To call Snuff a City Watch novel isn't particularly accurate since the rest of the City Watch had cameo roles at best. That's one of the things that disappointed me about Snuff, actually. I love me some Vimes but I also missed me some Carrot, Angua, Colon and Nobby, Igor, etc and the story wasn't as compelling as Night Watch's to make up for the lack.
Other than the confusion of having a book where every character has the same name, I'm not sure if they're a strong enough character to hold a story. So far, they've been used in a supporting role, virtually indistinguishable from each other (with two exceptions that come to mind - Igorina in Monstrous Regiment and the Igor who wore a quiff and had to be reminded to lisp in one of the City Watch books ).
I'm not saying it couldn't be done; but it would involve a lot of fleshing out, I think.
Booooooooooo? (quickly stopping to check I got the right amount of Os)
I just think they've worked so far as support characters, but are still a touch two dimensional. As such, I just can't see them as the characters driving a story... yet. If you disagree, please let me know why! I'm always open to reconsidering where I go wrong!
An extra thought has occurred - are there any Discworld books which are led by someone who is not recognisably human? There hasn't ever been a dwarf, troll, Feegle etc that has totally led a story - though there have been a few where they've been key alongside a human lead. Well, with the exception of Death, which perhaps says much about how humanised he is (and even then, they often run parallel with Susan).
I'm not really sure where I'm going with that thought.
Perhaps I should take back my earlier reply - using the narrative established, a story of a person meeting/working with/interacting with a collective of Igors could work well. I'm not sure Igors could drive a story; but I suspect they could be the cause of a good one.
I can think of a few novels where there's been an Igor at the centre of things, or at least fairly well involved in the plot beyond a mere support character.
Carpe Jugulum, Monstrous Regiment, Thief of Time (kinda, I think, it's been a while since I read it).
I agree they'd make a terrible focus point for a novel though.
Yes, that's a valid point - he is perhaps one of the most consistently central non-human characters in the series; but a lot of the narrative is also about Trev and Glenda too - Mr Nutt is a mystery, Trev and Glenda drive at least some of the story in trying to solve that mystery.
Similarly, Maurice the cat is central in Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, but it still has Keith the piper there to follow too. Again, it's human characters to lead or share the lead. At least, that's how it seems.
Wow, I hadn't realised they had been so consistent with release dates. 2006, 2008, 2010 and likely 2012... Felt longer between Going Postal and Colour of Magic.
I did make this point before but my computer froze and lost it: A lot of the humour in the Discworld is based around what is essentially culture shock, so you'd need the human interaction for the human to be the 'straight man'.
I don't think most readers would relate well to a completely inhuman character, and having people relate to the main character(s) is the best way to involve them in a story, no? Any main character would therefore take on very human characteristics, so even if a Discworld book were written from the point of view of a non-human, the main character would inevitably become humanised. Which defeats the point of not having a human in the leading role.
They did a Colour of Magic without a Rincewind in it??
Complete change of topic, but does anyone know where I can get a cheap (and that's the important bit) remote control F1 car or dragster for a project I want to do for the DW Convention this year? No spoilers as to why... yet ;)
All I can hope is it was still a step up from the Colour of Magic adaptation. I still haven't been able to bring myself to watch the second half of that one...
That's ok - on the thread here we completely understand what you mean by that. It's just not a statement to make in other circumstances - such as careers guidance interview or police interrogation, for example - as the results might be interesting, in an "Interesting Times" sense of "interesting"...
