High Praise for Pratchett

[ravenscape]

My younger son, who is dyslexic, finds very few novels to be engaging enough to bother with the cognitive effort of reading unless a book report looms near.

He was having trouble sleeping last week, and I handed him Moving Pictures, since that story is fairly well self-contained while still giving a nice tour of a few Discworld locales.

Friday night, he stayed up reading nearly all night. He couldn't put it down.

He's working on Guards, Guards! now.

[Octavia]

If he likes that one, put him on to Men At Arms - that one's my favourite. :)

[ravenscape]

Yup, and it features some of the same characters as Moving Pictures.

[Octavia]

Yep. Detritus is my favourite Pratchett character!

Well, every second week he is. He alternates with the Bursar. :)

[His Noodly Appendage]

Granny Weatherwax > *

[Droopy]

Nanny Ogg.

[ravenscape]

Carrot. What a hero.

Actually, I like the Witch subseries and the Night Watch subseries best, so far anyway.

[Droopy]

Have you read the Death lot yet? Mort and Reaper Man are great. Soul Music, not so much but the other two, definitely.

[ravenscape]

I loved Mort, and I'm partway through Reaper Man and loving it, too.

[Don Alhambra]

Vimes all the way.

[Sarpedon]

Guards! Guards! was always my favorite.

I cracked up when Vimes started writing; he speaks like a normal person, but when he starts writing he does this :

Ye Dragonne;
From whence doth it come?
Whither doth it goe?

Of all the great jokes in that book, that is the most memorable.

[Murdock13]

I heard a lot about Pratchett, but I had never read any of his books until a friend leant me "The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rhodents" and "Small Gods". Good stuff, so now I have another author to dive into. :D

[ravenscape]

I <3 teh Luggage with it's cute little multitude of feets.

[Octavia]

^And overwhelming viciousness! :D

[Hedwig]

Vimes all the way.

Seconded.

[Dlx2]

Blah blah blah.

But seriously, this thread is lacking in a very important item.

The Wee Free Men.

Seriously.

[dancer_rnb]

I always liked the Librarian.

Ook.

[His Noodly Appendage]

Oook?

[Droopy]

Buggerit buggerem, millennium hand and shrimp.

[Albion]

Granny Weatherwax rules.

[umop apisdn w,I]

My younger son, who is dyslexic, finds very few novels to be engaging enough to bother with the cognitive effort of reading unless a book report looms near.

He was having trouble sleeping last week, and I handed him Moving Pictures, since that story is fairly well self-contained while still giving a nice tour of a few Discworld locales.

Friday night, he stayed up reading nearly all night. He couldn't put it down.

He's working on Guards, Guards! now.

Apparently (assuming Pratchett didn't make up the anecdote for comedy effect) he once got a fan letter from a schoolteacher who said that his books were "very popular amongst children who don't read".

So I don't think your son is alone in that.

[umop apisdn w,I]

Where's the love for Nobby?

[Sarpedon]

I've never particularly liked nobby. Colon has his moments, but Nobby just seems to be about making fun of someone with various physical disabilities.

[Octavia]

Where's the love for Nobby?

Ick. You want Nobby to have love, you can go give it to him. Just make sure there aren't pictures. I don't know that I could take it. ;)

[ravenscape]

I like Nobby...if he's downwind.

[Hedwig]

I have a soft spot in my heart for Nobby. He calls Colon on his crap more than anyone else does in the books. Also, seeing him as a child in Night Watch really made me feel for him.

Cut for spoilers:

When Vimes's internal monologue mentions Nobby's dad breaking Nobby's arms, that really got to me. I also remember the scene when "Keel"'s Watchmen are hiding behind the makeshift barricade when the Unmentionables are after them (after the supposed cease fire) and Vimes hears someone in his group crying. His internal monologue says that he knew it wasn't his younger self, and that Nobby had probably cried all the tears he'd had to shed long ago.

