MAJOR SPOILER ALERTS---LOTS OF SPOILERS AHEAD.
Okay, folks there are going to be LOTS of spoilers in here, so if you haven't finished it, avoid this post at all cost. Hell, avoid it anyway, particularly if you're a person who can brook no criticism of DW novels.
And before you start throwing stones, please keep in mind that, as a published author, PTerry knows that any book he publishes is subject to criticism, even harsh criticism. As much sympathy as I have for his current physical condition, I don't think that this reality should in any way inhibit someone from judging the work itself or discussing whether this condition affected the way the book turned out. After all, I did buy the book. As a consumer, I have a right to comment on both the product and its producer. And Pterry will never read this nor will he give a snot about my opinion nor will it cause him to retire. May he sell a million copies of Snuff!
So, when I say that, while an entertaining read, and much better than UA, Snuff is perhaps the most problematic of later-stage DW novels, and certainly the most problematic Watch novel, I can't separate the problems with the book with what I see as Pterry's declining literary powers, a situation exacerbated by the apparent absence of a strong editor.
And while I (now) realize (from your previous comments) that Snuff is, in some parts, a parody of Austen and other long-winded English country novels, I don't see this use of parody as an explanation of the many literary problems that occur throughout the book, since many of these same flaws were manifested in both UA and in I Shall Wear Midnight.
Okay, let's start at the beginning. Vetinari has been replaced by a pod person. He's laughing? He's getting angry at crossword puzzles? He's continuing his long self-analysis sessions with Drumknot and hes not drunk this time? Where is the completely in control master manipulator of the earlier books?
And, one of the worst continuinty errors of the book, how did he magically move from looking out of a window one minute, to looking up from his papers a paragraph later?
Now let's talk about Vimes. You can hardly recognize him here. He's become SuperVimes, with special superpowers and nearly invincible. (More on the completely incomprehensible return of the Summoning Dark later.)
Unlike the Vimes of previous novels, the Vimes of Snuff has no flaws whatsoever. He is 100% self-assured in everything he does, and has no problem using his position of wealth to achieve his ends. There is not a single moment in the book where he seems either vulnerable, at risk, or shows even a modicum of self-doubt. He is ceaselessly manipulative, afraid of absolutely nothing (including his own inner beast), and knows that, by now, no one on Earth--not even Vetinari--can remove his authority. Essentially, he is invincible, and this totally removes any real drama from the book. Never do you feel that he faces any of the real moral or psychological dilemmas or physical dangers he faced in previous books. His moral outrage over the the plight of the goblins might drive his actions, but, overall, this whole crime is just a fun way to spend his vacation.
Now, let's get onto the dialogue. One of the great things about the great DW novels was PTerry's economical use of dialogue. Characters rarely spoke in long sentences--they were short, punchy, simple and funny.
Pterry's dialogue approach is no longer about interaction; it's about replacing exposition with speechifying. Here, nearly every character speaks in huge, long, flowery run-on paragraphs that are barely understandable half the time. Some may argue that this is done purposely because he's spoofing 19th century English novels. I don't give him this bye because this speechifying also plagued UA and ISWM. Here it's just taken to the umpeenth degree. How many times does either Willikens or Feeney make some long-winded, tortured speech filled with language that no human being (particularly a provincial would-be cop living with his mum) followed by "Vimes looked at him with incredulity." These characters don't talk to each other, they monologue each other.
Now let's get to the scatalogical bits. I never thought I'd hear Lady Sybil use the word "bitch," or the word s**t used in the exposition rather than in dialogue. Not that I care about bad language or references to bodily excretions, but Pterry's endless bathroom humor through the novel stops being funny after the first go (haha!). How many times do we need to hear about someone wetting his pants or birds and cattle loosening their bowels in fear? It was funny the one time Pterry used this joke at the beginning of Making Money. Here he uses it over and over again.
Does all this emphasizes on poo and pee supposed to tie in with the goblins' merciless collection of their own excretions? I don't know. Here, it's just an endless amount of disgusting. Young Sam collecting one poo is funny; young Sam collecting poo in every scene is tedious.
Now let's talk about the huge amount of overwriting here. We have nearly a page and a half devoted to a completely unfunny and unnecessary discussion of who was using an illegal crossbow, the type of thing that would have occupied a footnote in a previous novel. This type of overwriting occurs again and again here.
