Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS
by
TERRY PRATCHETT
Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents USA cover The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (2000)
A Novel of Discworld

Winner - Carnegie Award for Children's Literature

US HarperCollins hardcover
Cover art by Chris Gall
241 pages (left)

UK Corgi Childrens paperback
272 pages (right)
 Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents UK cover
From the inside cover of US hardcover:
       One rat, popping up here and there, squeaking loudly, and taking a bath in the cream, could be a plague all by himself. After a few days of this, it was amazing how glad people were to see the kid with his magical rat pipe. And they were amazed when the rats followed him out of town.
       They'd have been really amazed if they'd ever found out that the rats and the piper met up with a cat somewhere outside of town and solemnly counted out the money.

       The Amazing Maurice runs the perfect Pied Piper scam.  This streetwise alley cat knows the value of cold, hard cash and can talk his way into and out of anything.  But when Maurice and his cohorts decide to con the town of Bad Blintz, it will take more than fast talking to survive the danger that awaits.  For this is a town where food is scarce and rats are hated, where cellars are lined with deadly traps, and where a terrifying evil lurks beneath the hunger-stricken streets....

From the UK hardback:
       Imagine a million clever rats.
       Rats that don't run.
       Rats that fight . . .
       Maurice, a streetwise tomcat, has the perfect money-making scam. He's found a stupid-looking kid who plays a pipe, and he has his very own plague of rats -- rats who are strangely educated, so Maurice can no longer think of them as 'lunch'. And everyone knows the stories about rats and pipers . . .
       But when they reach the stricken town of Bad Blintz, the little con suddenly goes down the drain. For someone there is playing a different tune. A dark, shadowy tune. Something very, very bad is waiting in the cellars.
       The educated rats must learn a new word.
       EVIL.
       It's not a game any more. It's a rat-eat-rat world down there. And that might only be the start . . .

Read for group discussion on July 9, 2003
RATINGS:
How we each rated this book
Dan 7 Amy 8 stack of books 10   Wow! Don't miss it
8-9  Highly recommended
7    Recommended
5-6  Mild recommendation
3-4  Take your chances
1-2  Below average; skip it
0    Get out the flamethrower!
U    Unfinishable or unreadable
-    Skipped or no rating given
Cheri 8 Barb -
Aaron 8 Cynthia 8
Jackie 7 Ron 9
Christine 8 Mitch -
Amelia 8 Kate 6
Our book group has also read the following books by Terry Pratchett:
-- Guards! Guards! in July 1995
-- Good Omens (written with Neil Gaiman), in May 1996
-- Small Gods   in March 1999
-- Hogfather   in July 2000
-- The Fifth Elephant   in January 2002
-- The Truth   in June 2004
-- The Wee Free Men   in March 2007
Bibliography:
Terry Pratchett (1948-    ) is a English writer. His humorous, loosely-connected Discworld fantasy books are bestsellers in the UK.

Awards
1990 British Science Fiction Association Award for Pyramids
Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Pratchett's Discworld books include characters such as the inept wizard Rincewind, witch Granny Weatherwax, the City Guard or Night Watch, and Death.

Discworld series books
The Colour of Magic (1983)
The Light Fantastic (1986)
Equal Rites (1987)
Mort (1987)
Sourcery (1988)
Wyrd Sisters (1988)
Pyramids (1989)
Guards! Guards! (1989)
Eric (with illustrator Josh Kirby) (1990)
Moving Pictures (1990)
Reaper Man (1991)
Witches Abroad (1991)
Small Gods (1992)
Lords and Ladies (1992)
Men at Arms (1993)
Soul Music (1994)
Interesting Times (1994)
Maskerade (1995)
Feet of Clay (1996)
Hogfather (1998)
Jingo (1998)
Last Continent (1999)
Carpe Jugulum (1999)
The Fifth Elephant (2000)
The Truth (2000)
The Thief of Time (2001)
Night Watch (2002)
Monstrous Regiment (2003)
Going Postal (2004)
Thud! (2005)
Making Money (2007)
Nation (2008)

Discworld young adult books
The Tiffany Aching Adventures
The Wee Free Men (2003)
A Hat Full of Sky (2004)
Wintersmith (2006)

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (2001)

Discworld related books Illustrated by Paul Kidby
The Pratchett Portfolio (1996)
Nanny Ogg's Cookbook (1999, with Stephen Briggs and Tina Hannan)
Gurps Discworld: Adventures on the Back of the Turtle (1998, by Phil Masters for Steve Jackson Games)
Death's Domain : A Discworld Mapp (1999)
Discworld's Unseen University Diary 1998 (with Stephen Briggs, 1997)
Discworld's Ankh-Morpork City Watch Diary 1999 (with Stephen Briggs, 1998)
Discworld Assassin's Guild Yearbook and Diary 2000 (with Stephen Briggs, 1999)
Discworld Fools' Guild Yearbook and Diary 2001 (with Stephen Briggs, 2000)
Discworld Thieves' Guild Yearbook and Diary 2002 (with Stephen Briggs, 2001)
The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable (2001).

Discworld related books with Stephen Briggs
The Streets of Ankh Morpork (1993)
The Discworld Companion (1994, 1997)
The Discworld Mapp (1995)
A Tourist Guide to Lancre (1998)
The New Discworld Companion (2003)

Discworld science books with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen
The Science of Discworld (1999)
The Science of Discworld II: The Globe (2002)
The Science of Discworld II: Darwin's Watch (2005)

Other Discworld spinoff books
Mort: A Discworld Big Comic (with Graham Higgins, 1994)
The Unseen University Challenge by David Langford (1996)
A Discworld Quizbook - The Wyrdest Link by David Langford (2002)
Where's My Cow? (illustrated by Melvyn Grant, children's picture book (2005)
The Unseen University Cut Out Book (with Alan Batley and Bernard Pearson, 2006)

Other books
Good Omens (written with Neil Gaiman, 1990) is subtitled The Nice and Accurate Prophesies of Agnes Nutter. It's a fantasy about the end of the world.

The YA Johnny Maxwell tilogy is Only You Can Save Mankind (1992), Johnny and the Dead (1993), and Johnny and the Bomb (1996)

The Nomes trliogy or the Bromeliad children's SF series is Truckers (1989), Diggers (1990), and Wings (1990).

Standalone works are his first novel The Carpet People (1971) a children's fantasy; The Dark Side of the Sun (1976) which is SF; Strata (1981) a SF parody; and The Unadulterated Cat (with Gray Jolliffe, 1990).

Links:
Our book club's page for Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
Our book club's page for Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
Our book club's page for The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
Our book club's page for The Truth by Terry Pratchett
Our book club's page for The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Fantastic Reviews: Aaron's book review of The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett - Wikipedia
Discworld - Wikipedia
L-Space Web: About Terry Pratchett
Discworld Monthly - Online newsletter about Terry Pratchett & his works
Terry Pratchett and the Discworld
Discworld MUD - multi-user game based on the Discworld books
January magazine - Profile | Terry Pratchett
GURPS Discworld - RolePlaying Game
The Discworld Emporium
TerryPratchettBooks.com

Return to Home Page - Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

E-mail: SFandFBookclub@aol.com
 This page was last updated October 22, 2008