For all of Nobby's faults as an adult, it's completely and utterly amazing that he's turned out to be as good a person as he is.

[kiwimac]

I am a Vimes fan, I also like Vetinari and Death. When I go that's the Anthropomorphic personification I want turning up for me! I take it you all have heard that Pterry has been diagnosed with Early-onset Dementia?

[Droopy]

Alzheimer's, I think. He reckons he can get a couple more books out before it really takes hold. Poor sod.

[Sarpedon]

When I go that's the Anthropomorphic personification I want turning up for me! I take it you all have heard that Pterry has been diagnosed with Early-onset Dementia?


Oh, I think I'd prefer the Sandman version.

[Holly]

I just cannot htink of one character I like over the rest, even Dibbler (in all his incarnations around the world) is a great character.

[Wolfie]

I just cannot htink of one character I like over the rest, even Dibbler (in all his incarnations around the world) is a great character.

Yeah - you were obviously cutting your own throat to admit that, Holly...

Ook!

[Athene]

When I grow old I want to be Nanny Ogg except with more teeth ... and it'll be my sons-in-law I terrorise.

[ravenscape]

My son started his third Discworld novel tonight. He wanted to read more about the wizards, and I hope I didn't screw up by giving him The Colour of Magic. It seems to me that it's best to start at the beginning with Rincewind and the Luggage.

This is so cool! Dyslexic Boy has read 600 pages of novels in the last two weeks - VOLUNTARILY!

[dancer_rnb]

The Light Fantastic, the second one, is one of my favorites.

Things learned:

Be very careful with seven league boots.

[hecaterin]

I have quite a soft spot for Agnes Nitt.

[slumtrimpet]

Another vote for the nac mac feegle ... and Tiffany Aching.

[Octavia]

Interesting Times is one of the better Rincewind books, I thought.

[ravenscape]

He said The Colour of Magic was too much like LOTR, but he liked the jokes, especially the Big Bang. He's putting it aside for later. Tomorrow morning he heads down to Southern California with his high school band for a band festival (actually an excuse to spend time at Magic Mountain, Disneyland, the Getty Museum, etc.)

He packed Mort and Night Watch for reading on the bus.

It is just so cool to see him reading for pleasure so frequently. He likes a good book, but due to the dyslexia it has to be REALLY good to be worth the effort.

[alien billie]

Ooh, Nightwatch, my favourite!

I love Mort too, but I'm actually envious of anyone who still has Nightwatch to read :)

Hope he has a cracking festival.

[Oolon Colluphid]

I'm banned from reading Pterry in bed, as my incessant giggling keeps my wife awake.

Just to be awkward, Pyramids is one of my favourites.

[ravenscape]

So, I finished Reaper Man and dived into Witches Abroad. The abrupt change from melancholy metaphysics and philosophy to fractured fairy tales and riverboat gambling has given me whiplash.

[Octavia]

That's the great thing about Pratchett. Every book has something new! :cool:

I loved "Gollum" getting hit over the head with an oar... :D

[Matty]

i darent read all this thread because i just finished my first pratchet and i loved it so I'm scared of spoilers.

Been meaning to for ages but been daunted by the sheer number of them. Anyway about time i got around to it, i found a stack at the second hand shop so bought them and dove in at random. I am just finished with Sourcery which near killed me and I have now just started Reaper Man which is fun so far.


If we are talking favourites, and i know i only have a very limited selection so far but the Librarian is pretty awesome. The barabarian wannabee hairdresser girl Coinina was fun too.

One bit that got me was one of his many classy metaphors when he referred to the Luggage stepping over a column of cockroaches as sounding like "Someone tapdancing on a packet of crisps". just a throwaway metaphor but so easily visualised. With a big grin.
The horsemen missing the apocalypse because they are in hte pub as pretty classy too. I dont say it lightly but i think that book made me laugh out loud more than most. Well up there with the HHGTTG, Long Dark Tea Time Of The Soul, and Are You Experienced's (the books that have made me publically guffaw the most)

[Don Alhambra]

Matty, you have a lot of joy ahead of you. :)

[Matty]

its awesome. i cant stop. i finisheed Reaper Man which was a great book IMO, just finished Guards Guards which was awesome, and am now onto Wyrd Sisters.


