The Truth: (Discworld Novel 25) (Discworld Novels)

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Pravda (Russian for "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, formerly the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. I enjoyed the main character William de Worde, even if he was very similar in nature to Moist von Lipwig. But he became Ankh-Morpork’s first journalist and newspaper editor basically by accident, and it was hysterical the whole way. His investigative reporting when it came to a crime that Vetinari may or may not have committed was absolutely great. And him annoying the Watch while simultaneously doing their job was fantastic. The side characters were pretty good too, especially Otto, but I always enjoy cameos from other characters around the Disc. We see Vimes, Gaspode, Dibbler (because would it be a Discworld book without him), and a very funny cameo from Death. The denizens of Ankh-Morpork fancy they've seen just about everything. But then comes the Ankh-Morpork Times, struggling scribe William de Worde's upper-crust newsletter turned Discworld's first paper of record. I loved the voice-acting, the many humorous quips, and (most of) the characters. Gaspode the Wonder Dog and his mafia-boss impressions were priceless. In contrast though, William de Worde was just too... pathetically predictable. Perhaps this was intentional, but for me it's the first time I actively dislike the main character from a Discworld novel. He also learns that the TRUTH is not as easy to obtain as facts or statistical data. And it is not easy to define either. In fact, many different people have many different TRUTHS, and they are frequently ready to fight for it against all others. Some TRUTHS are huge. Others are small and seemingly insignificant. It takes a true journalist to arrive at the universal TRUTH through his writing. The way Pratchett did in his books.

While the ploy works, it is touch-and-go for a minute or two--the New Firm's employers neglects to tell Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip that Vetinari "moves like a snake" and has been trained at the Assassins' Guild. They improvise, stabbing Vetinari's clerk, Drumknott, and pushing their Vetinari look-a-like into the hallway to "confess".

Together, William and the dwarves publish the ‘The Ankh-Morpork Times’, ushering in a new episode of the Industrial Revolution on Discworld. The birth of the fourth estate will make a lot of people ‘fret’ before they correct the spelling to ‘free’, giving us, the readers, one of the funniest adventures in the whole series while on the sidelines we get to debate the nature of truth, of the public as consumers of news and of power hungry little tyrants who dream of hitching this powerful force to their chariots.

What I didn't find quite as spot-on was some of the twists and turns of the novel. For one thing, the identity of who is behind the elaborate conspiracy is so easily deduced that it ruins some of the driving force of the last half of the novel. Of course, the problem is that the readers know the identity (or can deduce it easily if you're paying attention), while the characters don't because they don't have as much information as we do. It's a case of the reader being a bit too omniscient for his or her own good and ruining the final revelation a bit. William de Worde had sent a periodical newsletter to influential people all over the Discworld for some time, employing wood engravers to set the words to paper. But when industrious movable type setter dwarf Goodmountain and crew provide an inexpensive and efficient way to mass produce the letter on a daily basis, the Ankh-Morpork Times is born. Even more dangerously, a self-appointed Committee to Unelect the Patrician is plotting to bring down lord Vetinari and replace him with one of their own yes-men. Putting a muzzle on the idealist young William is very high on their agenda. After the two return to the office, William learns of Lord Vetinari's reinstatement, and asks Sacharissa out. Afterwords, Mr. Tulip, reincarnated as a woodworm, comments on the "-ing good wood." One of the themes explored in this book is the role of media in society. The toughest criticism of this is offered by Vetinari at the end of the book: "How come there is always the same amount of news?"For example, the dwarfs found out how to turn lead into gold by doing it the hard way. The difference between that and the easy way is that the hard way works.” Goodmountain says, "...Never use spades, Farmers use spades. But I call a shovel a shovel." a reference to the old adage in regard to being plain spoken - calling a spade a spade.