Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
    The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
    The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
    Ebook290 pages4 hours

    The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

    By Terry Pratchett

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    “An astonishing novel. Were Terry Pratchett not demonstratively a master craftsman already, The Amazing Maurice might be considered his masterpiece.” —Neil Gaiman

    The Amazing Maurice runs the perfect Pied Piper scam. This streetwise alley cat knows the value of cold, hard cash and can talk his way into and out of anything. But when Maurice and his cohorts decide to con the town of Bad Blinitz, it will take more than fast talking to survive the danger that awaits.

    For this is a town where food is scarce and rats are hated, where cellars are lined with deadly traps, and where a terrifying evil lurks beneath the hunger-stricken streets....

    Set in bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett's beloved Discworld, this masterfully crafted, gripping read is both compelling and funny. When one of the world's most acclaimed fantasy writers turns a classic fairy tale on its head, no one will ever look at the Pied Piper—or rats—the same way again!

    This book’s feline hero was first mentioned in the Discworld novel Reaper Man and stars in the movie version of his adventure, The Amazing Maurice, featuring David Tenant, Emma Clarke, Hamish Patel, and Hugh Laurie. Fans of Maurice will relish the adventures of Tiffany Aching, starting with The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky!

    Carnegie Medal Winner * ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults * New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age * VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror * Book Sense Pick

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 6, 2009
    ISBN9780061975158
    Author

    Terry Pratchett

    Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was the acclaimed creator of the globally revered Discworld series. In all, he authored more than fifty bestselling books, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.

    Read more from Terry Pratchett

    Related to The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

    Related ebooks

    YA Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      ‘We Can Continue Pratchett’s Efforts’: The Gamers Keeping Discworld Alive

      Sep 28, 2022

      Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld has a long association with video games. Not only was the author himself a fan of Doom, Thief, and The Elder Scrolls, but the relationship between his satirical fantasy world and video games goes all the way back to 19

      6 min read

    • Article

      Leviathan

      Aug 10, 2022

      After we killed the passengers, we put the bodies in one of the low-pressure, unheated storage compartments. Some people had wanted to have some kind of solemn burial-in-space thing; that was too ghoulish for most of us, though. Mostly the ones we ki

      25 min read

    • Article

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own

      Jan 11, 2022

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own
      3 min read

    • Article

      A SHORT STORY BY REŠOKETŠWE MANENZ People Like Us

      May 20, 2021

      Masedi had escaped a village and fertile wife who nagged him for nappies, babies’ milk, money for maize, money for meat, money for this thing and that thing and that and that. Johnson too; he had escaped some evolving trap of poverty he’d thought he

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Ferris wheel

      Jan 16, 2022

      The Ferris wheel
      4 min read

    • Article

      Just a Kiss

      Jun 4, 2020

      Just a Kiss
      6 min read

    • Article

      Before You Melt Into The Sea

      Feb 3, 2022

      Before You Melt Into The Sea
      11 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Jan 1, 2023

      Magic lights near, far,everywhere.Off the kitchen, upthe skinny flight of stairsto the FIRE door, stairwellto the roof, this spot. Tiny lights, tiny tiny lights—Elijah, Sparrow, Shira, Dan.Rust and peeling door-paintin plum, from one dark street toan

      2 min read

    • Article

      It Takes Blood And Guts

      Nov 21, 2020

      I’m sitting on Skin’s terrace in Ibiza, soaking up the late summer sunshine via the magic of the internet. It’s the closest I’ve come to travel since the start of the panny danny and looking out my window at the dark Edinburgh sky, I’ll take all the

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Sticky Tar Pit of Time

      Sep 11, 2019

      The Sticky Tar Pit of Time
      6 min read

    • Article

      Christos Tsiolkas: ‘I Don’t Understand Wanting To Live A Youthful Life Forever’

      Nov 3, 2023

      “It is in capturing the quotidian nature of a city that one finds its soul,” Christos Tsiolkas once wrote, and perhaps but for Helen Garner, no other author has captured life in Melbourne as truthfully. It feels oddly thrilling to meet the 58-year-ol

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Generation

      Nov 27, 2022

      The Generation
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Time Machine

      Aug 4, 2021

      There’s a pattern built into this story – can you work it out from the numbers in bold at the start of each section? I’m sitting on the beach by Rhodes port, watching sailors load our luggage onto a ship bound for Rome. I don’t want to go, but my f

      7 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Dec 1, 2022

      You have to first Sit in the temple gloom In the mahogany chair & despair. The only glimmer In the temple (being the inlaid bits of The Mother-Of-Pearl shells On the tall, more than humanly tall Chair back, for these These too Are the reputed “Tears

      3 min read

    • Article

      Monster

      Dec 1, 2022

      Monster
      7 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Mar 1, 2020

      Then I heard a violinand it didn’t matter that I was a Jew,they are painting swastikas on campus walls.What happens when they paint them on my doorfor my kids to see?I will sic the cat after them.I will sic the violin after them.What can a violin dot

      2 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      Chuckles

      Apr 30, 2021

      Eight-year-old Tess gets home from school where she attended her first sex-education lesson. Her mother asks,“How did it go?” “I nearly died of shame!” she answers. “Why?” her mother asks. Tess says, “Khumo from down the road says the stork brings ba

