Raising Steam: Having now read the final (to date) Discworld, I can now say what I was suspecting since reading Snuff is definitely true: Pratchett has simply lost his touch. The characters seem to have lost their distinctive personalities and speech patterns, most of the dialogue is just one long tedious wall of text after another, and the antagonists are one-dimensional losers who are promptly beaten down in every confrontation with the heroes, ruining any sense that they might ever pose a real threat. These were all problems with Snuff as well, but Raising Steam's biggest flaw is a new one for the series - it's boring. So, so, boring. The story centers around the building of a railway, and that's it. For most of the book, there is literally nothing more than compelling than this fucking railroad and the process of building it. Snore.