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    The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
    The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
    The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

    Written by Terry Pratchett

    Narrated by Stephen Briggs

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    “An astonishing novel. Were Terry Pratchett not demonstratively a master craftsman already, The Amazing Maurice might be considered his masterpiece.” —Neil Gaiman

    The Amazing Maurice runs the perfect Pied Piper scam. This streetwise alley cat knows the value of cold, hard cash and can talk his way into and out of anything. But when Maurice and his cohorts decide to con the town of Bad Blinitz, it will take more than fast talking to survive the danger that awaits.

    For this is a town where food is scarce and rats are hated, where cellars are lined with deadly traps, and where a terrifying evil lurks beneath the hunger-stricken streets....

    Set in bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett's beloved Discworld, this masterfully crafted, gripping read is both compelling and funny. When one of the world's most acclaimed fantasy writers turns a classic fairy tale on its head, no one will ever look at the Pied Piper—or rats—the same way again!

    This book’s feline hero was first mentioned in the Discworld novel Reaper Man and stars in the movie version of his adventure, The Amazing Maurice, featuring David Tenant, Emma Clarke, Hamish Patel, and Hugh Laurie. Fans of Maurice will relish the adventures of Tiffany Aching, staring with The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky!

    Carnegie Medal Winner * ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults * New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age * VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror * Book Sense Pick

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateNov 12, 2013
    ISBN9780062329523
    Author

    Terry Pratchett

    Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was the acclaimed creator of the globally revered Discworld series. In all, he authored more than fifty bestselling books, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.

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    Reviews for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