      4 min read

    • Article

      Rebel With Applause

      Jul 29, 2019

      YOU KNOW WHAT IS one of the weirdest yet most amazing sounds a bunch of humans can make? And, no, this is not some collective baked beans appreciation society joke. It’s the sound of heartfelt and unusually long applause. I say unusually long because

      4 min read

    • Article

      If Sheep COULD FLY…

      Aug 3, 2022

      If Sheep COULD FLY…
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

    4/5

    137 ratings69 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Perhaps even 4.5* for this audiobook edition narrated by Stephen Briggs. It isn't entirely clear to me what age group this "young adult" novel was aimed at; in part, it seemed to me to be a children's story rather than one for teenagers.Pratchett has a wonderful way with taking well known stories and twisting them in funny and interesting ways when he sets them in Discworld. Many of my favorites from the series fall into this category and this book does too - it is a retelling of the fairy tale of the Pied Piper. Maurice (pronounced by Briggs as Morris) is a talking, thinking cat who travels with a pack of talking, thinking rats and one "stupid looking" boy. I won't go into the plot (the book blurb will provide enough of that) other than to say it provides the story of the Pied Piper from the rats' point of view, along with enough plot twists and humor and suspense to make it extremely enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      This is a stand alone YA book. However, it’s also the twenty-eighth book in the Discworld series. You can read it as either one and find things to enjoy.A talking cat named Maurice devises a scam: get his sentient rat friends to infest a city then get this stupid looking kid he found to play a pipe. The rats all leave, the kid gets a reward, and the money’s gets split. Perfect, right? Unfortunately, the rats have now learned the word “ethical,” and Maurice is forced to agree that Bad Blintz will be the last town they con. But Bad Blintz already has a rat problem, and beneath the streets they will find a nightmare world of traps and poisons, with something evil lurking in the shadows.There is something very important about The Amazing Maurice. Are you with me? Because here it is: DO NOT DISMISS THIS BOOK JUST BECAUSE IT HAS TALKING ANIMALS. Yes, there’s a talking cat and rats. That does not in any way mean this book is infantile or for children. It’s possibly the most under appreciated novel in the Discworld series for this reason.“The trouble with thinking was that, once you started, you went on doing it.”If there’s one reason to read The Amazing Maurice it’s the rats. Having suddenly gained intelligence due to eating wizard’s garbage, the rats find before them a whole new world of ideas and thought. They have to figure out what it means to be rats, how to form a civilization without just becoming “little humans.” They begin asking questions like “What’s the part of me that dreams at night?”, “What happens after you die?”, and “Where did we come from?”. They begin forming their own myths and religion. In short, the story of the rats is the story of what it means to be people."So,” said the rat who’d raised the whole question about the invisible part, “when you wake up, where does the dreaming part go? When you die, where does that bit that’s inside you go?”As always with Terry Pratchett books, I really love the characters. The rats include Dangerous Beans, a bright young rat who’s an explorer in the realm of ideas; Peaches, his argumentative assistant; Sardines, who dances his way through life; Hamnpork, the old rat alpha who’s not entirely comfortable with all this thinking nowadays; Darktan, the leader of trap squad who makes the tunnels safe for the clan; and Nourishing, young and with no confidence. All these individuals feel fully formed and realized, and I loved reading about them.Maurice himself goes through quite a lot of character growth over the course of the story. He starts out a greedy conman and by the end he’s… well, still a conman but one who’s become more selfless. The weakest characters were probably Keith, the piper, and Malica, the mayor’s daughter, just don’t feel as fully developed as Maurice or the rats. However, Malica’s obsession with stories and the belief that she lived in one did lead to some rather wonderful quotes.“If you don’t turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else’s story.”There’s a lot of darkness in The Amazing Maurice, from the menacing shadows of the rats labyrinthine tunnels to the impoverished town above. Humans and rats are at war. Can there ever be peace? But if there’s one thing I love about Terry Pratchett, it’s how his characters can be surrounded by darkness but not give into it.“I am not so blind that I can’t see darkness.”I would recommend The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents to everyone. If you want to try out a Discworld book, this may very well be the place to start.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
    • 4/5
      The Pied Piper, Discworld style, i.e. from the viewpoint of the rats (and a talking cat named Maurice. Because of course.) Fun and silly and with interesting characters, as per usual.
    • 4/5
      I liked the witty telling of this story.
    • 5/5
      This ... this is a bit of a go at the Pied Piper story. With a touch of Puss in Boots. And practically every fluffy bunny story every written. Mostly told by Maurice and an assemblage of Changed, and quite educated, rats.The story is starts off simple. Talking cat, smart rats, stupid-looking kid with whistle. Go into town, plague of rats, pay stupid-looking kid money to drive rats out. Move on to next town. Easy money. That is, until they get to Bad Blintz, an apparently ratless town that doesn't seem to know they're ratless. Then things get a little ... interesting.There's a definite vein of silliness lurking in the background, even with all the seriousness of killing and talks of death going on. I do love the rat names: Dangerous Beans, Nourishing, Hamnpork, Peaches, Sardines (in fact, I love everything about Sardines) and Darktan. I love how the rats are still rats and not all 'Mr. Bunnsy'. A little reminiscent of the Mrs Frisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H. or Watership Down there (and, the occasional time, The Tale of Desperaux). Only with a nicer ending.And the ending ... classic Pratchett twist there.
    • 5/5
      Re-re-reread Sep. 2015 Fourth time, I think. Yeah, it's that good.

