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Raising Steam: A Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett Review: A Landmark Late-Series Farewell to Progress
The 40th Discworld novel sends the irrepressible Moist von Lipwig racing across the Disc on its first steam railway, balancing industrial-age comedy with a genuinely urgent political thriller — a penultimate entry that science fiction author Cory Doctorow, writing on Boing Boing, called "a spectacular novel, and a gift from a beloved writer to his millions of fans."
Tap to enlargeLuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Long-term Discworld readers who have followed Moist von Lipwig through Going Postal and Making Money, and who want to watch Ankh-Morpork cross the irreversible threshold into the industrial age — with all the political weight and elegiac resonance that carries given its place as the penultimate novel in Pratchett's series.
Worth it if
You have invested in the late-era Discworld and want a novel that combines genuine political-thriller plotting — dwarf fundamentalism, terrorism, a palace coup — with the warmth of a well-established ensemble and Pratchett's most ambitious late-series themes: progress, extremism, institutional power, and legacy.
Skip if
You are new to Discworld and would lack the accumulated character history the novel relies on, or you engage with the series primarily for the tightly wound satirical comedy of the early books and find the later political-narrative register less satisfying.
What readers & critics say
The Guardian's review identifies Pratchett's central preoccupations as "the threat and promise of change, the individual's search for meaning within their own society, and the fine moral judgments that have to be made between competing rights and freedoms," and singles out the opening railway map as a pointed symbol of the Discworld's arrival into modernity. Kirkus Reviews awarded a starred review, calling it "brimming with Pratchett's trademark wit, a yarn with a serious point made with style and elegance," while patricktreardon.com, drawing on Rob Wilkins's biography, notes that the writing process was severely hampered by Pratchett's advancing illness, with Wilkins himself calling it retrospectively "a missed opportunity."
“Brimming with Pratchett's trademark wit, a yarn with a serious point made with style and elegance.”
— Kirkus ReviewsIn This Review
- What Works & What Doesn't
- What the Novel Is and What It Does
- The Novel's Place in the Discworld Series
- Strengths: Tone, Theme, and Ensemble
- Genuine Limitations and Who May Struggle
- Who This Novel Is For
What Works & What Doesn't
What Works
- The 40th and penultimate Discworld novel, carrying real weight for long-term fans of the series
- A strong central premise — the introduction of the steam locomotive to the Discworld — drives both comedy and genuine political thriller plotting
- Cory Doctorow, writing on Boing Boing, praised Pratchett's balance of whimsy and gravitas as the most carefully struck in the entire series
- A large, well-established ensemble including Moist von Lipwig, Lord Vetinari, Sir Harry King, and Adora Belle Dearheart
- The Guardian identifies the novel's themes as genuinely ambitious: the promise and threat of change, individual meaning, and competing rights and freedoms
What Doesn't
- Entry point forty in a long-running series — new readers will lack the character history the novel builds upon
- The later Discworld register, heavier on political narrative and world-building momentum than early-series satirical comedy, may not suit all Pratchett readers equally
Raising Steam is a rich, plot-driven comedic fantasy novel and the penultimate entry in Terry Pratchett's celebrated Discworld series — significant for any fan, given Pratchett's death in 2015.
What the Novel Is and What It Does
Map of the Sto Plains railway network, illustrating the industrial infrastructure central to the novel's steam-powered setting.
Raising Steam is built around a genuinely exciting premise: the arrival of the locomotive on the Discworld. Dick Simnel, a young self-taught engineer from Sto Lat — whose father, Ned Simnel, made an earlier appearance in Reaper Man — has invented a steam engine he names Iron Girder, Discworld's first steam train. He brings the invention to Ankh-Morpork, where it attracts the attention of Sir Harry King, a millionaire whose fortune derives from the waste and sanitation industry and who now seeks a legacy untethered from that source. Harry funds the railway; Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, ensures the city-state's influence over the new enterprise by installing the reformed fraudster-turned-civil-servant Moist von Lipwig as its government representative. From that tightly wound setup, the plot escalates fast: Dwarfish fundamentalists wage a campaign of terrorism against the new railway — arson, murder, and ultimately a palace coup in Uberwald — forcing Moist into a near-impossible race to transport a displaced king over twelve hundred miles of unfinished track to restore political order.
“the Discworld, created as a setting for humorous stories, began to take on a certain solidity, as if it were striving to become a real place”
The Novel's Place in the Discworld Series
As the 40th entry in a series that began as satirical fantasy parody, Raising Steam occupies a historically charged position. Writing in The Guardian, Ben Aaronovitch observed that the Discworld, over three decades, underwent a remarkable transformation: "the Discworld, created as a setting for humorous stories, began to take on a certain solidity, as if it were striving to become a real place" — driven not by maps but by the accumulation of richly three-dimensional recurring characters. Raising Steam is the culmination of that arc in a specific sense: it is the entry in which the world itself industrialises, crossing an irreversible threshold. The novel even opens with a railway map of the Disc — a detail The Guardian review singled out as a pointed symbol of the world's arrival into a modern era. It is also the third and final novel to star Moist von Lipwig, following Going Postal and Making Money, and brings back a wide ensemble including Adora Belle Dearheart, Sgt Fred Colon, and Lord Vetinari himself.
Map of fictional landscape with steam locomotive illustration, reflecting the novel's industrial revolution theme.
