|
i didnt even realize typing that but for gently caress's sake that's how Carrot started the book innit, his dad forces him into guard service. i wonder if Pratchett was considering the idea of kinging him and just dropped it later on, rendering Carrot pretty inert imo
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2024 22:48
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 19:25 |
|
|
great name btw, Carrot.
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2024 22:49
|
|
|
cumpantry posted:i didnt even realize typing that but for gently caress's sake that's how Carrot started the book innit, his dad forces him into guard service. i wonder if Pratchett was considering the idea of kinging him and just dropped it later on, rendering Carrot pretty inert imo He is a recurring character and it is a thing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2024 23:34
|
|
|
i guess this is my problem with series versus self contained narratives. i don't really feel compelled to read another Pratchett anytime soon but entire arcs could have been realized over the 400something pages that sadly werent
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2024 23:45
|
|
|
Sax Solo posted:This is what makes Pratchett so strange. I have read a couple books, including Guards Guards, and not really been impressed at all, yet some people are SUCH FANS and I can't figure out why. Is this how people who hate MST3K feel? He covers a *lot* of ground in his work, and the way he writes evolves significantly from beginning to end. There's probably something he's done over the course of 50-odd novels that taps into something you really care about; if we could find it, you'd then understand why people get so passionate about it. I'm not at all surprised by the "readable but I don't get the hype" reactions; for me, over half of his stuff (including Guards! Guards!) is "sure it's fine but it's not anything I need to read again". And then there's stuff like Jingo, and Monstrous Regiment, and Nation, that are absolutely among my favourite books and things I do go back to again and again. But I'd never expect anyone to react to those the same way I do; the best entry point depends entirely on the reader. MST3K is actually a really good comparison point: it's such a wide-ranging omnibus that there's always going to be dull ones, and ones everyone else loves and you don't see the point of, and then there's ones (which for me are the likes of Double 007 and The Starfighters and Space Mutiny) which are so good you want to go around quoting them everywhere and they keep you watching the next one, in case that one makes you feel like the others did.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2024 12:42
|
|
|
Phrased that way it's like the inverse of the common criticism of people like Malcom Gladwell. Perhaps Pratchett seems simplistic in areas you don't care about, but then skilled and artful in areas you do. I like that description, that sounds like a good author. Hieronymous Alloy posted:Pratchett has been imitated a lot but he's also extremely British in a way that may not always vibe with American readers. If you look at the annotations linked above a great deal of the stuff he writes isn't just "generic British joke", he's referencing very specific British cultural touchstones that American readers are unlikely to pick up on. I don't have any trouble enjoying Wodehouse or Jerome K Jerome or Sarah Caudwell or POB or Jasper Fforde or stuff like Sandbaggers or Tolkien for that matter etc etc etc. I mean, I don't know if HHGtG is any less British or any less comic, or that far away from fantasy, but it succeeds in a way Discworld doesn't for me. I think it's more likely to come down that for my tastes Pratchett is in the end too reserved and too inert. I was drawn in with stuff like oo luggage, oo orangutan librarian, but in the end I find the writing and the ideas and the humor underwhelming. I have a friend who REAALLY REALLY loves them -- I think generally I like people who like Pratchett -- but for me they got no pizazz. Hieronymous Alloy posted:The other thing with Pratchett is that lots of people had tried to write comic fantasy and the only remote prior successes were parts of Robert Asprin's Myth series and national lampoon's Bored of the Rings. (Of "dildo and frito bugger" fame). You forgot
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2024 19:23
|
|
|
Sax Solo posted:You forgot *sucks in breath* Careful thread! Don't make me reset the sign to zero again
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2024 19:41
|
|
|
thought it'd be longer since i'd go for another pratchett but when i dropped off guards! guards! i left the library with wyrd sisters. maybe 150 pages later and im enjoying it much more. i like the macbeth regicide ghost deal and the three sisters themselves a lot more than the poor police procedural and limp end from guaguards. humor seems more subdued which is scary since it came before ggguuuaarrddss
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2024 17:28
|
|
|
Guards! Guards! was okay. Has Pratchett ever written non-genre fiction? If you remove all the fart jokes and references, there's decent writing underneath the layer of crap. 1/5 Also as I recently found out from a Facebook literature group post in my country Pratchett's books have inspired a generation of teenage authors to try their hand at writing fantasy and it's all unpublishable garbage.
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 11:07
|
|
|
Proust Malone posted:Haven’t touched it yet but been hearing v good reviews for North Woods by Daniel Mason I haven't gotten to either of the last two months worth, but if we're looking for ideas I am about 80% of the way through this one and it's great, just really beautifully written
|
|
#
?
Apr 29, 2024 15:12
|
|
|
Gleisdreieck posted:Guards! Guards! was okay. Has Pratchett ever written non-genre fiction? If you remove all the fart jokes and references, there's decent writing underneath the layer of crap. 1/5 The thing he wrote with the least overt fantasy trappings is probably Nation, but he would absolutely have taken serious issue with the question. quote:TP: A friend of mine said: It would be impossible for you to win the Booker; all the stars would go out. The world is not constructed for that to happen. quote:Pratchett tells me that the six children's books he's written -- all published by Doubleday and Corgi -- were done to gain legitimacy as a writer. "I wanted to be invited to the best class of writer's functions," he explains seriously though it should be understood that Terry Pratchett is seldom more than half serious. "It pisses me off that fantasy is unregarded as a literary form. When you think about it, fantasy is the oldest form of fiction. What were the storytellers of old doing when they talked about the beginnings of the world? They were weaving fantasies."
