"Snuff" ~ Terry Pratchett

British author Terry Pratchett can be an amazingly funny writer while at the same time being amazingly thought provoking. His best books are the ones that have a great balance of the two.  "Truth" being a great example and one of my favorite books.  The satire present in every book is used to skewer society and culture in both broad and small, sly ways. Just consider this quote from "Truth"

 There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!

 The books about the City Watch have always been among my favorites because you're mixing my fantasy and mystery genres again.  I do have to say that the Moist von Lipwig books "Going Postal" and "Making Money" rank right up there as well.  Ah, but the Watch...what a group of characters.  An odd collection of misfits that you can't help but love.  And Sam Vimes, what can you say, when your creator starts you drunk in the gutter, there really is no where to go but up. 

"Snuff" is a City Watch book and I have a feeling it might be the last one.  Maybe because of the author's health or maybe because he's just come to the end of the story.  Either way it feels like an ending.  While the humor is there, this comes down on the more the serious side.  There is alot of self reflection going on inside Sam Vimes.  At the beginning of the book Lady Sybil has dragged her husband Sam, kicking and screaming, off to the country for a vacation.  What's a city boy to do in the country.

"The countryside! What's to amuse you in the countryside?  Do you know why it's called the countryside, Carrot?  Because there is bloody nothing there except damn trees, which we're supposed to make a fuss about, but really they're just stiff weeds! It's dull!  It's nothing but a long Sunday!"

 That might be funnier to me than others because my dad had to plant two trees for evey one he cut down.  Of course Vimes finds all kinds of things going on in the countryside. Pratchett explores where the law starts and stops, personal resposibility, slavery, and justice verses law.  And it does it all in his own trademark style.

"But of course, who would tell anything to a twerp like Flutter?  He wasn't even a henchman - you needed a certain amount of tactical thinking before you could properly hench - but henchmen hang about, and when they're with someone as thick as Flutter they don't always gaurd their tongues."

 I've read that some people feel this book isn't up there with Pratchett's best work.  I don't disagree, but it's still pretty damn good in my opinion.  If you've never read a City Watch book, don't start with "Snuff".  Start at the begining with "Guards! Guards!"  otherwise you're just not going to appreciate this book as much as you should.  You need the history and the growth to understand where Sam Vimes is now and the questions he's struggling with.  I also enjoyed having Sybil present as a main character in this book and having her and Sam truly interact as a couple.  Last, but not least I laughed myself silly at the "Pride & Prejudice" send up.  If you haven't read Terry Pratchett, start now.