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SeanBeansShako posted:I like to think they never went away, all the horrible things there are just terribly bored because the Wizards have moved on though.
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Apr 14, 2015 15:54
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Vimes could probably have managed to get them citizenship in Ankh-Morpork to mutual benefits.
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Apr 14, 2015 17:46
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I've read Color of Magic and Interesting times (also Bad Omens) and enjoyed those immensely. Now I'm reading The Last Continent, and it's just boring and I'm kind of slogging through it. Are there other Discworld novels more like the previously mentioned ones, or are more of them like The Last Continent.
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Apr 14, 2015 21:59
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The older they are, the more they're going to be like Color of Magic. Terry started going into a different direction quite quickly. I'd say those that are most like it are The Light Fantastic and Sourcery. Possibly Equal Rites but I can hardly remember that one.
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Apr 14, 2015 22:07
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FINGERBLASTER69 posted:I've read Color of Magic and Interesting times (also Bad Omens) and enjoyed those immensely. Now I'm reading The Last Continent, and it's just boring and I'm kind of slogging through it. Are there other Discworld novels more like the previously mentioned ones, or are more of them like The Last Continent. Keep going with the older ones in order and stop when you feel they're running out of steam.
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Apr 14, 2015 22:16
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I'd say don't binge on pratchett. Read 3-4 books in a row, at most. Then stop for a while. Then if you return 6+ months down the line his humor will feel fresh again.
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Apr 14, 2015 22:53
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Try different storylines, switch to the Watch or the Witches. (Guards! Guards! or Wyrd Sisters)
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Apr 14, 2015 23:14
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DrNewton posted:Dyslexic here. I also work in a book store. I want to give you some tips. Sorry, realise that this was a while back. Thanks. I will bear the good advice in mind. Never really thought of it that way.
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Apr 19, 2015 13:59
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FINGERBLASTER69 posted:I've read Color of Magic and Interesting times (also Bad Omens) and enjoyed those immensely. Now I'm reading The Last Continent, and it's just boring and I'm kind of slogging through it. Are there other Discworld novels more like the previously mentioned ones, or are more of them like The Last Continent. Last Continent sort of requires you to have visited Australia to enjoy fully. My Lovely Horse posted:The older they are, the more they're going to be like Color of Magic. Terry started going into a different direction quite quickly. I'd say those that are most like it are The Light Fantastic and Sourcery. Possibly Equal Rites but I can hardly remember that one. You say it like it is a bad thing. For various series, I would say the Witches run out of steam in Lords and Ladies, the Wizards in Last Continent, The Watch in Jingo and Death in Thief of Time. Which also probably Pratchett realised and gave us Tiffany Aching and Moist, where Moist runs out of steam in Raising Steam.
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Apr 22, 2015 09:27
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Cardiac posted:
Speaking of which, I'm reading through the Moist books at the moment. Is Kidby making a reference to Moist having such an unremarkable face when he draws him differently on each book or is that just a coincidence? Normally he's fairly consistent in drawing characters so that they're recognisable from first glance. I think the only other person I had trouble recognising was Ridcully on the cover of Unseen Academials, he looks like a generic wizard there along with three or four other generic wizards.
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Apr 22, 2015 10:29
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Cardiac posted:the Witches run out of steam in Lords and Ladies
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Apr 22, 2015 11:42
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I'm surprised at Jingo's reception here; it's one of my favorite Watch books thanks to the dynamic between Vimes and the D'regs, who 71-hour Ahmed is, and Colon and Nobby's adventures with Vetinari.
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Apr 22, 2015 11:53
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As far as I know, it's well liked here. It's a top 3 book for me along with Mort and Night Watch.
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Apr 23, 2015 01:58
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Honestly, the witches, like the Watch, don't lose steam so much as build up too much steam to the point of becoming more or less unstoppable within their areas of expertise and then having trouble staying inside the lines of a story.
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Apr 23, 2015 04:05
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Agnes Nitt (and Perdita) was one of my favourite parts of Carpe Jugulum and I kinda wish she was in more books. Or at least showed up. Or was ever mentioned ever again.
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Apr 23, 2015 06:01
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Rand Brittain posted:Honestly, the witches, like the Watch, don't lose steam so much as build up too much steam to the point of becoming more or less unstoppable within their areas of expertise and then having trouble staying inside the lines of a story.
