SOURCE: Falconer, Helen. “Speaking Truth to Power.” Guardian (18 November 2000): 10.

In the following review of The Truth, Falconer holds that Pratchett's abilities as a political satirist are growing.

Terry Pratchett is famous for writing comic fantasy, but there is more to him than that—he has developed into a scathing political satirist. Thus, despite there being plenty of wizards around in Discworld adept at turning one element into another, in this 25th novel in the series [The Truth] those conjuring gold from lead are messing with reality in a far more dangerous way—they are producing Ankh-Morpork's first daily newspaper.

Young, earnest William de Worde is proud of his one-sheet, hand-engraved newsletter. He is proud that it always gets its facts right (as far as he can tell). And he is proud of its impressive circulation (six copies, at five dollars a copy). But after running into the dwarfs'...