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Nilbop posted:I don't even know what Pepe was meant to be. You say that like it's a bad thing.
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Feb 24, 2010 16:38
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Nilbop posted:I don't even know what Pepe was meant to be. Another example of the main theme, that you don't have to live the life you were born into? Though if I was reading it correctly he went a bit farther then most of the other characters since he's a human from the gutters of Ankh Morpork living as an apparently gay fashion designing dwarf.
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Feb 24, 2010 19:39
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I'd be fine with story about juliet, trev, the fashion industry etc but as it stands it's like Pratchett tried to shoehorn two different books together, and both plots are worse off for it
Grumio fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Feb 25, 2010 |
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Feb 25, 2010 00:32
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Nilbop posted:I don't even know what Pepe was meant to be. I think he was an abnormally small Morporkian. Also why the hell is this thread rating bronze?
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Feb 25, 2010 03:06
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precision posted:It was more like he wanted to write a criticism of geopolitics but wanted it to reach a wide audience (I mean, as good as Nation is, how many casual PTerry fans even know it exists?). Yeah, I don't hear a lot of NATION talk in this thread, and it's very good...it could easily be a good movie as well.
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Feb 28, 2010 11:58
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Nation was really good. The love story was a fizzer, but that's par for the course with Pratchett books. I don't think he actually knows about how people fall in love. I sort of wonder if his relationship with his wife ended up as much a 'we might as well' moment as the successful relationships in his books.
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Feb 28, 2010 12:02
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Every time there's a romantic scene in a Pratchett novel I instantly feel like I'm watching a Hugh Grant movie. I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just that kind of particularly British caricatured "bumbling into love" sort of thing. Except in Going Postal. The romance in that is much different, and the source of my favorite part of the novel: Where Lipwig poses on the horse, the newspaper people are all around him, and he asks if Adora will marry him and she replies "Not yet."
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Mar 1, 2010 02:55
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I'd forgotten how much I loved Spike. I hope they get her right in that TV adaptation they're doing.
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Mar 1, 2010 05:21
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When is that coming out on SKY? Also, anyone vaguely read his earlier non Discworld novels? I can scaresly remember the Carpet People.
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Mar 1, 2010 16:00
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SeanBeansShako posted:Also, anyone vaguely read his earlier non Discworld novels? I can scaresly remember the Carpet People. The Bromeliad trilogy (Truckers, Diggers, and Wings) were decent children's books. Little people ("Nomes") live parasitically on human society, but because they live so much faster than humans they are mostly ignorant of why or how humans do anything. High adventure for pre-teens, I guess. And Strata was a fun Sci-Fi take on creationism and fear of science, with a planet-building society and an alternate-universe flat-Earth (maybe a proto-Discworld). Plus there are aliens. I remember sort of enjoying one of the Johnny books as well, but never really found the rest of them and haven't bothered to find any more.
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Mar 2, 2010 00:04
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I actually saw the Truckers film before I read any of the books. That poo poo was terrifying - good, but terrifying.
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Mar 2, 2010 00:29
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I loved the first Truckers book but didn't think as highly of the rest of the series. Dark Side of the Sun was a fun little sci-fi comedy with some interesting ideas.
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Mar 2, 2010 01:07
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Staggy posted:I actually saw the Truckers film before I read any of the books. That poo poo was terrifying - good, but terrifying. It's actually interesting to see how much of Pratchett has stayed the same since 1989. Truckers has crotchety-but-powerful old ladies, bemused male leads who see the world as it is, spunky female leads, mild puns, teases religion, and etc. Truckers is actually darn good, but Diggers is frankly boring. Wings wraps things up okay.
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Mar 2, 2010 01:29
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I really love the Johnny books. Only You Can Save Mankind has dated a bit with its numerous references to late-80s computer games, but is still a lovely bit of grounded sci-fi weirdness; Johnny and the Dead is really very funny and sort of like Nation in that it explores a philosophical concept in some detail; and Johnny and the Bomb is poignant and again very funny. It's a very believable little group of kids/teenagers that he portrays in these books, too.
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Mar 2, 2010 12:56
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John Charity Spring posted:
Oh god yes. The dialogue in the Johnny books is eerily accurate, as is the depiction of growing up in a grotty post-Thatcher industrial town where the only thing to do is get chucked out of McDonalds on a Saturday afternoon and throw Tesco trolleys in the canal. (I'm sure I've had the conversation about "fridge molecules" too. It's the sort of crap you talk about when you're 14 and impossibly bored.) I love the Johnny Maxwell books, and kind of wish Pratchett had done a bit more writing in that real world setting.
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Mar 2, 2010 16:45
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Johnny and the Dead had an awesome kids TV series on ITV in the mid nineties I do recall too.
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Mar 3, 2010 01:23
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There is also a Johnny and the Bomb TV series which was released as a film, it's OK but works better as a series, they didn't edit it to turn it into a film so the pace is a bit weird in that format. Carpet people is an odd one, I've never read the original as copies of that are very rare and worth a small fortune now, however the revised edition, re-written by Pratchett aged 43 is a good read. You can however feel him trying very hard to dig the original book out of being a complete fantasy Cliché, but what else would you expect from a 17 year old fantasy fan's first book? It's still a lot of fun though and I love the concept behind it, one of the most interesting ideas for a fantasy world I've read. I also have 'The Unadulterated Cat', a weird little comedy book about cats, worth finding if you love both Pratchett and cats I guess.
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Mar 3, 2010 14:23
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Everything about cats is weird.
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Mar 3, 2010 16:10
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Nilbop posted:Everything about cats is weird. Death likes cats. You calling him weird?
