A Book Review

I recently read Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel, Snuff.  If you don't know what Discworld is, I encourage you to look it up.  I encourage you to look it up not because I'm too lazy to describe it but because I just spent thirty minutes trying to describe Discworld and realizing I wasn't doing a good job.  Basically, though, it's a world of comic fantasy that I highly recommend, if you're interested in either fantasy or laughing hysterically for hours. 

Anyway, I wrote this book review on Goodreads and thought that I would share it with you.  If you are on Goodreads, then you can find my review and click to "like it."  I encourage you to "like it" so that others may see it.  Unfortunately, though the book is clearly about the drug and slave trade, because it is a part of Pratchett's running Discworld series--a running satire on everything--I doubt that many people who have read the book will have the same, necessary perception of the book as I do.  Whether you are on Goodreads or not, I encourage you to read Snuff, because it is a fantastic (see what I did there?  Discworld is fantasy, and I just said a Discworld book is "fantastic"... ha ha), non-direct look at how certain forms of slavery develop such a strong hold in our world, all the while being hidden from the public eye.

(Note: I've taken out some of the review that focused more on the style of the book)

"Regular Discworld copper Sam Vimes goes out to the country with his wife, Lady Sybil, for a vacation... until he finds trouble, as Vimes always does, and then has to take down a drug and slave trafficking racket.  Because of my own experience and involvement in fighting slave trafficking (check out my book, 27 Million Revolutions for 27 Million Slaves) I love and appreciate this book.  Sam Vimes is, in a sense, the last person you'd expect to respect the rights of perceived lower-species (in this case, goblins), which makes the anti-slave purpose of the story all the stronger.  We can all learn a lot from the rough-and-tumble Sam Vimes about why we need to take on modern-day slavery with much more enthusiasm and strength.  Pratchett also perceptively connects the drug trade to the slave trade.  A wonderfully meaningful story is Snuff.

One of the most powerful comments that I've ever read in a Pratchett novel gets repeated by Vimes in various forms throughout the book, "You could have done something."  If you read my book, you'll learn that, indeed, when we are faced with an evil like slavery, we all can do something.  Little changes in our life, our attitudes and/or our lifestyles, can make a big difference in the world.  As the rough-and-tumble character that he is, Vimes has something specific in mind when he says, "You could have done something," but even if we disagree with his notions of literally fighting back, we should still hear his words ringing in our ears... "You could have done something."  Slavery is unacceptable in our world today, and we can all do something.

Another great aspect of this book is that it shows how hidden slavery can be.  Vimes shows up in the countryside and everything seems clean and fine.  No one likes the goblins (the potential slave population) because they are poor, uneducated thieves who can barely speak the language.  At first Vimes thinks that this is such perfectly normal behavior that he doesn't give it a second thought.  It's not so much a question of, "Who cares about the goblins (or, who cares about the poor, uneducated, possibly foreign population)?" but rather a question of, "Who even thinks about the goblins?"  The answer is, "no one really," because we all walk around with our eyes shut focused on the lives of the wealthy, hoping that one day we might join their ranks.  We might care about the rights of all people, but our eyes aren't open enough to see all the people.  We aren't a true community in any sense.  This is how slavery becomes hidden, this is how there are 27 million slaves in the world, many of whom are in the United States, without our knowledge.  If it weren't for Sam Vimes's inclination to find trouble, he wouldn't have known what was going on because he wouldn't have opened his eyes.  And by the end of the story, Vimes hasn't even necessarily accepted goblins as equal, but he does come to understand, by viewing the horrors of slavery, that all people, including goblins, are indeed people.

...

There's nothing inherently wrong with an action novel about dismantling drug and slave trafficking.  That's quite good, in fact!  I love it!  Let's write more of them! If you have never read a Discworld novel before and have a beating heart, you will love this book [and find yourself wanting to fight slavery all the more!].  But if you are familiar with Discworld, you have certain expectations that are not met. Which is okay, of course, since I'm not sure that I want to laugh while reading about the drug and slave trade.  I just wish I had some forewarning that my life experiences with slavery would come a-haunting.

And it's possible that Pratchett realized that this shouldn't be a proper Discworld satire.  There is a point in the novel when Lady Sybil, Vimes's wife, loses some of her power over Vimes and decides to just become a supporting wife as Vimes goes out to make the world a better place.  This is a powerful transition.  Yes, Snuff may not be what I was expecting or even hoping for as a Discworld novel, but, as Lady Sybil recognizes, what are expectations of a Discworld novel in the face of the drug and slave trade?  Nothing.

So at the end of the day I of course really liked this book for its focus and its story.  Sam Vimes is, in a way, your stereotypical conservative, American Southerner.  If even he can find it in his heart to respect lowly, poor foreigners who can't speak good English--I mean, goblins, and fight to keep them from being enslaved, then so should we all."