    4.5/5

    180 ratings70 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Somehow I had missed this book as I've done various rereads through the Discworld series; I didn't realize it was a Discworld book until recently. I don't really see how it's a young adult book in comparison to most of the rest of that series (I think there are three other YA books?); yes, it has talking animals, but it's a mature and deep book that can be cynical and dark at times. Since this is a Discworld book it has Pratchett's usual wit and humor about it, and the main character is a cat- what's not to like about that? (I want to add that Pratchett writes some very cat-like cats; definitely praise from a cat person!) Like a lot of the other books in the series, this is a sort of parody off another story, in this case the Pied Piper. The characters were all intriguing, especially the rats and the cat. The human characters were far less interesting, but that's mostly because the animals stole the show; the main human character was called "stupid-looking kid" for most of the book, if that gives you an idea of what I mean. (Speaking of stealing the show, my favorite character was Sardines, the tap dancing rat.)I enjoyed this book, but it was kind of dark for my taste; maybe I was expecting it to be a bit more cheerful and funny since it's a young adult book? Still, though, it was a good read, even if it's not one of my favorite Discworld books. I'm not sure whether to give it 3 1/2 or 4 stars- can I give it 3 3/4? No? In that case, I'll leave it at 3 1/2, but it might go up to four on a later reread- I've read the rest of the series at least three times each, so I'll give this book another chance later, too.
    • 3/5
      This is a book from the Discworld series, the first one is written for children. It's about sentience, ethics, and philosophical speculation. At least, for the rats it is, for the people it's about greed, stupidity and small town politics. It mixes elements of the Bromeliad Trilogy (Pratchett's children's series about four-inch-high nomes[sic]) and Moving Pictures in which animals gain unwanted human, speech, intelligence and self awareness.It contains no characters from mainstream Discworld, except for a cameo by Death, and could be read easily as a stand alone children's story. It does have lots of jokes about fairy stories and folk tales - its main narrative thrust is based on the Pied Piper of Hamelin. I imagine that most children would enjoy it (I did). I think that Pratchett does a good job of moving children from a simple linear narrative structure to a structure with multiple threads and some flashbacks, he signposts flashbacks well and eases the story along.The book contains lots of facts about rats that I wish I didn't now know.
    • 4/5
      Terry Pratchett is a god who walks among men. The entire Discworld series is a joy and only a strange mad creature cursed by gods and man would refuse to read and love these books!
    • 5/5
      I never read any of these young adult Discworld novels, because, well, they were YA, and they weren't "proper" Discworld novels, but recently I decided to give them a try anyway. This is the first of the YA discworld novels (though I don't think the other ones are connected?) and I'm honestly not sure why it wasn't put out as just part of the main series. Sure, it doesn't have any of the familiar characters (except a cameo by Death and the Death of Rats), but there have been other Discworld books with entirely new characters. The reading level didn't feel any different, either, so I don't know. Was it just because Malicia and Keith were children?Anyway! I'm glad I decided to give it a try as I really enjoyed it. I loved Maurice and the rats (especially Dangerous Beans) and Malicia. I have the rest either on my BookMooch wishlist or already on their way, so that will tide me over til the next Moist book comes out, whenever that may be.
    • 4/5
      Solidly ethical and suitable for children because of the high level of violence.
    • 5/5
      Great! Here's to Dark Tan, the Sam Vimes of rats!
    • 5/5
      Outstanding.
    • 5/5
      Maurice is a great character, exactly what a talking cat would be like. The story is an interesting spin on the story of the piper who plays the rats out of town that is set in Discworld. The story has the wit and humor that all of Terry Pratchett's books have. A really enjoyable read for kid and adult fans of Terry Pratchett. It also has a good moral about working together to solve problems, but really you could ignore that if you wanted . . .
    • 5/5
       The Amazing Maurice is a really fun twist on the tale of the Pied Piper- with a bit of the Secret of NIMH flair. The book is enjoyable and mostly lighthearted.
    • 5/5
      Maurice is the employer of the Clan, a group of educated rodents. He has gotten a kid amazingly good at pennywhistle, and set up the stage for a rat infestation. The rats swim in the cream and everything a plague of rats would do. Then, a couple days later, the kid comes with a cat. He says that he will get rid of the rats. And he does. For a fee, of course. But all of that changes when they come to Bad Blintz. There is already a rat plague! Although when the Clan comes to the rat tunnels, there ARE NO RATS. So why do the rat catchers hang up rat tails in the center of town every day?
    • 5/5
      Maurice, Hamnpork, Dangerous Beans and the rest - including the Boy - have a great scam going. The rats scare a few grannies, spoil a few pantry stores, dance across a few tables, and then Maurice and the Boy "play" the rat plague out of town. Sure, it involves lots of widdling, pantry raiding, and trap disposal, but they'd be doing that anyway, so what's the worry? But Maurice IS worried - not only have the rats decided to go straight, but this latest town is ODD. In typical Pratchett fashion the story is never exactly what it seems. It may be written for a younger audience, but this is still Disc World - where anything can happen, and usually does.
    • 5/5
      I have loved Terry Pratchett since I first learned he existed, back when I was in Scotland. I'm still reading just to try to catch up with all he has written!
    • 3/5
      Talking rats uncover a conspiracy.3/4 (Good)The characters are fun, and the sense of humor is good. The story is badly constructed and overstuffed.(Nov. 2021)
    • 5/5
