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    Snuff
    Snuff
    Snuff
    Audiobook11 hours

    Snuff

    Written by Terry Pratchett

    Narrated by Stephen Briggs

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    “A lively outing, complete with sly shout-outs to Jane Austen and gritty police procedurals.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    In Terry Pratchett’s delightful New York Times bestselling tale of crime, class, prejudice, and punishment, Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is on vacation. But this is Discworld, where nothing goes as planned—and hilarious adventure ensues.

    It is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday would barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse.

    At long last, Lady Sybil has lured her husband, Sam Vimes, on a well-deserved and long-overdue holiday. But for the commander of the City Watch, a vacation in the country is anything but relaxing. The balls, the teas, the muck—not to mention all that fresh air and birdsong—are more than a bit taxing on a cynical city-born and -bred copper.

    The policeman is back on familiar ground when a body is found—the first of many, many corpses—and an ancient crime more terrible than murder is uncovered. Out of his jurisdiction, out of his element, and out of bacon sandwiches (thanks to his well-meaning wife)—Sam must rely on his copper’s instincts, guile, and Ankh-Morpork street smarts to see justice done.

    As he sets off on the chase, though, he must remember to watch where he steps. . . . This is the countryside, after all, and the streets most definitely are not paved with gold.

    The Discworld novels can be read in any order, but Snuff is the 8th book in the City Watch collection and the 39th Discworld book.

    The City Watch series in order:

    • Guards! Guards!
    • Men at Arms
    • Feet of Clay
    • Jingo
    • The Fifth Elephant
    • Night Watch
    • Thud!
    • Snuff
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 11, 2011
    ISBN9780062099839
    Snuff
    Author

    Terry Pratchett

    Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was the acclaimed creator of the globally revered Discworld series. In all, he authored more than fifty bestselling books, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.

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    Reviews for Snuff

    4/5

    1,468 ratings114 reviews

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    • 5/5
      All hail Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs! I love the novels and the reading.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Fantastic book with a great reader. Reads like a great police caper

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Stephen Briggs wonderfully narrates Pratchett's smart, dry humor and political commentary.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I apparently missed something where Wee Mad Arthur visits the McFeegles, but that's not the fault of this book.
    • 4/5
      It was good. Not as great a dive into the characters we've come to love but still an interesting story
    • 5/5
      Sam Vimes, the only acutely class conscious character in fantasy fiction.
    • 5/5
      Loved the entire series. All things that live, breathe, think, create and speak should be afforded the same protections under the law.
      Sam Vimes is a great character married to the best woman, Sibil. I'm a fan of the Night Watch.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic author. Awesome narrator. Sir Terry Pratchett is one great satirist.
    • 4/5
      It took me five weeks to finish this, reading just a section or two each evening. It didn't really grab me at first, but Pratchett is always readable, and I found myself really quite involved as the story progressed. Not as overtly humorous as some of the earlier Discworld books, this is quite thought-provoking.

      Sam Vimes is the main character - a somewhat mellow Sam who has settled into being 'His Grace' and very much enjoys fatherhood, although he also still loves his work as a policeman. He's not quite sure about taking a holiday, but everyone insists... happily for Vimes, he finds plenty of crime in the countryside and, with the help of his wife Lady Sybil, manages to get the goblins recognised as sapient beings.

