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Aug 25, 2020 09:55
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Alhazred posted:The Lost Continent was pretty bad. It's one of the few Discworld books I haven't read several times (on the second reread I just gave up). Last Continent was awesome. One of my first Discworld books, I read mine at least 7 times, until it fell apart. Eric is complete garbage.
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Aug 25, 2020 10:28
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Beachcomber posted:Last Continent was awesome. One of my first Discworld books, I read mine at least 7 times, until it fell apart. You really are the anti-me. I really liked Eric, I even got a signed copy.
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Aug 25, 2020 18:35
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Alhazred posted:The Lost Continent was pretty bad. It's one of the few Discworld books I haven't read several times (on the second reread I just gave up). I liked it more on my eventual reread than my original assessment of the book but, yeah. It's a real stark contrast to Interesting Times, where Prachett seemed willing (at times, definitely over-willing) to be critical of the real world analogue of the subject matter, here it's bizarrely toothless. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert turns up - I think the first of that kind of representation Prachett ever did - and it's like, haha yeah I routinely get beaten up routinely for my sexual/gender orientation, boy wow Australians are horrifically racist - these little tiny one sentence condemnations that are more interesting than the majority of the book. The whole book winds up being a bad tourist brochure - hey everyone loves Australia, we have beer and drop bears and a coy wink and please don't talk to us about aboriginal people they're all fine with it but specifically do not bring it up around white Australians no reason, why. Boomerangs! Kangaroos! G'day, mate! It felt pandering and shallow to me. The wizards B plot was better than the main book and the wizards B plot sucked.
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Aug 26, 2020 10:57
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I like all the books for different reasons.
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Aug 26, 2020 14:22
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Reading "I Shall Wear Midnight" again. It's bittersweet.
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Aug 27, 2020 01:41
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Pratchett fans, this is how you die:
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Aug 31, 2020 01:06
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Over the past year I've read all the Watch books, then read all the Death books, and finally Small Gods. Favorites from each series were Night Watch and Thief of Time. The only book I didn't really like was Snuff. Anyway, where do I go from here? I'm thinking of reading some more one-offs rather than diving into a series. Monstrous Regiment? Pyramids?
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Sep 9, 2020 16:58
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Tokelau All Star posted:Over the past year I've read all the Watch books, then read all the Death books, and finally Small Gods. Favorites from each series were Night Watch and Thief of Time. The only book I didn't really like was Snuff. Anyway, where do I go from here? I'm thinking of reading some more one-offs rather than diving into a series. Monstrous Regiment? Pyramids? I really like Small Gods and Moving Pictures
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Sep 9, 2020 17:07
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The Truth kind of kicks off the "Industrial Revolution" arc (for want of a better word). It's also a Watch book without being a Watch book, and is the Pulp Fiction/All the President's Men mashup you didn't know you needed.
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Sep 9, 2020 17:23
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Nice, I'll check out The Truth and then Monstrous Regiment after that.
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Sep 9, 2020 18:39
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Monstrous Regiment is considered one of the weaker ones, I believe. I don't remember it at all, tbh.
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Sep 9, 2020 18:41
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Actually it's one of the best
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Sep 9, 2020 18:46
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YggiDee posted:Actually it's one of the best It really is.
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Sep 9, 2020 18:47
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YggiDee posted:Actually it's one of the best 
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Sep 9, 2020 18:54
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Megazver posted:Monstrous Regiment is considered one of the weaker ones, I believe. I don't remember it at all, tbh. It's certainly in my top three.
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Sep 9, 2020 22:17
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Megazver posted:Monstrous Regiment is considered one of the weaker ones, I believe. I don't remember it at all, tbh. It's actually very good buddy!
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Sep 9, 2020 23:50
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Yeah, the biggest criticism I can give of it is that if you're looking for a continued arc of your favorite characters, they're probably not here. Vimes makes a cameo, and that's about it. It stands on its own really well though.
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Sep 10, 2020 05:55
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The Truth and Monstrous Regiment have the cool feature of having Vimes as seen by someone who is not part of the Watch.
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Sep 10, 2020 06:14
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I struggled to enjoy Monstrous Regiment when I read it as a teen and it's one of the very few if not only I've never re-read. I think ill have to give it another go.
