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Strange Cares posted:I just finished re-reading Reaper man last week and I burst into tears at the end. Really hits you different when you understand your own mortality. Shepherd's Crown is the only book I've ever burst into tears about. Not because it's his best book, but because I realized that this was the last time I would ever read a new Discworld book.
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Dec 4, 2023 06:11
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Alhazred posted:If only he had cut the sentient mall plot. I think the sentient mall plot was crucial because if the B plot was as good as the A plot the book might actually kill someone.
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Dec 4, 2023 06:42
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YggiDee posted:I think the sentient mall plot was crucial because if the B plot was as good as the A plot the book might actually kill someone. It's definitely something like this. The sentient mall is important to the book in a very load-bearing way.
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Dec 4, 2023 06:53
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Alhazred posted:Shepherd's Crown is the only book I've ever burst into tears about. Not because it's his best book, but because I realized that this was the last time I would ever read a new Discworld book. Same here, but also "A Life with Footnotes". That's why the new Tiffany Aching book worries me a little bit. Has anyone already read it?
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Dec 4, 2023 10:03
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Dave Syndrome posted:Same here, but also "A Life with Footnotes". That's why the new Tiffany Aching book worries me a little bit. Has anyone already read it? It's not a novel. It's more akin to the diaries or Nanny Ogg's Cookbook.
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Dec 4, 2023 10:06
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Jedit posted:It's not a novel. It's more akin to the diaries or Nanny Ogg's Cookbook. Yeah, I know, sorry, I should've mentioned it. I also know that by all accounts it's a labor of love from Rhianna Pratchett and Paul Kidby and doesn't seem to be a cash grab, but I'm still worried. The spectacular desaster that was "...And Another Thing" by Eoin Colfer still haunts me.
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Dec 4, 2023 10:22
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Dave Syndrome posted:Yeah, I know, sorry, I should've mentioned it. I also know that by all accounts it's a labor of love from Rhianna Pratchett and Paul Kidby and doesn't seem to be a cash grab, but I'm still worried. The spectacular desaster that was "...And Another Thing" by Eoin Colfer still haunts me. i flicked through that and shuddered, adams had such a distinctive style
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Dec 4, 2023 11:28
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Alhazred posted:Shepherd's Crown is the only book I've ever burst into tears about. Not because it's his best book, but because I realized that this was the last time I would ever read a new Discworld book. For me, it was Nation. Just the prologue with Imo creating the world hit me in the feelings. Plus it’s wonderfully written. “And this is why we are born in water, and do not kill dolphins and look towards the stars” is up there with “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Coronel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” as one of my most memorable openings.
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Dec 4, 2023 11:37
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Alhazred posted:Shepherd's Crown is the only book I've ever burst into tears about. Not because it's his best book, but because I realized that this was the last time I would ever read a new Discworld book. I held off on reading it for this very reason, and had the same response, but also had An Extended Moment at the part when Granny wakes up and sees the future. There I was, a grown-rear end man actually crying while reading at the library, because God dammit Sir Terry was actually doing this, and on top of that, this was the last time I would be reading a Discworld book for the first time. These books are something that I've been reading since I was like 13 and in many ways shaped how I viewed a lot of things, but this was the last one. Heart-wrenching.
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Dec 4, 2023 13:53
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Mad Hamish posted:I held off on reading it for this very reason, and had the same response, but also had An Extended Moment at the part when Granny wakes up and sees the future. Yeah, same. Once I realized where Pratchett were going I had to take a Break.
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Dec 5, 2023 18:33
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I'll say it a thousand times, the Tiffany Aching series is Pratchett's best work. It was a true miracle that The Shepherd's Crown was produced at all. The Wee Free Men is the only Pratchett book that brought me to real tears thinking about my own passed grandmother.
