{"id":5143,"date":"2020-03-13T05:00:22","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5143"},"modified":"2020-03-08T14:43:21","modified_gmt":"2020-03-08T21:43:21","slug":"mark-reads-raising-steam-part-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/03\/mark-reads-raising-steam-part-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Raising Steam’: Part 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ninth part of Raising Steam<\/i>, the railway begins to take over Ankh-Morpork. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of the death of children<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll talk about That Thing at the end.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because first, I have to address the railway arriving. I say that fully knowing that at this point, the farthest this has gotten is a line from Ankh-Morpork to Sto Lat. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a line that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s technically completed, but still has pieces that need work. Yet Pratchett has built a convincing case here: the people of these areas don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care that everything isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t perfect. The sheer spectacle and marvel of the railway is so intense that it has already proven to be a success. Financially, socially, intellectually\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 this progress is rapidly taking over the city and the surrounding areas. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the zeitgeist now! Nobby and Colon want to be some of the police officers to be assigned to the trains. Billy Slick is overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who want to work somewhere in this new system. And I love how Pratchett shows us that positions are being created that previously did not exist; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a reality of new technology and industry. Like the lady who says that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll inevitably need a translator working on the trains once the lines link locations that have different languages.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The world is changing so<\/i> fast.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a sense, Moist is witness to that in another way. As I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d suspected, many of the folks who Moist has had to negotiate with are stubborn and greedy. Rather than consider the public good that a national railway could provide people, their primary concern is how much money they can make and how the railway line cutting through their property can benefit them. On some level, I get anyone wanting a fair deal and to be compensated properly, but from what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the text, I feel like Pratchett leans more heavily towards depicting Moist as dealing with people who are a whole lot like him: a little bit slimy on the inside. Moist understands how human greed works, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s working to his advantage. (And to Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. I adored that section about Vetinari\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love for politics.) At the same time, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an energy and a tension building across this book, one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s due entirely to how fast this is happening. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like this novel is living inside a tinder box, and every new development is causing at a tiny spark. At what point is something going to ignite this highly flammable nightmare? Because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another sense I got from Moist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s POV in this split. He knows this is growing faster than he can keep up with. How many new developments does Moist notice or mention in just these twelve pages or so? There are developments happening\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsuch as the progress that Simnel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made on a new engine ALREADY\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat Moist doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even have a hand in.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Progress is a living, breathing thing now, and Moist is just trying to hold on to the reins as tight as he can.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also pleased that Pratchett gave space here for some domestic happiness. I do miss Adora Belle, but I understand that this book has to convince us that Adora Belle and Moist are busier than they have ever been in their entire lives. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure that a lot of you who have been in serious relationships have experienced this at one time or another. I certainly have. But this does not diminish how much the two of them love one another. Pratchett isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t repeating the dynamic he established prior to this either. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen Vimes and Sybil dealing with similar stresses of time, but Adora Belle\/Moist feel so different compared to that longstanding couple. The thing they do<\/i> share\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand something I admire about how Pratchett writes\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in love, that love isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t threatened, and they get to be happy<\/i>. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still conflict, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re still immensely different characters, but they actually get to stay<\/i> together. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve mentioned before when talking about Vimes and Sybil, so I was delighted to see this crop up again.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to That Thing. I assume that we have now reached the dreaded moment in which something terrible happens, and this whole beautiful rush into the future comes to a grinding halt. Simnel told the truth earlier in this book: This is dangerous. Everyone knew that. And they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve actually taken great care to make sure that no one got hurt, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible to think of every possibility, every eventuality, every accident. They just happen<\/i>. And maybe this is<\/i> due to the fact that no one thought about rambunctious, curious children and their propensity to chase that curiosity right into the face of danger. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what the beginning of the next split is going to say, but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 shit, those kids are dead, right? They couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t survive something like that, and I assume that the final two words are Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way of alluding to their fate.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

UGH IS THIS ABOUT TO GET REAL DARK.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/IUSgn8EWd-o<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– You can now pre-order my second YA novel, Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>
\n– If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"