Dodger is a non-Discworld novel of the late Sir Terry Pratchett, set in Victorian London, following the adventures of a “tosher”, AKA someone who looks for valuables in the sewers. A few “known faces” appear in the book such as Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, Sweeney Todd, Robert Peel, etc.
But, I gifted this book to my wife a few years back, and it took me a long, long time to actually read it. I loved Pratchett, I literally learned English on his books but getting through this was a bit of a slog.
There’s some funny bits, but it’s not nearly as brilliant as your average Discworld novel. It’s also very lengthy for no obvious reason, there are just a lot of things that happen which do not seem to add anything to the story.
I enjoyed the depiction of old London, learned a few things (did you ever imagine the Romans had a Goddess of sewers? Just the kind of trivia Terry would put in a book), but still not enough to cover for the rest.
Perhaps this was just the author trying something new. Perhaps it was his disease advancing. Perhaps it’s just me being angry at him for getting an incurable degenerative disease and dying. People should be more sensible than that.
The end result is I didn’t like this book., but it’s not bad, so consider giving it a try if you’re a Pratchett completionist, or perhaps a Dickens one.
Vote: 6/10, meh.