And i think Death is rapidly becoming my favourite character. So deadpan (s p) and fucking dry. Just as he should be

[third rate crook wakes up dead after mistakenly attempting to mug a dragon]

"Huh, i once had a fortune teller forsee that i would die in my nineties surrounded by grieving great grandchildren. What d'you think of that?"

I THINK SHE WAS WRONG


WAS, NOT IS, ITS CALLED THE PAST TENSE. DONT WORRY YOU'LL GET USED TO IT


awesome. i'm addicted. and i would like to say that the "when i were a lad" conversation of elderly mayflies in Reaper Man is sheer brilliance.

"The sun was near the horizon. The shortest lived creatures on the disk were mayflies, which barely made it through twenty-four hours. Two of the oldest zigzagged aimlessly over the waters of a trout stream, discussing history with some of the younger members of the evening hatching.
"You don't get the kind of sun that you used to get." said one of them.
"You're right there. We had proper sun in the good old hours. It were all yellow. None of this red stuff."
"It were higher, too."
"It was. You're right."
"And nymphs and larvea showed you a bit of respect."
"They did. They did." said the other mayfly vehemently.
"I reckon, if mayflies these hours behaved a bit better, we'd still be having a proper sun."
The younger mayflies listened politely.
"I remember," said one of the oldest mayflies, "when all this was fields, as far as you could see."
The younger mayflies looked around.
"It's still fields," one of them ventured, after a polite interval.
"I remember when it was better fields," said the old mayfly sharply.
"Yeah," said his colleague. "And there was a cow."
"That's right! You're right! I remember that cow! Stood right over there for, oh, forty, fifty minutes. It was brown, as I recall."
"You don't get cows like that these hours."
"You don't get cows at all."
"What's a cow?" said one of the hatchlings.
"See?" said the oldest mayfly triumphantly. "That's modern Ephemeroptera for you."
It paused.
"What were we doing before we were talking about the sun?"
"Zigzagging aimlessly over the water." said one of the younger flies. It was a fair bet in any case.

particularly genius line bolded.

[ravenscape]

its awesome. i cant stop. i finisheed Reaper Man which was a great book IMO, just finished Guards Guards which was awesome, and am now onto Wyrd Sisters.


And i think Death is rapidly becoming my favourite character. So deadpan (s p) and fucking dry. Just as he should be

[third rate crook wakes up dead after mistakenly attempting to mug a dragon]

"Huh, i once had a fortune teller forsee that i would die in my nineties surrounded by grieving great grandchildren. What d'you think of that?"

I THINK SHE WAS WRONG


WAS, NOT IS, ITS CALLED THE PAST TENSE. DONT WORRY YOU'LL GET USED TO IT


awesome. i'm addicted. and i would like to say that the "when i were a lad" conversation of elderly mayflies in Reaper Man is sheer brilliance.

"The sun was near the horizon. The shortest lived creatures on the disk were mayflies, which barely made it through twenty-four hours. Two of the oldest zigzagged aimlessly over the waters of a trout stream, discussing history with some of the younger members of the evening hatching.
"You don't get the kind of sun that you used to get." said one of them.
"You're right there. We had proper sun in the good old hours. It were all yellow. None of this red stuff."
"It were higher, too."
"It was. You're right."
"And nymphs and larvea showed you a bit of respect."
"They did. They did." said the other mayfly vehemently.
"I reckon, if mayflies these hours behaved a bit better, we'd still be having a proper sun."
The younger mayflies listened politely.
"I remember," said one of the oldest mayflies, "when all this was fields, as far as you could see."
The younger mayflies looked around.
"It's still fields," one of them ventured, after a polite interval.
"I remember when it was better fields," said the old mayfly sharply.
"Yeah," said his colleague. "And there was a cow."
"That's right! You're right! I remember that cow! Stood right over there for, oh, forty, fifty minutes. It was brown, as I recall."
"You don't get cows like that these hours."
"You don't get cows at all."
"What's a cow?" said one of the hatchlings.
"See?" said the oldest mayfly triumphantly. "That's modern Ephemeroptera for you."
It paused.
"What were we doing before we were talking about the sun?"
"Zigzagging aimlessly over the water." said one of the younger flies. It was a fair bet in any case.