Strengths: Tone, Theme, and Ensemble
The Guardian's review identifies Pratchett's central preoccupations in this novel as "the threat and promise of change, the individual's search for meaning within their own society, and the fine moral judgments that have to be made between competing rights and freedoms" — a scope that lifts the story well beyond comedic set-dressing. The Dwarfish fundamentalist subplot is handled as a serious political thriller running in parallel to the railway adventure, giving the novel genuine stakes alongside its comedy. Cory Doctorow's Boing Boing review singled out the balance Pratchett strikes, writing that he "never quite balanced whimsy and gravitas as carefully as this, and it works beautifully." The ensemble is one of the richest in the late Discworld run: Harry King's arc — a self-made man desperate to shed the stigma of his own success — gives the novel an unexpectedly poignant secondary thread, while Moist remains one of Pratchett's most entertaining protagonists, a con-man whose talents are most alive when the odds are explicitly impossible.
Genuine Limitations and Who May Struggle
The novel's most commonly noted limitation among Discworld readers is also the most structurally honest one: Raising Steam is entry number forty in a long-running series, and it assumes familiarity. Characters like Moist, Vetinari, Adora Belle Dearheart, and Harry King arrive with histories rather than introductions. Readers new to the Discworld who begin here will miss the accumulated weight those characters carry. Additionally, some readers who engage with the series primarily for its tightly plotted satirical comedy note that the later Discworld novels — of which this is one — shift their centre of gravity toward world-building momentum and political narrative, which is a different register than the earlier books. Neither is a flaw in isolation; together they define an audience.
Who This Novel Is For
Raising Steam is best understood as a novel written for the long-term Discworld reader, one who has watched Ankh-Morpork evolve from a parody city-state into something resembling a real, breathing society — and who will feel the full weight of watching that society board its first train. For that reader, it delivers exactly what the late series does best: large themes (progress, extremism, institutional power, legacy) routed through fast-moving plot and a cast of characters who have earned their place on the page. As the penultimate Discworld novel, it also carries an elegiac quality that no amount of industrial optimism can fully dispel — a quality inseparable from its place in Pratchett's biography. Fans of Moist von Lipwig's previous outings, or readers drawn to Pratchett's politically engaged late work, will find this among the most ambitious entries in the sequence.
Frequently Asked Questions
is Raising Steam: A Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett worth reading if i've read all the other Discworld books
For long-term Discworld fans, it's among the most ambitious entries in the sequence — the novel carries real emotional weight as the penultimate book and the one where the Discworld itself industrialises, crossing what the review calls 'an irreversible threshold.' Cory Doctorow, writing on Boing Boing, called it 'a spectacular novel, and a gift from a beloved writer to his millions of fans,' and the review notes it also carries an elegiac quality inseparable from Pratchett's biography that dedicated readers will feel deeply.
Can i start with this book if i've never read Discworld before
It's not the ideal entry point — the review is honest that this is book forty in the series and assumes familiarity, with characters like Moist von Lipwig, Lord Vetinari, Adora Belle Dearheart, and Harry King arriving with histories rather than introductions. New readers will miss the accumulated weight those characters carry, so you'd be better served starting with an earlier Moist von Lipwig book like Going Postal first.
What actually happens in this book
Dick Simnel, a self-taught engineer from Sto Lat, invents Discworld's first steam engine — Iron Girder — and brings it to Ankh-Morpork, where Sir Harry King funds a full railway and Lord Vetinari installs reformed con-man Moist von Lipwig as the government's representative. The plot escalates into a political thriller when Dwarfish fundamentalists wage a terrorism campaign — arson, murder, and a palace coup in Uberwald — forcing Moist into a race across twelve hundred miles of unfinished track to restore a displaced king to power.
Is this book funny or has it gotten too serious
It's both — the review describes it as a 'rich, plot-driven comedic fantasy novel' that balances a genuine political thriller running in parallel to the railway adventure, and Cory Doctorow specifically noted that Pratchett 'never quite balanced whimsy and gravitas as carefully as this, and it works beautifully.' Readers who come to the later Discworld books primarily for tightly plotted satirical comedy may notice the centre of gravity has shifted toward world-building momentum and political narrative compared to the earlier entries.
What is the harry king subplot in this book
Sir Harry King is a millionaire whose fortune comes from the waste and sanitation industry, and his arc follows a self-made man desperate to shed the stigma of his own success by funding the railway as a lasting legacy. The review calls this 'an unexpectedly poignant secondary thread' that gives the novel emotional depth beyond the main plot.
Is this book good for fans of moist von lipwig specifically
Yes — the review singles out fans of Moist von Lipwig's previous outings (Going Postal and Making Money) as exactly the audience who will get the most from this book, and notes that Moist 'remains one of Pratchett's most entertaining protagonists, a con-man whose talents are most alive when the odds are explicitly impossible.' It's also the third and final Moist von Lipwig novel, which gives it added significance for readers who've followed his arc.
How different is this book from early Discworld books
Quite different in tone — Ben Aaronovitch, writing in The Guardian, observed that the Discworld 'began to take on a certain solidity, as if it were striving to become a real place' over three decades, and Raising Steam is the culmination of that arc, with large themes like progress, extremism, institutional power, and legacy routed through fast-moving plot. The review notes the early Discworld started as satirical fantasy parody, whereas this entry functions more as a politically engaged thriller with comedy woven through it.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
- 1
en.wikipedia.org
- 2
terrypratchettbooks.com
- 3
bookbrowse.com
- Further reading
- 4
Terry Pratchett, Wikipedia
- 5
- 6
thepopculturestudio.com
- 7
patricktreardon.com
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
wiki.lspace.org
- 12
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