The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
By Terry Pratchett
Setting
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents takes place in Terry Pratchett's fictional world, Discworld. For those who don't know, Discworld is a giant disc that is balanced on the backs of four elephants who are standing on the back of a giant turtle that is flying through space. The story takes place in the city of Bad Blintz, located somewhere on the disc.
Summary
In the story, the main character is Maurice, an educated, talking cat. He is travelling with a kid named Keith and a colony of educated rats. Maurice, Keith, and the rats travel from city to city. the rats scour the city, openly showing themselves to the locals while pretending to be dumb rats. When the people get fed up with the rats, they call for a rat piper. Keith, a regular piper, pretends to be a rat piper, who is paid to pipe the rats out of town. Maurice organizes the whole con. Maurice, Keith, and the rats split the money. Maurice wants the money to set up a nice cat retirement. Keith just wants to play his pipe. The rats want the money to buy a boat and find an island where the rats can live in peace, away from the humans. The group is trying to con Bad Blintz when something suspicious begins. There are no other rats than the educated ones, the rat catchers are sketchy characters, and there is an abundance of poison and rat traps. Something is up in the city, and Maurice, Keith, the rats, and a local girl, named Malicia, try to figure out what is going on in the city.
Characters
Maurice
Maurice is an educated, talking cat who is set on making his fortune. He has a questionable set of morals and has no problem conning people. His dream is to have a cushy life where he is fed well and gets pet a lot. He is a very practical, realistic person, which leads to conflict between him and Malicia. As time goes on, Maurice grows closer to the rats and to Keith, and learns to let go of his own wants in order to help those he cares about. He is a very interesting main character, being a person whose actions the reader wouldn't normally approve of.
Keith
Keith is an orphan who was raised by the Musician's Guild in Ankh-Morpork. He learned how to play the pipe there. For most of the novel, Keith is referred to as the stupid-looking kid, and for much of the novel, he acts that way. Keith's only want is to be able to play the pipe. Keith identifies himself more with the rats than with humans, and this is what leads him to realize that he must assert himself into te ongoing events rather than just playing his pipe.
Malicia
Malicia is the daughter of the Mayor of Bad Blintz. She has a very active imagination due to th amount of books that she reads. She believes that real life should be like a fantasy stories, and is always looking for secret trapped doors, fantasy-like back stories, and other common book plots. As the story goes on, she realizes that life is not just a big story and the ending is not always exactly like a storybook ending.
Dangerous Beans
Dangerous Beans is the intellectual leader of the Educated Rats. He is physically weak, small, and is an albino, but makes up for it with his brains. Dangeroous Beans sets down the moral code for the rats and organized their goal to find a human-free island for rats to live on. He is, though, fascinated by the ideas of the book called
Mr. Bunsy, in which humans and rats live in harmony, but he has little hope that this is possible in real life.
Peaches
Peaches is the first educated rat that Maurice met. She is the scribe for the educated rats, writing down the moral rules that Dangerous Beans thinks up and created an entire written rat language. She also carries around a copy of
Mr. Bunsy with her at all times. She and Dangerous Beans are the two most intellectual of the rats, and are the main promoters of the rat island idea.
Hamnpork
Hamnpork is the leader of the educated rats, and represents the older generation of rats. He appoves more of the old ways, before they were educated rats. He is the "back in my day" generation. He fears getting his power overthrown by a younger, more powerful rat. He, by the end of the book, also changes his ways, realizing the need for the new ways of life as well as the old.
Darktan
Darktan is the leader of the Trap Disposal Squad, whose purpose is to dismantle all of the rat and mouse traps before someone gets hurt. He is strong and is a viable replacement for Hanmpork as leader, but Darktan does not want to be leader. He enjoys his work as a Trap Disposer. He is practical, and at the beginning of the book, finds little use for intellectual thinkers like Dangerous Beans and Peaches. By the end of the book, though, Darktan realizes that everyone has there purpose. He realizes that the intellectuals are important for the future of the rats and that it is his destiny to become leader someday.
Nourishing
Nourishing is not much of a main character, but is a very interesting character nonetheless. She is a young, scared rat that has not yet found her place in the colony. She is usually found helping out Darktan with whatever he is doing. Over the course of the novel, Nourishing overcomes her fear and becomes a strong, brave rat herself.
Sardines
Sardines is an educated rat he grew up around a theatre. He wears a hat and has a cane and he dances. He is one of the most outgoing rats when it comes to getting the local people's attention. He has been known to swim, dance, and steal dentures out of people's mouthes. He is not exactly a main character, but he is funny and is important in turning Darktan into the leader he was meant to be.
Conclusion
This book is one of the best I have ever read. It has so many main characters and so many that change over the course of the book. The book ends well and is unpredictable up throughout the book. It also has a perfect mix of humor and seriousness. 9.5 waffles out of 11.
