Reaper Man

Title:  Reaper Man

Author: Terry Pratchett

ISBN: 978-0-06-102062-9

Published: Harper

Date: 1991

Book quote:‘How come you’ve got it? It’s upstairs! She was holding it […]’

SHE STILL IS. BUT IT IS ALSO HERE. OR ANYWHERE. IT IS ONLY A METAPHOR, AFTER ALL.

‘What she’s holding looks real enough.’

JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING IS A METAPHOR DOESN’T MEAN IT CAN’T BE REAL.
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The number of deeply philosophical issues this book addresses would put Socrates to shame. Only Terry Pratchett took himself much less seriously.

The nature of death, its balance with life, the origins of belief systems, the tangible reality of thoughts, the Ego and how it navigates through the Other, the evolution of dynamic thought… stuff like that. Wrapped up in a basketful of hilarious characters and must-read plot. In Discworld.

Death gets sacked (because he’s developing a personality) and in the un-administered void, chaos ensues. Things come right in the end. Somewhere in there there’s a rant about shopping malls and a discussion on inter-species relationships.

Humorous it may be, but pandering to the reader it ain’t. You need to keep up. P.O.V. changes aren’t necessarily demarcated and there is a laudable lack of dialogue tags – perhaps without always the necessary structure to tide the less agile reader over. At places it’s decidedly impressionistic. Which is not a bad thing, just watch for it while you’re reading.

Six Moose Hoofs Up out of Five. (Moose aren’t good at maths but they can sure be enthusiastic.)

Want To Know A Secret?

Title:  Want To Know A Secret?

Author: Sue Moorcroft       

ISBN: 978-1-906931-26-1

Published: Choc Lit (First published as ‘Family Matters’ by Robert Hale 2008)

Date: 2010

I picked up this book for educational purposes. Romance as a genre is out of my comfort zone. But as a writer, I have a problem. I have difficulty making my characters likable. Believable, sure. Sympathetic, not so much. And who would be better placed than a successful romance writer to show how it’s done? After all, ‘likable’ must be the core requirement for romance.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Moorcroft is a skillful crafter. Plot tempo and flow are well-judged and carefully thought out, although it did start to lack credibility towards the end. Characterization is fair, but doesn’t worry too much about having some cardboard cut-outs as stage-props. In fact is not squeamish about doling out a fair deal of two-dimensional structural support to all the characters. There’s nothing wrong with remembering that a story is an artifice, and an impressionist painting has just as much validity as a super-realism piece or a Chinese ink drawing: they reflect reality in a different manner.

The flow is so well controlled that although I was reading with a specific and technical purpose, keeping my mind on the job and not galloping gleefully along the plot line was difficult. It’s a very enjoyable book. It’s a testament to Moorcroft’s skill that only a minuscule proportion of her readers will notice the crafting techniques – all they’ll think was ‘That was great, where can I get more of this?’ Which is pretty much exactly the response you want, as a writer.

Plot? Ah. Downtrodden intelligent woman discovers dirty shenanigans her mean husband has been keeping from her and everything comes good. Enjoy.

What about that issue with the likable characters? Surprisingly simple. Here, it’s done mostly by opinions voiced by other characters. The figures you need to like don’t necessarily do likable things, but because other people keep going on about how great they are, the reader accepts it. It’s an incredible example of peer pressure and social conditioning working just as well on the written sheet as in the real world. The technique balances nicely with the narrative tactic of different points of view – which incidentally the author is not too particular about swapping in mid-gallop. Another one of those ‘rules’ which can be broken without repercussions, as long as you take the reader with you. You have to be good to pull it off.  

In short, I’d recommend the book. A little tailing-off towards the end and a few shadows of slap-dash here and there are the only reasons I’d give it 4 rather than 5 Moose-Hoofs up. But then Moose only have four hooves.