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Just finishes the long earth, have to agree it felt a bit off because so little was truely resolved in the book. I like the world though, so I will be getting the sequels. It just feels more like half a book than the opening of a series.precision posted:I recently watched the fairly recent BBC Dirk Gently miniseries (written/produced by Howard Overman of Misfits fame, and tldr it's really friggin' great) and holy poo poo, the guy who plays Dirk - Stephen Mangan - has got the exactly perfect look and perpetually-ready "oh shi- LEG IT!" attitude that would make the Best Rincewind. holy poo poo why did I not know about that, that has got to be one of the most amazing base stories ever.
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Aug 24, 2012 22:43
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Con Update 2 Backspindle's new game is based on sending clacks transmissions. Each player gets a five letter word to spell using the clacks alphabet on a 4x4 grid of lamps. Lamps are switched on and off using action cards that toggle lamps in a fixed pattern. I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet, but it looks very simple and apparently it plays 2-player in 15 minutes. The Bedtime Story was Dodger, from which we were read the acknowledgments and just more than the first chapter. Heere be draggones: Terry originally intended this to be a Discworld book, but realised early on that it would be more interesting to set his Artful Dodger spoof in the real Victorian London as it allowed him to use real characters like Sir Robert Peel, Charles Dickens and Dickens' lesser known friend, the historical writer Henry Mayhew. The story begins, as all good stories should, on a dark and stormy night. A young lady falls out of a carriage and is followed by two men who are up to no good. The titular Dodger, a tosher and occasional pickpocket, intervenes for reasons even he doesn't understand and is observed in this by Dickens and Mayhew. Mayhew arranges for the girl to be kept safe at his home while Dickens, intrigued by the mystery, sets out to investigate and employs Dodger to ask questions in the parts of London where a man like Dickens cannot go. There's a lot of historical detail in the book. Terry researched the oldest gentlemen's outfitters in London, Davis and Co, to ask what colour their door was in 1850. In the course of doing this he also found that Davis and Co had not only made the uniforms for the Peelers, Sir Robert himself had bought his clothes there. For reasons too complicated to go in to Terry had needed to know what kind of trousers Peel had worn; the firm were not only able to tell him, they still had the receipt from one of Peel's orders which had a precise description of the colour, fabric and cut. There's another reading on Sunday, this time from the short fiction collection due for release in October. It includes some very early works, so there'll be something even for the Fan who Has Everything.
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Aug 25, 2012 09:01
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Jedit posted:Con Update 2 I love the fact that this is what Terry is interested in in-between writing my favourite series of books and forging swords from star-metal. He just has the most interesting life.
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Aug 25, 2012 09:12
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Con Update 3 - Guest of Honour Interview OK, there's a lot to type here, I'm on my phone and I only have 20 minutes so please pardon my spelling mistakes. The GOH interview is usually used for discussing future plans, and you'll be pleased to hear there was a lot to talk about. Terry has been to Borneo again to do a BBC documentary about the orangutans called Terry Pratchett: Facing Extinction which may be airing as early as October so keep an eye out. Apparently while he was out there a shaman tried curing his Alzheimer's - no word yet on whether ritual magic has proven successful, but it hasn't got any worse so you never know. Next up is the Discworld App. It's forthcoming for the iPad - not the iPhone - and will hopefully migrate to other platforms. The content of the app is a virtual multimedia walking tour of Ankh-Morpork based on the revised version of the Map, and is designed in part to be used in concert with the Compleat Ankh-Morpork City Guide that is due out in November. You will encounter many denizens of the city on the way, all with voice acting and sound effects. Stephen Baxter was also present, and we were informed that work on Long Earth 2 has begun. Joshua, Sally and Lobsang will be back, as will Nelson the vicar, , but that's all we know. Other nuggets: Terry is working on a new Discworld book featuring a known character. He was asked by a Kenyan fan if there were plans to do a book set in Howondaland, and while nothing is written it is on his list of things he'd like to do and he's figured out how to do it without it being a parody.
