pratchett tradition, gripping, very funny in places and full of real moral weight. It also contains some fine nuggets of wisdom like this, for example:

“Commander Vimes didn’t like the phrase ‘The innocent have nothing to fear’, believing the innocent has everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but in the longer term even more from those who say things like ‘The innocent have nothing to fear’.” He is also still brilliant at knockabout comic absurdity with things like the names of oriental dishes and streets called the rue de Wakening, and I laughed out loud regularly, even on a re-reading.

It’s not perfect; it does go on a bit too long and sometimes labours its message just a little too much, but it’s still a great read and a favourite Pratchett of mine. Very warmly recommended.