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Apr 23, 2015 07:26
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FactsAreUseless posted:Carpe Jugulum disproves this. Not really, Carpe Jugulum was not particularly good. The whole thing with subverting fairy tales had become rather predictable at that point and vampires are frankly rather boring. Maskerade is however better than both Lords and Ladies and Carpe Jugulum. YggiDee posted:Agnes Nitt (and Perdita) was one of my favourite parts of Carpe Jugulum and I kinda wish she was in more books. Or at least showed up. Or was ever mentioned ever again. Sort of the problem with Agnes Nitt was that her entire role was to be fat, and that kinda wore out after a while. Rand Brittain posted:Honestly, the witches, like the Watch, don't lose steam so much as build up too much steam to the point of becoming more or less unstoppable within their areas of expertise and then having trouble staying inside the lines of a story. This is sort of a problem with all of Pratchetts works, which he usually and thankfully solved by moving on to new characters.
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Apr 23, 2015 07:33
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Cardiac posted:Not really, Carpe Jugulum was not particularly good. The whole thing with subverting fairy tales had become rather predictable at that point and vampires are frankly rather boring. Maskerade is very good, but Carpe Jugulum is better than you remember. The theme of all the Witch novels is how stories affect life; Carpe takes the angle of what happens when stories stop being stories. The vampires try to be real in order to stop people fearing them, but in doing so make themselves more frightening and much more monstrous. Also it has Don'tgonearthe Castle, complete with the sign saying "Do Not Visit The Gift Shoppe!"
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Apr 23, 2015 08:31
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Carpe Jugulum also has Mightily Oats in it, and his character arc is rad as hell.
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Apr 23, 2015 10:52
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:Carpe Jugulum also has Mightily Oats in it, and his character arc is rad as hell. I loved Mightily Oats, especially the bit where he makes his axe into a holy symbol. It's such a sastifying moment.
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Apr 23, 2015 12:27
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Jedit posted:Maskerade is very good, but Carpe Jugulum is better than you remember. The theme of all the Witch novels is how stories affect life; Carpe takes the angle of what happens when stories stop being stories. The vampires try to be real in order to stop people fearing them, but in doing so make themselves more frightening and much more monstrous. We are pretty much just comparing different opinions here, but I didn't really like Carpe (well, for being a Pratchett book that is. It goes without saying it is a very good book containing lots of hilarious scenes). Probably it is because I find vampires pretty boring.
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Apr 23, 2015 12:49
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I really like how Oats and the vampire daugher both say "Everywhere I look I see something Holy" in such different ways. It's a really powerful moment to me. 
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Apr 23, 2015 18:27
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Upon reflection, I think that Carpe Jugulem is probably the strongest of the witch books. Their characters are firmly established, but they don't feel like caricatures of themselves. Mightily Oats has an excellent character arc and his realization of the holiness of everything is nicely mirrored by the vampires having the same realization with a different outcome. I liked the way that the vampires' attempts to humanize themselves only made the monsters more monstrous. Oddly, I didn't realize how much I liked it until I went back and thought about it; prior to this thread of conversation here it wouldn't have made my top 10, but reflecting on it has definitely moved it up to #1 Witch book.
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Apr 23, 2015 23:21
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The wine drinking scene was funny, "Drink it quickly before it congeals!"
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Apr 23, 2015 23:46
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Just re-read Nightwatch and I had completely forgotten how the part were VImes goes from cell to cell in the torture chamber was.
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Apr 26, 2015 11:50
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Alhazred posted:Just re-read Nightwatch and I had completely forgotten how And having just finished Snuff for the first time ever (as opposed to the other Guards books which I've all read before) I think Vimes was missing a certain vulnerability he had, even in Thud!. It reminds me of the Die Hard movies where John McClane was badass, but also a loving terrified and hurting dude and you could see the toll everything took on him, and by the third or fourth movie the balance of being a badass to regular dude had shifted too far towards badass and weakened everything. Which is lovely because I absolutely love Vimes as a character but it felt like he was missing the iron self control and carefully channeled suppressed rage he usually has.
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Apr 27, 2015 03:28
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Khizan posted:I liked the way that the vampires' attempts to humanize themselves only made the monsters more monstrous.
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Apr 27, 2015 06:47
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Paul.Power posted:Although it's interesting that Pratchett immediately gave the idea of humanised vampires a second chance, with Lady Margolotta and the Uberwald Temperance League. Wonder what she thought of the de Magpyrs' antics. The Magpyrs weren't humanised vampires, though. They were vampires putting on a mask of humanity to convince humans that being cattle was a good thing. To use an analogy: the UTL have quit smoking, the Magpyrs are the marketing division of the tobacco company.