      Okay, 'good' is subjective. The characters are likable, the plot is charming in a storybook kind of way (which is appropriate since it's a pied piper parody), the prose is witty, and I thoroughly enjoy reading it. No doubt I will again.
    • 4/5
      Listening to the audiobook, the most surprising thing was not the talking animals or the weird king rat mythology, or even the truth of the rat piper, but that the British pronunciation of Maurice is "Morris". I couldn't get over it the whole book.

      I found the development of rat culture interesting, and the girl who treats life as a story was great. She turned out to have a pretty good adventure, once she let a little common sense into her life. But everything did end up being a story, since this is a book after all. She was always prepared to act as the protagonist with hairpin lockpicks and first aid kits. That seems to be a good way to live your life: as if you are the protagonist of an epic story. And really, that was what everyone in this story had to learn. When rats can think, you have to change the story and have a meeting with them rather than call the rat piper. Sometimes stories change and you have to take the initiative to be the main character!
    • 4/5
      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 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.
    • 4/5
      Meatier, and less confusing, than most Discworld novels, imo. Probably a decent introduction to the series, next time you go recommending Pratchett. But it also stands alone.

      And (to speak to some of the other reviewers) yes it's YA, and yes it's grimmer and more serious than some of his 'adult' work - that's because teens aren't junior adults who want junior reads - they are in the process of actively figuring out the world and their place in it and they crave substance and intensity in their books and games.
    • 4/5
      With this book, Terry Pratchett returns to his earlier form. With a host of new characters to develop, and none of this usual standbys to fall back upon, he does in Maurice what he does best: turn classic literary and folk tales on their heads. Having accidentally gained human awareness via magical spillover from Unseen University, Maurice and his rodent go from town to town, running a Pied Piper scam. The rats create havoc, creating demand for someone to get rid of them: enter Maurice and his well-trained piper. The rats, who are far more ethical than Maurice, want out of the scam, but Maurice convinces them to hit one last town. Unfortunately, the town they've just arrived in is different...Although the Amazing Maurice is geared for children, it fits in quite nicely with the other books in the discworld pantheon. It's a measure of Pratchett's skill that the cynical Maurice only bears a passing resemblance to the cynical Vimes or the cynical Granny Weatherwax or the cynical Rincewind - or any of the host of cynical and world-weary characters that populate his books. All in all, a great read.
    • 3/5
      Amusing Pied Piper spin-off, educated rats and one educated cat go out seeking fortunes, end up battling evil in small village, winning, striking deal with government and populace. Entertaining.
    • 5/5
      If there was ever a book I could not see myself enjoying, it would be one about cats and rats. However, insert Terry Pratchett into the equation, and what results is a great book about Maurice (the cat) and his educated rodents. Talking cats and rats invade a town to scam them, along with a piper, but instead end up taking on a couple of crooks who have been conning the town and creating monster rats. It's a crazy scenario, but in true Pratchett fashion, mocks our own modern world, pointing out in his own subversive manner, lessons about getting along and doing what's right. I don't think Pratchett is capable of writing a bad, or even average, novel. Every one is well worth reading. Immediately and without delay.
    • 5/5
      The Amazing Maurice is about a cat and a colony of rats. These are no ordinary animals, they can think and talk just like humans. Maurice the cat is the leader of the educated rodents. They go from town to town with a stupid looking kid, Keith. The rats go around and caus a commotion in the town. The townspeople freak out and call for a rat piper. Keith acts as a rat piper and recieve pay for it. Keith leads the rats out of the town. Maurice is the organizor and leader of all of this. Maurice, the rats, and Keith come into a town where things aren't quite right. The rats find an abnormal number of traps and poison. They think that there would be some unintelligent rats scurrying around with all the traps and poison. The educated rodents can't find anyother rats. They look into this and find that the rat catchers have been capturing all the unintelligent rats. They capture the rats and put them into rat pits(where one dog fights many rats, the people watching bet on who's going to win, the dog or the rats). They also try to breed the biggest of rats to give the dogs a challenge. The rat catchers are also stealing the townspeople's food and blame it on the rats. The educated rotents, Maurice, Keith, and a new character, Malicia(she lives her as if it is a story) try to end the rat catchers lies and make right what they have been doing to rats. Through a series of exciting events they defeat the rat catchers. At the end Maurice and the educated rodents reveal that they are intelligent to the humans in the town. They make a propistion for the educated rodents and the humans to live together and peacefully. The humans accept and they all live happily ever after. This is a very goo book. I enjoyed it's action and adventure. Terry Pratchett(the author) also makes this book funny. I reccomend it to anybody out there who is intersted in the book.
    • 5/5
       The Amazing Maurice is a really fun twist on the tale of the Pied Piper- with a bit of the Secret of NIMH flair. The book is enjoyable and mostly lighthearted.
    • 4/5
