Books & Stuff (NS, No 25) - Reading in Feb 2022

 Finished Books

JRR Tolkien & Christopher Tolkien, The Children of Hurin

I finished this.  As I said before, it's is a much easier read in the prose version presented here than what we get in The Lost Tales.  

But when Tolkien says that this is a story of a family cursed, he sure means it!  Fate and doom drip from each page.  This is a tale of woe and hubris.

...so I need some light relief.

Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents

This is on of my favorite of Pratchett's books.  He takes the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamlyn and considers what it might be like from the rats' point of view (and what if it was all a big con arranged by them).

And in getting Maurice off the shelf, I realised that I'd never read this one...

Terry Pratchett, Dodger

I hadn't actually realised that this wasn't a Discworld novel, but a 'straight' (ie, no fantasy) one based in C19th London.  It owes a lot to the work of Henry Mayhew, and is therefore dedicated to him.

Dodger is a tosher (a scavenger in the sewers).  An encounter with thugs brutalising an orphan brings him into contact with Mayhew, Charles Dickens, Sweeny Todd and others.