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Apr 27, 2015 08:12
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Solenna posted:And having just finished Snuff for the first time ever (as opposed to the other Guards books which I've all read before) I think Vimes was missing a certain vulnerability he had, even in Thud!. It reminds me of the Die Hard movies where John McClane was badass, but also a loving terrified and hurting dude and you could see the toll everything took on him, and by the third or fourth movie the balance of being a badass to regular dude had shifted too far towards badass and weakened everything. Which is lovely because I absolutely love Vimes as a character but it felt like he was missing the iron self control and carefully channeled suppressed rage he usually has.
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Apr 27, 2015 12:21
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FactsAreUseless posted:Snuff is the Live Free or Die Hard of the Watch books. It is not good. Still better than the train one. Snuff basically made Vimes and his butler into caricatures of themselves, but it was still palatable. Raising Steam was just all over the place.
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Apr 28, 2015 01:21
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The more I hear about Snuff and Raising Steam the more depressed I get. I might just have to leave them unread forever. Everything else is golden though, right?
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Apr 28, 2015 02:21
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Hedrigall posted:The more I hear about Snuff and Raising Steam the more depressed I get. I might just have to leave them unread forever. Everything else is golden though, right? Unseen Academicals is not something I found particularly enjoyable to read besides some bits at the start and honestly I have no idea what the ending was supposed to be about. Some people think Moving Pictures is a bit weak. People give the non-Death bits of Reaper Man a bad rap but almost every other character is pretty cool, so even if people think the villain is a bit silly, the actions of everyone else still make it fun, at least to me.
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Apr 28, 2015 04:24
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I'm rereading the whole series right now, but I think I'll probably stop at Thud. Making Money marks the start of a noticeable decline IMO. Snuff felt like basically a retread of Thud except with country folk vs goblins instead of dwarves vs trolls, and also Vimes has pretty much literal superpowers. I could not even finish Raising Steam. Aside from that, I felt no urge to reread Monstrous Regiment but I wouldn't call it bad. All of the young adult stuff is good, even the ones written after Thud. Also, for those who are cursed to play DOTA2, the most recent patch added an item called the Octarine Core 
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Apr 28, 2015 04:36
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bewilderment posted:Some people think Moving Pictures is a bit weak. People give the non-Death bits of Reaper Man a bad rap but almost every other character is pretty cool, so even if people think the villain is a bit silly, the actions of everyone else still make it fun, at least to me. Moving Pictures has more straight-up parody stuff than anything else after Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic. It reads like it was written earlier, not after Wyrd Sisters. The bits with Gaspode are wonderful. I'd agree that the non-Death sections of Reaper Man aren't as good as the bits with Death, but that's a really high standard.
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Apr 28, 2015 04:44
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Hedrigall posted:The more I hear about Snuff and Raising Steam the more depressed I get. I might just have to leave them unread forever. Everything else is golden though, right? Edit: I also really disliked Making Money, but I might be in the minority on that one.
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Apr 28, 2015 12:52
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Making Money I found to be sort of middling. It felt like a rehash of Going Postal, which itself felt like a rehash of The Truth. I have enjoyed all three but I feel that I would have enjoyed Making Money more than I did if it had either tried out some new ground or been produced at a later date. (Though, I suppose, that means it probably wouldn't have been written after all....)
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Apr 28, 2015 13:23
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Hedrigall posted:The more I hear about Snuff and Raising Steam the more depressed I get. I might just have to leave them unread forever. Everything else is golden though, right? The Last Continent pretty bad. It's basically just a bunch of dad jokes about Australia.
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Apr 28, 2015 20:10
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FactsAreUseless posted:Unseen Academicals is mixed but I still enjoyed it overall. Otherwise the only books that don't hit are early misses like Eric (which was originally illustrated). The only one I genuinely don't like is Monstrous Regiment. It was just really predictable -- an one-joke book where you could guess the punchline by the twentieth page.
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Apr 29, 2015 03:05
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The only one I genuinely don't like is Monstrous Regiment. It was just really predictable -- an one-joke book where you could guess the punchline by the twentieth page. You mean from the cover
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Apr 29, 2015 03:25
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The only one I genuinely don't like is Monstrous Regiment. It was just really predictable -- an one-joke book where you could guess the punchline by the twentieth page. I thought it was a pretty deep book about the horrors of war.
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Apr 29, 2015 04:50
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