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Dec 5, 2023 19:52
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Report time: I'm halfway through Tiffany Aching's Guide to Being a Witch, and it's ...fine. If you know your Pratchett lore, there's not much new in there. 95% of the text seems to be everything Terry has ever written about witches, all the way back from Esk in Equal Rites up to Geoffrey The Shepherd's Crown, compiled into neat little categories like "types of witches", "equipment", "headology" and so forth. A lot of the times phrases are used from the novels verbatim. The illustrations by Paul Kidby are gorgeous as always, and it seems to be mostly new art, with a few of his previous paintings thrown in (there's an image I remember from The Pratchett Portfolio with Rincewind running from creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions, which has been repurposed here with another character in the foreground; and I also remember having seen the group shot of the Feegles somewhere else before). The whole presentation is absolutely top-notch: The pages are sturdy with gold edging, and the hardcover book even comes in a slipcase. Clearly this has been a labor of love from all parties involved, and not a quick cash grab. Tiffany herself is an extremely sensible person in the books (most of the time, anyway), so the writing in the main text isn't particularly funny except when she adds her little extra thoughts in subscript sometimes. Most of the humor comes from comments scribbled along the margins by such luminaries as Nanny Ogg, Miss Tick, Rob Anybody, and the late Granny Weatherwax - the conceit being that Granny managed to see the unpublished manuscript of the book before her death and managed to get a few comments in, and, indeed, bicker with Nanny in those comments. Frankly, those comments were the only times the book made me laugh, while the rest of the read was just "oh, I remember this"  for me.When I first heard about the book (and knowing Nanny Ogg's Cookbook, which contains real recipes), I feared that the co-writer, Gabrielle Kent, may have been brought on board to turn this book into basically a Wicca primer with a Discworld background. I'm happy to say that this is not the case. In fact, a lot of time is spent on poking fun at "magiK" as practiced by Lettice Earwig, who keeps interrupting the text with meticulously-penned little cards protesting some of the more down-to-earth concepts and advertising her own star-and-moon-magic-type books. All in all, I'm a bit torn on this book. I get the feeling that Rhianna Pratchett can't win. She may have erred on the side of caution here, almost disappearing behind the text and introducing hardly any new material to Discworld canon (BIG SPOILER ALERT: I can't remember if it's implied in the book that the white cat "You" still holds Granny Weatherwax's spirit from a final act of Borrowing before her death, but the implication is definitely made here). On the other hand, had she started putting too much new stuff in, I'm sure people would have accused her of "usurping her father's heritage" or some such nonsense. As I said, it's ...fine. Sadly, nothing more, and happily, very happily, nothing less. Nevertheless, if this is how she's going to handle the Discworld franchise from now on, it could be in much, much worse hands - yes, I'm looking at you, The Watch TV show. I actually wouldn't mind seeing another book like this in a few years. A history of the Ankh-Morpork city watch might be fun, compiled by Carrot Ironfoundersson and written with his boundless optimism, while a cynical Vimes, a sleazy Nobby and a pragmatic Angua chime in in the margins. Dave Syndrome fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Dec 18, 2023 |
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Dec 18, 2023 05:52
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Nice! That’s as good as can be expected! Thanks for the write up! I’m trying to decide if I have to buy it to continue to be a Pratchett completionist or not.
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Dec 19, 2023 03:32
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Just ordered Guards, Guards! for my (almost 12yo) nephew for Christmas, that seems like a pretty solid one to start off on. I was about to pile on a bunch more but I figured I'll see how he likes that one.
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Dec 19, 2023 03:38
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Snowmankilla posted:Nice! That’s as good as can be expected! Thanks for the write up! I’m trying to decide if I have to buy it to continue to be a Pratchett completionist or not. Even though it may come across as if I'm a bit down on the book, I definitely heartily recommend it. ESPECIALLY if you're a completist - it's not like there's going to be a ton more of those in the future 
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Dec 19, 2023 05:11
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Youremother posted:I'll say it a thousand times, the Tiffany Aching series is Pratchett's best work. It was a true miracle that The Shepherd's Crown was produced at all. The Wee Free Men is the only Pratchett book that brought me to real tears thinking about my own passed grandmother. You can't, you really just can't get any better, or hook me harder, than having a 9-year old stake out their very sticky younger brother as bait for a fae creature and then brain it with a cast iron frying pan. That's just peak anything. The Tiffany Aching series is also some of his very most thoughtful and insightful work, and it carries a dreadful realism that coexists very well with the Disc's usual dose of whimsy. These are his best.
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Dec 21, 2023 07:11
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Also it has chapters. Chapters make things easier to read.
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Dec 21, 2023 07:35
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Part of what makes Going Postal and Making Money good too
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Dec 21, 2023 08:07
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Also enables a great lore callback with Chapter 7 followed by Chapter 7a.
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Dec 22, 2023 03:49
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Wintersmith's "this I choose to do. If there is a price I choose to pay. If the price is my life I choose to die." was incredibly powerful.
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Dec 22, 2023 04:56
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mllaneza posted:
The Tiffany Aching series has Aching loving up and then having to to fix the problems she has caused. I also like how antagonists like the Borrower and the Cunning Man doesn't make people evil, they just make people more honest about their prejudices and darker impulses. The Borrower may have stolen the money from the old man but Aching had to admit that that was something she had though about doing for example.
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Dec 22, 2023 08:05
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I didn’t care for the Tiffany Aching novels and would happily sacrifice them all for Unseen Academicals, Snuff and Raising Steam to have been written better. THAT SAID my daughter is five and loves to read and be read to; there’s nothing straight-up unsuitable in Wee Free Men, is there?