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2024 12:02
|
|
|
I read Guards! Guards!, but Pratchett’s humor just didn’t work for me. His jokes all seemed rudimentary compared to things I do find funny, like the intricate farces of P.G. Wodehouse or the wordplay and absurdity of Douglas Adams. It’s not enough for me to recognize that “a neon sign powered by magic” is a joke; I need it to go somewhere that surprises me.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 03:58
|
|
|
i finished wyrd sisters last night and its humor really was much better than guards, more patient, more clever, less farting, etc. i no poo poo laughed at a part and that didnt happen once with guardsguards. even then it was still an ok read. i don't think it set the ending sequence up right, and i like the art v reality deal but i don't think he explored it enough either. despite the attempts at dividing granny and nanny as characters they kinda both felt like the same one anyway. the traveling troupe needed way more of a presence than they had. like guards all the pieces are there but pratchett couldve played differently cuz as it stands both books are good and not greatMcSpankWich posted:Even the freaking librarian always comments about how much she loves them every time I take one out "Oh I try to reread the whole series every few years! Enjoy!" I can't imagine going back and rereading any of the ones I've read so far. man i keep thinking about this librarian lol, how does she do it?
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2024 11:59
|
|
|
I like Guards, Guards and I think it's a good entry point to Discworld, but Nation is his best book imo. It had me blubbing.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2024 21:23
|
|
|
Sorry all, been busy with end of term and other things and honestly not reading a lot myself of late Guards! Guards! was my second Pratchett, after Mort, on the recommendation of the forums. I have since read through all the guards books except Night Watch which someone said I should save until I read most of the rest of Discworld? Well anyway, I've also read most of the Death books so I will probably read it next. They are fun, light romps but I'm not a huge fantasy reader so I have no strong motivation to finish them all. Proust Malone posted:Haven’t touched it yet but been hearing v good reviews for North Woods by Daniel Mason Opopanax posted:I haven't gotten to either of the last two months worth, but if we're looking for ideas I am about 80% of the way through this one and it's great, just really beautifully written Done. This will be the book for May. I'll get the OP updated when I get a moment
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 01:36
|
|
|
well well well my library's got a copy so i guess i'll be taking a peek. in general i'd like to read more 21st century lit, i'm nearly done with The Corrections by franzen and it's a pretty amazing slice of the 2000's with ridiculously strong interesting leads. put it in the queue if it's not there already
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 02:24
|
|
|
Bilirubin posted:Sorry all, been busy with end of term and other things and honestly not reading a lot myself of late This is actually the perfect time of year to read Night Watch due to the setting  It's my favourite Pratchett. I don't think you need to have read most of Discworld for it, especially since you've read all the other Watch books.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 04:33
|
|
|
Recently finished North Woods and yes, the beauty of the prose got me. I was prepared for the plot to be gimmicky but I was sold by the third section. I also (though not a woman) feel like he writes women characters very well.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 07:13
|
|
|
I've placed a hold on North Woods. Hopefully the 73 people ahead of me read quickly 
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 08:48
|
|
|
79 people ahead of me for the physical book! Only 63 for audio, maybe it will be less time.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 12:46
|
|
|
Finished it last night, it's a real treat. I can't even remember how I wound up with it on my ereader, it must have been on sale at some point and I guess the cover caught my eye. I'm glad I did though, always nice to take a break from all the horror/sci fi I normally stick to. It is, technically speaking, a book of short stories about a house in the woods of New England from when its built in the 16th century, all the way through to the indeterminate future, but it's just gorgeously written and plays with a few different styles and genres in a really charming way.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2024 14:07
|
|
|
a little past 100 pages and finding this pretty sluggish, i especially didn't enjoy the soap opera chapter being by far running the longest. i like the concept overall as the land as character, protagonist even. while the variation of writing forms (letter to prose to poetry etc) is interesting i think mason's poetry in particular is terrible and it's a shame you'd have to assume alice is just a terrible poet herself cause woof. my eyes aren't necessarily falling off these pages but they aren't really happy to be here either. the aforementioned styles ultimately all sound like one guy, which something like World War Z also suffers from but not V. idk the actual prose isnt doing anything for me either, i'll probably pick out some excerpts later to share and discuss. it's elegantly worded but stiffly so, like outdoing Nathaniel Hawthorne stiff*, and worse, Mason is telling jokes. *i havent read A Scarlet Letter since junior year
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 00:02
|
|
|
Hieronymous Alloy posted:Suggestions for Future Months you still have Orlando here. on behalf of my observation i vote The Once and Future King as June's BOTM cuz i'm sitting here now thinking about high school assignments and i was fond of that one
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 00:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 19:25 |
|
|
cumpantry posted:you still have Orlando here. on behalf of my observation i vote The Once and Future King as June's BOTM cuz i'm sitting here now thinking about high school assignments and i was fond of that one Thanks, forgot about that list of HA's. I can edit out Orlando. I could have sworn TOAFK was done before but it might have been back in the day. It has been a hot minute since I last read it so I'll add it to the list. Thanks for bumping that!
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2024 03:22
|
|