![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A story that takes place in two timelines, centuries apart. Gil in 1968 and Mayken in 1628 on a doomed Dutch East India Company ship called the Batavia after the place it’s heading. (Batavia is now Jakarta.). In 1968 Gil, age nine, has come to a small seasonal fishing community on one of the Abrolhos Islands, off the west coast of Australia, to live with his curmudgeonly grandfather Joss, after his feckless mother has died. Gil is maladjusted after the circumstances of his mother’s death, and his grandfather doesn’t help much at first, being in the middle of a feud with one of the other fishing families. Gil manages to get himself firmly embroiled in the feud. Back in 1628 Mayken’s mother had died and her voyage (to join her father) embodies a fictionalised account of an infamous shipwreck and the terrible events that followed, when the survivors washed up on the inhospitable island. But before the wreck we follow Mayken, a bit of a wild child, as she explores the ship, and tries to catch a mythical shadow monster. The two stories run side by side. In 1968 there is an archaeological team digging the wreck, so Gil reads about the shipwreck and believes that Little May’s ghost haunts the island. The writing is elegant, but dark. The pace is measured. While Gil’s story is grim, it has a satisfying ending, however, we know from the start that Mayken/Little May did not survive the wreck and subsequent marooning of the Batavia’s survivors, but her story is still compelling. Aug. 28th, 2022
A story that takes place in two timelines, centuries apart. Gil in 1968 and Mayken in 1628 on a doomed Dutch East India Company ship called the Batavia after the place it’s heading. (Batavia is now Jakarta.). In 1968 Gil, age nine, has come to a small seasonal fishing community on one of the Abrolhos Islands, off the west coast of Australia, to live with his curmudgeonly grandfather Joss, after his feckless mother has died. Gil is maladjusted after the circumstances of his mother’s death, and his grandfather doesn’t help much at first, being in the middle of a feud with one of the other fishing families. Gil manages to get himself firmly embroiled in the feud. Back in 1628 Mayken’s mother had died and her voyage (to join her father) embodies a fictionalised account of an infamous shipwreck and the terrible events that followed, when the survivors washed up on the inhospitable island. But before the wreck we follow Mayken, a bit of a wild child, as she explores the ship, and tries to catch a mythical shadow monster. The two stories run side by side. In 1968 there is an archaeological team digging the wreck, so Gil reads about the shipwreck and believes that Little May’s ghost haunts the island. The writing is elegant, but dark. The pace is measured. While Gil’s story is grim, it has a satisfying ending, however, we know from the start that Mayken/Little May did not survive the wreck and subsequent marooning of the Batavia’s survivors, but her story is still compelling. 
The first book of the City Watch sub-series, introducing Sam Vimes of the Night Watch. At the start Vimes is a burnt-out wreck of a man, fast disappearing down the neck of a bottle, but there's trouble stirring in the city of Ankh Morpork. There's always trouble, but this is a different kind of trouble and Sam must step up and sober up if he's to solve the problem of a new lethal weapon - a dragon. The City Watch is a joke, encompassing characters like Sgt Fred Colon Nobby Nobbs, who is barely human, and other characters who are definitely not human, plus Carrot, who is a dwarf despite being over six feet tall. There's political satire as well as humour and some deep character building. It's the beginning of Vimes character arc - my favourite out of all the Discworld characters. This is a good place to jump into the Discworld books if you haven't read any of them before.
I love Pratchett's take on religion and religious philosophy. The small god, Om, currently in the shape of a turtle, has lost his power due to a lack of true believers. Om needs a disciple. Unfortunately the gentle Brutha is the only one available. This is a standalone in the Discworld series, with none of the usual cast of characters. It contains some profound ideas about religion and what humans do (or try to do) in its name. Mr P has some things to say about religion, but never loses the humour and absurdity that Discworld is known for.
Sex, drugs and music with rocks in arrive in the Discworld. Meanwhile. Death’s granddaughter, Susan, has to learn the family business quickly when Death himself (HE WHO SPEAKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS AND RIDES A WHITE HORSE CALLED BINKY) decides to take time out. Susan is 16 and attending a posh boarding school where she’s trying to grow up normally, but she suddenly finds she has to come to terms with her heritage. In the meantime a group of travelling musicians acquire some rather unusual instruments and start playing powerful music with rocks in. Terry Pratchett takes a satirical bite out of the music industry while addressing issues of bereavement. I love Death as a character. Good fun. 
To tell the truth (see what I did there?) I’m not as fond of the later batch of Pratchetts that encompass Ankh Morpork’s industrial (and social) revolution, though that only means a four star review rather than five because Pratchett is always worth reading. This time he’s having a go at the press as William de Worde becomes the editor of the Discworld’s first newspaper. William only wants to tell the truth, but other people have reasons for keeping the truth under wraps. There are perils in publishing. (Incidentally Wynkyn de Worde was a real-life publisher in the early 1500s who worked with William Caxton and popularised the products of the printing press in England. He published – amongst other things – The Canterbury Tales, Robin Hood, and Le Morte d’Arthur)