Rating: 
Summary: A fine story to savor
Review: Those who are familiar with Terry Pratchett are bound to give this a high-rating; familiar characters in a new light, a whole new thread along which you can navigate Ankh-Morpork, great, inventive plot ... For those of you thinking of trying out what appears to be a five-star rated book, why not try out The Fifth Elephant (more action, basically the same characters), or Hogfather (way more jokes, simpler plot) and come back to this one later? You will benefit by reading some of the other Discworld books first to develop a sense of why some of the characters in Pratchett's books do what they do. I agree with the review that commented on Pratchett's occasional heavy hand with a moral (freedom of press good, aristocratic scheming, bad) fortunately that never occupies too much time or space. The non-stop pun-ishment of the earlier Discworld books has given way to a more precision-crafted and finely tuned type of humor - one that only gets better if you get started from an earlier point.
Rating: 
Summary: A New Subseries and a Return To The Classic Formula...
Review: I think that perhaps no modern fantasy writer is as likely to have a graduate seminar in the humanities taught about his works in a hundred years than is Terry Pratchett. Pratchett is the only modern fantasy writer I can think of that successfully mixes parody, social commentary, allegory and themes of the humanities into stories that you have to read on multiple levels to fully appreciate. Thankfully, he continues this with "The Truth". For the first time since "Men at Arms" - or "Soul Music", depending on the chronology you use for the series - we are given an invention of the modern world and shown how the semi-medieval city of Ankh-Morpork copes with it. In this case, it's the printing press. Pratchett is back in full form after a couple of worrying books and in this one he does a good job of mixing the methods that made his Ankh-Morpork City Watch subseries so wonderful with the allegory of books like "Moving Pictures" and "Soul Music" while being far lighter and somewhat more subtle than he has been in the past. "The Truth" also introduces a new subseries to the Discworld that hopefully we will see a lot more of. The staff of the newspaper works wonderfully together in this book and I hope we see as much plot development from them in future books as we've seen from the subseries that focus on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch or the Witches of Lancre. All in all, I thought this book was a return to the glory days of Pratchett that I remember reading from "Witches Abroad" to "Interesting Times". If you're a serious Terry Pratchett fan you've probably picked it up already, but in case you haven't - do so. If you're a new fan of his and looking to find a place to get into his works, there are worse books than this to start with.
Rating:
Summary: What's up with the dates?
Review: I can see why some people might think this one was a little weak, but I liked it just fine. I don't think I laughed out loud quite as many times as I have with some of the other books, but that was okay too. It was a good story and the charcters were nicely done. It was interesting to see Vimes from another point of view. Two thing really puzzled me: since when has Foul Ole Ron's "thinking brain dog" been Gaspode? We've met Ron and his dog before, and we've certainly met Gaspode before, and I have a hard time with suddenly being asked to combine the two. I personally think Pratchett just didn't want to deal with two talking dogs in Ankh-Morpork. Also: I noticed three different places in the book where we were given number dates (such as Lord Vetinari graduating from the Assassin's Guild in 1968). Dates before have always been given as "the year of the recumbent radish" or "the year of the myopic wombat" or something like that (well, okay, maybe I made that last one up...) Seems like somebody slipped up on this one!
Rating:
Summary: A superb book
Review: "The Truth" is up there with Pratchett's best. I don't know if it is because I enjoy the Guards series most or because Pratchett did something special for the 25th Discworld novel (can you believe it?!) but this book just rocked ... (it was a book with rocks in, even). "The Truth" is another social semi-satire, like "Moving Pictures" or "Soul Music" but one which does not set out to preach a social message as much as just create plain good fun. All of the favorite Ankh-Morpork characters are in there but there are some great new ones, particularly Otto von Chriek, a reformed vampire hired as an iconographer for the Discworld's first newspaper, the book's namesake. Once you recall Pratchett's favoured method of creating flash photography and the effect this may have on said vampire, (not to mention the general nature of vampires) you should start to glimpse the boundless humorous possibilities. As always, Pratchett's knowledge of the human psyche (headology) is superb and his characters are a joy to watch (er, read?). The dialogue and behaviour of the Patrician, in particular, is a study in mastery of human psychology and behaviour. Many of this book's passages made me laugh out loud, (as always, embarrassing on an aeroplane), and this is always a good yardstick -- I laughed more than I could remember than for any other book in the last 2 or 3 years. If you are a Discworld reader, grab this book and dive in. If not, read a few of the Guards series and those with a similar theme ("Guards, Guards", "Moving Pictures", "Soul Music" should do it) in order to best appreciate this one.