particularly genius line bolded.
I loved Reaper Man. It's a bold move moving straight from a Death novel to a Witches novel. A move of which I approve! You're at risk of metaphysical whiplash.

[Hedwig]

its awesome. i cant stop. i finisheed Reaper Man which was a great book IMO, just finished Guards Guards which was awesome, and am now onto Wyrd Sisters.


And i think Death is rapidly becoming my favourite character. So deadpan (s p) and fucking dry. Just as he should be

[third rate crook wakes up dead after mistakenly attempting to mug a dragon]

"Huh, i once had a fortune teller forsee that i would die in my nineties surrounded by grieving great grandchildren. What d'you think of that?"

I THINK SHE WAS WRONG


WAS, NOT IS, ITS CALLED THE PAST TENSE. DONT WORRY YOU'LL GET USED TO IT


awesome. i'm addicted. and i would like to say that the "when i were a lad" conversation of elderly mayflies in Reaper Man is sheer brilliance.

"The sun was near the horizon. The shortest lived creatures on the disk were mayflies, which barely made it through twenty-four hours. Two of the oldest zigzagged aimlessly over the waters of a trout stream, discussing history with some of the younger members of the evening hatching.
"You don't get the kind of sun that you used to get." said one of them.
"You're right there. We had proper sun in the good old hours. It were all yellow. None of this red stuff."
"It were higher, too."
"It was. You're right."
"And nymphs and larvea showed you a bit of respect."
"They did. They did." said the other mayfly vehemently.
"I reckon, if mayflies these hours behaved a bit better, we'd still be having a proper sun."
The younger mayflies listened politely.
"I remember," said one of the oldest mayflies, "when all this was fields, as far as you could see."
The younger mayflies looked around.
"It's still fields," one of them ventured, after a polite interval.
"I remember when it was better fields," said the old mayfly sharply.
"Yeah," said his colleague. "And there was a cow."
"That's right! You're right! I remember that cow! Stood right over there for, oh, forty, fifty minutes. It was brown, as I recall."
"You don't get cows like that these hours."
"You don't get cows at all."
"What's a cow?" said one of the hatchlings.
"See?" said the oldest mayfly triumphantly. "That's modern Ephemeroptera for you."
It paused.
"What were we doing before we were talking about the sun?"
"Zigzagging aimlessly over the water." said one of the younger flies. It was a fair bet in any case.

particularly genius line bolded.

Hehehe. I always loved that conversation from the mayflies. :D

[Don Alhambra]

Reaper Man was the first Pratchett book I ever read. In fact, it's included in the weird chain of events that lead me to be posting on this board right now. My friend found the book on a ferry - someone had left it there and he picked it up. He read it and highly recommended it to me. I was hooked, and read as many as I could. I even joined the Discworld community on LiveJournal, which led to me meeting Hedwig, which led to me joining IIDB, and so on and so forth. All thanks to that guy who left his book on the ferry. :D

[ravenscape]

DH left Kafka's Metamorphosis on a plane a few years ago. I've always wondered what happened to the poor bastard who picked up that little jewel unawares.

[PostMortem]

My favourite Discworld character? Well, look to your left! (For those who don't know, that's Sam Vimes)

PS. I'm almost 100 percent sure that I posted this exact same thing in this thread a couple of weeks ago, but now it's gone?!?!