Now let's talk about the Summoning Dark. This is the most perplexing thing in the book. In Thud, the SD left him after it failed to unleash Vimes' inner Beast. Apparently, it never left, because here it has developed a symbiotic relationship with Vimes that gives him superpowers, such as being able to translate goblin, see in the dark, and "interview" darkness itself to find out how crimes are committed. It's a terrible narrative device that seems to be used to shortcut plotting problems and one that simply makes no sense at all.
Now let's talk about the way the rest of the Watch is used. It takes until page 132 to get the first real scene of other Watch members, and the limp plot device to bring them all together with Vimes is the silly business with Fred and the unggue pot. The Watch characters are used terribly and bear little resemblance to their former characters. A key example? Cheery's huge, long speech explaining why Fred Colon is being a total jerk about the unggue. What pod person replaced her? One of Cheery's most endearing qualities is how close she keeps everything and her extremely economical use of dialogue, usually in the form of very short, pithy, carefully chosen sentences. It's just as bad with the other characters. Carrot is a complete nonentity here. Nobby serves one function--to become a love interest for a goblin girl. The only Watch person of any interest at all is Wee Mad Arthur, who gets to make a key plot discovery and indulge his feegle side.
Finally, what Snuff seems to be is an endless recycling of themes Vimes covered far more effectively in other books. The goblins are an updated version of the golems from Feet of Clay--sapient beings treated as trash and slaves by humans until Vimes (with Sybil's help) reveals to the world their truth worth and frees them. The river parts are an above-ground version of Vimes' trips through the underground caverns of Koom Valley in Snuff. The scene where Stratford tries to kill young Sam is little more than a totally undramatic retread of the battle between Vimes and Carcer in Night Watch. The whole issue of self-serving aristocrats exploiting and intimidating the powerless was covered in The Fifth Elephant. Even the final demise of Stratford resembles the final battle between Vimes and Wolgang. Nearly every major theme here is recycles from a previous Watch book and done with far less narrative effectiveness.
So what does this say for Snuff? Here's where we get to the hard bit.
I'll say it right out: Pterry's literary skills are declining. He's still a better writer than 95% of the fiction writers out there, but, benchmarked against his best work, UA and Snuff are far below peaks. Now, in fairness, very few writers can maintain the level of quality Pterry did through nearly 40 books. Most writers peak in their 30's, and their latter works are lousy. If you don't agree, just read some of the later works of Faulker and Twain.
Now, whether Pterry's skills would have declined without the onset of Alzheimer's is a topic of debate, the answer for which we will never know. However, I do believe that his illness is affecting the way he writes and is contributing to the literary problems of these more recent works. Snuff, like UA before it, and ISWM to some extent, reads like a book that is dictated, rather than written. Anyone who writes knows that there is a huge difference between dictating and putting pen to paper. With dictating, you're not editing your thoughts; it's a more stream of consciousness approach. When dictating, you think in terms of thoughts and ideas rather than in terms of sentences and paragraph construction. It leads to overwriting, unnatural language, and the replacement of charaqcter interaction with long-winded speeches--all things that happened here and in his previous two books.
Snuff, like UA before it, desperately needed a high assertive editor to work closely with Pterry to trim back some of its many excesses. Why this is less of an issue in ISWM is an interesting topic of debate. My guess is that there was a far more assertive editorial hand overseeing ISWM because it is a YA book. Who knows?
In any case, a true editor would not have let the continuity error on the first few pages occur. A true editor would not let a discussion of a crossbow occupy nearly two pages. A true editor wouldn't have let country bumpkins like Feeney go from a provincial bumpkin to a street smart copper who speaks like Jane Austen aristocrats.
Is Snuff a "bad" book? No. For me, it's far better than UA and nearly all of his early books. It's an enjoyable read, often very funny in parts, and the issues it raises about the powerful vs. the powerless are compelling. Pterry still has the ability to create compelling characters, although I'm still on the fence on Willikins; he's far too verbose and self-revealing for my taste.
These observations aside, I still think it's a miracle that Pterry is still able to produce books at all, and I will continue to read any DW books he publishes. At the same time, I also hope that he engages a strong-willed editor (and perhaps collaborator) to help him shape the construction of his future books.
