THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS
By Terry Pratchett
Doubleday (Transworld) - November 2001
Juvenile / Teenage - Comic Fantasy

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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One-of-a-kind writer Terry Pratchett stands the legend of the Pied Piper of
Hamelin on its head in his first discworld novel for younger readers - although as many adults as children will be eagerly turning its pages as of course it is also the latest episode in his tireless oeuvre. Pratchett is not, in my opinion, a consistently good writer but this is definitely one of his better efforts (as are all his juvenile novels) as he doesn't let
moralising stand in the way of a good story or spoil the humor; neither does the book tread water in the middle. After having eaten something discarded at the Unseen University Maurice the streetwise tomcat and a whole group of rats suddenly become self-aware and can both speak and understand human speech. Maurice has the perfect get-rich-quick scheme too - take one stupid-looking kid with a pipe, add one unsuspecting town and let the rats in to cause a plague, which can then be "cured" by the piping and a lot of money from the grateful townspeople. Arriving in Bad Blintz in Uberwald Maurice and his rodent friends find out that they have bitten off more than they can gnaw this time for there is something seriously bad going on here.

The result is very enjoyable and genuinely funny, with a proper story to hang all the jokes and characters on - a very inventive one at that. I am glad to report that the Pratchett magic seems to be undimmed after 28 books (read the review of The Last Hero on this site) with his inimitable way of summing up a situation in one hilarious line and his delicious satire on the human condition. If Pratchett is a maestro, his imitators are still playing four-finger exercises...