The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

From the first few pages of 'The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents', it was clear to me that this book was filled to the brim with wit and charm. Just the very premise is intriguing from the start, and I found myself laughing out loud at several moments throughout the reading of this book. Unfortunately, the book fails to explore of its possibilities, and when I had finished, I felt dissatisfied.Set in Discworld, which anyone who has ever read a book by Terry Pratchett will be familiar with, a strangely clever tomcat by the name of Maurice moves from town-to-town along with his similarly educated rats, and, as the book often describes him, a Stupid-looking kid named Kieth.What takes place on their arrival in each town is a scam durative to the familiar tale of the Pied Piper. The rats run loose through the town, being so utterly nasty, that the mayor of the town is only too willing to pay Kieth to lure them out of town with his music. Maurice takes the money, with the promise to split it later, and they continue to the next town--the perfect scam... that is, until they reach the town of Bad Blintz.The Rats communicate with each other often throughout the book (they are, argueably, the main characters), and often bring up the 'ethics' of the scam they are helping Maurice pull-off--an unfortunate result of their newly aqquired knowledge. This prepared me for a possible revolt--possibly the Rats rising against Maurice and trying to thwart his scam before he can continue. Sadly, Mr. Pratchett avoids the difficult route, and ends the book with a rather long, drawn-out, somewhat anticlimatic ending. In the meantime, the book is filled with several subplots, none of which do the book any good.'Amazing Maurice' has only its wit and charm to stand on--without it, it really isn't as amazing as you'd expect.

The Amazing Maurice (a cat), some educated rats, and a stupid looking boy have been running a con involving plagues of rats and a kid who pipes them away for a price.Sounds simple, but this is form the imagination of Terry Pratchett. The cat and rats can think and talk (the rats have been eating the garbage behind the wizardry school). The title characters have just arrived in a strange new town. There seems to already be a plague of rats although Maurice and company cannot find any.If there are no rats, who is stealing all of the food? Where did the rat tails come from that the Rat Catchers have been turning in? What is really behind everything? Can the boy be as stupid as he looks?All of these questions, and more, are answered in typical Pratchett style in this new tale of the Discworld.A quick and entertaining read (with uncharacteristic chapters) that catches the reader at the start like a terrier catching a rat, and doesn't let go until it's all over (like a terrier with a rat). A must read for Pratchett fans.

This was a really cute story. Basically, a bunch of rats, snacking on wizardly refuse, attain sentience. They also hook up with a sentient cat. They can all speak, learn, and chat with each other, and at the Cat's devious notion, dupe a "stupid looking kid" to play the role of a rat-piper, moving from city to city where the rats act up, the Piper comes in and clears the rats out, and they all get paid. This time, however, they've stumbled into a town where there's something really evil going on, and all the wisecracking cats, tapdancing rats, and stupid-looking kids in the world might just be in over their heads. Well written, with a bit of whimsy in nearly every chapter, this was my introduction to the Discworld series, and I dare say I'll be back. The wonderful observations from the rats point of view are fantastic (there's a great part where one of the rats is asked something along the lines of: "Do you know what animal swarms into a place, breeds terribly, spoils everything they can't use and wastes everything they can until there's nothing left?" and the rat says, "Sure. Humans.") The story gets a bit dark in places for a young reader, though a teen would probably get a laugh. And the mythology lover in me adores the play on the Pied Piper of Hamelin - like Orson Scott Card's "Enchantment" did for Sleeping Beauty, Pratchett did here for the Pied Piper of Hamelin. 'Nathan

Once again Terry Pratchett reaches into is back of tricks and pulls out a rat named Dangerous Beans or another rat called Sardines (a dancing rat, mind you), or a street cat called Maurice, or a young woman named Malicia and even a boy named Keith. Keith? Must be a slip up. Let's see, the story all started when some ordinary rats got into the Magic College's trash heap and ate some thing that gave them brains. Well, a lot more brains than they had before.And then a hungry cat ate one of the rats and suddenly it was getting regular headaches and making a point of not eating anything that talks. Maurice, being a practically minded cat, immediately saw the possibilities, and recruited Keith, who was a bit dumb looking but could play the pipes. Suddenly the troop was on the road, working the old pied piper scam, and making good money at it. Dangerous Beans was their spiritual guide, their thinker of Big Thoughts, the rest take care of undoing traps, spotting poison and widdling on things, etc. In no time, town after town was anteing up to get rid of their rats.The only drawback was that one couldn't very well work the same trick in the same place twice, so eventually the gang found themselves in the town of Bad Blintz. And this town was just a bit different. For one thing the resident rats had eaten all the food, but there weren't any resident rats to be found. For another thing, the resident rat catchers seemed to be making rat tails out of shoestrings. And there is something really, really bad in the cellars beneath the city. Worst of all, Malicia the mayor's daughter also lives in Bad Blintz.If the above description gives you a clear idea of what 'The Amazing Maurice...' is about I've done my job poorly. Suffice it to say that a group of rats that do a much better job of being people than people do find themselves in a battle to save the town and, perhaps, life as we know it. Once again Pratchett has created a morality tale out of sarcasm and parody. One that can surprise us by touching our hearts unexpectedly. In Discworld, where nothing works quite like it should, things still manage to work out well (well, most of the time... for some people).This tale is funny and likeable. While intended for young adults it works just as well for old youngsters like me. Even the strange references to Mr. Bunnsey and Ratty Rupert are fun. Just don't eat that green wobbly bit.