|
I'm actually in the middle of a giant reread of every Discworld book in publication order, leading up to reading Shepherd's Crown for the first time later this week- I never managed to make myself read it when it came out, because then it'd all be Over. I'll put together an effortpost on my feelings when I'm done, but two points -Gods, Unseen Academicals is bad. -Monstrous Regiment is far, far better than I remember.
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 11:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 07:58 |
|
|
I feel aziraphale should be Tweedy. Much more Tweedy Think Camp pudgy Giles from Buffy
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 11:38
|
|
|
tessiebee posted:I feel aziraphale should be Tweedy. Much more Tweedy My mental picture has always been 'imagine Michael Palin played Giles'.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 11:45
|
|
|
The_Doctor posted:My mental picture has always been 'imagine Michael Palin played Giles'. Spot on. I am excited though, I think sheen is a fantastic actor and very underrated. He is just amazing at creating 3d characters. Sloth Life fucked around with this message at 12:01 on Sep 18, 2017 |
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 11:58
|
|
|
Monstrous regiment is fantastic gently caress the haters 
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 12:16
|
|
|
GodFish posted:Monstrous regiment is fantastic gently caress the haters I think you have to be right person reading it at the right time for MR and have a bit of women in war history in your arsenal to appreciate it. On my first reading (ya girl) I really didn't understand a lot of the deeper meaning. I was just "lol women fighting as men? What a stupid story". It really needs some context but saying that it is a really feminist piece in a lot of ways. Good job, Terry.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 12:39
|
|
|
HIJK posted:They were written before Pratchett settled into his usual rollicking style. However they are still great if only because of how relentlessly Pratchett tortures Rincewind. And it all kind of turns out okay at the end! The end of the TCOM is such a great cliffhanger. Exactly, they also clip along at a quick pace so you never get bored. The books are almost a tour of the entire discworld and make a great introduction I think.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 13:20
|
|
|
GodFish posted:Monstrous regiment is fantastic gently caress the haters First time I read it I felt that it was mediocre, but now it's one of my favorites. I feel like there's a reference I'm missing with the continuing "last stand" motif though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 13:32
|
|
|
There are a lot of little jabs / callbacks to British Napoleonic / Victorian wars / war fiction which will probably sail over a lot of heads. Hell, I'm still missing a few - there's a bit in which Jackrum rattles a few references to the Battle of Balaclava in a row, then talk about "getting back the flag from 4 real bastards", and I haven't been able to figure out what's he's referencing, despite asking around for years. ... Anyways, the only discworld books you should skip are the first 2 and the last 2. Oh, and the Science of Discworld books.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 14:42
|
|
GodFish posted:Monstrous regiment is fantastic gently caress the haters It's one of my favourites and I still have no clue how I lost the drat thing. Or my Gods Trilogy. That one was huge! Xander77 posted:There are a lot of little jabs / callbacks to British Napoleonic / Victorian wars / war fiction which will probably sail over a lot of heads. Standards in the Napoleonic era were carried by junior officers who had an honour guard of hard bastard experinced NCO usually armed with halberds and half pikes. They had to be hardened bastards because the loss of these flags is both a regimental and national disgrace which men would die over to take or protect. SeanBeansShako fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Sep 18, 2017 |
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 14:42
|
|
|
SeanBeansShako posted:Standards in the Napoleonic era were carried by junior officers who had an honour guard of hard bastard experinced NCO usually armed with halberds and half pikes. They had to be hardened bastards because the loss of these flags is both a regimental and national disgrace which men would die over to take or protect. quote:I was part of the Thin Red Line that turned aside the Heavy Brigade at Sheep’s Drift, I saved the Imperial flag from four real bastards at Raladan,
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 15:00
|
|
|
Honestly I think it just a reference to the standard amount of men in Colour Parties, I think the usual number was at least four men guarding the standards. It could be a cute nod towards the Sharpe series but I need to dig out my copy of Eagle to see if Cornwell described him attacking four dudes.
|
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 15:14
|
|
|
Dirty Frank posted:If you haven't read a bunch of 60-70 fantasy they aren't all that good, best saved for when you're already hooked. If you grew up reading a ton of bad 70s fantasy they are delightful parody and it's a pleasant surprise when the rest of the series become something more than just parody.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 17:14
|
|
|
tessiebee posted:I am excited though, I think sheen is a fantastic actor and very underrated. He is just amazing at creating 3d characters. Sheen is probably underrated because he stars in a lot of bad movies where he acts as broad as humanly possible.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 18:37
|
|
|
Are they making the show contemporary or a 1996 period piece? Cause Gaiman tweeted the photo was from the "11 years ago" opening and I'd be chuffed if my little fashion joke almost hit the mark.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 19:20
|
|
|
Xander77 posted:There are a lot of little jabs / callbacks to British Napoleonic / Victorian wars / war fiction which will probably sail over a lot of heads. The first two Science books are not bad, except as starting points for the series I guess.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 19:41
|
|
|
HIJK posted:The end of the TCOM is such a great cliffhanger. It had never clicked until I read you posting that that he ended it with the characters literally hanging from a cliff.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2017 23:45
|
|
|
I started the series with Thief of Time, then Thud!, then read Small Gods. So far those are still my three favourite books. The Last Continent is a close fourth.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2017 08:08
|
|
|
Thief of Time is an interesting place to start, considering its purpose is to handwave every temporal continuity error in the series.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2017 13:57
|
|
|
Maybe it's good to get "continuity isn't a big deal ok" out of the way right from the start? I've finished Watch, Death, Witches and a number of standalone books on my occasional reread project of the past two months. Got started on the first Tiffany Aching book yesterday and I'm enjoying it way more than I remember doing originally. Maybe this time I'll actually make it to Shepherd's Crown.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2017 14:34
|
|
|
Prattchet himself said they can't really be read out of order anymore. Just read the drat things as released to avoid any confusion or spoilers* *This is meant for normal people reading the books for the first time, not you obsessive dorks reading them In Latin to make your 85th read through a new experience.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2017 19:33
|
|
|
Avé! Liber Nova! Similis Liber Seneca!
