The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Classic Terry Pratchett, the perfect balance of darkness, whimsy, and wit. For all those fans of talking animal books (looking at you [b:Watership Down|76620|Watership Down|Richard Adams|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405136931s/76620.jpg|1357456]Watership Down and [b:Redwall|7996|Redwall (Redwall, #1)|Brian Jacques|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327877368s/7996.jpg|486980]Redwall) this is how you do it without sounding stupid.

The best children’s books are not full of sweetness and light and lollipops; they’re full of fear and death and monsters. So it is with The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. This is set in the Discword universe. Yes, there are talking animals; the titular Maurice the cat and a mischief of rats, victims/beneficiaries of a magical accident that left them sentient and intelligent. They setup a scam to make themselves rich enough to escape to a place where rats can live in peace – but their best laid plans go astray, and they’re confronted with fear and death (in this case, Death) and monsters. A particular part I liked is the older rats are portrayed as conservative and stodgy and authoritarian – rat Tories or rat show more Republicans - and it would have been an easy, cheap shot to turn them into villains. But, instead, when things go down they display traditional virtues; loyalty, bravery, and self-sacrifice. Recommended, even if you’re not a child. Especially if you’re not a child. show less

Every town on Discworld has a story about rat infestation and a piper who can blow a magical tune to lead the rats away. Maurice, a streetwise tomcat saw this as a business opportunity and had cobbled together a bunch of rats who had been affected by the same magic as him. They had persuaded a young lad called Keith to be the piper and ‘lead’ the rats away.

The group are on their way to a small town called Bad Blintz and the rats persuade Maurice that this should be the last town that they pull this stunt on. But on arrival, they realise that there is something strange about the town, there are no other rats around. The residents of the town think they already have an infestation and have been paying two rat catchers to clear them. show more Their food still keeps disappearing and yet the rat-catchers hang up large numbers of tails from rats they have caught. Except these tails look suspiciously like shoelaces.

Malicia, the mayor’s daughter has concluded that the rat-catchers are up to something, but quite what she has no idea. As they investigate more, they realise that the rat-catchers have created a King Rat called Spider. This entity is pure evil and its presence is starting to affect the rats and Maurice realises that he knows what he has to do.

I thought that this was a really enjoyable book and the first set on the Discworld that is specifically aimed at a younger audience with simpler plot lines. However, it is still suitable for those of an older generation though (i.e. me), as the later part of the book really is quite dark. If there was one tiny flaw, things work out too well at the end for my liking. Great stuff and can highly recommend. show less

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents is a Discworld retelling of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. It is the 28th book in the series, the first aimed at a YA audience, and can easily be read as stand alone.

As the story starts we are immediately introduced to Maurice (a talking tom cat), a group of talking rats (who have taken names from canned goods), and a stupid looking kid (named Keith, not that they've ever asked) traveling by coach to the town of Bad Blintz. Maurice is planning how to scam the town by using the old rat piper routine by first staging a rat invasion and then offering the solution as the kid poses as a piper to lead the rats away for a small fee. This isn't sitting well with the rats as it seems immoral and everyone show more agrees it will be the last time they perform this stunt. As the group moves into town to get started, they discover all is not as it seems and things turn deadly as Maurice and the Clan uncover the town's dark secret.

Terry Pratchett is a master at working deeper themes into what seems like it would be a simple story. It's also pretty dark for one aimed at kids, showing how nasty humanity can be at times. I enjoyed all of the characters immensely and found the names the rats had chosen for themselves (such as Dangerous Beans and Hamnpork) to be fun and quirky. Even Malicia grew on me with her "Sisters Grim" view of the world and thinking of everything as a story. It's a pretty profound insight into the human. She makes a good point: "If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else's story." show less

As a long time Pratchett fan I began The Amazing Maurice with a little trepidation, after all, it is aimed at kids, right? One chapter in, I understood that Pratchett has truly mastered pitching a tale for a vast audience. At no point are adults patronised, and I should imagine younger readers would be just as engrossed, although the end seeks absolute closure and is just a wee bit too long. The story's main protagonists are talking rats and an equally smart cat. That in itself would be the central fact of a children's book. Not so here; the dilemmas faced within this tale are deep - there's (rat) philosophy, questions about what it means to have an idea of 'self' and a quirky and amusing outlook from the animal kingdom. Threaded show more through this is the plot, a typical Pratchett affair, in which an old tale is blended with additional panache, twists and wit. This Discworld story is as clever as expected, however the real winner here is that the new animal perspective allows Pratchett to unleash a book far smarter and engaging than most - absolutely recommended. show less

This is technically a children’s book but at only 270 pages, it makes a great quick adult read too. Obviously it is more simply written than Terry Pratchett’s adult novels but I found the writing style utterly captivating all the same and just as witty as everything else I’ve read from this author.