Rating:
Summary: Pratchett is back on top
Review: The last few discworld novels have slipped somewhat. Of course, bad Pratchett is still pretty good, and I have never read a discworld novel without enjoying the experience, but lately I've had the feeling that he was relying too much on the same old characters and was running thin on ideas. I'm happy to say that this book proves he's far from out of ideas. It's nice to see that 25 books into the series he can still produce a story and a set of characters that easily put this book among the very best of the line. Though it's not necessary, it might not be bad to read at least one of the books with Vimes and the City Watch before reading this book. Vimes is only a secondary character in this book, but knowing his history and the history of the City Watch helps a little with this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth According to de Worde
Review: This review is aimed at the handful of people in the English-speaking world who, like me, have had no prior acquaintance with Terry Pratchett and his Discworld novels. The millions of Discophiles who want to know how "The Truth" compares to the twenty-four previous books in the series are advised to consult the reviews of others. The blurb-writers compare Pratchett to Carroll, Tolkien, Baum, Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. Everyone seems to agree that he is a satirist. Judged only on "The Truth" he is a rather mild-mannered one -- fearlessly exposing the excesses of the media and making the case for ethnic toleration (vampires are people too). Pratchett is most obviously a zany and original humorist. "The Truth" is a very funny book in its own right -- regardless of its literary antecedents. Ankh-Morpork, locus of "The Truth" is a pre-industrial city on Discworld ruled by Lord Vetinari and dominated by hereditary nobles and guilds. There is a plot afoot to replace Vetinari because he has been too tolerant toward the trolls, werewolves, vampires, and,especially, the dwarves who are migrating to Ankh-Morpork to seek their fortunes. Golems run the fire brigade and a closet werewolf is a sergeant of the Watch. The central character is William deWorde, a disaffected member of the nobility, who has been eking out a meager living selling hand-engraved tablets of gossip to a few wealthy clients. He falls in with some dwarves who have just set up the first printing press in the city and The Ankh-Morpork Times is born ("The news shall make you fret"). The guild of engravers get their own press and begin publishing a sensationalist tabloid ("Woman Gives Birth to Cobra"). Two hit-men imported for the Vetinari plot are ordered by a zombie lawyer to put the Times and its editor out of business permanently. The book teems with interesting off-center chracters like Otto, the vampire photographer deWorde soon hires. Otto speaks with a Lugosi accent and is in a twelve-step program for vanpires. He is also an inventor. He uses an imp-powered "iconograph" with slamanders for flashbulbs. Unfortunately he is turned to dust by the flash and must be reconstituted with a drop of blood after each shot. DeWorde exposes the plot against Lord Vetinari with the help of "Deep Bone", a talking dog named Gaspode. Death puts in an appearance and proves that he, too, has a sense of humor. Underneath the humorist, Pratchett proves to be a moralist. Death explains atonement. DeWorde defends journalistic values and freedom of the press, while confronting his own prejudices towards his co-workers. Pratchett's hand is heavier when he gets serious, but fortunately, that never lasts for long.
Rating:
Summary: I laughed out loud many times!
Review: I have read all 25 in the series, never patient enough to wait for the paperback...and sometimes I wished that I had. This is not one of those times. There's usually more than one level from the books in this series, and this is no exception. I don't live for these books, but I thoroughly enjoy them and reread them. I read this while on vacation, in small bits so as not to finish it too quickly, and my laughter on the beach and on the plane would make my wife smile and shake her head. If you like comedy, satire, and fantasy you will like this book. If you are a first time reader, you will probably love this book. I agree with some other reviewers WRT character, etc. However, I am writing this for the first or second time reader of this series, since I guess that anyone who has read more than a couple already likes his style and will read the book regardless of what I write.
Rating:
Summary: Discworld is 25 books and still going strong
Review: If you are new to Discworld novels this one is a good one to start with - although Jingo or Feet of Clay might be slightly better. If you like intelligent, funny authors start reading Discworld books right now! As with all the books Terry manages to weave more subplots than you can shake a stick at into a glorious finale and at the same time every book has a point or a message. Probably the funniest and most well written author of his era. In The Truth the Dwarfs invent printing presses and William De Worde turns his newsletter into a newspaper with interesting results for the whole city. Meanwhile the Patrician was found trying to flee with a large amount of gold and two unsavoury characters seem to have something to do with it. Some of Terry's best 'laugh out loud' moments can be found in this novel; Mr Tulip's repeated use of '-ing' is funny enough to rival Deaths speaking in capitals.
Rating: 
Summary: And Nothing But The Truth
Review: The Truth is Terry Pratchet's 25th Discworld Novel. A concentrated lab test for familiar practices and personalities, Pratchet has used the Discworld to illuminate and amuse loyal readers and amazed newcomers for some time. Unfortunately for the constant readers, this means some of the joy of the experience has palled. The Truth would have delighted me as a newcomer to Pratchet's work. It's witty, inventive and shrewd, but Pratchet has a difficult job describing the same characters for the 25th time. For the constant reader, it's like being married to someone who tells the same story every Christmas, but keeps changing the facts to suit the audience. No matter how good the performance, no matter how good the original story, we have a problem. The story involves Ankh Morpork's first newspaper and the ulcerated beginnings of its first editor and fleet of pressmen. The city's eminence gris, Vetinari, has been accused of various dirty deeds and deposed. Someone with a vested interest in politics is taking on Ankh Morpork's criminal underworld. There's daring-do, scheming and barrels full of monkeys (only not really), and b-totaling vampires. If you're a first-time reader, go for it. Of course, if you're a Pratchet fan, you'll already have a copy, but if you're only mildly interested, this is not a classic. Go back to Hogfather, Feet of Clay and Masquerade for Pratchet's acme. The Truth deals with a weighty subject, and a morally ambiguous career, but spends too much of its time trying to maintain the reader's interest and not enough developing characters or thinking. It only skims the surface of something that runs bone deep. The book also lacks the emotional depth of some of Pratchet's other work. Pratchet also resorts to a technique that will be annoyingly familiar to Michael Crichton readers -- artificial suspense. The opening chapter is very deliberately veiled in mystery and it detracts from the action (kind of ooh, look something exciting's going to happen now, but I won't actually tell you what it is until you get to chapter three) It's like watching someone trying to convince a 14 year old there is a Father Christmas. All said I wouldn't have missed it, just out of interest, but there's something missing here -- real mystery and wonder, a sense of dream and emotional depth.
Rating:
Summary: First Discworld and Probably the Only One
Review: Creating a newspaper in a world that previously hadn't had one was a real eye-opener. It certainly put a new spin on how news is done, how pervasive it is, and explains why "if it's written down it must be the truth" is such a truism in our society. The various subplots were interesting enough to keep me reading but the main story of W. De Worde was the most entertaining. I wasn't to keen on the bad guys, they weren't very believable, nor were their deaths. If this is typical of his work I doubt very much that I'd read another.
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