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2017 19:49
|
|
|
Jedit posted:Thief of Time is an interesting place to start, considering its purpose is to handwave every temporal continuity error in the series. It was the first one to catch my eye in the library 
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2017 23:53
|
|
|
I enjoyed TCOM and TLF even though 12 year old me had never read a single word of old fantasy novels and I read them in the wrong order. I generally advocate reading them in the order they were published because, some slight mis-steps aside, they generally just get better with every book (until you get somewhere around Unseen Academicals which is easily one of the worst, though "bad Discworld novel" is almost an oxymoron).
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 02:31
|
|
|
The first one I read was The Truth, and sure I didn't get a lot of the references, but I still really enjoyed it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 05:59
|
|
|
Because of Discworld I read the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books. Well, I mean, I probably would have read them eventually anyway but you know. They aren't exactly laugh riots but they are definitely humorous.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 06:19
|
|
|
precision posted:I enjoyed TCOM and TLF even though 12 year old me had never read a single word of old fantasy novels and I read them in the wrong order. It's the worst because it's about football 
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 08:22
|
|
|
Jerry Cotton posted:It's the worst because it's about football Terry just tried to do too much in one book, leaving a lot of dangling plot threads.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 08:32
|
|
|
Screaming Idiot posted:Terry just tried to do too much in one book, leaving a lot of dangling plot threads. It was in dire need of a good hard editing
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 11:48
|
|
|
For me, Unseen Academicals was the last 'good' Discworld book for me, but I didn't much like it because I'm not any fan of football. It was For I Shall Wear Midnight and Snuff I couldn't finish.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 13:04
|
|
|
The_Doctor posted:For me, Unseen Academicals was the last 'good' Discworld book for me, but I didn't much like it because I'm not any fan of football. It was For I Shall Wear Midnight and Snuff I couldn't finish. I remember thinking Snuff was a bit too "ham-fistedly sentimental Remo saves a bunch of natives" to be great but it was still good.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 13:15
|
|
|
Jerry Cotton posted:I remember thinking Snuff was a bit too "ham-fistedly sentimental Remo saves a bunch of natives" to be great but it was still good. Snuff had a bad message and terrible writing. That's when I clearly saw his mental deterioration.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 13:19
|
|
|
Snuff's writing wasn't up to, well. But yeah, I first noticed it when Willikins turned up, and he was nothing like the character had previously been.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 13:24
|
|
|
Earlier in the thread someone had a Good Post about how Unseen Academicals completely failed to capture what makes people so passionate about football. That was the main problem for me, I have zero interest in football and it was basically like reading about Quidditch for all the investment I had in it. Same about the couple that were parodies of Beckham and Posh Spice or whatever. Snuff is also one I didn't enjoy much, especially the bit where Vimes is just lecturing the young posh women about oh they need to go get jobs and not just wait to get married. Nothing particularly wrong with the message, but it was delivered clumsily. Plus Vimes had really gotten completely invulnerable by then. I think it's way better if you pretend Vimes arc ends with Thud!
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 21:45
|
|
|
Cicadalek posted:Earlier in the thread someone had a Good Post about how Unseen Academicals completely failed to capture what makes people so passionate about football. That was the main problem for me, I have zero interest in football and it was basically like reading about Quidditch for all the investment I had in it. Same about the couple that were parodies of Beckham and Posh Spice or whatever. All that just makes me more convinced that one should read the novels in any old order. e: God drat don't listen to me, a goon.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2017 21:49
|
|
|
Cicadalek posted:Earlier in the thread someone had a Good Post about how Unseen Academicals completely failed to capture what makes people so passionate about football. That was the main problem for me, I have zero interest in football and it was basically like reading about Quidditch for all the investment I had in it. Same about the couple that were parodies of Beckham and Posh Spice or whatever. Here.
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2017 16:19
|
|
|
If you ever for some reason play the game oddity Behold The Kickmen Trin, post a review about it. It's pretty much the weird off kilter video game parody of football like UA was. Shame it was a very awkward book, I quite like the official art of the UU team  . Even got a framed print of it on my wall.
|
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2017 17:42
|
|
|
I was fine with Unseen Academicals, even if I don't really care about soccer. Consider it similar to how I was alright with The Last Continent even as a non-Aussie/Commonwealther; it was still funny and compelling enough to follow. Snuff and especially Raising Steam, though...few things bummed me out more than realizing that Pratchett was on his way out thanks to them.
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2017 16:05
|
|
|
toasterwarrior posted:I was fine with Unseen Academicals, even if I don't really care about soccer. Consider it similar to how I was alright with The Last Continent even as a non-Aussie/Commonwealther; it was still funny and compelling enough to follow. That is a very odd comparison.
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2017 19:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 12, 2024 07:58 |
|
|
toasterwarrior posted:I was fine with Unseen Academicals, even if I don't really care about soccer. Consider it similar to how I was alright with The Last Continent even as a non-Aussie/Commonwealther; it was still funny and compelling enough to follow. I liked Raising Steam just fine, aside from not really ever laughing throughout the whole thing. Snuff is... yeah...
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2017 01:06
|
|