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Blind Melon posted:That is the whole point though... Carrot isn't simple. As the books point out later, you have to be fairly complicated to actually pull off being Carrot. And to circle this around, I don't think it's fair to call Carrot's characterization 'inconsistent' for dropping everything and heading off after Angua. Rather, I think it's supposed to be telling that he's doing so in light of what we know about him.
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Jan 26, 2015 18:16
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Blind Melon posted:That is the whole point though... Carrot isn't simple. As the books point out later, you have to be fairly complicated to actually pull off being Carrot. In your keenness to be right on the internet, you seem to have missed the flow of the discussion.
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Jan 28, 2015 14:59
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supermikhail posted:I have to ask: does the Fifth Elephant get better? I really don't care for that Carrot - Angua drama. I guess maybe it's not a question of "better". Funnier? Actually having some stakes? That book is really the last one that deals with it in any meaningful way, and yes it gets a lot better.
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Jan 28, 2015 19:23
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Rand Brittain posted:Okay, new topic: It really annoys me that Stephen Briggs reads all the characters from the monastery in Thief of Time with the standard Atlocious Oliental-Sounding Accent. I totally prefere Briggs to Nigel Planner, as he does this strange nasal thing, which makes every character sound stupid. Everytime I find an Unabridged book with Briggs, I cheer.
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Jan 28, 2015 20:20
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Guards! Guards! Carrot is still my favourite Carrot. His first appearance with him running around confused about how anything works in Ankh Morpork, being partnered with Nobby, and going to arrest as many people as he did. Good stuff.
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Jan 28, 2015 23:31
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Iacen posted:I totally prefere Briggs to Nigel Planner, as he does this strange nasal thing, which makes every character sound stupid. Everytime I find an Unabridged book with Briggs, I cheer. I think Briggs has a better handle on some of the characters too. Colon seems a good example, Planer made him Irish, which doesn't really seem to work with the way he speaks as written. Briggs really got the dim, comfortable community Bobby down. Planer does earnest lads well with his "Neil" voice, which I think was really good for Mort, but Carrot really should be Welsh. Briggs does make him seem a bit too worldly, in my head he sounds like Rhod Gilbert. Making Trolls Glaswegian was an interesting choice by Planer. And I thought Brigg's Sweeper sounded more like someone from a London Chinese community, which I thought helped. There's big cast recordings somewhere? VagueRant posted:Guards! Guards! Carrot is still my favourite Carrot. His first appearance with him running around confused about how anything works in Ankh Morpork, being partnered with Nobby, and going to arrest as many people as he did. Good stuff. "Carrot! Throw the book at him!"
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Jan 28, 2015 23:39
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Blind Melon posted:That is the whole point though... Carrot isn't simple. As the books point out later, you have to be fairly complicated to actually pull off being Carrot. On the other hand: quote:Constable Carrot, the Watch's youngest member, often struck people as simple. And he was. He was incredibly simple, but in the same way that a sword is simple, or an ambush is simple. He was also possibly the most linear thinker in the history of the universe.
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Jan 29, 2015 15:12
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quote:Constable Carrot, the Watch's youngest member, often struck people as simple. And he was. He was incredibly simple, but in the same way that a sword is simple, or an ambush is simple.
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Jan 29, 2015 16:59
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So Reaper Man is a pretty weird book even for Discworld. It had me baffled through a lot of it. It seemed to be two disparate stories at times. I wasn't very invested in it at all. I was kind of annoyed at how it was more a windle poons book and not a death book. And windle poons himself could have been really anyone since his death took away all unique aspects of his character. Anyway a weird book. The wizards were funny and it's nice seeing how they have actualyl solidified into an actual group of characters since Ridcully came around in Moving Pictures. The Bill Door storyline was pretty poignant and nicely put together and easily the best part of the book. So yeah for most of the book I was just kinda meh, not super into it, then the last 20 pages happened and it made me seriously want to cry. Terry Pratchett you are one weird awesome dude. Damo fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Jan 30, 2015 |
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Jan 29, 2015 18:28
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Damo posted:
I am about to start Reaper Man. Just finished Mort. But I wanted to say was, I found a pattern with the discworld books. The first chapter is often very obscure, and a little hard to understand. Then the 2nd chapter is most hilarious thing you ever read as it throws you right in the story line. The first 1/3 of the book is great, and I tend be extremely invested. Then when I hit 2//3 of the book, I am bored as hell. I slow down my reading and find my self sort of having to force myself to read it. I find the stories drag a bit and at times bits could be taken out, but yet it is still vital to the movement of the story. Once I reach 3/3, the story line REALLY picks up, and I'm left with a rollarcoaster of emotions, but mainly entertained. I noticed this with Going Postal. Then I started Guards! Guards! and I gave up 2/3 of the way. I then read Mort, which I loved, but again, I started to notice this pattern. I was slowing down 2/3 of the way when reading Mort and I was fearing that I was going to hate it and that I had too much of high hopes for DEATH. I then remembered I had this issue with Going Postal. So it motivated me to continue reading Mort and end up loving the last 50 or so pages. I am going to