2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Snuff by Terry Pratchett, the thirty-ninth book in the Discworld series.

Pages: 378 pages

Length: 1 Month (July)

Participants: Marc, Sinisa.

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

Our second-last book!

Don't like thinking it is ending, more it is just one step closer to another circle of Discworld and rereading guards. Don't have much time this week so I am starting this slowly and hopping to read most of it during weekend.

I started (barely). I find again, like in Unseen Academicals, that the characters are more talkative than usual, particularly Vetinari and Vimes. Neither are usually chatty, rather quite taciturn and sharp. Maybe this is just how Pratchett's brain worked now. Maybe he loved the characters so much after so long, he was writing like he was having long conversations with them himself.

Honestly I thought that Vimes was being forcibly retired at first; how could Pratchett do that to him? Great joke to then reveal that he's only going on vacation for two weeks. I'm glad I remember very little from the one other time I read it.

I am loving this start with no plot and just more time with Vimes. I thought the same about retiring and was going in my head " this couldn't be right? ", when was clear what is going on it made sense Terry would do this to trick readers. There is one point where the gentlemans gentleman tell Vimes how they have to hurry home to dinner cos Mrs wants him to be dressed nicely and Vimes responds with: "Oh no, not the official pantyhose's". That was hilarious.

There is Fred Colon part here (at aprx 34%) and in my translation they say something like "It was a ritual old as merchants and cops and it was what make world go around". World going around??? Was that a slip up, disk doesn't go around right?

Sinisa wrote: "There is Fred Colon part here (at aprx 34%) and in my translation they say something like "It was a ritual old as merchants and cops and it was what make world go around". World going around??? Was..."

The disc does go around. That’s where they get the direction of turn-wise that’s used in several Discworld books. The disc spins, it just does it really slowly (800 days for one rotation). I don’t think it’s ever explained how it spins. For more detail, see here: https://wiki.lspace.org/Discworld_(wo...

Lydia wrote: "Sinisa wrote: "There is Fred Colon part here (at aprx 34%) and in my translation they say something like "It was a ritual old as merchants and cops and it was what make world go around". World goin..."

Yes it has to spin cos night and day exist but this saying world go around cos world is round is what I was aiming for. It just feels out of place saying for a discworld.

I thought it was specified that day and night were a result of the sun and moon rotating around the disc+elephants+turtle, not the spin of the disc (like in this picture: https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/...) And that the rotation of the disc was what causes seasons and years.

Haven't really looked into it but same logic applies in both cases. Am I wrong to assume spinning and going around is not same thing? This particular saying is dependent of world being round going around and Earth rotating around Sun.

I always assumed that for a flat objects like the disc, going around meant spinning like a frisbee or merry-go-round. But it’s not like the Discworld books aren’t full of contradictions, so I could be wrong.

There’s a reference about 70% into the book, to “Zoons”, a race of mariners who cannot lie. IIRC, this refers back to book #3: Equal Rites.

I could check back but my library is still not set up, many books in storage. We’re moving next month though into a permanent place, so they will see the light of day again soon.

I suppose I could also look it up online but that’s a buzzkill. I grew up without the internet and in cases like this it feels like cheating.

Well, the entire scene aboard the ‘Wonderful Fanny’ was, well, wonderful, the best part of the book which otherwise, I find, meanders endlessly, like it’s still an unfinished draft. With another 80 pages still to go after this climax, I expect a lot of drag coming up.

I wish I could say that Sir Terry’s post-diagnosis books were just as good, but they’re sadly not. Still a lot of brilliant moments, good writing in most ways, but as a whole package they pale in comparison to his pre-diagnosis work. This should not surprise anyone, given the nature of his disease.

Was sick so haven't read for a while but I finished it today. I liked it a lot to be honest. It does meanders but I didn't find anything else that bothered me. Fred Colon part was unnecessary but I liked that ending for him and Nobby. Time that Vimes had interactions with butler, Lady Sybil, bad guys, good guys, his son and at the end with patrician I loved all of those. Just having fun driving that boat was nice ending for him too. This is not perfect but I find it so much better that last one which was painful to read at moments. I loved Wilkins as a character him and crossbow mystery and final showdown with a villain (Vimes "I will certainly NOT ask Wilkins about it" was hilarious). Vimes saying "there are hangings and there are "hangings"" is a reference to Going postal and Vetrinari problem solving right?