The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Corgi
Classification: Discworld

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Talking rats, one smart cat and a stupid-looking-kid who can play the flute very well. It’s all here in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.

The cat, Maurice, is sharp witted and beers some resemblance to Mr Tinkles in the film ‘Cats & Dogs’. He is the self appointed leader of the rats and he’s running a scam. You see, both Mourice and the army of rats can talk (and have odd names such as ‘Hamnpork’ and ‘Big Savings’) in the language of humans. This has allowed Maurice to swindle not only the rats, but the ‘stupid-looking-kid’ into carrying out his con. Essentially it goes like this: They create an artificial plague of rats, then when the town is crying out for a piper the kid turns up with his flute. They all get paid and then move on to the next town. Simple isn’t it?

However, the rats are starting to think that it’s about time they stopped this because, well…, it might not be above board. But Maurice manages to convince them to do one last town, a town called Bad Blintz.

Unfortunately, the town is already in a bad way because of its very real rat problem. And it is at this point that everything goes very horribly (but hilariously) wrong for our little gang.

This book will make you laugh, quite a bit. Pratchett writes with his usual flair with an excellent mix of comedy, tragedy and action. My only real gripe with the book is its size. It’s only 272 pages long yet (in the UK at least) you have to shell out ‘full price’. This is why The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents has only scored a 3 instead of 4. If you see it with a reduced price tag, I’d recommend you get it! (Amazon.co.uk and .com sell second hand copies for example)

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