      Contrary to the title, Maurice belongs more to the rodents than they do to him. This clan of rats lived on the landfill behind a school for wizards and somehow they have achieved speech and higher thought. Maurice came by his speech and thought patterns second hand; he ate a speaking rat.Wovin into a twisted "Pied Piper" the rats develop written language and struggle with ideas about souls, the afterlife, leadership, ethics, and morals. At what point do they put aside their rat nature in certain circumstances and what must they do to remain rats? or cat? Malicia, a seemingly silly village girl, turns out to have an important point: sometimes life is like fairy tales.
    • 4/5
      Cute and clever. It was a slow start and probably a poor introduction to Pratchett, but the quirky characters, and exciting plot turns kept me going, and the ending was so meaningful and apt!
    • 5/5
      Like most of Terry Pratchett's work, this is absolutely brilliantly hilarious, and also turns out to be darker and deeper than one would originally expect.Incidentally, if you have pet rats, this is an excellent resource for names. Thus far I have had Peaches, Toxie, and Dangerous Beans.
    • 4/5
      funny funny funny interpretation of the pied piper tale. i read it (and laughed) and liked it so much i passed it along to my 8 year old son. He read it (and laughed) and liked it so much he read it aloud to his six-year-old brother. To hear them giggle together was the best.
    • 4/5
      The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett is easily one of my favourite Discworld novels. I first read it in a rush because I was meeting the man himself and I wanted to have it finished before I met him. I managed to finish it in the coach on the way to the library where we were due to meet him.I got my copy signed ('with cheese' is what he wrote) and had a lovely conversation with him about rats. At the time I had three pet rats, all white, just like the ones in the picture of Terry Pratchett on the back cover.This one is actually the first in the Discworld series which is written for younger readers/children/whatever. It makes for a nice quick, easy read (and it's one that I'm plotting to get Mr. Click to read in the future considering he quite enjoyed Mrs Frisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H. considering he's a bit of a fan of rats). Plus it has pictures and a cute little fairytale about Mr Bunnsy running through the story as well. It's one of very few Discworld novels to have chapters as well, which does make it easier to find a place to stop when you have to sleep or go to work.Now this review is blantantly biased, because this book combines several of my favourite things: Discworld, Terry Pratchett's sense of humour and rats. Seriously, it's like it was written just for me (had I met him before it was published, I would totally believe that it was). For one thing, the way that the rats behave and talk are exactly the way I could imagine my own rats being. Over the years I've owned (or at least supported the ownership of) twenty-four rats (obviously not all at the one time). Holly, Ivy, Carol and Bell were originally going to be called Hamnpork, Darktan, Dangerous Beans and Sardines until we realised that they were little girls rather than little boys and thought they needed something a bit more feminine (the former names are still on the cards for future rats).Rereading this book always brings back good memories of the school trip we went on to meet Mr Pratchett. I ended up going on it completely by chance. It hadn't been advertised at school, only those people who the English teacher and librarian organising it knew to be fans were invited to go. I was taking a couple of books out of the library at school and the school librarian commented that she didn't know I liked Terry Pratchett. When I'd finished gushing about how much I loved his books, she told me that there was one space left on the trip and it was mine if I wanted it.We went in a little minibus off to a library in (I think) Paisley. Listed to him talking about his books (one of which I now recognise as Monstrous Regiment, though at the time it hadn't been published yet) and then got to ask him questions. Then we got books signed, had our pictures taken, then the teacher and librarian took us to the cinema to see The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Clearly the best school trip ever!With The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents every time I read it, I feel like I'm spotting something new. It's always the same with the Discworld books, there's always something there that I never noticed before. Of course, it causes problems when coming up with quotes to write in my book journal, because some of the things I'd like to quote begin on one page and are then summed or up returned to several pages later. I'd have to copy out several pages at a time to cover all of my favourite bits!I think that this one would work really well as an adaptation. I'd love to see Sky doing it as they've done with the other Discworld stories they've adapted. I could almost see it being done in a similar way to The Tale of Desperaux, CGI-style. I realise that if they did, it could go one of two ways; either I would love it because they did justice to one of my favourite stories, or I would hate it because it didn't live up to my expectations. I still think it would make a brilliant film/TV version and would hopefully introduce some more readers to Maurice and his educated rodents.
    • 5/5
      Absolutly brillaint. Children love it. The story is basically the Pied Piper, but with the typical Pratchett twist. Recommended.
    • 5/5
