Customer Reviews

Secrets of The Wee Free Men and Discworld: The Myths and Legends of Terry Pratchett's Multiverse

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I did not expect a great deal from this book, but it was worse than I had feared. It was obvious that it had been cobbled together without all of the boring stuff like checking facts. As an illustration the authors mention Jasper Fforde'e novels several times but get the main character's name wrong; Valhalla is not where the Norse gods live - that should be Asgard; and, most unforgiveably, the mention of The Island of Doctor Moreau by Jules Verne came as a bit of a surprise: for some reason Amazon don't appear to stock it although there are plenty of editions of the (lesser known?) H G Wells version.

When these sort of easily avoided errors pop up, it does not take a great leap of extrapolation to conclude that the rest of the book is not to be trusted.

The Discworld novels are great. This book isn't.

First, the "secrets" in this book are already known to EVERY Discworld fans. The authors essentially reveal nothing new.

Second, the writing is very amateurish. It reads like an essay written by a high school student. It's obvious the editor didn't care about the writing but the content.

Third, their "humor" is very stale. They try to copy Pratchett's humor but fall flat. Not funny.

Fourth, I wouldn't even recommend this book to beginners since the authors spoil many of the books.

Avoid at all costs.

There are no "secrets" that are accurate. Writing, spelling, grammar and syntax are appalling, and accurate citation of sources is nearly nonexistent. I wouldn't accept this drivel from a sixth grader.
These writers have a very limited understanding of mythology, theology, comparative religions, history, literature or political science.
I bought this book when it was first offered, and it's taken me this long to cool off enough to write a reasoned review.
The authors and their publisher should be ashamed for inflicting this on an unsuspecting public.

I have read, or am reading, most of the critical works about Terry Pratcett. Let us begin with the title, it is misleading. I bought the book impulsively, thinking it was an in-depth study of the Feegles; the book has perhaps one chapter dedicated to the Wee Free Men.

The other chapters attempt to provide insight to the other myths of the discworld. The worst example was the Watch chapter. Where the authors discuss Vimes and company, and Pratchett's historical sources. I'm sorry but, I did not find this section related to any thing remotely mythologoical.

Ultimately, I found this book to be insulting and rehashed for those so inclined. Most of the information it contains is available in the work "Terry Pratcett: Guilty of Literature", by Andrew M. Butler. Found here:

http://www.amazon.com/Terry-Pratchett-Literature-Andrew-Butler/dp/188296831X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217426299&sr=1-1

My rating of the "Secerts of the Wee Free Men": Bathroom reader.

As someone who worships the Discworld novels and their byproducts, I purchased this without examining it too closely. Unfortunately, the book is mostly cobbled together without a consistent theme or narrative. Extensive, repetitious references are made to various other fantasy worlds/series, which grow quickly tiresome even if you have read enough to know what they are talking about.

I have loved the work of Terry Pratchett for many years, and enjoy his books immensely. They get read, and re-read. I got this book on a whim, thinking that it might reveal some of the origins of the mythology that Pratchett uses in his works. It does do that, but I felt that what it said was not really very surprising. In fact, I cannot think of one bit of information in the book that I did not already know. True, I had not pieced it all together as the book does, but there were no surprises and no revelations in what was written.
So, from my point of view, the book, while reasonably well written, was not what I had hoped it would be. Others who are less fanatical about Pratchett's work might find it more useful but for me it did not satisfy my needs.

I am so sorry I bothered with this. In the first place, the title is misleading...the Wee Free Men get not more attention than any other Pratchett character. Probably trying to capitalize on the coming movie...sigh.

The numerous website citations in the footnotes make a mockery of TP's footnote "genre"...sometimes the footnotes are the best part of a Pratchett story line. Not here...it looks like an anal-retentive college student who's had his/her hand smacked for citing Wikipedia without attribution. Again...sigh.

The inane humorous asides/nudge, nudge, wink, wink remarks were tiresome and silly. Very immature and boring.

I've read all the Pratchett books, several times, and this book didn't add to my enjoyment or extend my horizons one little bit. I think it was a total rip-off.

I love the DiscWorld novels and the Nac Mac Feegles so was looking forward to reading this book. I was disappointed when it seems to be more of a series of book reviews than an actual story and the authors keep referring back to themselves in the book. I was so disappointed that I only made it about 3/4 of the way through before giving up on it. Although I will admit that there was some information on where Pratchett may have gotten his inspiration for some of the characters that was a bit interesting.

First and foremost, as others have said, this book is practically lacking in content. Nothing is delved into with any detail, research seems to have been minimal, and any profound thoughts on the origins of any aspect of Pratchett's DiscWorld books are completely lacking. If you want insight into the in-jokes and cultural references found in the books, I strongly suggest you avoid this book and find The Annotated Pratchett File (available online).

Believe it or not, however, the poor content is not the worst crime committed by this book. The writing style is what makes this book unreadable. I've never seen a published book that rambles on so and meanders from topic to topic and then back to earlier topics. Organization is completely random as are many of the references to external sources. It is as if the authors were running an experiment to see how long they could use free association to keep going. I can only assume this was done intentionally in an attempt to hide the lack of content as it allowed the authors to talk about anything and everything regardless of its relevance. If ever a book was in need of a good editor, this was it. Mind you, a good editor would have stopped this travesty from being published at all.

Any collection strong in novels by Terry Pratchett will welcome this critical survey The Wee Free Men and Discworld: the Myths and Legends of Terry Pratchett's Multiverse. It provides a fun, interactive guide to Discworld's popular novels, analyzing his work and providing a foundation for underlying its underlying themes.