The World of Poo

I was completely wrong on my interpretation of the title and I didn't read the synopsis. Once I got my gag reflex settled down it was interesting to see Discworld thru a very different set of eyes.

It has me wondering where the idea for the story came from.

A book within a book. This was a story that Sam Vimes reads to his son in one of the main Discworld books. As such it is set within the discworld universe, but is written in a more naive style. It is less of a childrens book than the title and theme might seem to suggest. The story follows a young boy building a poo museum whilst visiting his family in Ankh Morpork. The book features references to many of Terry Pratchett's characters and places, and the characteristic footnotes that he uses so much. It lacks a lot of his nuanced and comic satirical criticism of the modern world however. Still an entertaining book and a necessary part for any Discworld completionist.

4 stars - Metaphorosis Reviews

Young Geoffrey, sent to visit his grandmother in the big city of Ankh-Morpork, has a chance encounter with avian excrement, and decides to open the world's first poo museum.

Apparently this is something of a meta-book, having been mentioned in the Discworld novel Snuff. The book brims with Terry Pratchett's characteristic humor, forthrightly brought to bear on a basic human need. It's not his funniest book, but it's light, good-natured, and fun. The illustrations are nice, if not as light-hearted as one might hope.

The plot and characterization are pretty simplistic, but that's not really what the book is about. It reads more as an off-the cuff in-joke that's also accessible to outsiders.

The World of Poo is a quick, easy read that's a fitting cap to Pratchett's long Discworld series (though it's been available in the UK for some years). If you liked his other books (and you should), you'll like this.

This is a little story about a boy visiting his grandmother in Ankh-Morpork and developing a keen interest in all kinds of poo.

It's a short book and there's not much to it, so perhaps only Pratchett completists will want to rush out and buy a copy. However, if you happen to come across it lying around, as I did, it makes quite pleasant reading to pass a short while. Faced with the challenge of writing a book with this title, Pratchett shaped up and made something better than you might expect of it.

It could probably teach you a few things you didn't know about poo, too.

Although the story is set on the Discworld, it doesn't really require previous knowledge of the Discworld, and the level of fantasy in it is relatively low.