The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents: (Discworld Novel 28) (Discworld Novels)

Product Information

Maurice pounces on the Death of Rats to protect Dangerous Beans, then stands there with the Grim Squeaker in his mouth, stunned by the realization of how much trouble he's bound to be in for... Multitasked Conversation: When Maurice is trying to tell Sardines to leave before Malicia turns around and sees him. He's not very good at it, and it doesn't work for long. Cats Are Superior: Oh, Maurice. The difference between cats and humans: humans think themselves the lords of creation, but cats know they are.

Malicia – the daughter of Bad Blintz's mayor, perennially obsessed with fairy tales, having adventures, and storytelling. Well, I have definitely learned a lot about rats. I have mixed feelings about this book. Terry Pratchett is usually SO GOOD at mixing light-hearted silliness with a more macabre subject matter, but this time something felt a little… off. The rats are great at first, a nice blend of ratty grossness and the angst that comes with sudden enlightenment… or puberty. The rat characters are well-developed and as authentic as a bunch of talking rats can be. Maurice the cat is also a wonderful character. Malicia says to Maurice, "I mean,you don't wear boots and sword and have a big hat with a feather in it," a reference to the story of Puss in Boots, the most popular version by Charles Perrault,

Broadcasts

A movie, available in theaters and streaming on Hulu, directed by Toby Genkel (and starring Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke among others) and called "The Amazing Maurice", was released 5 February 2023 in the USA and Canada. As they set off to look in the rat-catchers' house, the rats discover many rat tunnels, which are empty, save for traps and poison. The two groups meet in the rat catchers' den, where they have been storing the food the rats are thought to have eaten, and find cages where the rats are being bred, for coursing. BBC Radio 4 broadcast a 90-minute dramatisation in 2003, adapted by Peter Kerry and directed by Chris Wallis, which was repeated on BBC 7 on June 2, 2007 and April 27, 2008. The character of Dangerous Beans was voiced by David Tennant. Darktan's voice was a spoof version of Sean Connery's Scottish burr. The narrator in the adaptation was Maurice himself, describing to Dangerous Beans how they arrived at the perilous situation near the end of the plot. Quotes from Mr. Bunnsy Has an Adventure, which appear as chapter heads in the book, were read by the character Peaches. To mark the occasion of Terry Pratchett's knighthood, it was broadcast on BBC 7 again, along with other dramatisations of his work, in February 2009.

Laxative Prank: Malicia puts laxative powder in the Rat Catchers' tea, then tells them they've been poisoned and holds the antidote hostage until they do as she says. The "antidote" is laxative powder too. Harsher in Hindsight: Spider's plan for humanity was chilling enough before it was visualized in The Plague Tale series. Reading the book after playing the games makes it that much harsher.

The voice of the King Rat in the walls and inside Maurice, the rats and the rat catchers' heads saying such things as " come CLOSER", "WHAT! CAT! CAT! KILL! resonates with JK Rowling's, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the basilisk in the drains of Hogwarts which Harry hears. Spider is interested in Dangerous Beans; other rats he can control, but Dangerous Beans has a mind similar to his: one that thinks for others. Dangerous Beans refuses Spider's offer of jointly ruling, as Spider wants to wage war on humans. As this happens, Malicia and Keith, under Spider's control, are about to set free the trapped rats. Spider tries to destroy Dangerous Beans' mind; this is felt by his army of rats, and Maurice. Dangerous Beans is able to resist, but Maurice reverts to being a cat, and the cat instinct tells him to pounce on Spider, though enough of his mind remains to tell him to sever the knot in Spider's tails.

Expy: At first glance, and indeed at second glance, Maurice can come across as one for Gaspode the Wonder Dog; Maurice's Origin Story is similar to Gaspode's second origin (normal stray animals made intelligent from exposure to magical garbage - indirectly in Maurice's case), they're both, on the whole, smarter than the humans they hang out with and use similar tactics in manipulating said humans, and they are both masters of snide and sarcastic comments. As the story goes on, however, it turns out that despite similar set-ups and circumstances, the two animals are actually very different when it comes down to it — where Gaspode is ultimately a pessimist who loves to wallow in self-pity and set himself up as a tragic hero, Maurice has a more positive outlook on life and is a lot more unashamedly a self-centered Jerk with a Heart of Gold— with a bit of a Dark and Troubled Past. Although, given how Gaspode mentions that other animals were affected by the magical garbage, the rats' intelligence comes from the same source. One of my favourite moments probably was towards the end when this song was sung (imagine it being sung to one of the usual military cadences): Shrouded in Myth: The genuine Rat Piper encourages tales about what his magic pipe can do so that people will deal on his terms. Oxford Playscripts: The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents". Oxford University Press . Retrieved 19 June 2020.

Do Not Go Gentle/ Don't Fear the Reaper: Darktan manages to combine both of these tropes in his Rousing Speech to the rats: death in itself is not something to be feared, but the Bone Rat will only pass you over if you can look him in the eyes. Given that it's the Disc, he's likely not speaking figuratively. Theme Naming: The rats are all named after random bits of food label they found in the wizards' garbage pile. As in all of Pratchett’s books, though, there is a lot going on besides talking rats and some dubiously naïve villagers. This is also one of his darker outings, which again makes me wonder about this being marketed to wee ones, unless Pratchett in his INFINITE AND IMPRESSIVE GENIUS makes that point, it is the young ones who can still get the irony of sentient rats pretending to be led away by a fake flutist.

Well, most of the chores,’ said Malicia, as if revealing an unfortunate fact. ‘Some of them, definitely. I have to clean up my own room, you know! And it’s extremely untidy!’ I personally loved this book because in made showed not just told, and the book described so much detail about the surrounding it almost feels like you're in the place watching whats going on. It pulls you in and keeps you hooked and you just don't want to stop and it feels like you're apart of whats going on.

This book provides examples of:

Break the Cutie: Dangerous Beans dealing with the fact that Mr Bunnsy, a children's book where animals are less animal, is fiction. It also shows what happens when an ingenious writer doesn´t just write for young audiences from the beginning of his career, but decides to give it a try after having written extremely complex and subtle fantastic comedy for adults over decades. It´s wonderful, it´s kind of even denser than the Discworld, because there are no longer introspections, dialogues, and philosophizing about ethics, morality, and the nature of good and evil, just easy fun and entertainment. Rat King: The true villain of the story. Spider, so-called because it's made from eight young rats (eight being a number of great occult significance on the Discworld), has psychic powers so potent it can not only control rats and see anything they can see, but also influence human behaviour. It can even strip away the magical awareness given to the protagonist rats and cat, making them ordinary creatures. Horribly, making a Rat King is part of the qualification for mastery in the Ratcatchers Guild, suggesting that there are at least potentially many of these things across the Disc - though it's hinted that this one is unusual in that it achieved sentience, let alone Psychic Powers. An extra easter egg are the innuendos on kids and young adults literature and movies, some kind of indirect fourth wall break, because the serious, heavy, often boring adult classics Pratchett satirizes in many of his other works are exchanged with the really good kids' stuff. It also shows that even in the, allegedly simple, literature for young bookworms, there is so much potential for remixing, reinterpreting, and retelling that one would wish to get into a time machine to be able to enjoy it once again, or sadly often the first time, with the full immersive pleasure of being young again.