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Sep 10, 2020 06:19
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BurgerQuest posted:I struggled to enjoy Monstrous Regiment when I read it as a teen and it's one of the very few if not only I've never re-read. I think ill have to give it another go. Compared to any other Pratchett novel I'd read up until then*, I was extremely bored when reading it when new. I read it again last year or so and it was OK I guess  Now cue goons who categorically disregard the first 11 words of that. *) Obviously this was before I'd read Unseen Academicals 3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 09:05 on Sep 10, 2020 |
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Sep 10, 2020 06:57
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3D Megadoodoo posted:Compared to any other Pratchett novel I'd read up until then, I was extremely bored when reading it when new. I read it again last year or so and it was OK I guess
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Sep 10, 2020 08:37
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3D Megadoodoo posted:Compared to any other Pratchett novel I'd read up until then, I was extremely bored when reading it when new. I read it again last year or so and it was OK I guess This is pretty much my exact experience.
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Sep 10, 2020 08:48
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I think the thread has established by now that while Pratchett is Pretty Dang Good throughout his lexicon there's a tonal shift as the books go on that means some resonate better with some folks than others.
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Sep 10, 2020 10:41
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Bruceski posted:I think the thread has established by now that while Pratchett is Pretty Dang Good throughout his lexicon there's a tonal shift as the books go on that means some resonate better with some folks than others. I like all the books either side of both Monstrous Regiment and Eric.
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Sep 10, 2020 10:49
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the confusion comes from the fact monstorus regiment has one of the best first ~75% of a diskworld book and then the ending is total poo poo. people who like it remember the tense and gritty military drama with Prachett's humour and cynicism, people who dislike it remember the lovely Gilbert and Sullivan just-so ending that undoes all the tension from the rest of the book. also the vampire is supposed to be trans, right?
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Sep 10, 2020 10:53
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CoolCab posted:the confusion comes from the fact monstorus regiment has one of the best first ~75% of a diskworld book and then the ending is total poo poo. people who like it remember the tense and gritty military drama with Prachett's humour and cynicism, people who dislike it remember the lovely Gilbert and Sullivan just-so ending that undoes all the tension from the rest of the book. What? No, the ending is the best part! quote:also the vampire is supposed to be trans, right? Old Kentucky Shark fucked around with this message at 11:17 on Sep 10, 2020 |
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Sep 10, 2020 11:14
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CoolCab posted:also the vampire is supposed to be trans, right? She's implicitly trans if we take Sally's comments in Thud! about how Vampire shape-shifting works as canon and apply them retroactively to Monstrous Regiment. It's obviously a valid and fine reading and I've nothing against people choosing to identify with Maladicta as a trans character, but yeah, I highly doubt Pterry intended her to be trans and I doubt he remembered those details about her when he gave Sally that line. No, that's not a joke about him having Alzheimers, I just mean that I doubt he remembered a one-off detail about a one-off character from a one-off book he'd written years prior when giving Sally a line that served to provide justification to a joke.
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Sep 10, 2020 11:22
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Old Kentucky Shark posted:What? man, it really isn't. so you have what is structured like a war movie - you have your cast slowly being worn down by the attrition of battle, everyone is going insane as they're losing access to blood, food, etc - overall there's the tension that their country is so depleted by war that the entire unit is illegitimate - as if they had run out of men completely. they suddenly become the most valuable asset in the war, the book is building to an interesting if seemingly dark denouement. and we get the resolution - their old commander guy takes a page out of bugs bunny and does the inexplicably attractive cross dressing bit and it totally works. it's lazy and atonal and that matches the rest of the ending - oh suddenly they're not desperate, it turns out their country has always secretly been amazons and no one noticed ever?? there was no tension at all - in fact, this was apparently a totally typical engagement for the nation of Contrivia. all the things the reader is worrying about - because the narrative kept telling them to be - are resolved instantly, often off camera. seargent jackrum resolves the conflict with their HQ by literally doing exactly what the previous antagonist, stroppi, does, and threatening to expose them. except there wouldn't be anything to expose if she did - given a solid half of the army already loving knew, apparently?. i don't throw out Gilbert and Sullivan lightly - the book is a drama except then it turns on a dime into utter utter farce, and massively suffers for it imo. quote:I think the vampire is just supposed to be a vampire. reread that section, I think polly takes that interpretation but I don't think it's accurate, she's clueless.
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Sep 10, 2020 11:34
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Monstrous Regiment is one of my faves, but I have a preference for war stories (and how Pratchett does some gosh darn research on the matter), so I rate Jingo a lot higher than most people. That said, I have absolutely forgotten the ending of it beyond the Jackrum reveal.
