Imagine a locomotive, powerful and trusted. It is a famous beast, carrying millions of people through harsh terrain and making them overjoyed from the wonders they experience in this travel.
But if it has a flaw, it is that it leaves you where you started, with wondrous sights and memories but still you were never moved.
This locomotive is the literary powerhouse of his majesty the king Terry Pratchett. His art has touched hearts and lifted souls the world over, from plays to terrible films and his mammoth, legendary Discworld series. His witty style, comprehensive ability to connect with a reader and almost supernatural gift for layering humor so subtly on the text that you get each and every joke you see... Because you don't see the ones you don't get.
These, speak for themselves, anyone who values their pride as an intellectual and lover of the written word should indulge in these books. But they do not shift your world-view. They can make you chuckle and laugh at the world, with satire of parody. They can make you see things in a new light. They can make you sit back and think. But to actually shift your perceptions? It is done so rarely in the literary world and is so powerful that those books that achieve it are rightly called classics.
Nation, ladies and gentleman, is a classic.
Not set on the Discworld, the novel follows the journey of Mau, a boy on a ritual to become a man. Whose everything is swept away by a great tsunami, his entire village and all villages around him destroyed by the mountain of water.
As he seeks to save himself from despair and come to terms with what has happened, he meets a shipwrecked European girl and together they survive, supporting a growing number of survivors as they forge a new nation in on the Island.
I cannot go further without spoiling the plot, and i could never live with myself for doing so, and so i will cease to expound upon it... You'll need to read it for yourself... But i can tell you of what the book is. And i will, because what it is represents the achievement that one novel in a million can reach. It changes you.
I spoke to others on the novel, and they spoke to me on what the book was about:
"Its about the evils of religion on a society" Nothing could be more wrong
"Its about the need for progression to survive" Scratch that last one, this is a wrong as it gets
"Its about people and what they do when confronted with change" So very, very close...
Nation is about people.
Nothing more. Nothing less. It is a book that celebrates the splendor, the majesty, the grandeur, the wonder, the triumph that is humanity. In a world where any internet intellectual worth his bollocks knows that 'people are stupid and hopeless' Pratchett laughs at them all and shakes his head. Nation covers so many things in its span i could write for days. Religion, morals, ethics, mysticism and countless more.
But the mastery comes from the fact that it is woven seamlessly into one of the greatest narratives i have ever read. And i have read much. The simpleton can read and be content... but those who look further will never find themselves wanting. For the only messages in its pages are the ones you realize for yourself... hence they are countless. Nation is a book that celebrates what it is to be human, where we have been, where we are going and the not-so-trivials of what's in between. It acknowledges religion as something glorious in our past and a wondrous thing, and never criticises... But asks questions.
And here is where Nation changed me. I have spent much time defending religion over the years, as something beyond the dogma that people blame it for and its downfalls, i thought it something woven tightly into humanity that we could not budge and should not. I never believed in a higher power, but i never saw religion as anything but a benefit.
Nation did not tell me otherwise, but it made me think, and through hat thought and the glorious narrative it was captured in i came to a reliasation. Religion was not evil or good, not something that i needed to defend. Religion is something we do not need. Like a hermit crab in its shell, goes the metaphor used in Nation, we scuttle from shelter to shelter as is right and proper. But we do not need them. We can have the sky as our shell and grow unlimited. Religion is a benefit, but not one we need anymore, one we can move beyond.
Now, do you understand what i just said? This book did what the internet In its entire lifetime had not managed to do. Change my opinion. And im a stubborn son of a *****. Nation is not a book of messages and preaching, it is a story at its heart that allows you to see further with what you already knew and take away refined all your preconceptions. Nation is something that happens once every hundred thousand years ago, when the moon doth shine, grass grows ect.
Nation is not a book about religion. Nation is a book about Humanity, and from it i took this realization... i have no doubt it has many more in further readings as well as a superb story i cannot recommend highly enough.
You may read this review in confusion and wonder what i am trying to convey... And i cannot capture in words the marvel that this book truly is here, i could type on the infinite subtleties and triumphs of its writing and thematic brilliance for years and never be done.
But i will suffice to say this. Don't judge it on my ramblings, but read it for yourself.
I would, on narrative alone, claim Nation as one of the Classics of our time. But for the deeper 'messages' it holds (nothing so pretentious, really) i hold it as the single best thing i have ever read.
Nation is what Pratchett has said is his penultimate book, and given so many ends he has loose in Discworld, i await eagerly to see how he pulls off the impossible one last time.
I can never capture what nation is here, but i can tell you to get off your ass and get it if you value your self-worth as a reader.
________________________________________________________________________
On another note, proceeds from this book go towards research towards the horrific affliction that is Alzheimer's (Something Pratchett himself is suffering from)
Pratchett says he has one more book in him, i can guarantee closing its pages upon conclusion will be one of the saddest moments of my life. Its proceeds will also go towards the aforementioned cause.
This is not so much a review as a gushing wank over the book, i regret nothing as i have found no flaw in it yet.