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Aug 25, 2012 14:52
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That suggestion from the Kenyan fan was genius, and I do hope it can happen and Terry finds a way to bring us a little more Discworld magic too.
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Aug 25, 2012 15:59
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Con Update 4 The second reading just finished. This time the material was all taken from Blink of the Screen, the anthology of Terry's short fiction which covers his entire writing history. We were given four readings in all. The first was The Hades Business, Terry's first published short story from 1962. (No, that is not a typo - he wrote it when he was 13, going on 14.) It comes complete with a grovelling apology for forcing you to read such juvenile nonsense and a large dose of acute embarrassment to see it published unmodified. The second was The Glastonbury Tale, a humourous account of Terry's trip to the first Glastonbury Festival along with six New Age hitchhikers, all rendered in the style of Chaucer. Third was a drabble called Incubust. Lastly, there was a section excised from The Sea And Little Fishes. Obviously a book covering 40 years of a writer's career with material ranging from juvenilia to early drafts of professional work is going to be a mixed bag and possibly also a curate's egg, but I think there will be enough here to keep everyone mostly happy.
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Aug 25, 2012 18:26
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Dodger sounds absolutely brilliant, can't wait. I just realized I have a pretty long backlog of PTerry books. I think there are at least ten(!) that I haven't read yet for one reason or another.
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Aug 25, 2012 18:40
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Con Update 5 Wasn't expecting to post this, but I just got some extra news. Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen have completed the manuscript for Science of Discworld 4 and will be submitting it to the publisher on Tuesday. It should be out before Christmas. The book, which as of 30 minutes ago is subtitled Judgement Day, centres on an attempt by the Church of the Latter-Day Omnians to seize Roundworld by patent trolling. It also features Discworld's answer to the Large Hadron Collider, a Roundworld librarian transported to the Disc, the nature of causality and other divers alarums. We also got a reading from Chapter 13, which among other things includes the former Dean trying to get out of paying to enter the Whispering Gallery at St Paul's Cathedral by proclaiming that he created the universe.
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Aug 26, 2012 13:30
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Looks like I need to read the first three Science of Discworld books then. Do they come with illustrations like The Last Hero, or can I just buy them for the Kindle?
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Aug 26, 2012 16:30
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They don't and to be honest they're of varying quality but worth a look.
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Aug 26, 2012 18:28
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Jedit posted:possibly also a curate's egg Perhaps a stupid comment, but the curate's egg wasn't actually "good in places" - it was entirely awful and he was trying to be polite. Were you going for the incorrect meaning, or the correct meaning there?
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Aug 26, 2012 19:43
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Con Update 6 So, the one you've all been waiting for - the Watch panel. The first big piece of news is that all future Pratchett productions are going to be handled by Narrativia, Terry's very own production company. The second big piece of news is that The Watch is finally greenlit for production, with BBC Worldwide putting up funding for a series of 13 1-hour episodes with a budget of $3m each. The show will be joining Doctor Who as one of the flagships of fantasy drama. The plan for the show is to have the major Watch characters present, but to centre around new characters created for the show so as to give viewers unfamiliar with the books an easy introduction to the world. Each episode will have a "crime of the week", but the series will have a running plot arc. (Before you panic about the new characters, the showrunners are Terry himself; Guy Burt, a screenwriter who has been a Discworld fan for 25 years; and Terry's daughter Rhianna.) Six new characters in all are planned, though only three are known at this time and one of those is identified only as "a goblin". The other two are Quinn, a scion of a once-wealthy family now down on their luck, and an Igorina who is a relative of the Igor currently in the Watch. We have also had confirmation from Rhianna that Death will be in the show, on the very good basis that "we'll be lynched if we don't". The third piece of big news is that Good Omens is also confirmed as being in pre-production with STV. There is speculation that Benedict Cumberbatch is in the frame as Aziraphale or Crowley, but then again he's speculated for every role on British TV except Frank Bruno. The last piece of news is that Terry said that when he finally passes, he will be happy for Rhianna to carry on writing Discworld stories - for TV, if not actual novels.
