Dodger
- Author: Terry Pratchett
- Page count: 373
- Audio length: 630 minutes
- Started on: 2026/10/05
- Finished on: 2026/10/15
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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While Terry Pratchett is best known for his Discworld series, he also wrote a decent number of books outside of the Discworld universe. Dodger came out in 2012, after The Long Earth (another non-Discworld book, that I have yet to read) and before Raising Steam. At this stage, Pratchett, as a result of posterior cortical atrophy, was doing most of his writing by dictating it, either to software or to his assistant.
The titular character Dodger lives in London around the mid-1800s, and starts off as a tosher - someone who scavenges the sewers for a living. He rescues a young woman from a beating, and from there develops into a detective, a folk hero, and finally a spy for Her Majesty Queen Victoria. While the story is historical fantasy, many of the characters in it actually existed or are known from other fiction or legends. Just to name a few: Charles Dickens (typically called Charlie here, and working as a journalist), Benjamin Disraeli, Sir Robert Peel (after whom British police officers are nicknamed bobbies), and Sweeney Todd.
While not set in Discworld, I really liked Dodger. Sure, the protagonist is unusually capable (Pratchett’s best-known characters are usually a bit more rounded) and the central plot is not very strong, but the book shows off many of the best traits Pratchett’s writing is known for: it gives a critical view of conditions in Victorian-era London as a whole, while showing that there are good people to be found even in the most dire of places and circumstances. Stephen Briggs’ narration was great as ever, although some of the London police sergeants sounded suspiciously like Nobby Nobbs 😊.
