Dodger by Terry Pratchett

Title: Dodger
Author: Terry Pratchett
Type: Young Adult Novel
Genre: Fantasy
Series: No
Copyright: 2012
Publisher: Harper
Rating: 3.5 to 5


Summary: from Good Reads.
 A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad sees a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's...Dodger.

Seventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London's sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl--not even if her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England.

From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery.

Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett combines high comedy with deep wisdom in this tale of an unexpected coming-of-age and one remarkable boy's rise in a  complex and fascinating world,.

Feelings: 
This was I believe the first Terry Pratchett novel I have read. I picked it up at the library when I was looking for something else and I'm glad that I did. This was a fantasy that combined aspects of history into the story. Yes it is a bit jumbled up and the time line isn't exactly straight but it is fiction and fantasy and as Pratchett says at the end he took some liberties to make time the way he wanted it.


I have to admit that I liked having the historical people included in the story. Many of the historical figures where ones that I wasn't all that familiar with so I had no trouble suspending disbelief.


I liked his take on Sweeney Todd, he felt a little less malicious and a little more human in this version of the telling.

At some time, somebody must have told Mister Todd that a barber, in addition to tonsorial prowess, should have memorized practically a library of jokes, anecdotes, and miscellaneous rib-ticklers, occasionally including--should the gentleman in the chair be of the right age or nature--ones that might include some daring remarks about young ladies. However, the person who had given him this advice had simply not calculated on Sweeney's terrible lack of anything that could  e called bonhomie, cheerfulness, ribaldry, or even a simple sense of humor. (p.128)

This is an example of Pratchett's at times long sentences and how Dodger begins to understand Sweeney. Without giving away this particular part of the story it is difficult to say more.

I enjoyed reading the story. I think while it's aim was not to be historical fiction there are historical aspects and it does show some of what city life in London was like in the early Victorian age. It does make you think about how much better things are now even when they are pretty bad.

I would recommend this to young adult readers. This is not to say that this is strictly speaking an young adult novel. I don't think that it is. I would also recommend it to Terry Pratchett fans as I think that it is well written and an enjoyable read.