The Terry Pratchett Thread: For the sake of prisoners and the flight of birds

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Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Hedrigall posted:

In a perfect world where it wouldnt cost billions of dollars, the best possible adaptation of Discworld would be a themepark.

Pratchett has actually been approached by people who wanted to build theme parks. He turned them down.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2011 20:05

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 04:01

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

DontMockMySmock posted:

Echoing this from FactsAreUseless: Small Gods is the best of the standalone Discworld books, and may be the best book Terry Pratchett ever wrote.

The ending of that book is maybe the best thing Pratchett has ever written:
Brutha dies and arrives at the ethereal desert. There he finds Vorbis who's petrified of walking across it. As Death said Vorbis found out that Hell is actually the lack of other persons. Now Vorbis made Brutha's life a living hell when he was alive, but Brutha takes his hand and they walk together across the desert :unsmith:

# ¿ Mar 27, 2011 14:44

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

veekie posted:

Happened with Granny in Witches Abroad too. Well, similar.

I'm not a big fan of the witch books, but yeah that was pretty clever.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2011 18:02

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Hedrigall posted:

Nah his agreement was that there would be no angry-god rah rah stuff for 100 years, nothing about Brutha dying? :\

According to wiki:
Om also agrees to forsake smiting of Omnian citizens for at least a hundred years. The last moments of the book see Brutha's death a hundred years to the day after Om's return to power and his journey across the ethereal desert towards judgement, accompanied by the spirit of Vorbis, who Brutha found still in the desert and took pity on. It is also revealed that this century of peace was originally meant to be a century of war and bloodshed which the History Monk Lu-Tze changed to something he liked better.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2011 15:01

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

ibroxmassive posted:

She features in all of the novels and in Night Watch is Vimes sole concern. I mean he buys Lawn an entire hospital just to make sure she's safe

I think Thud! proves why you do not want to gently caress with Vimes' family.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2011 17:41

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Evfedu posted:

There's some cool foreshadowing with names

The names raises the question of when Small Gods is on the Discworld timeline. It seems like it takes place before the other books (when Mightily Oats were kid for example the more tolerant version of Omnianism had been around for some time) and yet the philosophers appears in both Pyramids and Small Gods.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2011 18:42

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

ibroxmassive posted:

He's sailing down the Styx to rescue Death, who in exchange will make Sam the God of Coppers and therefore immortal.

And it will be awesome.

"Tell me," said Blind Io. "Is there a god of policemen?"
"No, sir," said Carrot. "Coppers would be far too suspicious of anyone calling themselves a god of policemen to believe in one."

# ¿ Apr 15, 2011 18:54

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Doc Hawkins posted:

I do think his style might be a better match for the non-Discworld books, though, like Dark Side of the Sun and Strata.

Those covers are pretty awful too.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2011 22:33

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Sammyz posted:

Granted this is coming fresh off of finishing the entire City Watch arc so it had a lot to live up to. I'm just started on Reaper Man and I do love Death as a character so hopefully I'll enjoy the next ones a bit more.

You should also read Soul Music, Hogfather and Thief of Time because Susan Sto Helit is a pretty awesome character.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2011 22:43

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Ak Gara posted:

I like to imagine that Rincewind is pleased to hear that.

Yeah, he seemed happy with being ape number two.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2011 18:45

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Dr Snofeld posted:

I always thought he made a good adventure game protagonist, at least.

I think Lewton was better.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2011 14:38

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

SeanBeansShako posted:

Discworld Noir was the best in my opinion too, having an original story was a billion times better than a mish mash of several Discworld novels.

Plus puzzles that actually made sense. You could use the crowbar to open things without having to combine it with a chicken first. The notebook system was kinda neat too.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2011 18:50

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

SeanBeansShako posted:

Getting a guide for Discworld 1 in 2000 was my first proper use of the internet at the local library. Paid 20p to print it out.

Discworld Noir is well worth picking up on the cheap and playing it, especially if you enjoy a good poke at Noir style stories.

