sublimely absurd

This week I read the 25th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, The Truth. It took me about four hours to read, and those are four hours that I will never get back.

Not that I would want them back. Terry Pratchett's Discworld is, well, it defies explanation. It's silly, full of contradictions, but above all, entertaining. It can't even be described as brain candy, it's more accurately brain sugar.

Discworld is a flat planet, carried on the shoulders of four elephants, who are in turn carried on the back of the Great Turtle A'Tuin. You get the idea. Magic and capitalism live side by side here, vampires and trolls can join the City Watch, and even beggars and assassins have guilds. And how can you not love a series where most of the hilarity takes place in a city called Ankh Morpork?

The Truth doesn't include many of my favourite characters : Death, Granny Weatherwax, Carrot, oh - there are too many to count. But I don't mind meeting new characters, because I know they will soon become favourites too.

The Truth is the story of William de Worde, who starts off writing a small newletter to select clients, and ends up heading the controversial Ankh Morpork Times (whose motto is for one memorable day The Truth Shall Make Ye Fred). Along the way he uncovers several plots, hires a vampire photographer with a deadly addiction to flashes, almost gets killed several times, and of course, gets the girl. Or meets an interesting one, at any rate.

As Discworld novels go, this one is first rate. And the laughs are fast and furious, as Terry Pratchett's fans have come to expect.