The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
 Collector's Library edition, 2022 | |
| Author | Terry Pratchett |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Tony Robinson (Corgi) Stephen Briggs (Isis) Ariyon Bakare (Penguin) |
| Cover artist | Paul Kidby |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Series | Discworld |
Release number | 28 |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | 2001-11-01 |
| Preceded by | The Last Hero |
| Followed by | Night Watch |
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is the twenty-eighth Discworld book and the first written “for younger readers”. It’s a standalone novel featuring a new cast of characters, though it was inspired by a joke in a footnote in Reaper Man, and features cameo appearances from Death and the Death of Rats. In 2022 it became the first Pratchett book to be adapted into a feature film: The Amazing Maurice.
Blurb
Maurice, a streetwise tomcat, has the perfect money-making scam. Everyone knows the stories about rats and pipers, and Maurice has a stupid-looking kid with a pipe, and his very own plague of rats - strangely educated rats...
But in Bad Blintz, the little con suddenly goes down the drain. For someone there is playing a different tune and now the rats must learn a new word.
EVIL.
It's not a game any more. It's a rat-eat-rat world. And that might only be the start...
Podcast episodes
Major appearances
These are episodes primarily devoted to discussing this book.
| Date | Show | Episode | External link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-08-14 | Radio Morpork | "Puss in Cahoots" | radiomorpork.wordpress.com |
| 2020-07-08 | Pratchat | "Cat, Rats and Two Meddling Kids" | pratchatpodcast.com |
| 2020-12-15 | The Death of Podcasts | “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents” | aalgar.com |
| 2021-06-28 | Wyrd Sisters | “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents” | wyrdsisters.podbean.com |
| 2021-11-21 | Desert Island Discworld | "Erica Henderson and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents" | desertislanddiscworld.com |
| 2022-04-25 | The Compleat Discography | “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents” | compleatdiscography.page |
| 2022-04-28 | The Compleat Discography | "The Amazing Maurice part 2" | compleatdiscography.page |
| 2022-12-05 | The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret | "Butter Beans & Instant Oodles" (1/3) | thetruthshallmakeyefret.com |
| 2022-12-12 | The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret | "Narratively Satisfying Lever" (2/3) | thetruthshallmakeyefret.com |
| 2022-12-19 | The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret | “Rat King Roomba" (3/3) | thetruthshallmakeyefret.com |
| 2023-02-10 | Nanny Ogg's Book Club | “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents” | fireside.fm |
| 2023-03-20 | Will You Still Love It Tomorrow | “Episode 57 - The Amazing Maurice”[1] | libsyn.com |
| 2023-05-24 | Who Watches the Watch | “Das Rathaus” (1/2) | pinecast.co |
| 2023-06-16 | Who Watches the Watch | “Vegan Condoms” (2/2) | pinecast.co |
| 2023-07-29 | The Author Archive | “Terry Pratchett - The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents”[2] | podbean.com |
| 2023-12-07 | Fiction Fans | “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett” | fictionfanspodcast.com |
Other appearances
Episodes where there's significant discussion of the book, but it's not the focus of the episode.
| Date | Show | Episode | External link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-12-01 | The Pratchett Podcast | “EPISODE48” | app.talkshoe.com |
Adaptations
- The Amazing Maurice is an animated movie - and the first feature film adaptation of a Pratchett work - produced by Sky, Narrativia and other production companies, and first released in December 2022.
- The BBC produced a two-part full-cast radio adaptation in 2003. Notably this featured David Tennant as Dangerous Beans, a role he also plays in the feature film. Michael Fenton Stevens also appears in two roles.
- Penguin released a new audiobook in 2022 as part of the 50 Years of Terry new editions; it's read by Ariyon Bakare, who plays Darktan in the film. There are earlier abridged and unabridged audiobooks too, read by Tony Robinson and Stephen Briggs, respectively.
- The book was adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs, and as a stage musical for schools by Matthew Holmes.
External links
- The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents at the L-Space Wiki
- The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents on Wikipedia
Footnotes
- ↑ Compares the book to the film adaptation The Amazing Maurice.
- ↑ This is an interview between host David Freeman and Terry Pratchett about the book, from David’s personal archive. It’s not mentioned if it was published or broadcast at the time. The date for the interview is also not given, but as Freeman asks Terry how he’d feel if he wins the Carnegie Medal, we can guess it’s from 2002, before the prize was announced in July.