Thoughts? On the book if you please, i know the review is lacking somewhat and i don't need telling.
But if it has a flaw, it is that it leaves you where you started, with wondrous sights and memories but still you were never moved.
This locomotive is the literary powerhouse of his majesty the king Terry Pratchett. His art has touched hearts and lifted souls the world over, from plays to terrible films and his mammoth, legendary Discworld series. His witty style, comprehensive ability to connect with a reader and almost supernatural gift for layering humor so subtly on the text that you get each and every joke you see... Because you don't see the ones you don't get.
These, speak for themselves, anyone who values their pride as an intellectual and lover of the written word should indulge in these books. But they do not shift your world-view. They can make you chuckle and laugh at the world, with satire of parody. They can make you see things in a new light. They can make you sit back and think. But to actually shift your perceptions? It is done so rarely in the literary world and is so powerful that those books that achieve it are rightly called classics.
Nation, ladies and gentleman, is a classic.
Not set on the Discworld, the novel follows the journey of Mau, a boy on a ritual to become a man. Whose everything is swept away by a great tsunami, his entire village and all villages around him destroyed by the mountain of water.
As he seeks to save himself from despair and come to terms with what has happened, he meets a shipwrecked European girl and together they survive, supporting a growing number of survivors as they forge a new nation in on the Island.
I cannot go further without spoiling the plot, and i could never live with myself for doing so, and so i will cease to expound upon it... You'll need to read it for yourself... But i can tell you of what the book is. And i will, because what it is represents the achievement that one novel in a million can reach. It changes you.
I spoke to others on the novel, and they spoke to me on what the book was about:
"Its about the evils of religion on a society" Nothing could be more wrong
"Its about the need for progression to survive" Scratch that last one, this is a wrong as it gets
"Its about people and what they do when confronted with change" So very, very close...
Nation is about people.
Nothing more. Nothing less. It is a book that celebrates the splendor, the majesty, the grandeur, the wonder, the triumph that is humanity. In a world where any internet intellectual worth his bollocks knows that 'people are stupid and hopeless' Pratchett laughs at them all and shakes his head. Nation covers so many things in its span i could write for days. Religion, morals, ethics, mysticism and countless more.
But the mastery comes from the fact that it is woven seamlessly into one of the greatest narratives i have ever read. And i have read much. The simpleton can read and be content... but those who look further will never find themselves wanting. For the only messages in its pages are the ones you realize for yourself... hence they are countless. Nation is a book that celebrates what it is to be human, where we have been, where we are going and the not-so-trivials of what's in between. It acknowledges religion as something glorious in our past and a wondrous thing, and never criticises... But asks questions.
And here is where Nation changed me. I have spent much time defending religion over the years, as something beyond the dogma that people blame it for and its downfalls, i thought it something woven tightly into humanity that we could not budge and should not. I never believed in a higher power, but i never saw religion as anything but a benefit.
Nation did not tell me otherwise, but it made me think, and through hat thought and the glorious narrative it was captured in i came to a reliasation. Religion was not evil or good, not something that i needed to defend. Religion is something we do not need. Like a hermit crab in its shell, goes the metaphor used in Nation, we scuttle from shelter to shelter as is right and proper. But we do not need them. We can have the sky as our shell and grow unlimited. Religion is a benefit, but not one we need anymore, one we can move beyond.
Now, do you understand what i just said? This book did what the internet In its entire lifetime had not managed to do. Change my opinion. And im a stubborn son of a *****. Nation is not a book of messages and preaching, it is a story at its heart that allows you to see further with what you already knew and take away refined all your preconceptions. Nation is something that happens once every hundred thousand years ago, when the moon doth shine, grass grows ect.
Nation is not a book about religion. Nation is a book about Humanity, and from it i took this realization... i have no doubt it has many more in further readings as well as a superb story i cannot recommend highly enough.
You may read this review in confusion and wonder what i am trying to convey... And i cannot capture in words the marvel that this book truly is here, i could type on the infinite subtleties and triumphs of its writing and thematic brilliance for years and never be done.
But i will suffice to say this. Don't judge it on my ramblings, but read it for yourself.
I would, on narrative alone, claim Nation as one of the Classics of our time. But for the deeper 'messages' it holds (nothing so pretentious, really) i hold it as the single best thing i have ever read.
Nation is what Pratchett has said is his penultimate book, and given so many ends he has loose in Discworld, i await eagerly to see how he pulls off the impossible one last time.
I can never capture what nation is here, but i can tell you to get off your ass and get it if you value your self-worth as a reader.
________________________________________________________________________
On another note, proceeds from this book go towards research towards the horrific affliction that is Alzheimer's (Something Pratchett himself is suffering from)
Pratchett says he has one more book in him, i can guarantee closing its pages upon conclusion will be one of the saddest moments of my life. Its proceeds will also go towards the aforementioned cause.
This is not so much a review as a gushing wank over the book, i regret nothing as i have found no flaw in it yet.
Thoughts? On the book if you please, i know the review is lacking somewhat and i don't need telling.
