The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 3,651 ratings

Price: 19.68

Last update: 08-13-2024


Top reviews from the United States

Lee
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute banger
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2023
This book is a quick read but jam-packed with so much witty fun and folklore being referenced. It has big concepts to chew on and have small epiphanies.
Rebecca L. Brothers
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly unexpected!
Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2012
Terry Prachett, I heart you and your takes on famous tales. This one in the Discworld series is a real stand-aloner. Prachett takes on the "Tale of the Pied Piper" with the aplomb you'd expect, but he tackles this with a grace I found surprisingly appetizing. You don't need to read a single other Discworld novel to enjoy this one, though it does appear to take place in the same mulit-verse as his other works.

This is a very grown-up story, though it was awarded the Carnegie Award for Children's Literature in 2001. This award is a British medal not at all equivalent to our Caldecott; its other winners include Neil Gamon, so you know they love a ^$&@)-up story with gruesome grown-up bits to it. The Amazing Maurice....has just that: %$@&)-up bits that are VERY grown up. In this version of the famous tale, the rats have eaten from the Wizards' trash heap. Because they've ingested magical substances, they've become intelligent (a la Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM and Flowers for Algernon). And as they became intelligent on a trash heap, they learned to read there. So they took amusing names from food labels like "Hamnpork" and "Peaches" and "Dangerous Beans". Then enters the Maurice of the title, a common stupid alley cat who eats one of the rats (BEFORE the cat became intelligent), thereby ingesting the magical substances second hand and then becoming enchanted, too. (He always asks his food if it can talk before he eats it thereafter).

What results is an amalgam of Puss In Boots and other tales, but only as Prachett could imagine them. Maurice is still very much a cat, so he's cruel and shiftless and selfish by nature. The rats are developing a sense of morality he doesn't seem capable of grasping. And the most cruel of all creatures, man, is revealed to be the least intelligent of all. This just makes me love Prachett even more, if that's possible.
C. Stevens
4.0 out of 5 stars very good
Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2023
I really liked both the book and the movie. It’s quite funny, but a good adventure at the same time, interesting characters and some social commentary on the side. A very good read.
Joy L. Getha
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun book for all ages
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2014
This book is set in Discworld, but the only major Discworld characters who make an appearance are Death and the Death of Rats. So, if someone has not read any of the Discworld series, they could still enjoy this book immensely.
It's a fantasy about some rats and a cat who become intelligent enough to talk following consuming some garbage from Unseen University. They travel around with a boy who plays a pipe, bringing a "plague of rats" from town to town, then getting rid of said plague for a low, low price. The rats become uneasy about the fraudulent nature of their business, and the cat (who acts as manager) promises that the next town will be the last. What they find in the next town is different from anything in their experience, and requires all their intelligence to survive.
This would be a good read for anyone 10 and up. Perhaps a really savvy 8-year-old could deal with it if he/she has an intelligent cat to explain the difficult bits.
Dawn Killen-Courtney
5.0 out of 5 stars The Long and Winding Road to Bad Blintz, A Journey Worth Taking!
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2015
Amazing, funny, fun, insightful -- all the things I quickly have found make a Terry Pratchett book. I still have yet to read any of his books aimed at adults, but feel instinctively that nothing's missing here! In fact, I still have yet to read this book, as while looking at it here on Amazon, I clicked the sample "Listen" tab on the audio CD and was and am hooked. Cheers for Stephen Briggs' one-man ensemble cast! When I do read this book, which I can't wait to do, it will be his voices I hear in my head for each and every distinct character. This is my first ever audio CD purchase, but I certainly chose well, and am looking forward to sharing with my cousin on a visit this fall. We grew up on "The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show", with "Fractured Fairy Tales", which this reminds me of, with of course a mix of Monty Python thrown in for good measure!
cori67
5.0 out of 5 stars Die hard Pratchett fan
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2012
I discovered Pratchett when I was in high school in the 1980s and have been a Pratchett evangelist ever since. I now have my kids hooked on Pratchett and have read every Practhett novel at least 3 times. "The Amazing Maurice" is one of my perennial favourites.

Think Pied Piper on steroids and you have the faintest gleamings of 'The Amazing Maurice'. Pratchett is the master satirist. He uses the story to deliver a message, and even some history. The rats history closely parallels human history; and the problems they face are the same as what we face. Pratchett is brilliant - I honestly don't think there is a living writer who can touch him. In the midst of humour he throws in deep philosophical arguments and statements.
Here is one of my favourite lines from this novel: 'If you don't turn your life into a story, you just become a part of someone else's story.'
'And what if your story doesn't work?'
'You keep changing it until you find one that does.'

The cherry on the top for me is the name of the rats- Additives, Big Savings, Sardines, and Hamnpork, all taken from the items around them when they learnt to read!

Pick this book up, claim it is for the kids, but keep it for yourself.
Randle Brashear
5.0 out of 5 stars I loved Gaspode the talking dog and now we have Maurice!
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2013
I've reviewed a few of Sir Terry's novels, all highly favorably so with the single exception of "Snuff," which I gave three stars. They've entertained, produced laughter ranging from snickering to LMAO belly laughs to giggles and they've even made me think and see some things in a new light.
This is the first Discworld novel that I love in an emotional sense. It produced a genuine feeling of empathy in me. For rats, even.
Pratchett really has fun with talking animals. Gaspode the dog was hilarious and Maurice the cat is quite the character. "The stupid looking kid" thing was funny too. Pratchett is brilliant at writing for that age group but there's no reason adults can't be equally entertained by these. For instance, I thought "A Hat Full of Sky" was an absolutely wonderful tale.
Please, please, Sir Terry, could you give us more of Gaspode and Maurice?

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