Dodger

It was two years ago that Pratchett wrote and published this, and I've only now gotten around to paying attention to it... am I going off him? Or just don't read his non-Discworld stuff avidly?

Dodger is one of the poor of Queen Victoria's London, and gets involved when he finds a woman being beaten. From that small event, he gets caught up in events that are bigger than him, and what people want to believe about him doesn't reflect his truth, but that doesn't matter. While still staying small scale, Dodger gets rocketed up to high society and even, in a way, gets involved in the political stage. Mainly while toshing around the sewers...

This was short, but my overall experience of it was... this really felt like a way for Pratchett to shove in historical figures he likes (which he largely admits in his afterword). And the plot goes really well for Dodger, he's so lucky that it gets near immersion breaking just how easy the story is for him.

The other aspect was this reminded me a lot of his Guards novels, although, of course, this is from the other side. It does kind of want to make me go and read the Guards novels.

While still Pratchettian, Dodger feels like he didn't try too hard.

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