BOOK REVIEW - FICTION The Truth, Terry Pratchett, Harper Torch, 2000 The Truth is the twenty-fifth novel in the Discworld series. The action takes place in the city of Ankh-Morpork. Ankh-Morpork is the London of the Discword, ��That great cesspool into which the dregs of society are drawn.�� as Dr. Watson so eleoquently described it. Ankh-Morpork has humans, dwarves, trolls, vampires, zombies, werewolves and Corporal Nobby. Opening paragraphs: The rumor spread through the city like wildfire (which had quite often spread through Ankh-Morpork since its citzens had learned the words ��fire insurance.��). The dwarfs can turn lead into gold. William De Worde, the scion of a wealthy and bellicose family, makes his living as a wordsmith. In addition to writing letters for various illiterate denizens of Ankh-Morpork, he writes a monthly newsletter which he has woodcut, printed, and sent to nobles in distant lands who want to keep up with what�s happening in the city. When dwarf Gunilla Goodmountain brings his printing press - with movable type - to Ankh-Morpork, William De Worde stumbles on it quite by accident, and equally by accident he is forced to become its patron. And equally as accidently, he is soon publishing the Ankh-Morpork Times, the city�s first newspaper. Intertwined with William�s struggles and the evolution of his newspaper, from acquiring reporters and a photographer (make that an iconographer) to dealing with sabotage by the Engraver�s Guild (they start a rival paper called The Inquirer, is the latest plot against the city. The New Firm, as represented by the very large and deadly Mr. Tulip, and the smaller, brainier, and deadlier Mr. Pin, has been hired (by mysterious men who meet in a mysterious place) to replace the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork with a look alike, for although the Patrician�s city Works, it is too full of non-human creatures for some people. Soon all of Ankh-Morpork breaks loose, when the Patrician is accused of stabbing his faithful clerk and of being apprehended while trying to ride off with thousands of dollars in his saddlebags. William de Worde, in seeking all the news fit to print, and the Night Watch, led by Captain Samuel Vimes who is due to retire so that he wed, are soon on a merry romp to discover The Truth. It is possible to read and enjoy The Truth as your introduction to the Discworld. However, the story as it unfolds will take on even more resonance if you have read at least a couple of previous Discworld novels. (For a full understanding of Samuel Vimes, Corporal Carrot and the Night Watch, start with Guards, Guards and move on to Men At Arms, then come back to The Truth and read it again. And if you want to appreciate Death, who is a wonderful character, you�ll need to read at least Reaper Man, as well as Soul Music and Hogfather.) Terry Pratchett writes comedy, satire, action adventure, and moving tragedy, all combined into a suspenseful whole. Sometimes he fails (Mort, Moving Pictures and Maskerade are three books I could never get into), but he succeeds more often than not. He alternately �sends up� and pays homage to a myriad of classic books and movies, as well as casting his discerning eye on the problems of our real world. Some examples of the non-stop plays on words, puns and humor in this novel: The world is made up of four elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. This is a fact well known even to Corporal Nobbs. It�s also wrong. There�s a fifth element, and generally it�s called Surprise. ��...Look out of the window. Tell me what you see.�� ��Fog.�� said the High Priest. Vetinari sighed. Sometimes the weather had no sense of narrative convenience. ��If it was a fine day, he said sharply, ��you would see the big semaphore tower on the other side of the river...�� ��When one has been ruler of this city as long as I have,�� he [the Patrician] said, ��one gets to know with a sad certainty that whever some well-meaning soul begins a novel enterprise they always, with some kind of uncanny foresight, site it at the point where it will do maximum harm to the fabric of reality. There was that Holy Wood moving picture fiasco a few years ago, yes? And the Music with Rocks business not long after, we never got to the bottom of that. And of course the wizards seem to break into the Dungeon Dimensions so often they might as well install a revolving door. And I�m sure I don�t have to remind you what happened when the late Mr. Hong chose to open his Three Jolly Luck Take-Away Fish Bar in Dragon Street during the lunar eclipse. Yes? You see, gentlemen, it would be nice to think that someone, somewhere in this city, is engaged in some simple enterprise that is not going to end up causing tentacled monsters and dread apparitions to stalk the streets eating people...�� ��Of course, I should add that, in the event of there being any problems of a tentacular nature, you would be held personally responsible.�� He paused again. ��Yes,�� said Sacharissa politely. ��I vas vaiting for zer roll of thunder,�� said the vampire. ��But alas, zis is not Ubervald.��...��Vell, you see, if I vas to say something portentous like �zer dark eyes of zer mind� back home in Ubervald, zere would be a sudden crash of thunder,�� said Otto. ��And if I vas to point at a castle on a towering crag and say, �Yonder is...zer castle, a wolf would be bound to howl mournfully.�� He sighed. ��In zer old country, zer scenery is psychotropic and knows vot is expected of it. Here, alas, people just look at you in a funny vay.��