A streetwise talking cat and a gang of educated rats run a Pied Piper scam, until a town turns out to hide something sinister
A cat, some rats and a scam
Maurice is a streetwise cat who can talk, and he has a profitable idea. With a band of rats who also became intelligent after eating magical rubbish, and a quiet boy who plays a pipe, he runs a simple scam: the rats invade a town, the boy appears and offers to lead them away for a fee, and everyone moves on to the next town richer than before.
Who will enjoy it
Readers aged about eleven and up, and adults, who enjoy funny, clever fantasy with talking animals and a darker edge.
What you will get
A funny, clever and surprisingly thoughtful Discworld fantasy about a talking cat, a band of brave rats and the stories we tell about ourselves.
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Fantasy · Discworld · Talking animals · Pied Piper
Length
368 pages · ≈ 11 h
More about this book
The rats, with names like Dangerous Beans, Peaches, Darktan and Hamnpork, are troubled by the scam: now that they can think, they want to find a place where rats and humans can live in peace. When the group reaches the town of Bad Blintz, they find that it already has a terrible shortage of food, a pair of shifty rat-catchers and no rats at all. With the help of Malicia, a girl who believes life should work like a story, they investigate.
What they uncover is frightening, and the book has some dark and tense scenes underground, though it is never gruesome. Terry Pratchett mixes sharp jokes with real questions about thinking, morality, courage and what it means to be a person, and the rats' struggle to build a fair society is touching. Maurice himself, selfish, vain and gradually more decent, is one of Pratchett's best comic creations.
Funny, exciting and wise, a standalone Discworld novel that is a good introduction to Pratchett for younger readers and a treat for longtime fans. It was later adapted as an animated film. About 368 pages in the HarperCollins paperback.
The Wee Free Men
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Watership Down
Good Omens
Men at Arms
Going Postal
Mort
The Color of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Hogfather
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
The Princess Bride