Good luck with getting it to run on your computer though. It was kinda buggy to begin with, god knows how it runs on newer systems.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2011 12:22

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Iacen posted:

That track is one of my personal favorites. It's just perfect. Hell, the entire soundtrack was great. If there are two things I will always remember from that game (besides "Hwhat do you know about a dwarf named Al-Khali?") it's the little jingle that played when you got a clue.

When You Met Her is also pretty great.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2011 19:15

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Pratchett really isn't the kind of author that likes to wrap up the lives of his characters though.

# ¿ May 31, 2011 19:52

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Mister Roboto posted:

Isn't he? Several characters have had "arcs" that ended with their deaths or happy normal lives. Susan, for example, settled down with Lobsang.

She did? She and Lobsang shared a perfect moment but Pratchett hasn't said what happens after that

quote:

Rincewind (and this is Word of God) is done with his wacky adventures.

That has probably more to do with that Pratchett really doesn't want to write about him than any desire about wrapping up his character.

When you see interviews with Pratchett he's the first to tell that any evolution of characters or the world itself has happened accidentally, he didn't want to make a chronicle or anything. If something or someone develops in the stories it's because it would serve the story not for development's own sake. Plus there really is nothing to indicate that Vimes is ready to retire or that Vetinari is ready to leave the city to Moist. I don't really see any signs that any of the characters are approaching any form for endgame.

# ¿ May 31, 2011 21:42

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Mister Roboto posted:

In theory, Discworld could go forever, with new characters and new arcs. But Pratchett himself has said that Discworld dies with him

He hasn't, what he has said is:
Certainly while I'm alive I wouldn't let anybody else write Discworld. When I'm dead - well, that's up to my executors.

quote:

I think he's a very intelligent and empathic man, and I think he WOULD finish up Discworld's arcs as a result.

I don't see how killing Vimes would be very empathic. And to be honest I don't really see the need to wrap up any characters either. There are no huge unresolved issues in the Discworld series.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2011 11:36

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

I honestly don't see the need for wrapping up anything or why characters has to die to achieve that.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2011 16:47

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

If Pratchett did decide to write the absolutely final Discworld book that wraps everything up I'd much rather have him do it like Bill Watterson than have him beginning to kill off characters:

# ¿ Jun 4, 2011 18:06

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

JerryLee posted:

I really liked Unseen Academicals, horrible US cover notwithstanding, but I just finished ISWM and while it was a better book than most books, I really thought I perceived a drop in quality, not so much in the selection of characters and plot points, but in the prose. There's stuff like a massive lack of contractions where normal people would use them, and people repeatedly using Tiffany's full name throughout conversations for no apparent reason, that make my eye keep tripping on the page. Paragraphs seem oddly structured, dialogue seems more monolithic and soliloquizing than is normal for a Discworld novel (TA novels included--I've been reading them straight through in order for the first time).

There are some parts where it returns to the fluidity and cleverness of the prose I've come to expect from Pratchett--the scene where Tiffany and Lelitia go to the library is one--but that only reinforces the fact that it seems a lot more stilted elsewhere.

I think the best way to put it is that, as someone who's spent the past two years in graduate-level creative writing workshops, it reminds me of my own prose before I've sent it through workshop and everyone has told me that it's metaphorically full of jagged splinters that need to be sanded smooth. It feels like an unpolished or semi-polished draft that no one did a readability pass on.

Disclaimer: I'm going to go through some of the older books again and try to confirm for myself that the writing style has changed, but I haven't yet; I literally just finished ISWM this afternoon.

