The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

A thoroughly enjoyable read, though one of Pratchett's darker books. I would dearly love to read his opinion of the current world political landscape.

Terry Prachett, I heart you and your takes on famous tales. This one in the Discworld series is a real stand-aloner. Prachett takes on the "Tale of the Pied Piper" with the aplomb you'd expect, but he tackles this with a grace I found surprisingly appetizing. You don't need to read a single other Discworld novel to enjoy this one, though it does appear to take place in the same mulit-verse as his other works. This is a very grown-up story, though it was awarded the Carnegie Award for Children's Literature in 2001. This award is a British medal not at all equivalent to our Caldecott; its other winners include Neil Gamon, so you know they love a ^$&@)-up story with gruesome grown-up bits to it. The Amazing Maurice....has just that: %$@&)-up bits that are VERY grown up. In this version of the famous tale, the rats have eaten from the Wizards' trash heap. Because they've ingested magical substances, they've become intelligent (a la Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM and Flowers for Algernon). And as they became intelligent on a trash heap, they learned to read there. So they took amusing names from food labels like "Hamnpork" and "Peaches" and "Dangerous Beans". Then enters the Maurice of the title, a common stupid alley cat who eats one of the rats (BEFORE the cat became intelligent), thereby ingesting the magical substances second hand and then becoming enchanted, too. (He always asks his food if it can talk before he eats it thereafter). What results is an amalgam of Puss In Boots and other tales, but only as Prachett could imagine them. Maurice is still very much a cat, so he's cruel and shiftless and selfish by nature. The rats are developing a sense of morality he doesn't seem capable of grasping. And the most cruel of all creatures, man, is revealed to be the least intelligent of all. This just makes me love Prachett even more, if that's possible.

Once upon a time there were rats who ate a little too much from rubbish heap behind the Wizards' university. They were Changed, and learned to think, to talk and, later on, to develop a conscience. They named themselves after things they saw in the rubbish, perhaps a little before they knew what the words meant. Pratchett is a good enough writer that rats like Dangerous Beans, Peaches, Darktan, Hamnpork and Donut Enter are a lot more vivid and believable than 9/10ths of what passes for literature today. Maurice is a cat, and he is also Changed, although he really doesn't like to talk about how it happened. But he's always careful now to ask his food if it can talk before her eats it. He's the brains behind the scam. Together with the stupid-looking kid who plays the flute - his name is really Keith - the rats and Maurice work the pied piper scam. For a modest fee, Keith can get rid of the sudden plague of rats that afflicts a town. And what with rats widdling in the flour and tap-dancing on the kitchen counter - there's always someone who wants to be in theater - the town is always grateful when Keith successfully pipes the rats away. Until they arrive at the town of Bad Blintz. The traps are worse, the poisons more lethal and the rat catchers more ingenious than anywhere else. And there is something really evil living lower down, under the rat tunnels. Something that hates. Something that takes you over. Pratchett has called this a children's book, but it would be more accurate to say it was based on a children's book. It's really about myths and the role of myths, and what it means to be "human." As just one example, the rats drag along with them a collection of children's fairy tales, remarkably like Peter Rabbit, and think it's a reference book for humans. The Pied Piper of Hamlin, of course, is itself a fairy tale. With (or perhaps despite) the "help" of Malicia, the Mayor's daughter and the granddaughter and grand niece of the Sisters Grim, the rats, Maurice and the stupid-looking kid must learn the hard way that if you aren't making up your own story, then you're just a character in someone else's. Fun and thought-provoking, if somewhat different than the usual Pratchett novel. Recommended.

Smart and funny. Well worth the read. A stand alone - though some familiar characters from other books are mentioned in passing.

I've reviewed a few of Sir Terry's novels, all highly favorably so with the single exception of "Snuff," which I gave three stars. They've entertained, produced laughter ranging from snickering to LMAO belly laughs to giggles and they've even made me think and see some things in a new light. This is the first Discworld novel that I love in an emotional sense. It produced a genuine feeling of empathy in me. For rats, even. Pratchett really has fun with talking animals. Gaspode the dog was hilarious and Maurice the cat is quite the character. "The stupid looking kid" thing was funny too. Pratchett is brilliant at writing for that age group but there's no reason adults can't be equally entertained by these. For instance, I thought "A Hat Full of Sky" was an absolutely wonderful tale. Please, please, Sir Terry, could you give us more of Gaspode and Maurice?

Discworld and all its environs is my favorite place in the universe (Outside of Middle Earth, of course!). I have been reading Pratchett's YA books, one every few years, to try to make the magic last. Maurice did not disappoint. I just wish I could go back to The Color of Magic and have the joy of discovering Discworld all over again.

I discovered Pratchett when I was in high school in the 1980s and have been a Pratchett evangelist ever since. I now have my kids hooked on Pratchett and have read every Practhett novel at least 3 times. "The Amazing Maurice" is one of my perennial favourites. Think Pied Piper on steroids and you have the faintest gleamings of 'The Amazing Maurice'. Pratchett is the master satirist. He uses the story to deliver a message, and even some history. The rats history closely parallels human history; and the problems they face are the same as what we face. Pratchett is brilliant - I honestly don't think there is a living writer who can touch him. In the midst of humour he throws in deep philosophical arguments and statements. Here is one of my favourite lines from this novel: 'If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else's story.' 'And what if your story doesn't work?' 'You keep changing it until you find one that does.' The cherry on the top for me is the name of the rats- Additives, Big Savings, Sardines, and Hamnpork, all taken from the items around them when they learnt to read! Pick this book up, claim it is for the kids, but keep it for yourself.

The piped piper comes to a town in Uberwald, but finds that he’s late to the show that features cats, rats, and stupid-looking kids talking to one another. The twenty-eighth and first young adult entry of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents finds the residents—new and old, human and nonhuman—town of Bad Blintz figuring out the fine line between real life and a story. The aim to bring the same Pratchett humor that adults love to a younger audience is on target. A mixed troupe of “rat piper” con-artists arrive just outside the town of Bad Blintz lead by a streetwise tomcat, who a clan of talking rats and a stupid-looking kid named Keith on the streets of Ankh-Morpork. But everyone is getting fed up with just going around and doing the same old thing, the rats want to find a home to build their society and the kid would like to play more music. Maurice is just interest in money and hiding the guilty for how he gained the ability to speak, but he found more than he’s bargaining for in Bad Blintz because something weird is going on even his talkative rat associate find disturbing. Soon the troupe find out that they have stumbled into a long running conspiratorial plan hatched from a surprising source. As always, Pratchett connects his humor around a well-known fairy tale or story then completely turns it on its head when the same circumstances happen on Discworld even as the characters fight their own preconceptions when comparing “stories” to “real life”. The fact that he ably brought his unique style to a young adult market without losing any of the punch from the jokes makes this a very good book. Although some of the sections of the book were somewhat familiar to a long-time Pratchett reader does take a little away from the book, it doesn’t necessarily ruin the book for first time readers. Terry Pratchett’s first Discworld foray into the young adult genre is classic Pratchett through targeted at a younger audience. I found it as funny as the rest of his series, but some of the plot points were simpler than his usual work for obvious reasons. However this minor fact doesn’t ruin a very good book.