      Some of the plotting was a bit over-complex and rather lost me, but overall I thought this a good addition to the Discworld series. Recommended, so long as you've read some of the earlier 'Watch' books featuring Vimes.
    • 5/5
      This time Vimes has no other recourse but finds himself forced into involuntary vacation. Both his wife and the Patrician have conspired to send him off to his wife's family estate in the country. At first Vimes enjoys taking his son on adventures in nature but soon it becomes clear that the sleepy little hamlet is not all it seems.There is a large contingent of goblins in the area and the town seems set upon exterminating them all. But when Vimes comes to understand that goblins are sentient he begins to discover a huge criminal conspiracy that goes to the very heart of the small rural town.
    • 4/5
      Another Discworld novel that has a genuine detective story in it. At the same time it also has a moral, touching on human rights, the position of marginalised minorities and the way what is humanly and socially acceptable evolves. And it does it all with Pratchett's usual dry wit. This is another story of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and contains the usual cast of dodgy characters, led by Sam Vines. It also manages to poke fun at the class system. Not a bad haul, really.
    • 5/5
      Great like every book of Pratchett, not my favourite but still worth the listen
    • 5/5
      I am a HUGE Terry Pratchett fan. I love all his work. Steven Briggs is a great narrator.
    • 5/5
      Snuff is the final chapter of Terry Pratchett's City Watch series, and it is populated by all of my favourite characters, lots of humour, a sound moral foundation, and a ridiculous plot - in other words, I loved it.Sam Vimes, his wife Sybil, and their small son Sam go to Sybil's ancestral estate for a fortnight's vacation. Sybil has tea with all her friends in the countryside; young Sam studies natural history, with a central focus on poo, and Sam himself investigates murder, slaughter, kidnapping, and smuggling, and turns his holiday into a near-deadly venture. Nobby and Fred, Lord Vetinari, Carrot and Angua, Cheery Littlebottom, and one of the Nac Mac Feegles populate the pages and make them a delight. Of course, there is a happy ending: Pratchett always excelled at winding things down exceptionally.This book pulled me out of a gloomy state, made me chuckle, and caused me to order more Discworld books from Amazon. I discovered that I do not own the entire City Watch series, but I will by the end of June. That is another happy ending, this one devised by me.
    • 4/5
      Oh Sam Vimes, I hope you never retire. You are needed to train all the policemen on Discworld. It would be anarchy without you! I admit that maybe it's time to start having a more teacherly role though. Don't want to get into problems that the younger crowd should be able to handle.

      In this book, Sam Vimes goes on a vacation to the country with his aristocratic wife and poop-obsessed son. While his son is busy collecting specimens from any animal he can, Sam gets tangled up in a murder investigation. While on vacation and out of his jurisdiction. So he teams up with the young local constable and they unravel a plot ranging from slavery to drug trafficking to murder to smuggling.

      They also make some discoveries about one of the most downtrodden races on the Disc: goblins. I had already read Raising Steam, so I knew how that part must turn out, but it was good to finally get their backstory. There's much more to the goblins than you first see.

      The story was appropriately large for the great hero Vimes to solve, but it still seemed a bit wide ranging, especially once a Feegle ended up in Howandaland. But the "Pratchett/Vimes on racism" was appreciated, and I'll always enjoy a glimpse at young Sam and his fascinating library ("Where's my cow?" "World of poo") Too bad we didn't get a Vimes reading of World of Poo like we did in Thud!
    • 4/5
      Vimes is finally persuaded to take a holiday. Ill at ease in the country, he's desperate for a crime to be committed so he can be back on familiar ground. And he's not disappointed. This is a book about privilege, be it the assumed superiority of the upper classes, or the quiet resignation of the down-trodden goblins - time for Vimes to mix things up! An entertaining book but not up to Pratchett's usual standards of excellence.
    • 5/5
      Every new Pratchett novel is a perfect jewel. Vimes is one of his best characters, and we see him in a very human light here. If there's a cop in your life, this might be an excellent gateway novel for them to enter the Discworld.
    • 5/5
      Sam Vimaire always takes you on epic rides, and this story is no exception!
    • 4/5
      First of the Sam Vimes books that I've read in a while.

      Sam, his wife and child go on holiday to stay in one of their large estates, and it's not long before Sam gets involved in the mass disappearance of the local goblins, and he gets implicated in the death of one of the girls. Really what's happening is that the goblins (who are classed as vermin) are being treated as slave labour and are being taken out to the plantations to grow tobacco (for the "snuff" of the title). It takes Vimes and the local constabulary to sort this out, which includes the local magistrates believing they are above the law.

      Not the best of the best - there's a few loose threads that could have been tightened up or dropped altogether - but still a goodie.
    • 2/5
      I'm a huge fan of the Discworld and the City Watch books in particular but I didn't care for Snuff as much as I could have -- or should have. Down in my gut I feel Commander Sam Vimes has had a great run but now he's so over-powerful, so unbeatable, and full of so many powerful allies (Vetinari, Lady Sybil, his unstoppable assassin-butler, the demon who lives in his head, every City Watch post ever, etc) he's no longer much of a joy to read. He has no challenge. He has no mountain to climb. The term for this is Mary Sue, and Vimes has become a Mary Sue character.

