Re: Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents Discussion Grou
I definitely admire it and I kind of like it, but it's never been one of my favourites. Like a few in this thread, I read it years ago and wasn't particularly impressed at the time, and only after I re-read it recently did I appreciate the threads and complexities involved in both its themes and in how the characters deal with them.
What stands out to me - and what I really like about it - is just how much it utterly ignores the simpler and safer conventions of children's books. Several characters openly discuss philosophy, morality, consciousness (including its possible survival after death), and societal/civilizational organization, especially among the Clan, all of which are pretty weighty. There's a lot of grisly material: mental violence due to the Rat King destroying or violating minds, rat massacres and deaths (the dog pit in particular), rat cannibalism, the Rat King's "revenge-by-domination" outlook, even child endangerment.
Also, there are dark or grey elements mixed in too, such as the bullying piper, the thuggish rat-catchers, the unpleasant Mr Raufman, and Maurice's own selfish and cynical tendencies. It's not a book for the squeamish, but given the hard and weighty material it tackles, it feels about right, especially since rats feature as the main characters.
Most of the characters are pretty great as well, playing off each other admirably. For instance, the way Maurice has to sidestep Peaches' suspicions, play on Dangerous Beans' idealism, and put up with Hamnpork's open contempt, is a great way to draw out his "cynical manipulator" side, even as he later struggles with his conscience. Particularly impressive is Darktan's progression from a rough, pragmatic specialist to an out-of-his-depth legend in his own lifetime, who has to take advice from theatrical (and hilarious!) Sardines in order to lead the rats properly. I also quite liked Nourishing's minor arc, as she's hopelessly inexperienced at first and then, without fundamentally changing, almost becomes a first disciple.
The variety of rat personalities in particular was always fun to read about, especially when they get outside their comfort zones, and their Big Thoughts reminded me a lot of the same themes in Pratchett's other works, such as in the Nome trilogy and in the Death series of Discworld books.
And, of course, there's the rat-based lore and trivia, such as the rat pits and the Rat King itself. I love when so much material is brought to the fore, as it really gives the story elements some strong grounding and keeps the narratives fresh and interesting.
I suppose what stops it from being one of my favourites are mostly a collection of minor niggles. Of all the rats, Darktan and, to an extent, Dangerous Beans feel like the only ones with any major arc, with the rest as interesting support to them. Maurice is arguably the best character; he goes to some deep and iconic places, and easily has the best moments in the book, married to exactly the sort of self-absorbed huckster traits you'd expect in a street cat turned sapient. Yet it doesn't seem like he really changes or learns anything from it, and the ending if anything implies the opposite, which is a bit of a letdown.
Moreover, Keith is academically interesting as being quietly smarter than he looks, but he's easily lost in the shuffle, and Malicia is thematically apt but kind of one-note for the most part; perhaps if they'd elaborated more on why she's so obsessed with stories, she would have been one of the best characters.
And compared with the rat-catchers' evil and the Rat King's great scene, the piper climax feels tacked-on and thin, as quickly introduced as it's dealt with. There are lots of impressive characters and character concepts, but it's a bit harder to find characters who stick with me in the way that, say, William de Worde or Brutha or Sam Vimes or Death or even Moist and Granny Weatherwax manage (a high bar to clear, I'll admit, but still).
Lastly, an awful lot of it happens in tunnels and cellars, which begins to feel a bit repetitive after a while. Some of the family-unfriendly material feels a bit much at times, like he was actively exaggerating how unfriendly it was (the widdling jokes, in particular, began to lose their charm fast for me). And while many of the concepts are fantastic (like the rats' veneration of Mr Bunnsy Has An Adventure, a children's book, as if it were a revelatory holy book), a few seem a bit of an odd fit for Discworld in particular.
Malicia's blurring of narrative convention and reality, for instance, feels like it should be a discordant note compared with the harsh reality of Bad Blitz, but Discworld has long been established as a place where narrativium actually exists. Also, the Rat King's psychic powers feel a bit unexplained (to have them over rats makes a kind of sense, I suppose; to have them over other species as well just draws attention to how random the idea is).
Overall, a strong work that's easy to admire for what it does, but - with one or two exceptions - I find it a little hard to actually like above and beyond that.
