A Book Review: Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #17)

"May you live in interesting times", is an English expression, and it is meant to be a translation of an ALLEGED Chinese curse.

Being a bi-lingual person, I have never heard of this expression in Mandarin Chinese. Dr. Wikipedia came to the rescue, where it detailed: "The nearest related Chinese expression is 寧為太平犬，莫做亂離人. It translates to "Better be a dog in a peaceful time, than be a human in a warring period".

Ah ha! Now it makes sense. I am indeed aware of this Chinese expression. But this expression is not a curse! No, this expression is proverbial. "Huh? How can one be better off as a dog (or a slave) than being an independent, human?"

Well, if you are a commoner, then the expression makes sense.

Why? Because it seems no matter who is in charge or who is trying to take charge, they don't seem to care what commoners need anyway. Therefore, given that pattern, I would rather have peace than a violent revolution.

So that is the meaning for the expression. Sir Terry Pratchett, took this expression and made it a title for the 17^th Discworld novel, its name - Interesting Times. This is a satricial fantasy novel, but it also explores, in a most witty and powerful way, topics such as revolution, east-west cultural difference, and oppressive government regimes.

Synopsis:

High walls tower over Agatean Empire, the oldest, and the most fortified kingdom on Discworld. Lying on his sick bed, the emperor of this ancient realm is about to draw his final breath. Meanwhile, as a pack of hungry wolves, ambitious warlords gather from the four winds at the captical city, eyeing the throne of power, soon to be vacant.

Civil war, however, is not the sole concern for the empire. For the air smells of revolution. It is triggered by a little book called What I did on My Holidays, and it is penned by Twoflower, who is Discworld's first tourist. So there you have it – 1) warlords fighting over the throne in a civil war, and 2) Workers uniting to ignite a revolution. It suffices to say, the prospects facing the empire spells doom and disaster. So who can avert the empire's course to doom?

The answer is a wizard! All they need is a wizard, and a wizard they shall get. Under the shining sun, a wizard magically appeared at the heart of the empire. On his pointy hat spelled the word, wizzard, with double "Z". His name is Rincewind, the worst wizard in the history of the Disc.

How is a failed wizard going to help in this situation? Worry not, the thing that stands between "fated to doom", and doom, is not competence, but uncertainty. And Rincewind IS uncertainty.

My thoughts on this book:

Discworld occupies a special place in my heart. In 2 years, I read more than 23 Discworld novels and I liked all of them. Discworld has multiple sub-series, and my favorite sub-series features the Ankh Morpork City Watch, it is a series of detective stories. Meanwhile, my least favorite sub-series of Discworld, are those novels featuring the failed wizard, Rincewind. Look, I like the characters in Rincewind series, but I found these books are just too random, and the narratives too incohesive, to my taste. But last week, my opinion about Rincewind series took a 180 degrees turn, when I read Interesting Times.

For a starter, the narratives in Interesting Times are cohesive. Almost every scene in this book added something to the plot. This also means, Interesting Times is a lot easier to read, and less confusing, than the previous Discworld books about Rincewind. Furthermore, while the book is not separated into chapters, but the story moved at a fast pace and it was a pleasure to read it.

Interesting Times also brought back beloved characters from Rincewind cycle. Aside from Rincewind himself, characters such as Cohen the Barbarian, Twoflower, and the Luggage, all returned in this book. I particularly liked Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde. In this book, Cohen and the Silver Horde are a group of aging barbarian heroes who are plotting to usurp the imperial throne, and these guys are funny! Sir Terry parodied the archetypical barbarian heroes of the fantasy troupe. The dialogues and the potrayals for these guys are designed to tickle your funny bone, and by Crom they are hiliarious! I laughed the whole way throughout this book and I want to read more about Cohen the Barbarian and his band of silver headed (or balding) heros.

What made Discworld novels so human and so humorous, is Sir Terry's razor sharp observation of our world. He often dressed real problems in our world in satires and presented them from the viewpoints of the small folks, common people like you and me. His satires are witty, but he also approached it in a big-hearted way. When Sir Terry wrote Interesting Times, he was probably at the height of his literary prowess, and in this book he tackled themes such as oppressive governments, revolution, cultural differences and politics.

This book explored many themes and I will not do this book justice by discussing each and every theme here. Instead, I would recommend that you read this book for yourself. But I will say this, one theme particularly stood out and grabbed my attention, and I believe it rings true because we can see its pattern in most political systems recorded in the human history: When people become dissatisfied with a government, they put the popular uprising in power, in the hope of bringing changes. But very often, after the government is replaced by a new one, people suddenly find themselves ruled by "the government" again. It seems that those in charge (or trying to take charge), either forgets quickly, or just never cared about what is it that the common people need at the first place. Do you agree with this point? I leave my gentle readers to check out this book, and then consider it as a food for thought.

Interesting Times, this is a great book. Not only did this book entertain me and made me laugh, but it also provided food for thoughts. It is good to be back in Discworld and I want to read this book again in the near future. I highly recommend Interesting Times to veterans of the Disc. Meanwhile, if you have yet to set foot on Sir Terry's fantastic world that stands on the back of a giant star turtle, then make haste to a library or a bookstore and pick up a Discworld novel.