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Carpe Jugulum

Carpe Jugulum

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Completely entertaining adventure
Review: King Verence of Lancre is a very modern king who doesn't believe in old prejudices. Since the Uberwald is a near neighbor, it only seems natural to invite a family of vampires to his baby's christening. The vampires are very modern as well. But their modern ideas involve moving out of their old castle and into the much more modern one of King Verence--and of taking over his kingdom. Since they've trained themselves not to mind little things like garlic, religious symbols, or holy water, they might just be a little hard to dislodge--especially since they can control the minds of anyone who comes near them. Unfortunately for Lancre, all the kingdom has to defend it are four witches and a dubious priest of Om.


Author Terry Pratchett delivers a fun-filled adventure. Agnes and the hapless Oats are nicely developed characters with enough complexities to keep a psychologist busy for years. Agnes, the maiden of the witch triad (I know I said four, but it gets complicated) has conflicted feelings toward the handsome vampire Vlad, but then, she's conflicted enough internally so she hardly notices. Pratchett fans will be delighted to see that the faith of Om has made a comeback and that the prophet Brutha really did transform that religion.

Pratchett's Discworld series is filled with stories that take our familiar fairy tales and turn them around. CARPE JUGULUM (seize the throat) retells the story of Dracula, but with a somewhat overweight witch as the love interest, vampires interested in becoming completely modern, and village mobs who can be counted on to riot on command. As always with Pratchett, CARPE JUGULUM delivers plenty of smiles and a few out-loud laughs.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Carpe Jugulum
Review: BUY IT! BUY IT! IF YOU NEED A WITCH FIX THIS IS THE BOOK.GRANNY WEATHERWAX WILL REALLY SURPRISE YOU IN THIS ONE. ALL I CAN SAY IS PLEASE, PLEASE, MR.PATCHETT. WE NEED MORE TALES ABOUT THE WITCHES!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Book of the Witches
Review: This is the 23rd of Pratchett's Discworld series. And thank goodness that with this book Pratchett's hit his stride again. The previous two books in the series ("Jingo" and "The Last Continent") weren't that good. But, this one's excellent. In it, Pratchett's managed to re-"star" Magrat as a member of a separate, overlapping threesome of witches all while keeping her as a queen. He also does some good development of Agnes Nitt and has provided a clever way of, possibly, tempering or hardening her a bit. The book's not as funny as others (the storyline is quite dark), but Shakespeare would have labelled this a Comedy. Excellent book.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not his Best
Review: Terry is probably the funniest author alive but this work is not
his triumphs.

Quite frankly it often came over more like Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
than vintage Pratchett. In the first half of the book I could
not tell any difference between what was written and a standard
fantasy. By the time the comedy overcame the tripe this book
was ruined for me. What a shame.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Start at the beginning
Review: I picked this up in a European airport, thinking it was going to be a quick silly read, like Tom Sharpe. It's nothing like, but I wasn't disappointed. My only caveat: start earlier in the Discworld series - starting here made for a confusing beginning and the uncomfortable sense that I was missing stuff.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: One of the weaker Discworld books
Review: The villains are a family of vampires, who move in and take over Lancre and its royal family, while Granny Weatherwax and the other witches try to stop them (and eventually succeed, of course). As my wife says, it just seems like a rehash of Lords and Ladies.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: wow
Review: This has got to be my favorite prachet book so far. Im so glad i finally read it!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Deja Vu
Review: This is just one of umpteen reviews, so I'll skip the summary. In fact, the only reason I'm reviewing this AT ALL is that I bought the book through Amazon, so every time I write a review of something else, they remind me I still haven't reviewed this one.

But, after having it for months, I've finally started to read it. Wow, I'm glad that I did!

Let's be honest. The plot is really secondary to the characters. And that is where PTerry shines. He gives us characters with motivations and passions, likes and fears, and he lets the humor flow from that, rather than forcing a plot point to make the humor come out. PTerry's humor is never forced.

However, as many have pointed out, this plot is a re-hasing of Lords and Ladies. Without a doubt, Lords and Ladies is my favorite. So when this plot also takes place in Lancre with an outside force of supernatural beings assaulting the kingdom, it felt like I was coming back to a well-eorn fable. I knew the plot, and I could concentrate on reading about the characters.

And we learn so much about the characters this time. Nanny Ogg and Agnes get some great treatment this time around (which they lacked in previous books), and even Granny Weatherwax gets some new twists. The characters are delicious.

Why a four star rating instead of a five, then? Because PTerry wasn't as inventive this time. In Lords and Ladies, we see Elves in a different way. Cliches are broken, mangled, played with, and twisted. But the Vampires (vampyrs, as they prefer) are somewhat mundane. One of them is even named Vlad, for Pete's sake! PTerry certainly did give us a new take on some of the traits of the Vampires, but they didn't get the much-needed overhaul that the Elves got previously.

Otherwise, an entertaining, highly-readable, highly-quotable book (as Discworld books tend to be). But it's still the younger, less successful brother compared to Lords and Ladies.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Witches and Vampires and Pictsies! Oh My!
Review: I love Terry Pratchet's Discworld novels, and I'm partial to the novels featuring the witches. This novel, however, is by far my favorite. Not only to you have Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Agnes Nit, you get a pack of vampires and an army of pixies -- I mean, Pictsies.

Although the Pictsies are amusing, what really makes this novel is the family of vampires who want to lead a normal life. Particularly amusing is the Count's teenage daughter, Lacci (short for Lacrimosa), who does the most un-vampiric things, like staying up until noon, wearing brightly-colored clothes, and asking her friends to call her Gertrude.

You can never go wrong with a Discworld novel, and this one in particular is amazingly funny!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pretty damn good.
Review: Okay, okay, okay. I have just looked at everyone else's review and I totally disagree. I don't know why they didn't like this book. It was the first Discworld novel I had read and I really think this is one of my all-time favorites. It ranks up there with "Split Heirs" (which, by the way, anyone in their right mind will like). I know I haven't read many Discworld novels, but I think it's an original story and extremely hilarious. Maybe this review will be helpful to people who haven't read many of Pratchett's books, like me...or to people who HAVE read quite a few of his books, but aren't too judgmental or critical. I thought it was an enjoyable read for a relaxing evening. If you're still skeptical, then do what I do instead of spending sooooooo much money for book. GO TO THE LIBRARY! Yup. Just try it out--or should I say check it out (ha ha...no pun intended). Have a good read, people!


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