Kian Ryan reviewed Maskerade by Terry Pratchett (Discworld, Book 18)
I really struggle with Maskerade
3 stars
Second or third read through for me, but I've not read it for a good while.
"The fact that she was a free agent and her own mistress and quite at liberty to go off to Ankh-Morpork had nothing to do with it. They'd interfere. They always did."
This is the crux of the problem I have with Maskerade. Agnes, mostly, just wants to be left alone. A series of events happens to and around her, and Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax who insist they know best over a range of things, insert themselves over the whole book. It's not to say they don't help to resolve things, it's that they insist on doing it their way on every occasion. By any other account, we would possibly accuse them of a level of toxicity. It rubs me the wrong way.
It's not one of my favourites. I have more affinity …
Second or third read through for me, but I've not read it for a good while.
"The fact that she was a free agent and her own mistress and quite at liberty to go off to Ankh-Morpork had nothing to do with it. They'd interfere. They always did."
This is the crux of the problem I have with Maskerade. Agnes, mostly, just wants to be left alone. A series of events happens to and around her, and Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax who insist they know best over a range of things, insert themselves over the whole book. It's not to say they don't help to resolve things, it's that they insist on doing it their way on every occasion. By any other account, we would possibly accuse them of a level of toxicity. It rubs me the wrong way.
It's not one of my favourites. I have more affinity for Carpe Jugulum, when there's some refinement to the Witches formula and some other aspects of Terry start to come out. Maskerade at times just feels honestly mean to me.
Otherwise, a passable Terry story. There's enough jokes and references in here to keep most theatre-people happy. You've broadly got a pastiche on Phantom, we have an Opera house, a ghost, and shennanigans. Agnes Nitt / PeridtaX has travelled from Lancre to make it big in the city. Shennanigans ensure.
It's taken three readings, possibly four and another ten years to get possibly one of the biggest gags in the entire book related to Walter Plinge. I suspect after the heat death of the universe, some aspect of the cosmic universe will titter to itself on understanding yet another joke or reference in a STP book.
