“Michael E said: 3.5 stars
With this great British fantasy satirist, you know dabbling in his Discworld Series is going to send over the top on a mapcap adventure that skewers most aspects of pride in our so-called civilization. It is a fun ride and I smiled along a lot, but my personal rating was short of a “4” because I did not quite achieve belly laughs.
This one is a bit of a parable like the tale of the farmer and his wife who swap jobs, resulting in extreme consequences, all rendered with the overall flavor of an epic in Monty Pythonesque absurdity. Here Sam Vimes, a city policemen of Ankh-Morpork is tasked with a diplomatic mission of representing Lord Verinari at the coronation of a new dwarf king in the neighboring province of Uberwald. Although he and his wife Sybil see it as a holiday, they soon find themselves in the undiplomatic position of creating mayhem in a virtual civil war due to internal factions in Uberwald bent on sabotaging the new king. The sacred Scone of Stone, used for generations as the king’s throne has been stolen, and Vimes’ skills are called for to deal with some bad werewoves involved in the plot. He is aided by a talking dog, a real wolf, and a vampire lady who has sworn off human blood (goes to the equivalent of vampire’s anonymous). Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Sergeant Colon is promoted to Captain of city police, and in keeping with the Peter Principle, rises to the level of supreme incompetency. Soon half the force is fired or gone on strike. Our hero Vimes sure gets a lot put on his plate.”
Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review Friday, July 8, 2011.
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