As this is a fairytale retelling, being a parody of the story of ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’, this reads like a fairytale in many ways. The characters are almost caricatured with exaggerated personality traits and stereotypical mannerisms, but I think that in this kind of book, it completely works! Maurice is an interesting character, being a typically selfish cat with an air of mystery about him. The rats are also really fun to read show more about with their odd names; Nourishing, Dangerous Beans, Darktan, Hamnpork, Peaches, etc.) and their individual personalities.

Despite this being a children’s novel, it explores philosophical ideas about life and the process of thought. What makes an intelligent being? Should a simple rat strive for an education? Of course, this is a story about talking rats so there is some level of surrealism, but I loved each and every character the author introduced me to and I really cared about what was going to happen to them.

“The thing about stories is you have to pick the ones that last.”

This book surprisingly has a subtle paranormal element and as it is part of the Discworld series, Death shows up at some point and I really liked this continuity from the previous Pratchett books I had read.

I would thoroughly recommend this novel for anyone who already loves Terry Pratchett, or to anyone who wants to start the Discworld series and wants to start with a quick one. Definitely an interesting concept that was executed expertly by one of the great masters of the fantasy genre. show less

First sentence: Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats, and--
But there was more to it than that. As the Amazing Maurice said, it was just a story about people and rats. And the difficult part of it was deciding who the people were, and who were the rats.
But Malicia Grim said it was a story about stories.
It began--part of it began--on the mail coach that came over the mountains from the distant cities of the plain.

Premise/plot: What is this one about? Maurice has a scheme to get rich. He travels with a human piper, Keith, and 'his' educated rodents (rats). (Both the rats and the cat can talk.) They go from town to town--or village to village--though never in places too close together. First, they'll be an outbreak of rats. Then show more Keith will appear as a rat piper to save the day and lead the rats away. For a fee, of course. They split the money between them.

Readers see their "last" adventure in the town of Bad Blintz. All does not go according to plan...

My thoughts: I loved The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. I just LOVED it. I loved the characters. Maurice, the cat, and many of the rats--including Hamnpork, Dangerous Beans, Peaches, Darktan, Sardines, etc. And the humans, Keith and Malicia. I loved seeing these characters interact with one another. I loved the story too! It was such a great adventure story. And the writing--of course--I just loved it! Terry Pratchett is a new favorite of mine!!!

One of my favorite things about this one is Mr. Bunnsy Has An Adventure. These rats LOVE the book Mr. Bunnsy Has An Adventure. And many of the chapters begin with a quote from this book.

One day, when he was naughty, Mr. Bunnsy looked over the hedge into Farmer Fred's field and saw it was full of fresh green lettuces. Mr. Bunnsy, however, was not full of lettuces. This did not seem fair. (1)

Mr. Bunnsy had a lot of friends in Furry Bottom. But what Mr. Bunnsy was friendly with more than anything else was food. (20)

The important thing about adventures, thought Mr. Bunnsy, was that they should not be so long as to make you miss mealtimes. (49)

There were big adventures and small adventures, Mr. Bunnsy knew. You didn't get told what size they were going to be before you started. Sometimes you could have a big adventure even when you were standing still. (79)

I would definitely recommend this one!

Favorite quotes:

There's always a plot. You just have to know where to look.

Malicia leaned against the wall with incredible nonchalance. There was not a click. A panel in the floor did not slide back. "Probably the wrong place," she said. "I'll just rest my arm innocently on this coat hook." A sudden door in the wall completely failed to happen. "Of course, it'd help if there was an ornate candlestick," said Malicia. "They're always a surefire secret-passage lever. Every adventurer knows that." "There isn't a candlestick," said Maurice. "I know. Some people totally fail to have any idea of how to design a proper secret passage," said Malicia. She leaned against another piece of wall, which had no effect whatsoever.

Cats don't go around feeling sorry! Or guilty! We never regret anything! Do you know what it feels like, saying, 'Hello food, can you talk?' That's not how a cat is supposed to behave!

If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else's story.

A good plan isn't one where someone wins, it's where nobody thinks they've lost.

"We don't want to be like the first mouse!" shouted the rats. "Right! What mouse do we want to be like?" "The second mouse, Darktan!" said the rats, like people who'd heard this lesson dinned into them many times. "Right! And why do we want to be like the second mouse?" "Because the second mouse gets the cheese, Darktan!" show less