Pratchett generally writes two sorts of books: Discworld novels and young
adult novels. The Discworld novels are always written to be accessible
to Americans; the young adult novels are intended for young adults in the
UK, and make much or use of UK slang and terminology. They generally
aren’t as satirical, either, and they generally aren’t available in the
United States.

This present novel is an exception to the rule–it’s both a Discworld
novel (though it’s not marketed as one) and a young adult novel. I
nabbed it joyfully at a bookstore in Australia, and read it with glee.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is a sterling
example of the Small Story. It takes place on the Discworld, but doesn’t
depend on any prior knowledge of the Disc; in fact, the only standard
Discworld character to make an appearance is Death (no surprises there).

Maurice is an intelligent talking cat; his Educated Rodents are
intelligent talking rats. Apparently the animals ate something that agreed
with them from the trash heap of Unseen University, the Disc’s premier
college of wizardry. Once blessed with intelligence, Maurice found a
stupid-looking kid playing the pennywhistle, and then enlisted the rats
into a continuing Pied Piper scam–the kid, the cat, and the rats move
into a town, the rats raise a ruckus, and (for a sizeable fee) the kid
pipes them out of town.

The rats are starting to grumble that maybe this is unethical (being
intelligent is giving them ideas) when the troupe arrives in the
Uberwald village of Bad Blintz–a village on the verge of starvation due
to a plague of rats, except that Maurice and his Educated Rodents can’t
find any rats there but themselves. What goes on?

This is a small book, shorter than the usual Discworld novel, but it was
a lot of fun.