      I would have happily rolled with Vimes, Duke of Ankh-Morpork if the book had turned into a commentary on Upstairs-Downstairs like it promised in the beginning, or would have kept to the city and focused on the goblins, or simply had more focus /in general/. Too much was going on and not enough was going on that had focus. We had some Class Warfare AND smuggling AND murderers AND drugs AND poor oppressed goblins whom no one understands AND What Happens to Fred Colon AND Vimes Taking Charge... the book lacked focus and the lack of focus took away from the more interesting action sequences and themes. Oppression bad, yes. But it didn't have the feeling of freeing an oppressed people like, say, Feet of Clay did, even though it was, at its core, the same story.

      I would have been happier, perhaps with two books: Vimes investigating a MURDER in a Countryside Upstairs-Downstairs and a more focused story about the Goblins. Or something to that effect. Much like Unseen Academicals, Snuff is a long way from being unreadable but I had to force myself to finish it. It didn't grab me the same way Discworld books normally do. It's no "The Times" or "Going Postal." If I had to rank them, Snuff would dwell somewhere in the bottom third.

      A high point: the continuation of Wee Mad Arthur's education as a Nac Mac Feegle from _I Shall Wear Midnight_. I adore the Feegles and having one who isn't Rob Anybody's crew is always good.

      Here's hoping PTerry still has a few books left in him -- and if they are City Watch books, they star Carrot and Angua and Cheery and the crew.
    • 4/5
      It is almost pointless to review this book. I mean, surely if I say it is a book by Terry Pratchett, set in Discworld and starring Samuel Vimes then that’ll be enough?

      But just in case you need a little more, Vimes is taking a holiday in Sybil’s family home in the countryside. It wasn’t his idea, the countryside isn’t exactly his natural environment, but these things must be done. It is a family holiday so young Sam is along as well, and of course, they couldn’t leave Wilikins behind could they. A gentleman needs his gentleman’s gentleman, surely. But things are not as quiet as they may seem in the rural surroundings, and Vimes’ policeman senses are tingling. Something is not right, and it doesn’t matter where he is, the law is the law.

      I’m sure if you are a Pratchett fan then nothing I say would persuade you not to pick this up and I wouldn’t want to. I’m not sure why it took me so long, its been sitting on my shelves for a year now. And if you aren’t a Pratchett fan, well then you could read this and enjoy it and love it, but you’d be much better off starting with Guards! Guards!, which is the first adventure of Vimes. If you don’t love him after that then I don’t want to talk about it!