start Reaper Man in the next few days, and if I keep this mind frame, I think I can read it quicker than I read Going Postal and Mort. Eventually I will go back to Guards! Guards! but DEATH is has won my heart and I want to read all of his books. On another note: I tried to start Small Gods. I really want to like this book but I can't seem to get into it. I fear it may be because its a mass paperback copy and I often struggle reading mass paperbacks. I wonder if I were to read it in trade paperback, i could enjoy it more. Does anyone find they need to read Discworlds in certain formatted to enjoy it? Many years ago I tried to get into the discworld series viva ebooks. Since Terry does do chapters and I wasn't aware of that, I was so confused why one minute a witch was talking then the next some ghost. I was so put off I didn't touch the books for years. I only started reading it when I was sitting at a bus stop and someone had dumped like 20+ discworld books in this little "library" box. I picked Going Postal and took it home (it was in trade paperback). I regret not taking them all. There were 1st/2nd editions of books like NightWatch. A long
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Jan 30, 2015 00:59
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DrNewton posted:I am about to start Reaper Man. Just finished Mort. But I wanted to say was, I found a pattern with the discworld books. The first chapter is often very obscure, and a little hard to understand. Then the 2nd chapter is most hilarious thing you ever read as it throws you right in the story line. And by the third chapter, you realise that Discworld novels usually don't have chapters.  Damo - the thing with Windle's story in Reaper Man is that it's a direct parallel to Death's story. Neither of them understood what it meant to be alive until they had to face death - Windle by becoming undead, Death through gaining mortality.
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Jan 30, 2015 01:30
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Jedit posted:And by the third chapter, you realise that Discworld novels usually don't have chapters. When I say chapters, I mean like those weird little moments in time and space. I don't know what to call them so I call them chapters. Thus discworld books have like 500 chapters. xD
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Jan 30, 2015 04:29
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Vignette is the term, I think. Really you can look at all the Discworld books as one vast portrait made up of a million vignettes. Some of my favorite stuff comes from the earlier books where he hasn't quite differentiated it from Conan so you've got Cohen reminiscing about robbing a temple to some squid god with too many eyes.
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Jan 30, 2015 21:53
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Iacen posted:I totally prefere Briggs to Nigel Planner, as he does this strange nasal thing, which makes every character sound stupid. Everytime I find an Unabridged book with Briggs, I cheer. Was Briggs the one that made Vimes sound like he had a severe head cold in "Guards! Guards!"?
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Jan 31, 2015 06:54
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dragon_pamcake posted:Was Briggs the one that made Vimes sound like he had a severe head cold in "Guards! Guards!"? Guards! Guards! was Planer.
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Jan 31, 2015 10:57
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Nasal Vimes is a Planer thing and remains that way in the other Watch books he voiced.
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Jan 31, 2015 21:10
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VagueRant posted:Nasal Vimes is a Planer thing and remains that way in the other Watch books he voiced. BizarroAzrael posted:Guards! Guards! was Planer. Of course he also did "Men at Arms" and "Lords and Ladies".  He sounds disturbingly like the butler in "My Man Jeeves."
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Feb 1, 2015 00:38
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I'm glad The Colour of Magic is the 18th DW book I've read, not the first, because it's just so bad, guys. It's just so bad.
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Feb 1, 2015 04:50
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Someday I'd like to hear Witches Abroad read by a woman, given that pretty much every character worth mentioning in it is female.
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Feb 1, 2015 06:23
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Hedrigall posted:I'm glad The Colour of Magic is the 18th DW book I've read, not the first, because it's just so bad, guys. It's just so bad. It's not bad, it's just different. You're used to Pratchett spoofing real life; TCOM is spoofing the popular genre fiction of the time.
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Feb 1, 2015 17:43
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Yeah, I've said it many times, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are good, they are just not like later Discworld books. It can be a shock if you've never read them and go back to see what you've missed. But I read Discworld chronologically (in order of publication), and I think it was the best way. You get to see Discworld develop both as a world and in the quality/style of Pratchet's writing
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Feb 1, 2015 17:52
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Jedit posted:It's not bad, it's just different. You're used to Pratchett spoofing real life; TCOM is spoofing the popular genre fiction of the time. Pretty much nails it. I like to read it once every few years, It is interesting to see how much his writing style and the world itself changed and evolved over time.
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Feb 1, 2015 18:07
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Markovnikov posted:Yeah, I've said it many times, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are good, they are just not like later Discworld books. It can be a shock if you've never read them and go back to see what you've missed. But I read Discworld chronologically (in order of publication), and I think it was the best way. You get to see Discworld develop both as a world and in the quality/style of Pratchet's writing Ditto for me. I enjoyed the heck out of TCOM as my first Discworld. It isn't the best I've read so far but it's definitely not bad. And reading it all in publication order has been fantastic fun. Next up for me is Witches Abroad.
