Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

Terry Pratchett has to be on the short list of contenders for the funniest man alive.  The Truth demonstrates all his different ways of making us laugh.  He does puns better than anyone I know, as when the motto of the The Ankh-Morpork Times changes from "The Truth Shall Make Ye Free" to "The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret" and "The Truth Shall Make Ye Fere."  He does great slapstick, for instance the newspaper's vampire photographer screaming in pain every time he takes a flash photo.  He does memorable one-liners, like the throw-away description of the partitions in a laundry "to segregate the clerks and the person whose job it was to explain to customers where their socks had gone."  He does hilarious situational humor, for example the criminal thug Mr. Tulip's incongruous knowledge of art.  He does very good satire, such as the readers' obvious preference to get their news from the Ankh-Morpork Inquirer, with stories invented by the same guy who makes sausages of suspect origins, rather than the factual Ankh-Morpork Times.  What I'm getting at is, this is a very funny book.

Even stripped of all the humor, this novel would be well worth reading for its examination of journalism.  The protagonist William de Worde is dedicated to reporting the news factually, but soon learns that factual statements may be the most misleading of all.  It is quite interesting to see him shake off a degree of his idealism, with Pratchett leaving it an open question whether this is a good thing.  I also liked the tension between William and the Night's Watch, both well intentioned but with differing agenda.

The only level of the book I did not find very successful was William's cloak-and-dagger investigation of the plot against the ruler of Ankh-Morpork and his father's role in the plot.  Never having met the father until late in the book, I was not much interested in the build-up to a showdown between father and son, and I found the whole subplot a distraction from the more interesting and humorous story of the creation of The Ankh-Morpork Times.