      Terry Pratchett's young adult books are often better than his adult ones. This one is an example. One typical Pratchett gimmick is to take a traditional story like Macbeth or Cinderella and turn it upside down to see what happens, and this is what he does in Maurice, with the victim this time being the Pied Piper. What if the rats were the good guys, and the ratcatchers a bunch of underhanded goons? Thanks to the garbage heap at Unseen University, we get to find out. The story moves along quirkily, the romance predictably, and Maurice himself really plays out as a complicated character for a story of this type; his death scene could have been juiced into a real tear-jerker for anyone, I think, but is played pretty lightly for the benefit of the younger readers. At the end, a fair amount of consideration goes into the future relationships between Rat and Man, and it winds up almost as a thoughtful political essay that should inspire some consideration for the thoughtful student. Definitely a teachable moment, as they say. It reminds me a bit of Christopher Stasheff's Warlock series that I read as a teenager and was fascinated for the first time ever by the politics of the situation. Maurice is a good light read for adults and a thoughtful story for teenagers. Recommended.
    • 5/5
      I have loved Terry Pratchett since I first learned he existed, back when I was in Scotland. I'm still reading just to try to catch up with all he has written!
    • 4/5
      This was a discworld novel like I hadn't read before. It's atmosphere felt completely different. It was a good book and it actually kept me up at night. (The thought of an actual 'rat king' made my stoumach scrunch up a bit.) The book was all the more special for me because I used to have rats as pets. They are wonderfull animals, so playful and trusting if you're willing to spend lots of time on them. If only they'd have a longer lifespan. Now you get attached to them just as you would any other pet, but they barely reach the age of three. I miss my little ones. (Amedee, Boke, Prospère, Sois and Joske.)
    • 5/5
      Until I saw a preview for Hogfather, I had no idea who Terry Pratchett was. I immediately got on LT to find out more about him. Imagine my pleasant surprise to find he has more than twenty books in his Discworld series.I decided to start off with a book I had placed in my wishlist awhile back at someone suggestion, MahER.Loved it. I'm a sucker for twists-on classics, and Pratchett does a great job here, giving us a new look at "The Pied Piper." Maurice, the suddenly talking cat, leads his kid and thinking rodents from town to town, making money off their fears. The rats talk Maurice into making Bad Blitz their last con. Will Bad Blintz con them?I suggest this to any other Pratchett newbies. There is little connection to Discworld, and you can jump in from there.
    • 4/5
      This is Pratchett's suitably offbeat-yet-thought-provoking spin on the tale of the Pied Piper, and yes the rats are the stars. In true Discworld tradition, these rats aren't just normal rats, they're magical rats. Or more accurately, rats that have spent too long poking round the Wizards' rubbish dump at the back of the Unseen University and have now found themselves "uplifted" - able to speak and read and think in a far more advanced manner than was previously the case. Pratchett uses this novel to explore - among other things - the notion that the reason humans stereotypically hate rats so much is because rats are just so much like ourselves, and he also explores and satirises the fairy tale / folk tale genre as a whole. So although this is ostensibly a kid's book there are some really deep and important messages bubbling away under the surface. It's a great story, as funny as you'd expect from Pratchett but with some very moving scenes too. Speaking as a rat lover and owner of seven fancy rats I can say I was impressed: Pratchett had done his homework and although, of course, real rats don't talk and read and name themselves after words on tins, the way these rats behaved - particularly in their struggles between their rational "uplifted" thoughts and baser "natural" instincts - did feel very convincingly rat-like.
    • 5/5
      AMAZING, brilliant story and characters.
    • 5/5
      Terry Pratchetts books are all brilliant. This one is aimed towards kids, so it's writing style is a bit simpler than his other Discworld books, but it's just as clever and entertaining.
    • 5/5
      The Discworld series must be one of the most amazing worlds I have stepped into and, though it may sound strange, my formal entrance ticket was this book: it was the first Discworld book I finished reading, yet it's the one that doesn't look like one.It took me around 6 years to find a Brazilian copy and put this book in my personal library. It's been one of my favorite books since then and I have read it atleast 4 times."The Amazing Maurice & His Educated Rodents" (aka "O Fabuloso Maurício & Seus Ratos Letrados") is that kind of book that you want to carry along with you when you're in a travel... and Discworld is the kind of series you want to read when you're overstressed with the trials & tribulations of daily life!Terry Pratchett was an amazing writter and he will be greatly missed by both the literary world and its fans!
    • 5/5
      I'm not sure if this is more of an adventure or a fantasy, but it was good fun! Pratchett is a master at taking a well known story and giving it a tweak or two until it becomes something completely unexpected. The story in question this time around is the Pied Piper. And the tweak is that the rats are in on the deal and agree to split the money with the piper. So much fun! I liked the cameo appearance by DEATH. If you're a fan of his Discworld books, this one is worth looking for in the kids books. But even if you've never heard of him, this is a great place to begin.
    • 5/5
      Maurice is a great character, exactly what a talking cat would be like. The story is an interesting spin on the story of the piper who plays the rats out of town that is set in Discworld. The story has the wit and humor that all of Terry Pratchett's books have. A really enjoyable read for kid and adult fans of Terry Pratchett. It also has a good moral about working together to solve problems, but really you could ignore that if you wanted . . .

