Miss Felicity Beedle's The World of Poo | |||||
Terry Pratchett | |||||
Doubleday, 118 pages | |||||
A review by Steven H Silver
At the beginning of the book, Geoffrey is sent into exile by his parents, as his father is constantly traveling and his mother
is about to give birth to a second child. Although excited about the prospect of visiting Ankh-Morpork, Geoffrey is concerned
about staying with his grandmother, whom he barely knows. As it turns out, he needn't worry about her since he quickly develops
an hobby which his grandmother indulges without reservation.
Upon leaning that being struck by bird poo is lucky, Geoffrey decides his life's work is to collect as many different kinds of
poo as possible and put them on display in his grandmother's shed, which he styles as a museum. Not only does his grandmother
help him, but he enlists the aid of the gardener and, eventually, Harry King, who has a monopoly on the waste disposal franchise
in Ankh-Morpork.
Although the topic would seem to be rife with opportunities for scatological humor, Pratchett and his co-authors have written
about Geoffrey's adventures in Ankh-Morpork in a straight-forward manner. A similar lack of any conflict may lead to reader
to wonder if Miss Felicity Beedle's The World of Poo has a point. As a book which has fallen into our universe from the
Discworld, it does provide a slight look as the fauna of the Discworld which has not previously been explored as Geoffrey
visits the zoological gardens and the dragon sanctuary in his quest for feces.
The sort of children's book that Pratchett is satirizing hasn't been published in decades, although it is a recognizable
artifact from an earlier time. This distance means that the satire is not as effective as it once may have been since
the battle against this type of literature has already been won. However, the book does provide some insight into areas
of Ankh-Morpork and the Discworld which have previously been ignored. While the book isn't a full-fledged Discworld
novel, it does offer more of a feel of the Discworld than previous children's book tie-in Where's My Cow? Neither
of those, however, fulfills the desire for another book along the lines of Small Gods or Making Money.
Steven H Silver is a seven-time Hugo Nominee for Best Fan Writer and the editor of the anthologies Wondrous Beginnings, Magical Beginnings, and Horrible Beginnings. He is the publisher of ISFiC Press. In addition to maintaining several bibliographies and the Harry Turtledove website, Steven is heavily involved in convention running and publishes the fanzine Argentus. |
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