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Mar 3, 2010 22:15
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Jekub posted:I also have 'The Unadulterated Cat', a weird little comedy book about cats, worth finding if you love both Pratchett and cats I guess. I've liked most of the 'not discworld' books too - also the cat book is also great if you don't really like cats but inexplicably own one too because I get the feeling that's the camp he belongs to.
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Mar 10, 2010 00:04
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I've not read the cat book but from all the mentions of cats in his other works he comes across as being very fond of cats and all their, well, let's be charitable and call them foibles.
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Mar 10, 2010 15:37
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John Charity Spring posted:I've not read the cat book but from all the mentions of cats in his other works he comes across as being very fond of cats and all their, well, let's be charitable and call them foibles. Let be honest, Cats have the same eccenricness and odd cruel streaks that remind us of our own little species .
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Mar 10, 2010 17:34
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I plan on reading the discworld novels in publication order, is Eric worth bothering with? I understand it was originally released as a graphic novel like The Last Hero but it's only available now in paperback with all the pictures omitted, it's really short and by all accounts not all that good. Shall I just skip it or should I read it anyway?
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Mar 12, 2010 20:10
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BELL END posted:I plan on reading the discworld novels in publication order, is Eric worth bothering with? I understand it was originally released as a graphic novel like The Last Hero but it's only available now in paperback with all the pictures omitted, it's really short and by all accounts not all that good. Shall I just skip it or should I read it anyway? Eh, Eric is okay. But it is pretty much 'Whacky Travels with Rincewind'.
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Mar 12, 2010 20:12
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SeanBeansShako posted:Eh, Eric is okay. But it is pretty much 'Whacky Travels with Rincewind'. Come on the chapters with Hell are quite funny.
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Mar 12, 2010 23:20
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Mokinokaro posted:Come on the chapters with Hell are quite funny. Oh yeah, forgot about that. It also reveals a pretty amusing ancestor of Rincewind too.
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Mar 12, 2010 23:23
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Any consensus on which of the Witches books are best? I read Carpe Jugularum and wasn't thrilled with it. Are the rest of them similar or is there a better one I should check out?
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Mar 15, 2010 18:13
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Spigs posted:Any consensus on which of the Witches books are best? I read Carpe Jugularum and wasn't thrilled with it. Are the rest of them similar or is there a better one I should check out? Witches Abroad. Witches Abroard. Witches. Abroad.
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Mar 15, 2010 18:18
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I've never read a Witches book past Equal Rites because I disliked it so, so much. I should probably get around to doing so.
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Mar 15, 2010 18:46
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Nilbop posted:I've never read a Witches book past Equal Rites because I disliked it so, so much. Equal Rites is a pretty early one, and I can't blame you as it is a pretty slow one to start and slog through.
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Mar 15, 2010 18:58
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Equal Rites also isn't really a witches book, though I liked it well enough when I read it. Wyrd Sisters is pretty good but is mostly there for the Shakespeare gags so although they're very good Shakespeare gags the characters still haven't coalesced. Witches Abroad, if anything is even more of a gag vehicle but the characters have taken proper shape and I enjoyed it a lot. Lords and Ladies is my favourite. But then, I'm a complete sucker for fairies-are-actually-bastards stories, because British folkloric fairies are so much better than the modern stereotype.
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Mar 15, 2010 19:06
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Spigs posted:Any consensus on which of the Witches books are best? I read Carpe Jugularum and wasn't thrilled with it. Are the rest of them similar or is there a better one I should check out? If you didn't like that one, I'm not sure you'd exactly love any of them, but my personal favorite is Lords and Ladies. What was it you didn't like about Carpe? I mean, if it was the Witches themselves then you're not going to enjoy any of them. How anyone could dislike Esme Weatherwax is beyond me, though.
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Mar 15, 2010 20:48
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I have a soft spot for Maskerade myself, mainly for Nanny Ogg's The Joy of Snacks and when they meet the troll in the publishing house, but both Lords and Ladies and Witches Abroad are great reads.
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Mar 15, 2010 21:00
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precision posted:If you didn't like that one, I'm not sure you'd exactly love any of them, but my personal favorite is Lords and Ladies. And after Maskerade, how could you not like Nanny Ogg!
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Mar 15, 2010 21:26
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Carpe Jugulum loses something when it's the first Witches book read- it's harder to appreciate the how the characters and dynamics have changed without the earlier books to build on. I didn't much care for it myself until I read up on the other ones.
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Mar 15, 2010 21:29
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The Relentless posted:And after Maskerade, how could you not like Nanny Ogg! Nanny Ogg is epic. And teaches us all such an important lesson in life.
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Mar 15, 2010 21:34
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So many important lessons, including the savouring of life's unwanted trifles, providing that is that your knickers can hold them.
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Mar 15, 2010 21:38
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SeanBeansShako posted:Nanny Ogg is epic. And teaches us all such an important lesson in life. An important lesson about hedgehogs.
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Mar 15, 2010 23:06
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Nilbop posted:I've never read a Witches book past Equal Rites because I disliked it so, so much. Equal Rites is weird. It's sort of a Witches book, but Pterry hadn't quite figured out what he was doing with the Witches yet, and he hadn't quite figured out the characters properly. The Granny Weatherwax of ER is way different than in later books, and unless I'm misremembering Nanny Ogg doesn't show up at all, which is deeply weird if you started with the later books where Granny and Nanny are practically inseparable. And it's one of those many early plots that basically just amounts to "oh no dungeon dimensions!" but without as much clever incidental stuff as, say, Sourcery.
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Mar 16, 2010 03:17
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Equal Rites has very little impact, if any at all, on the later series, so it's probably just to be read as part of the entire journey to where he is now.
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Mar 16, 2010 05:44
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