      Maurice, Keith, and the rats have a good scheme going: the rats infest a town, Keith walks in, and the town pays him to play the pipes and charm the rats out. Since the Change, when Maurice and the rats learned to think, they've formed an uneasy alliance. But when they find a town where something isn't quite right, things have the potential to become very bad, very quickly. As the rats develop their own code of ethics, they also reveal quite varied personalities. Insightful and whimsical, The Amazing Maurice goes where few cats have gone before.
    • 5/5
      Loved it!! Maurice is now one of my favorite cat characters. Pratchett is so brilliant and so much fun to read--I wished the book wouldn't end!
    • 4/5
      A play on the fairy tale, The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
    • 4/5
      Everyone knows the stories of the rat plagues and the pipers leading them out of town. Few know that, although it seems as though the piper's the brains of the scheme, in one very specific example, it is the cat that travels with him. But what happens to this pleasant little 'nobody gets hurt' scam when Maurice [the cat] and his band of traveling rats happen upon a tiny little town with secrets, trapped in the middle of a terrible rat-induced famine? Will their scheme work, or will they be dragged into the mysterious goings-on beneath the surface of Bad Blintz? I saw this book at Barnes and Noble and had to buy it. It's actually the first Pratchett book since The Last Hero that I got for myself--which is mainly because my roommate owns pretty much the entire Discworld series. Very nice. But I saw this one listed on a website somewhere, then stumbled upon the plot summary somewhere else and was enchanted by his augmented telling of what should be a simple folk story. Shocking, I know. So, paperback, seven bucks, deep-seated-impulse-to-buy-books, and bam. Purchased. Then, only a day or two later, I started reading it. Saturday evening I was in a small car accident [battered vehicles, no human injuries] and thus yesterday, it served as my complete escape from my current world. Very, very nice. But that has little to nothing to do with the book itself. This story is one of Pratchett's YA books. It is the earliest, I believe, to be aimed specifically at the age group, coming before Wee Free Men, which I read last year. But just because he targeted outside his usual audience is no reason to assume that he dumbed it down. More or less, he merely removed his sketchier jokes/references. Then again, with the main characters being rats, a cat and two children, there's not a lot of room for him. My mind is running seven directions from diagonalwise, so please forgive the fragmented nature of this train of thought. One last thing--this book has been highly praised. It won a Carnegie Award. It's cover has an awesome review from Neil Gaiman. I will assure you that it does indeed deserve the fanfare...but it starts out a little slow. Once you get into town and get rolling, everything explodes, largely into awesome...though you might have a strange impulse to slap the little girl every once in a while.
    • 4/5
      This is Pratchett's suitably offbeat-yet-thought-provoking spin on the tale of the Pied Piper, and yes the rats are the stars. In true Discworld tradition, these rats aren't just normal rats, they're magical rats. Or more accurately, rats that have spent too long poking round the Wizards' rubbish dump at the back of the Unseen University and have now found themselves "uplifted" - able to speak and read and think in a far more advanced manner than was previously the case. Pratchett uses this novel to explore - among other things - the notion that the reason humans stereotypically hate rats so much is because rats are just so much like ourselves, and he also explores and satirises the fairy tale / folk tale genre as a whole. So although this is ostensibly a kid's book there are some really deep and important messages bubbling away under the surface. It's a great story, as funny as you'd expect from Pratchett but with some very moving scenes too. Speaking as a rat lover and owner of seven fancy rats I can say I was impressed: Pratchett had done his homework and although, of course, real rats don't talk and read and name themselves after words on tins, the way these rats behaved - particularly in their struggles between their rational "uplifted" thoughts and baser "natural" instincts - did feel very convincingly rat-like.
    • 5/5
      Until I saw a preview for Hogfather, I had no idea who Terry Pratchett was. I immediately got on LT to find out more about him. Imagine my pleasant surprise to find he has more than twenty books in his Discworld series.I decided to start off with a book I had placed in my wishlist awhile back at someone suggestion, MahER.Loved it. I'm a sucker for twists-on classics, and Pratchett does a great job here, giving us a new look at "The Pied Piper." Maurice, the suddenly talking cat, leads his kid and thinking rodents from town to town, making money off their fears. The rats talk Maurice into making Bad Blitz their last con. Will Bad Blintz con them?I suggest this to any other Pratchett newbies. There is little connection to Discworld, and you can jump in from there.
    • 5/5
      The Discworld series must be one of the most amazing worlds I have stepped into and, though it may sound strange, my formal entrance ticket was this book: it was the first Discworld book I finished reading, yet it's the one that doesn't look like one.It took me around 6 years to find a Brazilian copy and put this book in my personal library. It's been one of my favorite books since then and I have read it atleast 4 times."The Amazing Maurice & His Educated Rodents" (aka "O Fabuloso Maurício & Seus Ratos Letrados") is that kind of book that you want to carry along with you when you're in a travel... and Discworld is the kind of series you want to read when you're overstressed with the trials & tribulations of daily life!Terry Pratchett was an amazing writter and he will be greatly missed by both the literary world and its fans!
    • 4/5
      This is technically a children’s book but at only 270 pages, it makes a great quick adult read too. Obviously it is more simply written than Terry Pratchett’s adult novels but I found the writing style utterly captivating all the same and just as witty as everything else I’ve read from this author.