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Aug 26, 2012 21:06
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Jedit posted:The second big piece of news is that The Watch is finally greenlit for production, with BBC Worldwide putting up funding for a series of 13 1-hour episodes with a budget of $3m each. But my calendar doesn't say December 25th...  Seriously, this is amazing.
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Aug 26, 2012 21:28
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I am so damned excited for the Watch series that I can't even begin to explain it.
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Aug 26, 2012 21:39
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Pope Guilty posted:I am so damned excited for the Watch series that I can't even begin to explain it. You should have seen the mood reel.  Anyway, that's all the major events of the Con over and done with. I have some photos that I'll stick up when I get home tomorrow night, and if I think of anything I forgot I'll type it up then. Jedit fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Aug 26, 2012 |
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Aug 26, 2012 21:55
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I'm just sad they didn't ask Terry Gilliam to get in on Good Omens. He's wanted to do that forever and I can't think of a better director for it.
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Aug 26, 2012 21:58
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precision posted:I'm just sad they didn't ask Terry Gilliam to get in on Good Omens. He's wanted to do that forever and I can't think of a better director for it. We don't know that there hasn't been shocking new developments and the king of hit and miss is not now attached to it. But good Lord that was a big wave of good news all at once, I really hope the Watch show ends up doing well God just saying that I feel so dirty gagh
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Aug 27, 2012 07:47
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From the sounds of it, Discworld will NOT die with Terry. Sounds like his kid is getting interested in taking up the mantle, albeit in a different medium. Hope she learned the trade well.
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Aug 27, 2012 08:40
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Mister Roboto posted:From the sounds of it, Discworld will NOT die with Terry. Sounds like his kid is getting interested in taking up the mantle, albeit in a different medium. Hope she learned the trade well. Terry decided it was the right thing to do when he mistook one of her Discworld jokes for one of his own.
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Aug 27, 2012 09:56
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Pope Guilty posted:I am so damned excited for the Watch series that I can't even begin to explain it. Yeah, it's the best piece of news I've heard recently. I'm so glad it didn't die in development hell. The Ankh-Morpork they created for Hogfather/Colour of Magic/Going Postal was absolutely perfect and I'm happy I might see it again.
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Aug 27, 2012 15:49
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Great news on both the Watch TV series and the fact the series will continue in some form with his daughter.
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Aug 27, 2012 16:10
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Jedit posted:Terry decided it was the right thing to do when he mistook one of her Discworld jokes for one of his own. Well, that's great news! Maybe they'll do a collaborative novel at some point so the torch is officially passed. Pterry's done a few of those before so it's be a great way to show the fandom the possibilities for the future. I feel kind of dirty posting in the Pratchett thread (which is full of decent posters) with my new I-hate-Mister Roboto-revenge-avatar, though.
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Aug 27, 2012 16:13
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The Watch series sounds too good to be true. You haven't made this up out of whole cloth, have you, Jedit?
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Aug 27, 2012 20:04
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John Charity Spring posted:The Watch series sounds too good to be true. Not really, I mean Discworld is as popular/more popular in the UK than Game of Thrones is in the US, especially among people who normally don't read fantasy. It's pretty much guaranteed to generate a good bit of revenue if it's any good (it will be, drat it).
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Aug 27, 2012 20:45
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John Charity Spring posted:The Watch series sounds too good to be true. It has been talked about for quite some time. It was announced back in March, 2011. Of course, Jedit could be making up the stuff about budget and so, but I want to believe. I need a good fantasy CSI-like program in the telly.
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Aug 27, 2012 21:09
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Dear Death, Can we have Pete Postlethwaite back, please? Yours vivaciously, Me.
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Aug 27, 2012 23:44
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John Charity Spring posted:The Watch series sounds too good to be true. I don't make anything up. There were even a few things I didn't add because I'm not sure I heard them correctly, because they were part of private conversations, or because I've been asked not to tell you. Not everything I've said about the show may come to pass, but right now it's what is planned.