    Book preview

    The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett

    DEDICATION

    To D’niece,

    for the right book at the right time

    CONTENTS

    Dedication

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    Chapter 8

    Chapter 9

    Chapter 10

    Chapter 11

    Chapter 12

    Author’s Note

    Extras

    Terry Pratchett’s Carnegie Medal Acceptance Speech

    Chatting with Terry Pratchett

    Excerpt from The Wee Free Men

    Back Ads

    About the Author

    Books by Terry Pratchett

    Credits

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    CHAPTER 1

    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.

    —From Mr. Bunnsy Has an Adventure

    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.

    This was the part of the journey that the driver didn’t like. The road wound through forests and around mountains on crumbling roads. There were deep shadows between the trees. Sometimes he thought things were following the coach, keeping just out of sight. It gave him the willies.

    And on this journey the really big willy was that he could hear voices. He was sure of it. They were coming from behind him, from the top of the coach, and there was nothing there but the big oilcloth mail sacks and the boy’s luggage. There was certainly nothing big enough for a person to hide inside. But occasionally he was sure he heard squeaky voices, whispering.

    There was only one passenger at this point. He was a fair-haired young man, sitting all by himself inside the rocking coach and reading a book. He was reading slowly, and aloud, and moving his finger over the words.

    Ubberwald, he read out.

    That’s ‘Überwald,’ said a small, squeaky, but very clear voice. The dots make it a sort of long ‘ooo’ sound. But you’re doing well.

    "Ooooooberwald?"

    "There’s such a thing as too much pronunciation, kid, said another voice, which sounded half asleep. But you know the best thing about Überwald? It’s a long, long way from Sto Lat. It’s a long way from Pseudopolis. It’s a long way from anywhere where the head of the Watch says he’ll have us boiled alive if he ever catches us. And it’s not very modern. Bad roads. Lots of mountains in the way. People don’t move about much up here. So news doesn’t travel very fast, see? And they probably don’t have policemen. Kid, we can make a fortune here!"

    Maurice? said the boy carefully.

    Yes, kid?

    "You don’t think what we’re doing is, you know . . . dishonest, do you?"

    There was a pause before the voice said, How do you mean, dishonest?

    Well . . . we take their money, Maurice. The coach bounced over a pothole.

    All right, said the unseen Maurice. "But what you’ve got to ask yourself is: Who do we take the money from, actually?"

    Well . . . it’s generally the mayor or the city council or someone like that.

    Right! And that means it’s . . . what? I’ve told you this bit before.

    Er . . .

    "It is gov-ern-ment money, kid, said Maurice patiently. Say it. Gov-ern-ment money."

    Gov-ern-ment money, said the boy obediently.

    Right! And what do governments do with money?

    Er, they . . .

    They pay soldiers, said Maurice. They have wars. In fact we’ve prob’ly stopped a lot of wars, by taking the money and putting it where it can’t do any harm. They’d put up stachoos to us, if they thought about it.

    Some of those towns looked pretty poor, Maurice, said the kid doubtfully.

    Hey, just the kind of places that don’t need wars, then.

    Dangerous Beans says it’s . . . The boy concentrated, and his lips moved before he said the word, as if he was trying out the pronunciation to himself. It’s un-eth-ickle.

    That’s right, Maurice, said the squeaky voice. Dangerous Beans says we shouldn’t live by trickery.

    "Listen, Peaches, trickery is what humans are all about, said the voice of Maurice. They’re so keen on tricking one another all the time that they elect governments to do it for them. We give them value for money. They get a horrible plague of rats, they pay a rat piper, the rats all follow the kid out of town, hoppity-skip, end of plague, everyone’s happy that no one’s widdling in the flour anymore, the government gets reelected by a grateful population, general celebration all around. Money well spent, in my opinion."

    But there’s only a plague because we make them think there is, said the voice of Peaches.

    Well, my dear, another thing all those little governments spend their money on is rat catchers, see? I don’t know why I bother with the lot of you, I really don’t.

    Yes, but we—

    They realized that the coach had stopped. Outside, in the rain, there was the jingle of harness. Then the coach rocked a little, and there was the sound of running feet.

    A voice from out of the darkness said, "Are there any wizards in there?"

    The occupants looked at one another in puzzlement.

    No? said the kid, the kind of No that means Why are you asking?

    "How about any witches?" said the voice.

    No, no witches, said the kid.

    "Right. Are there any heavily armed trolls employed by the mail coach company in there?"

    I doubt it, said Maurice.

    There was a moment’s pause, filled with the sound of the rain.

    Okay, how about werewolves? said the voice eventually. The speaker sounded as though he was working through a list.

    What do they look like? said the kid.

    Ah, well, they look perfectly normal right up to the point where they grow all, like, hair and teeth and giant paws and leap through the window at you, said the voice.

    We’ve all got hair and teeth, said the kid. Is that any help?

    "So you are werewolves, then?"

    No.

    Fine, fine. There was another pause filled with rain.

    Okay, vampires, said the voice. It’s a wet night—you wouldn’t want to be flying in weather like this. Any vampires in there?

    No! said the kid. We’re all perfectly harmless!

    Oh boy, muttered Maurice, and crawled under the seat.

    That’s a relief, said the voice. You can’t be too careful these days. There’s a lot of funny people about.

    A crossbow arrow was pushed through the window, and the voice said, "Your money and your life. It’s a two-for-one deal, see?"

    The money’s in the case on the roof, said Maurice’s voice from floor level.

    The highwayman looked around the dark interior of the coach.

    Who said that? he said.

    Er, me, said the boy.

    I didn’t see your lips move, kid!

    "The money is on the roof. In the case. But if I was you, I wouldn’t—"

    Hah, I just ’spect you wouldn’t, said the highwayman. His masked face disappeared from the window.

    The boy picked up the pipe that was lying on the seat beside him. It was the type still known as a pennywhistle, although no one could remember when they’d ever cost only a penny.

    Play ‘Robbery with Violence,’ kid, said Maurice quietly.

    Couldn’t we just give him the money? said the voice of Peaches. It was a little voice.