      As this is a fairytale retelling, being a parody of the story of ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’, this reads like a fairytale in many ways. The characters are almost caricatured with exaggerated personality traits and stereotypical mannerisms, but I think that in this kind of book, it completely works! Maurice is an interesting character, being a typically selfish cat with an air of mystery about him. The rats are also really fun to read about with their odd names; Nourishing, Dangerous Beans, Darktan, Hamnpork, Peaches, etc.) and their individual personalities.

      Despite this being a children’s novel, it explores philosophical ideas about life and the process of thought. What makes an intelligent being? Should a simple rat strive for an education? Of course, this is a story about talking rats so there is some level of surrealism, but I loved each and every character the author introduced me to and I really cared about what was going to happen to them.

      “The thing about stories is you have to pick the ones that last.”

      This book surprisingly has a subtle paranormal element and as it is part of the Discworld series, Death shows up at some point and I really liked this continuity from the previous Pratchett books I had read.

      I would thoroughly recommend this novel for anyone who already loves Terry Pratchett, or to anyone who wants to start the Discworld series and wants to start with a quick one. Definitely an interesting concept that was executed expertly by one of the great masters of the fantasy genre.
    • 5/5
      Like most of Terry Pratchett's work, this is absolutely brilliantly hilarious, and also turns out to be darker and deeper than one would originally expect.Incidentally, if you have pet rats, this is an excellent resource for names. Thus far I have had Peaches, Toxie, and Dangerous Beans.
    • 5/5
      The Amazing Maurice is about a cat and a colony of rats. These are no ordinary animals, they can think and talk just like humans. Maurice the cat is the leader of the educated rodents. They go from town to town with a stupid looking kid, Keith. The rats go around and caus a commotion in the town. The townspeople freak out and call for a rat piper. Keith acts as a rat piper and recieve pay for it. Keith leads the rats out of the town. Maurice is the organizor and leader of all of this. Maurice, the rats, and Keith come into a town where things aren't quite right. The rats find an abnormal number of traps and poison. They think that there would be some unintelligent rats scurrying around with all the traps and poison. The educated rodents can't find anyother rats. They look into this and find that the rat catchers have been capturing all the unintelligent rats. They capture the rats and put them into rat pits(where one dog fights many rats, the people watching bet on who's going to win, the dog or the rats). They also try to breed the biggest of rats to give the dogs a challenge. The rat catchers are also stealing the townspeople's food and blame it on the rats. The educated rotents, Maurice, Keith, and a new character, Malicia(she lives her as if it is a story) try to end the rat catchers lies and make right what they have been doing to rats. Through a series of exciting events they defeat the rat catchers. At the end Maurice and the educated rodents reveal that they are intelligent to the humans in the town. They make a propistion for the educated rodents and the humans to live together and peacefully. The humans accept and they all live happily ever after. This is a very goo book. I enjoyed it's action and adventure. Terry Pratchett(the author) also makes this book funny. I reccomend it to anybody out there who is intersted in the book.
    • 4/5
      The piped piper comes to a town in Uberwald, but finds that he’s late to the show that features cats, rats, and stupid-looking kids talking to one another. The twenty-eighth and first young adult entry of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents finds the residents—new and old, human and nonhuman—town of Bad Blintz figuring out the fine line between real life and a story. The aim to bring the same Pratchett humor that adults love to a younger audience is on target.A mixed troupe of “rat piper” con-artists arrive just outside the town of Bad Blintz lead by a streetwise tomcat, who a clan of talking rats and a stupid-looking kid named Keith on the streets of Ankh-Morpork. But everyone is getting fed up with just going around and doing the same old thing, the rats want to find a home to build their society and the kid would like to play more music. Maurice is just interest in money and hiding the guilty for how he gained the ability to speak, but he found more than he’s bargaining for in Bad Blintz because something weird is going on even his talkative rat associate find disturbing. Soon the troupe find out that they have stumbled into a long running conspiratorial plan hatched from a surprising source.As always, Pratchett connects his humor around a well-known fairy tale or story then completely turns it on its head when the same circumstances happen on Discworld even as the characters fight their own preconceptions when comparing “stories” to “real life”. The fact that he ably brought his unique style to a young adult market without losing any of the punch from the jokes makes this a very good book. Although some of the sections of the book were somewhat familiar to a long-time Pratchett reader does take a little away from the book, it doesn’t necessarily ruin the book for first time readers.Terry Pratchett’s first Discworld foray into the young adult genre is classic Pratchett through targeted at a younger audience. I found it as funny as the rest of his series, but some of the plot points were simpler than his usual work for obvious reasons. However this minor fact doesn’t ruin a very good book.
    • 5/5
      Re-re-reread Sep. 2015 Fourth time, I think. Yeah, it's that good.

