Book Review: Snuff – Terry Pratchett

This is a book review of Snuff, a book in the Discword series, written by Terry Pratchett.

I don’t know about you, but I look forward to new Discworld books, and when I found out this book was about one of my favourite Discworld characters, I couldn’t wait to read it. For this book centred around Sam Vimes, who is the commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, aka the police force.

I will say at the beginning of this review, this is the first Discworld book I didn’t enjoy as much as the others. Even writing that last sentence surprises me, but alas it is true. I’m not saying this wasn’t a good book, it was, but I just didn’t seem to be as engaged in the story as usual.

So what is the story about? Well I don’t want to give away too much, but as the inside of the book cover says, Sam Vimes is on holiday in the countryside, and what do you know, he stumbles across a crime. Strictly speaking he is out of his jurisdiction, but this is Sam Vimes after all and where there is a crime, and he happens to be at the location, then he is going to get involved.

Don’t get me wrong, the story also follows some of the commander’s colleagues actions as well, so you can expect to read about Captain Carrot, Nobby, Colon and others, but this is a Sam Vimes story and perhaps the most Sam Vimes centred one yet.

I quite liked the fact that Commander Vime’s son, wife and butler were all featured quite regularly throughout the story. With young Sam (the son) now being older, still a child and lady Sybil has strong willed as per usual. They all make great editions to the book, and show the development of the Commander’s life, which I’ve enjoyed following.

In this book expect fights, chases and the usual wit and humour you expect from a Terry Pratchett book.

The hardback edition of the book is 378 pages long, and it took me around a week to read. I was curious to see how the plot ended, but it just didn’t seem as exciting to me as usual. Now perhaps I’m tiring of the Discworld series, but I must admit I do prefer more Ankh-Morpork focused stories, but have enjoyed other stories based at other locations on Discworld, on top of the elephants standing on the ancient turtle drifting through space.

So to wrap up my review, this is a good book, it has plenty of action, good humour, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected to. If another Discworld book is released, but it is still a fine edition to the Discworld series.