    "Money is for people to give us," said Maurice sternly.

    Above them there was the scrape of the case on the roof of the coach as the highwayman dragged it down.

    The boy obediently picked up the flute and played a few notes.

    Now there were a number of sounds. There was a creak, a thud, a sort of scuffling noise, and then a very short scream.

    When there was silence, Maurice climbed back onto the seat and poked his head out of the coach, into the dark and rainy night. Good man, he said. Sensible. The more you struggle, the harder they bite. Prob’ly not broken skin yet? Good. Come forward a bit so I can see you. But carefully, eh? We don’t want anyone to panic, do we?

    The highwayman reappeared in the light of the coach lamps. He was walking very slowly and carefully, with his legs spread wide apart. And he was quietly whimpering.

    Ah, there you are, said Maurice cheerfully. Went straight up your trouser legs, did they? Typical rat trick. Just nod, ’cos we don’t want to set ’em off. No tellin’ where it might end.

    The highwayman nodded very slowly. Then his eyes narrowed.

    "You’re a cat?" he mumbled. Then his eyes crossed and he gasped.

    Did I say talk? said Maurice. "I don’t think I said talk, did I? Did the coachman run away, or did you kill him?"

    The man’s face went blank.

    "Ah, quick learner. I like that in a highwayman, said Maurice. You can answer that question."

    Ran away, said the highwayman hoarsely.

    Maurice stuck his head back inside the coach.

    Whadja think? he said. Coach, four horses, probably some valuables in the mailbags. Could be, oh, a thousand dollars or more. The kid could drive it. Worth a try?

    "That’s stealing, Maurice," said Peaches. She was sitting on the seat beside the kid. She was a rat.

    "Not stealin’ as such, said Maurice. More . . . findin’. The driver’s run away, so it’s like . . . salvage. Hey, that’s right, we could turn it in for the reward. That’s much better. Legal, too. Shall we?"

    People would ask too many questions, said Peaches.

    "If we just leave it, someone yawlp will steal it, wailed Maurice. Some thief will take it away! Much better if we take it, eh? We’re not thieves."

    "We will leave it, Maurice," said Peaches.

    In that case, let’s steal the highwayman’s horse, said Maurice, as if the night wouldn’t be properly finished unless they stole something. Stealing from a thief isn’t stealing, ’cos it cancels out.

    We can’t stay here all night, said the kid to Peaches. He’s got a point.

    That’s right! said the highwayman urgently. You can’t stay here all night!

    That’s right, said a chorus of voices from his trousers, we can’t stay here all night!

    Maurice sighed and stuck his head out the window again.

    "O-kay, he said. This is what we’re going to do. You’re going to stand very still looking straight in front of you, and you won’t try any tricks, because if you do, I’ve only got to say the word—"

    Don’t say the word! said the highwayman urgently.

    Right, said Maurice. And we’ll take your horse as a punishment, and you can have the coach, because that’d be stealing and only thieves are allowed to steal. Fair enough?

    Anything you say! said the highwayman, and then he thought about this and added hurriedly, "But please don’t say anything!"

    He kept staring straight ahead. He saw the boy and the cat get out of the coach. He heard various sounds behind him as they took his horse. And he thought about his sword. All right, he was going to get a whole mail coach out of this deal, but there was such a thing as professional pride.

    All right, said the voice of the cat after a while. We’re all going to leave now, and you’ve got to promise not to move until we’re gone. Promise?

    You have my word as a thief, said the highwayman, slowly lowering a hand to his sword.

    Right. We certainly trust you, said the voice of the cat.

    The man felt his trousers lighten as the rats poured out and scampered away, and he heard the jingle of harness. He waited a moment, then spun around, drew his sword, and ran forward.

    Slightly forward, in any case. He wouldn’t have hit the ground so hard if someone hadn’t tied his bootlaces together.

    They said he was amazing. The Amazing Maurice, they said. He’d never meant to be amazing. It had just happened.

    He’d realized something was odd that day, just after lunch, when he’d looked into a reflection in a puddle and thought, that’s me. He’d never been aware of himself before. Of course, it was hard to remember how he’d thought before becoming amazing. It seemed to him that his mind had been just a kind of soup.

    And then there had been the rats, who lived under the rubbish heap in one corner of his territory. He’d realized there was something educated about the rats when he’d jumped on one and it’d said, Can we talk about this? and part of his amazing new brain had told him you couldn’t eat someone who could talk. At least, not until you’d heard what it’d got to say.

    The rat had been Peaches. She wasn’t like other rats. Nor were Dangerous Beans, Donut Enter, Darktan, Hamnpork, Big Savings, Toxie, and all the rest of them. But then, Maurice wasn’t like other cats anymore.

    Other cats were, suddenly, stupid. Maurice started to hang around with the rats instead. They were someone to talk to. He got on fine so long as he remembered not to eat anyone they knew.

    The rats spent a lot of time worrying about why they were suddenly so clever. Maurice considered that this was a waste of time. Stuff happened. But the rats went on and on about whether it was something on the rubbish heap that they’d eaten, and even Maurice could see that wouldn’t explain how he’d got changed, because he’d never eaten rubbish. And he certainly wouldn’t eat any rubbish off that heap, seeing where it came from. . . .

