Terry Pratchett

Yithian said:
Mort as the first 'mature' Discworld novel?
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I wouldn't be dogmatic about where he really gets in to his stride, but I think he is still patchy for a few books after Mort. My opinion only. After say Guards! Guards! he really starts to put flesh on his whole marvellous world.
 
Yes, I think he gets into his stride first with Mort.

I enjoyed the Vimes books and the Lipwig books and the Death tries to come to terms with life books.

One of my favorites was Interesting Times but that I feel was his most problematic; I dont think he has a true feel for the absurd exoticity of Oriental cultures...(In the same way he playfully rags Athens and Egypt and Australia) Its not that he is biased (As an author he speaks out against bigotry in a pleasingly non preachy way) but I got the impression he can see no difference between China and Japan and honestly thinks it doesnt matter.
 
Cochise said:
I wouldn't be dogmatic about where he really gets in to his stride, but I think he is still patchy for a few books after Mort. My opinion only. After say Guards! Guards! he really starts to put flesh on his whole marvellous world.
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I remember thinking that Pyramids and Equal Rites were slightly less stellar than some others. Guards, Guards is one of my favourites, the Guards series being my favourite set of stories.

I think I have mentioned that last year I re-read The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic for the first time since I was twelve or thirteen. The Ankh Morpork scenes were still very good, if unpolished compared with what the setting was to come, but the 'adventure' aspect lacked structure and the 'tying of threads' which Sir Terry came to manage with such aplomb was hurried and unsatifying.

I proposed Mort as the first 'mature' Discworld novel as it is so well-balanced in terms of digression and plot, speech and description, satire and bathos. The characterisation is also especially strong next to the sketches and caricatures he'd often served up before: Death, Mort, Princess Keli, Ysabell, Albert, Cutwell are all memorable and visible to the mind's eye.

As for supporting cast, I can't recall which book he first appeared in, but 'Cut-Me-Own-Throat' Dibbler has stayed with me over the years.

With the excuse that I am less enamoured of the Witches than others here, I'd say that Vimes, Death and Vetinari are my personal favourites.
 
I like Vetinari, but i just couldn't see Jeremy Irons as him, it threw me when i saw him portray him, Charles Dance, however, gave him the menace and the stature that Vetinari deserved, also David Jason i love to bits, he actually looks very very much like my husband, but i didn't like him as Rincewind, David Jason, not my husband, something was amiss, and i cannot say who i would have preferred to portray him, I would like to hear from all on here who they would have thought they would like to portray which character and why.

We all see and hear these characters differently, that's the beauty of books, and i can truly say, for me, no one can equal Sir Terry.

My favourite are DEATH, The Luggage, Vetinari, Greebo , Nanny, and Granny
 
Good Omens is a brilliant book, mine is all dog cat and rabbit eared now from me reading it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much,and, i think i will await the official biography.

I have been trying to read Strata, and i just cant do it, i have read most of Sir Terry's work, but this one is just not pulling me in, tis strange
 
Shady said:
Good Omens is a brilliant book, mine is all dog cat and rabbit eared now from me reading it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much,and, i think i will await the official biography.

I have been trying to read Strata, and i just cant do it, i have read most of Sir Terry's work, but this one is just not pulling me in, tis strange
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I loved his early work, such as Strata. It was a bit more 'dry' than his later work, so probably unexpected.
 
Well, i will still try every so often, i will succeed as the budgie with no teeth said
 
Sir Terry Pratchett was practically my god. I wish I could write like that!

I need to catch up with Tiffany Aching - I have read Wintersmith, and my friend lent me The Shepherd's Crown (just to finish me off, I suspect!) - but it's a bit jarring without having read the others.

Although my TP collection spans one-and-a-half bookshelves, the only one I have ever seen any of my children read is Good Omens (Son No 2). The teenage Squish occasionally muses that maybe she should start reading it, but then she is not a great reader anyway. Perhaps I'll start her with Granny Weatherwax and see if I can drag her in...
 
Timble2 said:
I always imagined him as Tony Robinson. BTW. Small Gods, seems to get missed from a lot of peoples' lists. The concept that gods are created by belief and dwindle away when people stop believing, is shared by Neil Gaiman's American Gods, with fewer jokes.
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Small Gods is one of my favourites. Also Night Watch. I also like the Tiffany Aching books he wrote towards the end. I always read fantasy books but not his (being superficial I think the earlier cover art put me off...). Then I saw him on "Question Time", weirdly, and that was got me reading his books. We've got several signed ones including one my son and husband were in a queue that stretched down the street outside Borders, years ago. He was patient, took his time, and chatted to everyone, they said. Another son has most of them on Audible - I prefer listening than reading, now, but have to be in a TP mood.
 
dr wu said:
New show here in the US...based on Pratchett's books apparently...I have been watching ...decent humor mixed with fantasy...
https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-watch-terry-pratchett-nycc-2020
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I've been reading a lot of Pratchett recently, starting quite near the beginning, and I'm currently halfway through Soul Music. I've particularly enjoyed stories with the Watch (Men At Arms being a recent favourite).