[ravenscape]

here was a database crash or disturbance in the space-time continuum or some such a day or so after the upgrade to vbulletin 3.7. Turns out our posts between the upgrade and the crash were wearing red shirts, poor sods.

[PostMortem]

OH I see! So I'm not losing my mind then? Well at least not on this occasion anyway.....;)

[Matty]

OKay, Granny Weatherwax is pretty awesome. I just finished Maskerade.

My kind of witch.

GW: "And of course we'll be happy to pay for the ticket by curing any embarrassing ailments you may have"
Coach Driver : "I'm not carrying you both for free, and i havent got any embarrassing ailments"
GW: "Oh really, well how many would you like"

class.

[ravenscape]

She's my hero. With every Weatherwax novel, she gets better. I thought Witches Abroad was awesome and would be hard to top. Then I read Lords and Ladies. Whoa!

I moved on to Interesting Times last night.

I'm more or less reading the novels in the order they were written, and when I do take something out of order I'm careful to stay chronological within the story arcs.

[Droopy]

Which is the best way to do it, really. They do function well enough as stand alone books but are richer with the full background to each tale.

[Matty]

i am doing them pretty much at random, having picked a bunch up at the secondhand shop, and although they certainly get better as you are familiar with some of the characters i get the impression they stand alone very well individually.

cool, i have Lords and Ladies next, you got me all fired up for it now raven.

[ravenscape]

Lords and Ladies had me actually rooting for Magrat, as opposed to rolling my eyes. Well, rooting and rolling my eyes simultaneously.

[Hedwig]

She's my hero. With every Weatherwax novel, she gets better. I thought Witches Abroad was awesome and would be hard to top. Then I read Lords and Ladies. Whoa!



Wait until you get to the Tiffany Aching books. Seeing Granny through Tiffany's eyes is very cool. Tiffany understands Granny easily as well as Nanny does. I find that people who don't like Granny really don't understand her. The Tiffany Aching books are great to give to friends and family who are Pratchett fans but don't appreciate Granny the way that we do. :)

[hecaterin]

I'm not sure I'd recommend a *totally* chronological read. He was just finding his feet in the first couple of books, IMO. They get better. And then later they get uneven, when he was writing too much. I loves them all to pieces, but Monstrous Regiment was not so great, for instance. Jingo! is one of my favourites.

But you can always read them again in any order you like. Do not ignore the Science of Diskworld, either!

[Oolon Colluphid]

I just love Magrat for her diligently cross-stitching "Bless This Hosue"...

[Oolon Colluphid]

As for reading order, the graphics available on this page (http://www.au.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/) look about as sensible as any.

It also makes me realise how behind with my Pratchetting I am (I read them all as they came out from Mort onward, up to Last Continent... then drifted :(

[Octavia]

I just love Magrat for her diligently cross-stitching "Bless This Hosue"...

She's the last person you'd expect to be research witch, that's for sure.

[GodfreyTemple]

Isolde and I are also die-hard fans.

I know she's a staunch Weatherwaxian.
Though she has a serious weakness for Vimes and the Watch too.

I can't choose just one favorite.
But I'm quite liking Moist Von Lipwig.
Especially after the latest book.

[ravenscape]

OKay, Granny Weatherwax is pretty awesome. I just finished Maskerade.

My kind of witch.

GW: "And of course we'll be happy to pay for the ticket by curing any embarrassing ailments you may have"
Coach Driver : "I'm not carrying you both for free, and i havent got any embarrassing ailments"
GW: "Oh really, well how many would you like"

class.
I haven't finished Maskerade, but I was really taken by the conversation between Bucket and Salzella about opera and money.


"...you see, cheese does make money. And opera doesn't. Opera's what you spend money on."

"But...what do you get out of it?"

"You get opera. You put money in, you see, and opera comes out," said Salzella wearily.

"There's no profit?"

"Profit...profit," murmered the director of music, scratching his forehead. "No, I don't believe I've come across the word."


This explains a hell of a lot about garage bands, too.