Audible Book Review - Dodger by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett leads the pack of my list of favorite authors. I generally buy at least three of his books a year, but have read almost all of his novels one way or another. Dodger is the third one I've listened to and as with the others I enjoyed Stephen Briggs' performance. Pratchett was a way of weaving a story so it is both entertaining and insightful. This novel is a stand-alone story set in our world (not the Discworld) and is done as an slightly tweaked historical fiction. Mostly adventure, part mystery, and a good part social commentary, Pratchett takes period figures and spins a story around them that makes you want to become a Dodger yourself. Here is the link to the audible page for the book.

Plot: Dodger is a tosher, a person who spends his days crawling through the sewers of Victorian London picking up coins and valuables that find their way off the street. He is also a geezer, someone that everybody knows and that knows everybody. He is a boy of 17, but is a man of the street and knows his way around by the very smell of the sewer. So what happens when he watches a young women leap from a moving carriage and try to fight off two men who try to get her back into it? Leaping to her rescue leads Dodger right into the way of "Charlie" Dickens, a writer for the Chronicle, and Henry Mayhew, a social researcher. It turns out that the young lady's is the hinge pin of international events and if she is not returned to her abusive husband, the country may face war. Dodger is bound and determined to see that Simplicity, the alias given the young women, will not be danger from others. He soon finds himself in the presence of Sweeny Todd, Benjamin Disraeli, Angela Burdett-Coutts, and Sir Robert Peel. Dodger is clearly out of his element with all of the knobby folk around him, but rises to the occasion and when those in power cannot keep Simplicity safe, Dodger shows them how they do it on the street.

My personal favorites: Dodger is a capable young man who seldom questions if he can do something, just how to do it. This make him a hero automatically. He is authentic and likable. His interactions with Charlie are particularly fun as Pratchett plays them up as possible sources for some of Dickens' book ideas and titles. There are really no fools or incompetence in this book which makes Dodger's victories all the more sweet. Like the vast majority of Pratchett's other books, Dodger has moments of insight into the human condition and points out things that should be thought about. Soloman Cohen, Dodger's mentor, is particular in this yet while he is preachy, he doesn't come across as such. It was fun to guess who were the characters Pratchett pulled from history and which were his own invention and I was surprised by many of them.

Considerations: I did not find anything offensive in this book, but I will mention some things that may be of interest. Pratchett uses some terms at the beginning of the book that he does not define until a little way in. Tosher and geezer being two of them. This can make it a little odd to read, but at the same time it is done in a way that the usage and definition don't usually pull a reader out of the story. Also, the money system at the time was very convoluted as it is not based on a decimal system. This can cause some confusion as to the price of things, but as it becomes clear what is worth more than / less than what fairly early this obstacle can be overcome easily. Pratchett has a note of both of this point at the back of the story. The book also describes, in some (but not graphic detail) the sense of living in Victorian London and how unpleasant, nasty, and poor it was. The total length of the book was 10 and a half hours.