      Okay, 'good' is subjective. The characters are likable, the plot is charming in a storybook kind of way (which is appropriate since it's a pied piper parody), the prose is witty, and I thoroughly enjoy reading it. No doubt I will again.
    • 4/5
      Apparently when I was a very young kid a rat tried to nibble on my toes and ever since I have a deep distrust for rats, so to say I was enchanted by this story is not a minor thing in my life. Maurice is a talking cat and there is a rat clan he works with, who also talk, and a boy who is a musician, and they run a pied piper scam, now they're in Bad Blintz and there's something wrong in the town, food is very expensive and the ratcatchers are raking it in. They investigate and are joined by Malicia, the mayor's daughter, what they discover is interesting and clever and just what I needed.
    • 5/5
      Terry Pratchetts books are all brilliant. This one is aimed towards kids, so it's writing style is a bit simpler than his other Discworld books, but it's just as clever and entertaining.
    • 5/5
      A stupid looking young boy arrives in the town of Bad Blintz, along with a scruffy looking cat and a troop of rats. This is the Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents. No, Maurice isn’t the boy. Maurice is the cat, who talks and is the brains of the operation. Maurice is, to put it bluntly, a con artist. The rodents also talk, courtesy of the garbage pile behind the wizard’s university. They are intelligent and self aware, and in fact are evolving their own system of ethics and religion. They do this in between running scams on towns where the rats invade people’s homes, eating their food, widdling in the cream, and then the boy pipes them out of town. Oh, by the way, this is a Discworld novel. Knowing that might make all this more understandable. In Bad Blintz, things don’t go the usual way. They can find no regular rats, but food is disappearing at an incredible rate, and the two town rat catchers are coming up with a huge number of rat tails to show what they’re catching. And a girl named Malicia Grim sees through the boy and Maurice right off the bat. Soon the merry band is embroiled in a life or death adventure. The story is adventure, comedy, mystery, a bit of horror and a commentary on society. The plot moves swiftly and I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. But the best part was watching the rats (and Maurice) develop emotionally and philosophically. They aren’t just animals who can speak about their instincts; they are now self aware and capable of thinking in the abstract. Great stuff!
    • 2/5
      audiobook; middlegrade/teen fantasy fiction (talking animals, standalone volume)

      There were funny parts, but it was pretty similar to other Pratchett novels--probably best not to read too many in quick succession.
    • 5/5
      I'm not sure if this is more of an adventure or a fantasy, but it was good fun! Pratchett is a master at taking a well known story and giving it a tweak or two until it becomes something completely unexpected. The story in question this time around is the Pied Piper. And the tweak is that the rats are in on the deal and agree to split the money with the piper. So much fun! I liked the cameo appearance by DEATH. If you're a fan of his Discworld books, this one is worth looking for in the kids books. But even if you've never heard of him, this is a great place to begin.