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Sep 10, 2020 11:46
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RoboChrist 9000 posted:She's implicitly trans if we take Sally's comments in Thud! about how Vampire shape-shifting works as canon and apply them retroactively to Monstrous Regiment. It's obviously a valid and fine reading and I've nothing against people choosing to identify with Maladicta as a trans character, but yeah, I highly doubt Pterry intended her to be trans and I doubt he remembered those details about her when he gave Sally that line. No, that's not a joke about him having Alzheimers, I just mean that I doubt he remembered a one-off detail about a one-off character from a one-off book he'd written years prior when giving Sally a line that served to provide justification to a joke. I don't know what section you're referring to, my reading is entirely based on the original book (although I will confess it's been a minute). Contrast how various characters "come out" - Jade for instance does so so casually it's never even focused on by the narrative. You get to the end of the book, and both Polly and the audience is primed for more characters being like they are and as such misses the subtext entirely in what Maladicta was saying. Remember - other characters in this book are extremely young or foreign - they only needed to start pretending to be males when they signed up. Is that true of a vampire?
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Sep 10, 2020 11:56
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CoolCab posted:I don't know what section you're referring to, my reading is entirely based on the original book (although I will confess it's been a minute). Contrast how various characters "come out" - Jade for instance does so so casually it's never even focused on by the narrative. You get to the end of the book, and both Polly and the audience is primed for more characters being like they are and as such misses the subtext entirely in what Maladicta was saying. Remember - other characters in this book are extremely young or foreign - they only needed to start pretending to be males when they signed up. Is that true of a vampire? Good point. And the line in question is about how like the way male Vampires and female Vampires transform into a bat/s varies based on sex. And IIRC the transformation we see Maladicta using is one that, according to Sally, is specific to males.
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Sep 10, 2020 13:10
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CoolCab posted:man, it really isn't. so you have what is structured like a war movie - you have your cast slowly being worn down by the attrition of battle, everyone is going insane as they're losing access to blood, food, etc - overall there's the tension that their country is so depleted by war that the entire unit is illegitimate - as if they had run out of men completely. they suddenly become the most valuable asset in the war, the book is building to an interesting if seemingly dark denouement. Jackrum's threat being somewhat absurd was kind of the point, as I read it. Showing off how absurd the whole situation was, especially from her deeply cynical perspective, given she knows just how many of the people In Charge are in on the deception that has no real reason to be a deception at this point except inertia and internalized misogyny.
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Sep 10, 2020 13:23
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Liquid Communism posted:Jackrum's threat being somewhat absurd was kind of the point, as I read it. Showing off how absurd the whole situation was, especially from her deeply cynical perspective, given she knows just how many of the people In Charge are in on the deception that has no real reason to be a deception at this point except inertia and internalized misogyny. Right. The point of the series of gender reveals at the end isn't a hilarious farcical jape, it's that the rot in Borogravia was purely systemic, being perpetuated by generations of authority figures who did what they did cynically knowing that they were propping up a lie. And the only way out of it is to tell another lie, to take what Polly and company did and to make a kind of living fable out of Polly despite her own wishes. At the end of the book, while Polly has gained some freedom, her actions are still fundamentally bounded by the limits of her nation's willingness to bend their heads around gender norms in a safe, sanitized way. It's one of the darkest endings Pratchett ever wrote. Old Kentucky Shark fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Sep 10, 2020 |
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Sep 10, 2020 13:52
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And the war isn't even over. Borogravia and Polly is trapped in never ending conflict.
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Sep 10, 2020 15:42
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Bruceski posted:I think the thread has established by now that while Pratchett is Pretty Dang Good throughout his lexicon there's a tonal shift as the books go on that means some resonate better with some folks than others. Nah, the tonal shift you talk about has more to do with the Watch books and how Vimes becomes SuperCop. I prefer the early ones, while also having the opinion that the Tiffany Aching series and Monstrous regiment are among the best of the lot.
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Sep 10, 2020 17:58
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Cardiac posted:Nah, the tonal shift you talk about has more to do with the Watch books and how Vimes becomes SuperCop. I had a lot more sympathy for Vimes before he set up a journalist to get whacked.
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Sep 10, 2020 19:00
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Maybe it's because I love the Dwarves and love spooky stuff and especially love Pterry's take on the two, but I really wish we got more Uberwald stuff. I love Fifth Elephant and Thud! and I'm still reading the Witch series so haven't got to Carpe Jugulum yet but odds are I'll love that too.
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Sep 11, 2020 06:54
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Sarern posted:I had a lot more sympathy for Vimes before he set up a journalist to get whacked. He didn't. He had the journalist watched in case someone else tried to have him whacked, and the journalist threw a peppermint bomb at Angua to get her off his trail. After that, Vimes said gently caress it, and left him to his own devices.
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Sep 11, 2020 07:54
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 12:07 |
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For everyone who has been keeping The Shepherd's Crown unopened so there'll always be a Pterry book they haven't read: the last collection of his early short stories just came out.
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Sep 11, 2020 09:23
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