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Aug 28, 2012 00:25
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Jedit posted:I don't make anything up. There were even a few things I didn't add because I'm not sure I heard them correctly, because they were part of private conversations, or because I've been asked not to tell you. Not everything I've said about the show may come to pass, but right now it's what is planned. I don't suppose, and if this is going beyond the pale feel free to tell me where to go, anyone broached the subject of a final book?
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Aug 28, 2012 00:52
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rejutka posted:Dear Death, At least we've already got a good Angua.
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Aug 28, 2012 01:35
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Nilbop posted:I don't suppose, and if this is going beyond the pale feel free to tell me where to go, anyone broached the subject of a final book? No. All we know is that Snuff will not be the last.
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Aug 28, 2012 09:37
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I am indescribly excited at the thought of a big budget BBC sat evening discworld show. Pratchett for the masses!
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Aug 28, 2012 20:45
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Finished The Long Earth today. Liked it a lot, but I agree it did seem like there was a lot of setting up in it. I thought it took a while to really grab me, but when it did, I finished it off pretty quickly. Glad to hear its planned to be a series, I want to know more about the blob thing, I forget the name. The trolls are great too, even if "troll Wikipedia" gives me entirely the wrong picture in my head.
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Sep 1, 2012 22:57
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I've been on a Pratchett mission over the past week and have managed to re-read Going Postal, Making Money, Guards! Guards! Men at Arms, Jingo, Night Watch, Thud!, Sourcery, and Moving Pictures and am about to start Equal Rites. I'm not sure what's happened to me I suddenly started craving these great books and am loving every minute of it. There is always a joke I've managed to miss, Discworld is the treasure that just keeps on giving.
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Sep 2, 2012 00:04
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Flipswitch posted:There is always a joke I've managed to miss, Discworld is the treasure that just keeps on giving. Yea, verily. I know I still haven't got all the references. One from Maskerade that non-British people often miss is that Walter Plinge is based on Frank Spencer in the sitcom Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaAFynsoZAs The joke is that Frank was played by Michael Crawford, who went on to become internationally famous for playing the title character in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. This led to a lot of readers feeling very clever because they knew Walter was the Ghost ... right up to the moment where Walter and the Ghost appear in the same room. McDragon: I have confirmation that The Long Earth series is intended to be five books long, and Baxter has enough of a plan to finish it should Terry falter before it's done.
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Sep 2, 2012 00:31
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A reminder to all that Dodger is released in the UK tomorrow.
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Sep 11, 2012 14:54
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Jedit posted:A reminder to all that Dodger is released in the UK tomorrow. Amazon has it listed as being out on the 13th.
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Sep 11, 2012 20:11
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fluppet posted:Amazon has it listed as being out on the 13th. That's correct, but my mental calendar had today listed as being the 12th. Still, people, it's this week. Batten down the hatches for spoilers, and prepare to relieve your wallets of their tedious burden.
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Sep 11, 2012 20:42
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I'm re-reading The Carpet People and the intro made me wonder if there are any exact (or even approximate) records of the changes between the initial version and the 1992 rewrite. Google doesn't really help.
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Sep 23, 2012 09:22
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I'm not sure if this is kosher or not, but if it ain't, please do tell so I can take it down ASAP: I just got a Kindle, and I've been looking to get a copy of Snuff for it since I haven't read that yet. However, it seems that only the UK Amazon store has a Kindle version for download. Are there other methods of acquiring a copy apart from the obvious "dummy UK account" solution? vvv: Err, yes? I've seen the US page, there's no available version for purchase and download. toasterwarrior fucked around with this message at 14:33 on Sep 30, 2012 |
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Sep 30, 2012 14:03
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toasterwarrior posted:I'm not sure if this is kosher or not, but if it ain't, please do tell so I can take it down ASAP: http://www.amazon.com/Snuff-Discworld-Novels-ebook/dp/B00563M11M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1349011096&sr=1-1&keywords=snuff ^^^ Maybe your in a country that doesn't have licensing rights the book? It shows fine for me, I linked directly to the kindle edition so you shouldn't need to click on anything just the buy now button. imnotinsane fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Sep 30, 2012 |
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Sep 30, 2012 14:19
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