The press comes to Ankh-Morpork. Chaos, of course, ensues.
William de Worde, a ne’er do well noble who is ashamed of his noble heritage, has until now made his living by painstakingly collecting news and sending off a sort of newsletter to foreign peoples of import who are willing to pay him for it. Then some dwarfs roll into Ankh-Morpork with something called a printing press, and suddenly, what if they printed a bunch of them and sold them for like, fifty cents? And maybe hired some people to sell them? And maybe pay some people to tell them things that are going on in town? Like bake sales and fires and robberies and whatnot.
So before long William is the owner of a successful business that employs several dwarfs, a teetotaling vampire, a troll, and a handful of vagabonds. He also has a bunch of money, and a bunch of trouble on his hands.
This is a great satire on the business of news. Lots of fun stuff about what makes news, what people will believe, the responsibility of people who run newspapers, etc. Plus it’s funny as hell. Running through this is a little conspiracy to discredit and replace Lord Vetinari, and I got such a kick out of the bad guys. They’re hard to explain though, so I’m not going to try.
I was in the perfect mood for this. I wanted something silly with a little kick, and that’s what I got here.
Like, I can’t even be mad. I love this book. I named my first car Mr. Tulip. The very concept of a vampire photographer who collapses into ash if the flash is too bright still makes me giggle. So onward with the ever-expanding list of books, sail right on up that leaderboard!
I laughed pretty hard every time that happened. And then they had to bring him meats and things to suck on!