In Raising Steam, the 40th volume of the Discworld fantasy series, Terry Pratchett takes his famously satirical setting firmly into the modern age of railroads with a tale about technological progress and the need for several influential men and women to shepherd it along, as if it were a newborn not quite capable of entering the world without some clever midwifery.
Ankh-Morpork may be the most populous city in Discworld, but there are plenty of other places that need to connect with each other. Patrician Lord Vetinari is a schemer and planner of the best sort, and he appoints Moist von Lipwig, a former scoundrel and rogue who now runs most of the city's banking and mail services, to take the inventor of the railway system under his wing. The young inventor, Dick Simnel, has improved upon his tragically exploded father's design to create a fully functioning steam engine, which he brings to the big city to show off to potential investors.
Waste disposal magnate Harry King, the richest non-noble in Ankh-Morpork, is initially unimpressed with the device, but knows a good business opportunity when he sees it. Along with von Lipwig and his wife, Simnel and King must see the railroad through, especially as the far-flung race of the Dwarves faces their own possible civil war over tradition versus modernity.
Raising Steam is laugh-out-loud funny while remaining subtle and irreverent, conveying Pratchett's humanist and liberal political views through his delightfully realized fantasy world. --Rob LeFebvre, freelance writer and editor