    He considered that the rats were, quite frankly, dumb. Clever, okay, but dumb. Maurice had lived on the streets for four years and barely had any ears left and had scars all over his nose, and he was smart. He swaggered so much when he walked that if he didn’t slow down, he flipped himself over. When he fluffed out his tail, people had to step around it. He reckoned you had to be smart to live for four years on these streets, especially with all the dog gangs and freelance furriers. One wrong move and you were lunch and a pair of gloves. Yes, you had to be smart.

    You also had to be rich. This took some explaining to the rats, but Maurice had roamed the city and learned how things worked. And money, he said, was the key to everything.

    And then one day he’d seen the stupid-looking kid playing the flute with his cap in front of him for pennies, and he’d had an idea. An amazing idea. It just turned up, bang, all at once. Rats, flute, stupid-looking kid . . .

    And he’d said, Hey, stupid-looking kid! How would you like to make your fortu— Nah, kid, I’m down here. . . .

    Dawn was breaking when the highwayman’s horse came out of the forests, climbed over a pass, and was reined to a halt in a convenient wood.

    The river valley stretched out below, with a town hunched up against the cliffs.

    Maurice clambered out of the saddlebag and stretched. The stupid-looking kid helped the rats out of the other bag. They’d spent the journey hunched up on the money, although they were too polite to say that this was because no one wanted to sleep in the same bag as a cat.

    What’s the name of the town, kid? Maurice asked, sitting on a rock and looking down at the town. Behind the cat and the boy, the rats were counting the money again, stacking it in piles beside its leather bag. They did this every day. Even though he had no pockets, there was something about Maurice that made everyone want to check their change as often as possible.

    ’S called Bad Blintz, said the kid, referring to the guidebook.

    Ahem . . . should we be going there, if it’s bad? said Peaches, looking up from the counting.

    "Hah, it’s not called Bad because it’s bad, said Maurice. That’s foreign language for bath, see?"

    So it’s really called Bath Blintz? said Donut Enter. It sounds like some kind of soap.

    "Nah, nah, they call it Bath because—the Amazing Maurice hesitated, but only for a moment—because they got a bath, see? Very backward place, this. Not many baths around. But they’ve got one, and they’re very proud of it, so they want everyone to know. You prob’ly have to buy tickets even to have a look at it."

    "Is that true, Maurice?" asked Dangerous Beans.

    He asked the question quite politely, but it was clear that what he was really saying was I don’t think that is true, Maurice.

    Ah, yes . . . Dangerous Beans. Dangerous Beans was difficult to deal with. Really, he shouldn’t be. Back in the old days, Maurice thought, he wouldn’t even have eaten a rat so small and pale and generally ill looking.

    Maurice stared down at the little albino rat, with his snow-white fur and pinky eyes. Dangerous Beans did not stare back, because he was too shortsighted. Of course, being nearly blind was not too much of a drawback to a species that spent most of its time in the darkness and had a sense of smell that was, as far as Maurice could understand it, almost as good as sight and sound and speech all put together. For example, the rat always turned to face Maurice and looked directly at him when he spoke. It was uncanny. Maurice had known a blind cat that had walked into doors a lot, but Dangerous Beans never did that.

    Dangerous Beans wasn’t the head rat. That was Hamnpork’s job. Hamnpork was big and fierce and a bit scabby, and he didn’t much like having a newfangled brain and he certainly didn’t like talking to a cat. He’d been quite old when the rats had Changed, as they called it, and he said he was too old to Change. He left talking to Maurice to Dangerous Beans, who’d been born just after the Change. And that little rat was clever. Incredibly clever. Too clever. Maurice needed all his tricks when he was dealing with Dangerous Beans.

    It’s amazing, the stuff I know, said Maurice, blinking slowly at him. Anyway, it’s a nice-looking town. Looks rich to me. Now, what we’ll do is—

    Ahem . . .

    Maurice hated that sound. If there was a sound worse than Dangerous Beans asking one of his odd little questions, it was Peaches clearing her throat. It meant she was going to say something, very quietly, that was going to upset him.

    Yes? he said sharply.

    "Do we really need to keep on doing this?" she said.

    Well, of course, no, said Maurice. "I don’t have to be here at all. I’m a cat, right? A cat with my talents? Hah! I could’ve got myself a really cushy job with a conjurer. Or a ventriloskwist, maybe. There’s no end to the things I could be doing, right, ’cos people like cats. But owing to being incredibly, you know, stupid and kindhearted, I decided to help a bunch of rodents who are, and let’s be frank here, not exactly number-one favorites with humans. Now some of you—and here he cast a yellow eye toward Dangerous Beans—have some idea of going to some island somewhere and starting up a kind of rat civilization of your very own, which I think is very, you know, admirable, but for that you need . . . what did I tell you that you need?"

    Money, Maurice, said Dangerous Beans, but—

    Money. That’s right, ’cos what can you get with money? He looked around at the rats. Begins with a B, he prompted.

    Boats, Maurice, but—

    And then there’s all the tools you’ll need, and food, of course—

    There’s coconuts, said the stupid-looking kid, who was polishing his flute.

    Oh, did someone speak? said Maurice. What do you know about it, kid?

    You get coconuts, said the kid. On desert islands. A man selling them told me.

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1