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I thought the children were surprisingly non-annoying, no mean feat considering one was the Antichrist.
 
I thought the children were surprisingly non-annoying, no mean feat considering one was the Antichrist.
Pepper is the Antichrist?
 
I've just started re-discovering Pratchett's books, in a fairly random order, depending on what I fancy at the time, and indeed on what I spot in charity shops. In the last couple of months, I've read and enjoyed paperback copies of Going Postal and The Truth, and have read Interesting Times on my Kindle. I'm just coming to the end of Raising Steam, also Kindle version.

I don't think I'm losing out by reading the books out of chronological order, but it might have lessened my enjoyment if I'd started Raising Steam, for instance, if I'd not encountered Moist von Lipwig before, or not known about "clacks". As it is, I've had a thoroughly enjoyable few evenings catching up on the work of the dear departed Pterry.

I have to say that, for a "mere" writer of humorous fantasy, TP's books are really very well crafted. Everything hangs together (and I say that with extra admiration, as I realise that he was still writing while his Alzheimers was fairly advanced), and the action slides seamlessly from comedy to drama and back again. That said, Raising Steam is probably the least funny of the books that I've read - I don't mean that in a bad way, though - and the death-count, described or implied, is very high for a Discworld novel!

I'm loving the little details - even though I've still only read about 10 of the Discworld series, I'm spotting the in-jokes, returning minor characters, and the cameos from characters seemingly from other works (for instance, two of the baddies in The Truth will be very familiar if you've seen Pulp Fiction, and there's a family straight out of The Railway Children in Raising Steam!).
 
Raising Steam is probably the least funny of the books that I've read
I found it the most heartbreaking (although I still haven't read the Shepherd's Crown, so I still have a new Discworld novel to look forward to...) It was clearly his own requiem to his creation, the obvious ending of an era: magic replaced by technology. And yet, as with so much of his stuff, there is way more to it than that. He evokes the magic, the life, that animated steam technology. The end of an era marks the start of a new one, after all. The discworld abides. And now I am crying again.
 
I read them all out of order, more or less, and i still loved them, the last one i read was i think Raising Steam, but, I must admit, I adore the one he wrote with Neil.
 
I have that book somewhere, i didn't read much of it, i found it hard to get into (Neverwhere)
 
I watched Good Omens yesterday, and altho it was not exactly like the book, never expected it to be, time constraints and so on, i really enjoyed it. I would have really loved to have seen the bit with the bikers in the cafe joining the real bikers of the apocalypse tho, twas a funny bit in the book. My only real gripe, was DEATH, the voice was all wrong, in fact it was terrible.
 
Mr. Lee wasn't available. :( (I wonder if he had fun voicing DEATH?)
 
With all the tech available now they didn't need a human really, not as tho you see is lips, bones, whatever, it just didn't have any timbre to it
 
Interesting question, who would be the best DEATH?

I don't know many actors but could I have a case for that Benefits Cucumberpatch or whatever he's called?
 
Interesting question, who would be the best DEATH?

I don't know many actors but could I have a case for that Benefits Cucumberpatch or whatever he's called?

Bendybum Cumberland could work, although he was already in Good Omens. How about Peter Serafinowicz?

Don't think anyone could ever add such an ominous-doomladen-finality quality as Sir Christopher, though.

Mr. Lee wasn't available. :( (I wonder if he had fun voicing DEATH?)

I suspect he had a great deal of fun doing all his work.

 
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Interesting question, who would be the best DEATH?

I don't know many actors but could I have a case for that Benefits Cucumberpatch or whatever he's called?

No, thank you. I think we've all overdosed on Benylin Thundertrunks.

Max von Sydow is still with us, isn't he?

I nominate him.

It would also be an ironic inversion from The Seventh Seal.
 
But he's God, actually i did think of him but dismissed it, guess when we are reading we all envisage a certain voice, don't we?
 
I still haven't read The Shepherd's Crown, so I still have a new Discworld novel to look forward to...
Neither of these statements any longer hold true (although there's still Dodger, so...).
TP's books are really very well crafted. Everything hangs together
It is clear that The Shepherd's Crown was not finished, and to be fair there is an acknowledgement of this in the afterword. As they say there, "there is a beginning, a middle and an end, plus all the bits in between", but there clearly wasn't time to grind away the excess weld on the joints. Even more than Raising Steam, it is an explicit acknowledgement of an era ending - I daren't say more than that, for fear of spoilers. Mind you, even though it was not finished, there is enough happening in there for me to be thinking about it still. What a tremendous talent he was; how lucky we were to have him, and that he was able to tell as many of his stories as he did.
 
Which I now have - must reread The Truth in that light.
I should re-read The Truth, myself. I remember Vimes being portrayed in a very different light in that book. I completely mis-remembered the relationship between Tiffany and Esme Weatherwax in I Shall Wear Midnight, so I'm curious to find out if I have similarly mis-remembered the relationship between the Guard Commander and MVL.
 
Neither of these statements any longer hold true (although there's still Dodger, so...).

It is clear that The Shepherd's Crown was not finished, and to be fair there is an acknowledgement of this in the afterword. As they say there, "there is a beginning, a middle and an end, plus all the bits in between", but there clearly wasn't time to grind away the excess weld on the joints. Even more than Raising Steam, it is an explicit acknowledgement of an era ending - I daren't say more than that, for fear of spoilers. Mind you, even though it was not finished, there is enough happening in there for me to be thinking about it still.
What a tremendous talent he was; how lucky we were to have him, and that he was able to tell as many of his stories as he did.
My thoughts exactly, perfectly expressed Krepostnoi
 
I read all of the Discworld Stories after Guards Guards as they were published, but drifted away and only later re-engaged with Jingo.

And what a superb book to rekindle my love of his writing--one of his very best in my view. It even manages a Paul Simon joke!

It's been a while now, but I remember thinking at the time that Nightwatch was the best of the 75% of the total I had read.
 
I read all of the Discworld Stories after Guards Guards as they were published, but drifted away and only later re-engaged with Jingo.

And what a superb book to rekindle my love of his writing--one of his very best in my view. It even manages a Paul Simon joke!

It's been a while now, but I remember thinking at the time that Nightwatch was the best of the 75% of the total I had read.

My favourite is probably Reaper Man, but Pratchett's 'middle period - from say Pyramids to Thief of Time - is in my opinion only comparable to the naval saga of Patrick O'Brian (up to The Commodore, after which it also tails off somewhat) . This is literature, not mere amusement.

In neither case do I regard the tailing off as severe, just noticeable to a fanatic :) P O'B had the advantage of some preliminary trials before embarking on his great series, whereas Sir Pterry had to evolve from humorous SF pastiches to a full blown novelist within Discworld. Having said that I value the first two Discworld books enormously, but they have fewer layers of meaning than the peak period.

I do agree with those above who see Raising Steam as a sort of farewell to the world he created.
 
My favourite is probably Reaper Man, but Pratchett's 'middle period - from say Pyramids to Thief of Time - is in my opinion only comparable to the naval saga of Patrick O'Brian (up to The Commodore, after which it also tails off somewhat) . This is literature, not mere amusement.

In neither case do I regard the tailing off as severe, just noticeable to a fanatic :) P O'B had the advantage of some preliminary trials before embarking on his great series, whereas Sir Pterry had to evolve from humorous SF pastiches to a full blown novelist within Discworld. Having said that I value the first two Discworld books enormously, but they have fewer layers of meaning than the peak period.

I do agree with those above who see Raising Steam as a sort of farewell to the world he created.

Mort as the first 'mature' Discworld novel?
 
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