As a result, I've got a mental picture of what Vimes, Carrot, Angua and Vetinari look like.
And it's not like that!
 
I'm a bigger fan of the witches (with all the 'headology' than I am of the guards, although I do love Havelock Vetinari.

Televised versions of the books always make Rincewind too 'reedy' for me. I see him as a perfectly serviceable wizard who just doesn't want to die! And the audio versions always make Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax sound like really old women. At least to start with, Nanny is the 'mother' of the trio and shouldn't sound like she's eighty!
 
TangletwigsDeux said:
I refuse to watch that new "version" of The Watch. What were they thinking, other than $$$$$$ ?

Also I still havent read The Shepherds Crown, because if I do thats it. I hope I have time on my death bed to turn too it at last.
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I always tell myself about TV or Movie adaptations that it doesn't matter if they are rubbish, or mess with the story, because the book still exists. I believe that this is Stephen King's philosophy about adaptations of his books.

However, I just cannot bring myself to watch this version of The Watch. It is terribly miscast and I just don't understand why they have had to mess with the diversity of the already diverse cast of characters.

I had read that Rhianna Pratchett was less than happy with the adaptation (she's very diplomatic about it) as well https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...na-with-terry-pratchett-work-daughter-rhianna

The bit in the article about the Guard's books not lending themselves to an eight part series is utter nonsense if you ask me.
 
catseye said:
I'm a bigger fan of the witches (with all the 'headology' than I am of the guards, although I do love Havelock Vetinari.

Televised versions of the books always make Rincewind too 'reedy' for me. I see him as a perfectly serviceable wizard who just doesn't want to die! And the audio versions always make Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax sound like really old women. At least to start with, Nanny is the 'mother' of the trio and shouldn't sound like she's eighty!
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Granny and Nanny remind me of my own grandmas. Dad's mum as Granny (though don't ever call her that - Grandma was the minimum acceptable contraction) and Mum's mum as Nanny (one of 14 children). My powers of description - and alas of memory - are not sufficient to explain exactly why. Physical appearance and personality both tie up.
 
Vetinari as a woman, no, I am sick of them making men characters into women to be diverse, it does not work, jeez.
 
TangletwigsDeux said:
Also I still havent read The Shepherds Crown, because if I do thats it. I hope I have time on my death bed to turn too it at last.
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I spent years thinking the same way, and then I read something by Rob Wilkins along the lines that Pterry sweated blood to get it into a state where it could be published (be warned, it's all there, but you can still see the welds and rivets that got polished over in previous novels), precisely because he wanted it to be read. So I read it. I'm glad I did, although glad is doing an awful lot of heavy lifting with regard to the multi-faceted nature of my emotional response to the book.

And, anyway, I still haven't read Dodger, so I've still got one of his books to look forward to.
 
LymeswoldSnork said:
It might be all right if you've never read any of the books.
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I read several of the very early Discworld books years ago but none of the 'Watch' ones. To be honest I didn"t find them interesting enough at the time to keep going, but I do watch most sci-fi and weird things that come on tv and cable so I tuned in. Not knowing anything about The Watch in the books I have no basis for comparison but even so it seems like they could have done a better job with the program.
 
Ogdred Weary said:
THIS HAS GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH SIR PTERRY'S LOVELY BOOKS SO DON'T YOU GO SAYING IT HAS.
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Do you need a time out..or were you having a bad day? :hide:

I never did....syfy channel said it was based on them.....which is what I posted.
As I said in the other post...I only read several very early ones that did not mention the watch as I recall.
 
dr wu said:
Do you need a time out..or were you having a bad day? :hide:

I never did....syfy channel said it was based on them.....which is what I posted.
As I said in the other post...I only read several very early ones that did not mention the watch as I recall.
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I was joking, that series looks shit and far enough removed from the books that it may as well be a new thing.
 
I've watched the first 2 episodes and #notmywatch, however taken as a completely separate work of fiction I don't completely hate it. I hate some of the things they have done, no spoilers. I'll give it a few more episodes
 
Ghost In The Machine said:
Small Gods is one of my favourites. Also Night Watch. I also like the Tiffany Aching books he wrote towards the end. I always read fantasy books but not his (being superficial I think the earlier cover art put me off...). Then I saw him on "Question Time", weirdly, and that was got me reading his books. We've got several signed ones including one my son and husband were in a queue that stretched down the street outside Borders, years ago. He was patient, took his time, and chatted to everyone, they said. Another son has most of them on Audible - I prefer listening than reading, now, but have to be in a TP mood.
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Josh Kirby's cover art was what attracted me to read them in the first place. In the late 80s I saw a paperback of The Colour of Magic on my art teacher's desk with the strapline 'Jerome K. Jerome meets The Lord of the Rings'.

I think his pictures are fantastic.
 
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