Raising Steam

Moist Von Lipwig is back, and still working hard to keep his neck free from Vetinari's noose. This time he is made responsible for the public safety (and the city's financial stake) regarding a radically new form of transportation: steam powered locomotives. Along the way he has to manage the growing ingenuousness of goblins, help stave off a Dwarfish civil war, and keep an increasing amount of, well, change from getting out of hand. And at it's heart it is “change” that is the subject of this novel, and how people deal with change. Some embrace it, some fear it, and some see it as a way to profit. It's not a “laugh out loud” Discworld book, which will be a disappointment for some, but I quite enjoyed it.

This one is about trains and an attempted coup

Not as good as other Terry Pratchett. The Big Reveal thingy wasn't that big nor a revelation, so I'm pretty disappointed with this one.

Not my favorite in Discworld. The characters were still great, and the world still curious, but the plot arc was too straight. Worth the read if you are already following Moist Von Lipvig's adventures.

Fun interactions of industrial revolution and fantasy

The continuing characters remain engaging with new interesting ones added. A excellent final submission in the discworld series. Recommendation to those who like the Prattcgett series

Terry Pratchett had a way of taking a delightful comic adventure and wrapping it around a vitally important social issue in a way that makes a perfect point. Raising Steam is absolutely no stranger to this and is an almost direct continuation of the plight of the goblins from “Snuff.” In this novel, Pratchett not only looked at how railways altered the culture of continents, but also at terrorism. Of course, Pratchett's terrorists are dwarfs, but a select subset of dwarfs clinging to the ways of the deep down mines. Of course, not all dwarfs clinging to the ways of the deep down mines are terrorists either. Some of them hate modern society and still believe that destroying it is a bad thing. And of course others are feminists who believe dwarf women should be proud of their gender and wear modern fashions. And others are monarchists who believe that what the Low King says goes. And others think that tradition has a great deal of value but that doesn't mean we ignore the present. The list goes on as Pratchett's dwarves fill out a complete culture better than many authors fill out actual human cultures.

Then let's add in our cast of returning favorites. This novel fits into the Moist von Lipwig arc neatly with cameos from Vimes and company. The Moist series is one of the most recents, but also one of my favorites (I say that about every series, yes I know) and I maintain that Nathan Fillion should play him should there ever be a movie adaptation (I say that about every smarmy male character, yes I know). We also learn a lot more about goblin society and spend a good deal more time with the Patrician han usual. If you're a Discworld fan, you won't be disappointed.

I admit I've put off reading this book because there just isn't a lot more Discworld left for me to read, but I'm glad I read it now. It's a good time for people to read this book. It's more enjoyable if you're read Thud, Making Money, and Snuff, but as is usual, it's easy to catch up if you haven't.

I liked this better than Snuff, though that may be largely because I listened to the audiobook which allows me to get through books I would otherwise lem.
This was an ode to trains and I don't have much interest in trains. There was a sense throughout the book of times changing/ a new era beginning which makes me wonder about the discworld itself.

And here we are, another two-star Discworld book. They're just kinda feeling like poor shadows of themselves these days.

Raising Steam doesn't have much of a plot, the characters feel cardboard, nothing much interesting or even humorous happens for 200+ pages. Just feels flat. There's no real mystery or crisis or moment where you wonder whether our heroes will save the day, and the social commentary seems formulaic at best.

At 80% through I wasn't even sure it would make it to two stars, but it picked up a bit toward the end.

I'm not a fan of Discworld. It's OK. Who I truly love is Moist van Lipwig, so I only read the books that feature Moist as the main character. I was looking forward to Raising Steam, and I have to say it took me a week to “chug” through it. Honestly, I have never run up against this before, but the book had no conflict. It moves along...they build a train, there is a sort of subplot with a dwarf uprising that reads more like a commercial interruption in the storyline, and there is some action. But everything just goes alone. If a problem comes up, it is solved in a paragraph or two. There are a couple of reveals...but they aren't really anything important. Raising Steam is, dare I say it? A bit boring.
There were two laugh out loud moments and some beautifully crafted sentences that made me read them over twice to appreciate the craft that went into them, but the story was boring. I never believed anyone's life was in danger, I never believed the changes the railroad made on society were going to be anything but positive, and I never stopped waiting for the real story to get started-until I closed the back cover on the last page.
Sigh.

I liked it, it was Pratchett. It just wasn't Pratchett at his finest – both Going Postal and Making Money were far superior Moist von Lipwig books, and the dwarven politics were much better dealt with in The Fifth Elephant and Thud. Also some spoilery bits at the end annoyed me greatly. Probably not a reread book, which is strange for a Discworld book.

This book is boring. It plods. There are none of the breath-taking “zings” that lurk on every page in previous books. Characters bear no resemblance to their established personas. It's “Snuff” all over again. I did not laugh out loud even once while reading this book. I doubt I'll read any more of Sir Terry's novels; luckily the earlier ones stand up to infinite re-reads. I think his agents/publishers are doing him no favors. This is not a dignified way to end a brilliant writing career.

Something new has come to Discworld. Something that will change everyone's lives. All aboard folks,the Steam Locomotive is here!

“Raising Steam” is the fortieth book in the Discworld series. To be fair it's not as laugh-out loud funny as it's predecessors, but that said, it is still a good read. I liked it. Moist van Lipwig is back, as is Vetinari and Sam Vimes along with trolls, goblins, dwarfs and even gnomes. While it may not have left me laughing out loud it did make me smirk and it made a wet and windy weekend a little less dull.