Totuuden torvi (2000)

The joy of reading a Discworld book is how Terry Pratchett can take something you take for granted and let you see it anew, in this case, the London Press comes to Ankh-Morpork. It is a story told with much humour, wordplay and genuine warmth (I was going to say humanism, but that’s not really appropriate when there are dwarves, trolls, vampires and dogs).
The joy of rereading a Discworld book is that, in the later books, you still marvel at the fecundity of ideas thrown out in passing and how the recurring characters (the Watch, Vetinari and Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler in this book) successfully interact in the new story so that their involvement builds satisfyingly into the larger history of the Discworld.
I read this about twenty years ago and it remains a wonderfully enjoyable rereading experience. ( )

Perfect length for an 8 hour flight from London to Toronto.
An excellent bit of Pratchett, top characters, engaging plot, frequently hilarious and deeply humanistic and insightful.
( )

This is my third visit to Discworld, Terry Pratchett's charming creation, and I must say I enjoyed it very much. We meet William de Worde, a Lord who is rejecting his Lordship, and earns money writing a newsletter to the upper set of people about goings on. One day a rumor reaches his ears about Dwarfs turning lead into gold and goes to investigate. Instead he find a printing press. Soon he has a staff in the form of Sacharissa Crisplock, fellow reporter, a vampire engraver named Otto and a newspaper called the Ankh-Morpork Times. He also has a mystery and a story. A fun look at the 4th Estate! ( )

An aristocrat invents the newspaper in the midst of an attempted political coup.

2.5/4 (Okay).

The humor is good, and there are some fun secondary characters, so it goes by quickly and pleasantly. But the protagonist is awful (his defining trait is arrogance), and there are some serious story problems (I guess it's technically a mystery, but for most of the book no one actively tries to solve it, and the reader knows the solution from the beginning anyway). ( )

The history of newspapers condensed into about 3 months or so, plus a mystery, and a romance.
Pratchett's barbs are directed mainly toward uncritical acceptance of whatever is printed in a paper, no matter how nonsensical, and why that's a bad idea.
He seems even more than usually disdainful of the lower-middle-class, but balances that with his usual disdain for the upper-class pseudo-elites.
Vetinari, of course, is exempt from all calssifications.
The Watch is peripheral. ( )