roadrunnertwice

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Well, for what it's worth, I loved all the characters in this one (Oh god, especially the sarge? And Polly's kind of my hero), and the jokes were top-notch. It's just that the balance felt off. I get what you're saying about focus, and don't have a ready answer; it just seemed weird to me.

Gender and Pratchett: Huh, interesting! I can't say much about data because, well, I don't actually know many female Pratchett fans (honestly, you're the only one that comes to mind. ...and now we get to watch my whole female flist be surprised that I didn't notice they were Pratchett fans...). But the Witches subseries in particular is VERY different from from the rest of the series. Tone, thematic content, yeah, but most of all, you can't win a Witches story the same way. Rincewind wins by spamming uncontrolled power all over the room and banging his head into things (which is why I find those stories kind of boring); in the City Watch books, the city is a secret extra protagonist, and there're all sorts of interesting interactions between brute force, cleverness, and a cosmopolitan trend as irresistible as gravity; and Moist von Lipwig wins by being the smartest guy in the room. The witches, though, win because they know things that no one else wants to know. They're on the margins, but they understand exactly what will cause the center to fail. I can see how the reaction to that might break along gender lines. Myself, I think they're brilliant.