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Dec 23, 2023 12:35
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Not that I remember, no. Probably some stuff that will go over her head though
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Dec 23, 2023 12:44
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Sanford posted:I didn’t care for the Tiffany Aching novels and would happily sacrifice them all for Unseen Academicals, Snuff and Raising Steam to have been written better.
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Dec 23, 2023 13:27
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Alhazred posted:I honestly believe that Unseen Academicals is beyond salvation. There's nothing there that works. It's the one bad novel by Pratchett. I was very invested in Mightily Oats from Carpe Jugulum and having confirmation in UA that he was still alive and doing all right was something I really needed.
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Dec 23, 2023 14:03
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Alhazred posted:I honestly believe that Unseen Academicals is beyond salvation. There's nothing there that works. It's the one bad novel by Pratchett. You know the part in Making Money where the stamp forger has his negative emotions transferred to a Turnip by Igor? The drawing he makes is what Raising Steam feels like. It's almost worse than a purely bad novel, because you can see what the intention is, but he's just not able to execute it. I've never managed to get more than a third of the way through that book.
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Dec 23, 2023 14:09
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I feel like a terrible Pratchett fan for enjoying UA now.
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Dec 23, 2023 19:27
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Unseen Academicals is fine. The football hagiography is no weirder or worse than the broad cultural pastiches in Lost Continent or Soul Music, and the existentialist Orc is a genuinely good and Pratchett-y idea delivered in a somewhat unpolished way. Raising Steam is loving rough, though.
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Dec 23, 2023 19:34
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It might be better if you're a British football fan? Idk I've never read it (or anything past making money)
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Dec 23, 2023 19:36
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Another plug for the excellent biography, you get a real feel for how much the later books were desperate patch jobs it is both very sad and very moving seeing the author and Terry deal with it.
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Dec 23, 2023 19:38
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Unseen Academicals isn't that bad, but it definitely marked the decline in Terry's writing skills. Snuff was a lot worse IMO, but still a pretty decent book. I think the only truly "bad" Discworld book is Raising Steam, and boy, you gotta read the biography to understand what a miracle that book was
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Dec 23, 2023 20:19
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I enjoyed Unseen Academicals, even though it is in the worse half of discworld books. I am from a soccer country though. Don't actually remember anything about Raising Steam, it was mostly forgettable.
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Dec 23, 2023 20:33
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Last half of the biography is fuckin brutal.
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Dec 23, 2023 21:02
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I'm saving reading it for when I'm in need of being utterly crushed I think.
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Dec 23, 2023 21:12
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I didn't really thing that Unseen Academicals is particularly bad, except that it assumes the reader is intimately familiar with British football history (particularly jokes like "You think it's all over?" which make absolutely no sense in the novel without that context).
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Dec 23, 2023 22:23
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Unseen academicals has an Andrew Marvell joke at least
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Dec 23, 2023 22:38
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I’m not so much disappointed with Unseen Academicals, Snuff, and Raising Steam as I am astonished and amazed at how well the later Tiffany Aching books are, even the obviously unfinished Shepherd’s Crown. I’ve now read the complete works except for Dodger, which I gave up on halfway through. That one is stylistically distinct, following in a form I don’t enjoy, and suffers the twin disadvantages of not having characters I like and not being particularly funny. Snuff and Raising Steam aren’t especially funny, either, but the messages and characters are enough to carry me along and I still find them more interesting than some other authors’ best stuff.
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Dec 23, 2023 23:02
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Rand Brittain posted:I didn't really thing that Unseen Academicals is particularly bad, except that it assumes the reader is intimately familiar with British football history (particularly jokes like "You think it's all over?" which make absolutely no sense in the novel without that context). Which is wild because Terry didn’t give a fig about football either. Snuff wasn’t great for me, and I never finished it. Right at the start, Wilikins had a completely different personality from his previous appearances and it felt like everyone was off.
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Dec 23, 2023 23:08
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Rand Brittain posted:I didn't really thing that Unseen Academicals is particularly bad, except that it assumes the reader is intimately familiar with British football history (particularly jokes like "You think it's all over?" which make absolutely no sense in the novel without that context). That probably explains why I found UA such an unbearable slog while considering Snuff and Raising Steam to be flawed but enjoyable.
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Dec 23, 2023 23:10
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Rand Brittain posted:I didn't really thing that Unseen Academicals is particularly bad, except that it assumes the reader is intimately familiar with British football history (particularly jokes like "You think it's all over?" which make absolutely no sense in the novel without that context). Ha, the only reason I got that joke when I read it was because of a New Order song that sampled the line
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Dec 23, 2023 23:30
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