Quote:
Originally Posted by High Eight  "Of all the things I've done, I'm proudest of Johnny and the Dead. The whole philosophy of Terry Pratchett is in Johnny and the Dead."
- Terry Pratchett, SF site interview, 2000. |
Ouch, that was a little unfortunate, it seems to me.
Johnny and the Dead was by far the weakest of the series. And if that's the philosophy of Pratchett - well. What it seemed to me that the book was about was a criticism of capitalism. Unfortunately, Pratchett does not do that very well. His capitalist "bad guys" are strawmen without interest or plausibility, a problem which hampered
Going Postal as well.
Terry does so much great criticism, and greatest of all is his work on ethnicity and nationalism, as seen in
Thud!,
Jingo, and
Monstrous Regiment, where he seems to have insights way beyond any other Fantasy writer I've read. Especially British writers.