Terry Pratchett - Raising Steam

Raising Steam is the mighty Terry Pratchett's 40th book in the Discworld series, published only last year. Perhaps more than a little out of sync, it is my first foray into his world. Maybe the beginning would have been a wiser place to start, but as a very long car journey necessitated a very long audiobook to accompany it, beggars couldn't be choosers. That said, I will definitely be intending to go back to where it all began, and here's why...

 Raising Steam is an excellent and witty account of the threat of ensuing modernity. Although fantasy, the city of Ankh-Morpork and its inhabitants bears a striking resemblance to earth as we know it. Half steeped in goblins and dwarves, half in the Industrial Revolution, Pratchett's world is at once as homely as your best jumper and completely of another world. Charting the arrival of the infamous steam train in the form of Iron Girder, Pratchett whistles you through the rapid expansion of the railway system and its battles against those who view change with a suspicious eye. The ensuing toils and troubles encountered by the great wheeler dealer Moist von Lipwig are nothing short of a rollercoaster ride, nevermind a merrt trip on a steam locomotive.

With elaborate and frankly brilliant characterisation (special mention going to Of The Twilight The Darkness), this is a must read. Or in my case, a must hear as I listened to the audiobook version told by Tony Robinson whose range of voices is an utter delight. If you like fantastical, cheeky whimsy, then please please indulge yourself!

Philip K. Dick -A Scanner Darkly

A Scanner Darkly is my first, and somewhat belated foray into the writings of the almighty Philip K. Dick, and on coming out the other side I can conclude it was most definitely overdue. 

Originally published in 1977, the book tells of the exploded paranoia stemming from systemic drug abuse that many of Dick's friends fell prey to. 

Exploring what you're at first lead to believe is an infiltration into the underground narcotics industry through the investigations of undercover agent, Bob Arctor the facts soon start becoming blurred. Balancing his dual life as addict: Bob and agent: Fred, he starts off able to compartmentalise his two lives. This then gradually starts to unravel thanks to Fred being assigned to investigate the activities of his alternate identity. From this point, Bob/Fred becomes increasingly confused as his life starts overlapping whilst the effects of Substance D simultaneously start splitting the communication between his brain’s hemispheres and his reality becomes progressively distorted. When the drug starts winning, Fred ceases to function, Bob’s reality starts disintegrating and the machinations of the narcotics industry begin to be exposed.

A Scanner Darkly is an ‘Alice down the rabbit hole’ of drug-induced paranoia and mental breakdown. At the same time as wanting to reach out and stop Arctor there’s a certain amount of inevitability to his downfall. I think Dick manages to sum this up best himself in his notes at the end.

"It is...only a speeding up, an intensifying, of the ordinary human existence."