I really want to like it. I know it came near the end of his life as he struggled with Alzheimers disease. I know how ugly that disease can be; we just lost my mother-in-law to the disease earlier this year.
I am going to finish the book. But it's going to be tough.
It feels as if it were written by a committee. A committee that really wanted to help Pratchett out, but probably shouldn't have.
He left enormous shoes to fill, so I don't envy this committee's job one bit. I mean, I can see a path forward on finishing the book once started, but the committee really needed to re-read "Going Postal" and "Making Money" to get a feel for a Moist von Lipwig novel. I'll keep reading with an open mind, but I have the general feeling that the committee knew the elements of Pratchett's style but just wans't able to use the tools correctly for final assembly. And really, they had an impossible task. Pratchett has a very distinct style that he honed over decades, so there's no reason at all to think someone else, or even a few someone elses, could pick it up and make it work on the first go.
I say this as a writer still struggling to find my own voice. It's tough, but for those who find it and write with the productivity Pratchett did, it becomes natural and innate and in many ways inimitable, particulary by those under pressure who were left to finish things when the master wasn't able to do so.
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