      Snuff has everything you want in a Pratchett book, humour, fantasy, philosophical wonderings and speculations, statements about the world and society, all hidden under comic fantasy. Honestly, just read the books already.
    • 5/5
      Another Discworld title devoured in very short order. Why can't I control myself when it comes to these books? You'd think I'd read them slowly, savouring every page, especially since I am always overshadowed by the dread that *this* will be the last one. But, no. I start reading, and I cannot stop until I get to the end. I guess it speaks to the author's consummate skill. And my lack of willpower.
      Snuff is another Discworld novel featuring Sam Vimes as its main character. As much as I pretty much love all the Discworld characters, Vimes is right up there near the top of the list. And while Vimes may try to take an (enforced) holiday, crime does not, as he soon finds out to his ever-so-carefully-concealed relief. As usual, there are layers and meanings to this story beyond the storyline itself, and Pratchett makes us think as well as enjoy a well-told tale.
      At the end of this edition of the book are excerpts from two other books; Dodger, a (gasp) non-Discworld novel, and The Long Earth, a collaboration with Stephen Baxter, both of which are definitely going on my Christmas list this year.
    • 3/5
      Despite some continuity problems this last volume in the City Watch sub-series of Discworld is a moving effort on the part of Sam Vines to create law on the run, moving goblins from the category of vermin to another sapient race in Anhk Morepork.
    • 5/5
      Sam Vimes, on the insistence of his wife, goes on holiday to the country. To relax. And spend time with his family. Only someone's gone and murdered a goblin, so there's police work to be done and justice to be served.Only Pratchett could spin a worthy lesson about equal rights for all using a story about goblins, a hot-headed blacksmith, and a woman who writes children's books about poo. And you just can't help but love him for it, right along with loving Commander Vimes as well.
    • 4/5
      While I love the Watch, this one felt a bit more cookie cutter than usual. I did like Young Sam's obsession with all types of poo :)
    • 3/5
      As usual a great read. Similar themes to previous books. Sam Vimes is a favourite.
    • 4/5
      Oh, I love Discworld and I love pTerry completely. Laugh-out-loud funny, clever and well-written: sign me up.
    • 4/5
      More of a Sam Vimes book than a City Watch book, although various members of the Watch make an appearance. Vimes, Sybil and Young Sam go to Sybil’s family’s country house, ostensibly for a holiday, but because Vimes is Vimes, he is not going to ignore the indications that something unjust and criminal is going on in the neighbourhood.Snuff is observant and funny and full of Vimes’ sharp opinions about things. (The only real downside to audiobooks that it’s harder to bookmark quotable quotes.) Some of my favourite bits were Vimes’s interactions with the young local constable who he first meets when Feeney tries to arrest him...I’m disappointed that there aren’t another dozen stories about Sam Vimes investigating crimes -- what am I going to listen to now? -- but since there aren’t, this felt like a good sort of ending. Vimes gets his holiday and gets to solve crime! The best of both worlds. Vimes woke in damp and utter darkness with sand under his cheek. Some parts of his body reported for duty, others protested that they had a note from their mother.
    • 5/5
      Squee!!! An outstanding read, and a fabulous addition to the Discworld bibliography :)
    • 4/5
      Sam Vimes lives for being a copper, but Lady Sybil demands that he take a vacation and thus city-born and bred Vimes heads out into the countryside away from the action. Snuff is the 39th book of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series as well the eighth and final book of feature the Watch of Ankh-Morpork. Yet even on vacation Sam Vimes cannot help finding crime taking place and then the fun begins.Strong-armed to a vacation to his wife’s family estate, Sam Vimes begins walking around the country-side and interacting with the locals who don’t know what to think of Lady Sybil’s husband. Besides the common man, Vimes interacts with some of his “gentlemen” neighbors including Lord Rust who reminds him that his jurisdiction is only in Ankh-Morpork. His suspicions raised, Vimes is then clumsily framed for murder and is detained by the local constable, Feeney Upshot. Taking the young man under his wing, Vimes begins investigating the case especially when he finds out that the blood used was from a butchered goblin girl, a fact that makes Vimes want to find who is responsible. As the case progresses, Vimes and Upshot find evidence of goblin snatching and the smuggling of tobacco and troll narcotics then to the killer of the goblin girl who is guarding a new shipment of goblins. Vimes and Upshot race and catch up with a river boat then battle the lowlife smugglers for control of the boat during a vicious storm. Ending up in Quirm, Vimes leads the local police on a chase to a smuggler ship and find the man he was framed of killing alive and well then later catches the goblin girl’s killer when he tries to kill Young Sam. Vimes returns to Ankh-Morpork to discover the fallout from his investigation and then realize that he actually wants to go on vacation back to the country to relax.Beginning this book, I didn’t know what to expect especially after the last Watch book, Thud! However, my unease was quickly forgotten as Pratchett kept the narration of the book almost entirely—at least 95%—from Vimes’ point-of-view which help keep the book focused unlike the previously mentioned book. The now six-year old Young Sam was a nice addition to the overall story as it not only added to overall enjoyment of the book, but also added to the solid foundation of Vimes’ fatherhood. The only thing that could be a complaint was that Pratchett sometimes wrote some sections twice as long as they should have been, which while not becoming tedious were after a while making me dart ahead to see when they would be wrapped up.Snuff is a fun investigative romp around the countryside and down the river. It is a very quality send off for Sam Vimes in the Discworld series and if you’re a fan of this particular series of books by Pratchett and haven’t read it, I encourage you to.