Books: Raising Steam and Uprooted

Two books: "Raising Steam" by Terry Pratchett, which took me weeks to get through, and "Uprooted" by Naomi Novik, which I read in one day and into the night because I couldn't put it down.

Raising Steam:
I recently saw "Raising Steam" in a bookshop and had to buy it immediately – a Discworld novel I didn't know, that I hadn't even heard about? (That last part was especially strange.) It's the story of how trains arrive on Discworld. It took me a long time to read, and not because I didn't have the time. It just wasn't particularly gripping. Interesting, yes, but there was very little plot.( more spoilery details )

I don't regret buying "Raising Steam" because it's neat to see Ankh-Morpork develop further, but it's definitely not among my favorite Discworld books and not one I'll reread often.

Uprooted:
I bought Uprooted on a rec by cofax7 (slight spoilers.) (Incidentally, that was the first book I actually paid for on my ebook-reader, before that it was only fic.) I only started it yesterday because I didn't have the time before and was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop halfway through, and of course exactly that happened and I stayed up way later than I wanted. Worth it though.

I don't remember the last time a book kept surprising me like this. Every few chapters almost it went into a different direction than I'd expected, which made the whole story very exciting and compelling. Yet it never seemed disjointed or chaotic or confusing, major kudos.

I really liked the setting. It wasn't drastically different from "mainstream" fantasy – wizards and kings and the dark Wood – but it was enough its own thing not to look like a copy. In many ways it seemed a bit like fantasy!Poland, I thought that was very cool. I was glad I had a friend named Agnieszka once so I knew how to pronounce it (it's only mentioned in the afterword.)

The writing is very good. Some really great images.

( spoilery details )