I believe I can fly.. (cliche #5771)
Written: Mar 19 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very entertaining
Cons: Not as good as Truckers
The Bottom Line: A nice little book but nothing special
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| captaind's Full Review: Terry Pratchett - Wings |
Wings is the final instalment in Terry Pratchett’s Bromeliad trilogy, a fantasy epic for children, though as usual there’s a lot in there for children to enjoy as well. These stories are about the Nomes (you read it right), a small race of people who came from another planet so many years ago that they don’t even realise that they’re not indigenous to earth.
In the first book, Truckers, a young Nome named Masklin leads his small group of Nomes to a new life at the Store, only to find that hundreds of Nomes are already there. The Thing, a talisman that they’ve had with them for countless generations, suddenly comes to life since it’s close to electricity for the first time and can become active, informs Masklin that they must try to return to their ship, which still waits for them somewhere up in space. But first they must get out of the Store – which is about to be demolished in a few weeks. But getting all the Store Nomes to agree to this seems impossible… but with the help of Grimma, a woman who, against the better judgement of the Store Nomes, learns to read (and her head doesn’t explode, contrary to common wisdom), Dorcas, an ingenious inventor, and Gurder, the reluctant Abbot of the Store Nomes, they manage to leave the store for a new life… by stealing a truck…
The second book, Diggers, follows the story of Grimma and the Nomes at the Quarry, where they end up after escaping from the Store. But the humans who abandoned the quarry look like they’re going to come back, and something must be done about this…
This final book follows the story of Masklin, Gurder, and Angalo (a young vehicle-obsessed Nome) as they try to find a way to get the Thing into space so that it can communicate with the Nome’s ship. This mission takes them to a strange land called Florida…
Along the way Masklin tries to communicate with humans, Gurder starts to experience (another) crisis of his faith (the Store Nomes believed that Arnold Bros (est 1905) created the Store – their whole world – and everything in it), and Angalo… gets to go very fast, which is basically his whole purpose in life.
As with the two earlier books, the humour in Wings stems, on the whole, from the Nomes trying to understand the purpose and function of things in the human world – which they almost always get wrong, but they get it wrong in a way that makes sense in a distorted sort of way. The characters are fairly fully developed, especially for a children’s book. Themes running through all three books but particularly in this final book are the purpose and conflict of religion and science, and the fact that at the end of the day they are often different means to the same end. Both sides of the coin are ridiculed and dignified in more-or-less equal measure, so hopefully no-one would get offended by this! Pratchett shows a keen understanding of just what it is that makes people tick, and the interpersonal relationships between the characters are realistically written, if a tad on the simplistic side.
The action comes in fits and starts, though when it does come it’s pretty fast and furious. There are moments of genius in the writing and it was certainly an enjoyable little book. However, as with Truckers, I didn’t feel this quite matched the level of writing in the first book of this series, or of most of Pratchett’s Discworld series. It’s difficult for me to judge how much chidren would enjoy it, but my guess is that they would enjoy it but be unlikely to re-read it later. It’s worth getting if you like Pratchett, and of course if you’ve read and enjoyed the first two books in the trilogy then you just have to get this. Fortunately the ending is satisfactory and all ends… well, you’ll have to find out for yourself how it ends! My advice is to try Truckers first (I didn’t feel either of the later books quite matched up to it in terms of inventiveness or sheer enjoyment). If you like that, you’ll want to see how it all ends and get the other books, if not there’s no point you getting this or Truckers.
(Incidentally, my vote for Pratchett’s best children’s fantasy fiction book still goes to The Wee Free Men.)
Thanks for reading.
CaptainD
Related Reviews
The Bromeliad Trilogy
Truckers
Diggers
More Pratchet for Kids
The Wee Free Men
A Hat Full of Sky
Not strictly for kids, but they’ll love it anyway:
The Carpet People
Recommended:
Yes
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