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Feb 2, 2015 00:02
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I finished The Colour of Magic. It was okay. So much of it just felt like it dragged though. None of the pastiches of other fantasy works were funny to me. It's barely half the length of later Discworld books, but it seemed longer somehow. Every other Discworld book I've read so far (18 of them) has been either a solid 4-star or a shining 5-star work. I give this one 3 stars. It had its moments though for sure. The part where they temporarily get transported to our world, and the ending, were both great. So, is The Light Fantastic better? That's next for me.
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Feb 2, 2015 00:38
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It's better for sure - it's more of the same in a way but it's much more recognisably Discworld, somehow. It also includes one of my favourite silly Pratchett jokes (about necromancy - "What's neck romance?")
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Feb 2, 2015 02:21
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Hedrigall posted:So, is The Light Fantastic better? That's next for me. Well the Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are basically one book in two parts.
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Feb 2, 2015 06:46
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MikeJF posted:Well the Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are basically one book in two parts. But written 3 years later!
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Feb 2, 2015 06:55
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John Charity Spring posted:It's better for sure - it's more of the same in a way but it's much more recognisably Discworld, somehow. It also includes one of my favourite silly Pratchett jokes (about necromancy - "What's neck romance?") Not to mention Mount Oolskunrahod.
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Feb 2, 2015 08:56
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Hedrigall posted:I finished The Colour of Magic. It was okay. So much of it just felt like it dragged though. None of the pastiches of other fantasy works were funny to me. It's barely half the length of later Discworld books, but it seemed longer somehow. Every other Discworld book I've read so far (18 of them) has been either a solid 4-star or a shining 5-star work. I give this one 3 stars. In my opinion the first two books are the weakest in the entire series, mainly because TP had only just started to flesh out the character of the discworld. I mean there's a scene in one of them, can't remember which, where the thieves and assassins fight in a bar. However they aren't presented with their distinct discworld quirkiness yet (the thieves guild badically being insurance and the assassins being a posh boarding school). Even the wizards are radically different. In the earlier novels TP uses them to poke fun at fantasy tropes specifically, like in Equal Rites when the whole concept is the difference between "male" and "female" magic in novels. Later on they still poke fun at magic but it's more a satire on universities and science than fantasy stereotypes. Rincewind is still a great character though, even then I find the later novels with him in (Interesting Times and the Last Continent) a lot more interesting. Early on he's just a funny anti-hero but later you get the feeling the poor bastard really is just a pawn in the games played by Gods and he's sort of aware of this.
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Feb 2, 2015 10:36
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Rand Brittain posted:Someday I'd like to hear Witches Abroad read by a woman, given that pretty much every character worth mentioning in it is female. Celia Imrie did an audio book for Wyrd Sisters and Equal rites, not sure if she also did one for witches abroad.
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Feb 2, 2015 13:37
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Kitchner posted:In my opinion the first two books are the weakest in the entire series I think that Unseen Academicals is a stronger candidate for that honor.
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Feb 2, 2015 17:43
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Alhazred posted:I think that Unseen Academicals is a stronger candidate for that honor. Monstrous Regiment. It's the only one that's completely predictable start to finish.
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Feb 2, 2015 17:48
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Nah, it's definitely Night Watch, which is just Guards! Guards! but without the dragon.
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Feb 2, 2015 18:14
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Alhazred posted:I think that Unseen Academicals is a stronger candidate for that honor. Raising Steam. The only one that I didn't finish.
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Feb 2, 2015 18:41
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FactsAreUseless posted:Nah, it's definitely Night Watch, which is just Guards! Guards! but without the dragon. Do you get a daylight allowance for posting?
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Feb 2, 2015 18:46
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Hogge Wild posted:Raising Steam. The only one that I didn't finish. This. The characters lost their voices.
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Feb 2, 2015 19:15
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Monstrous Regiment. It's the only one that's completely predictable start to finish. But at least it has a plot.
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Feb 2, 2015 19:16
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Snuff, Raising Steam , and Unseen Academicals are the only books I've only read once. And Thief of Time, which I've never enjoyed, despite it being one of the more popular on this thread. I finally got round to Nation last week. It's superb, and had me chortling away to myself in the pub like a lunatic. It's a real shame to see the deterioration since then.
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Feb 2, 2015 21:13
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I think pick g discworld novels written while suffering from a mental illness is probably a bit unfair. Also personally I thought monstrous regiment and unseen academicals were better than the first two books, but not by much.
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Feb 2, 2015 21:55
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I never got the hate for Monstrous Regiment. Raising Steam and Snuff are just awful.
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Feb 3, 2015 09:42
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