It's not like this is the first time he has written a book that isn't great. The Last Continent for example was written long before anyone could suspect that there was something wrong with him and allthough UA isn't great either I still think it's better than the Last Continent.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2011 22:31

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

I think the biggest issue with UA was that there wasn't much plot at all. The wizards have to play a game of football, but they don't have to win it. Add to the fact that most of the players on the opposite team aren't that bad and it's hard to care about the outcome. Nutt was interesting but again all he does is learn about his past. It's also kind of weird that we've never heard about the Dark Lord given that people iike Mad Lord Snapcase was mentioned long before they actually appeared in a story.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2011 15:04

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

SaintFu posted:

It wasn't a matter of the wizards winning or losing, but of the new football falling to the same thugs (Andy Shank and his type) as the Old Football. And while most of the players on the opposing team might not be so bad, it's Andy who comes to the fore and has to be beaten in order to finally kill off the Old Football.

It's just that any conflict just fizzles out. The team agrees that Andy is no good and kicks him off it with no argument. There's never any chance that of football falling to him.

quote:

Uberwald's imperial past has always been vague and mysterious. While he hasn't been mentioned before, the Dark Lord isn't inconsistent with the little that we know about the Uberwald Empire.

My impression was that he wasn't restricted to Uberwald but a kind of Genghis Kahn kinda deal. People in Europe didn't necessarily know much about Asia but they did know who he was.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2011 23:28

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

I also read them in random order at first and had no problem with it. Whenever I had to take train for example I would just buy a random Discworld book.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2011 13:24

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

SeanBeansShako posted:

Isn't the original Eric called Faust?

# ¿ Jun 16, 2011 14:18

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

SeanBeansShako posted:

God I hate the Kirby looking trolls. So much.

Trolls are grey not yellow :colbert:

# ¿ Jun 16, 2011 16:15

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Sophia posted:

I know that I must have read Eric a long time ago but I have really no memory of the story (though I have the gist of it if it's based off of Faust). What do people think of it? Is it good / bad / mediocre?

I liked Pratchett's versions of Hell. One version is like an episode of the Office (Astfgl is pretty much Michael Scott) and the other version is a place where the souls of people pretend to be tortured. The idea of the Tezumen, a tribe who awaited return of their god just so they could kill him because they blamed him for their miserable existence, was also pretty neat.

Alhazred fucked around with this message at 17:16 on Jun 16, 2011

# ¿ Jun 16, 2011 16:35

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

Otherwise there are a few that I don't like -- the early Death books especially -- but they're still good books, they're just not to my taste. Monstrous Regiment though I honestly think is a failed work. Even Homer nods.

I like Monstrous Regiment. For one thing it proves Truffaut wrong, it is possible to make a work of fiction that is anti war without glorifying it.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2011 17:15

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Sophia posted:

Gaspode is pretty great, but the main human characters (Victor? Sally?) really irritated me. I'm not really sure what it was about it but I didn't even really remember chuckling at it that much. Even the wizards weren't very funny. It could be that I'm not a film buff; I'd never thought about that angle!

Moving Picture reminds me of something. It seems like the plot of almost all the early books has something to with the Dungeon Dimension, but nowadays no one even mentions it. Not even in Thud! a book with a villain that seems like it would fit right in there.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2011 22:24

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

AlphaDog posted:

I read both Eric and The Last Hero without pictures.

Eric is fine, I didn't even know there was an illustrated edition when I read it. ]It might be better with pictures, but it's a fine book without.

It might have been better with pictures if they weren't done by Josh Kirby.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2011 13:42

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

AXE COP posted:

My copy of Night Watch is missing the last few pages. I've read it like a thousand times so I know what happens but it'd be nice to properly finish it. Is there someplace I can just like, read a few pages of it or not?

The library?

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 16:42

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Kismet posted:

I know I'm in the minority, and I can see why he wasn't to everyone's taste, but I always loved Kirby's discworld work. His compositions were amazing, and the sense of writhing, seething, chaotic, grubby matter really fit the feel of the setting for me, especially with the early books.

The sense of things like anatomy isn't that great though.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 17:52

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Ak Gara posted:

And David Jason played Albert as a "loverly, cheery, always laughing" role. That's not loving Albert.

If I remember correctly that how he was in the book, but then again Albert spent most of his time in Hogfather being drunk.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2011 21:33

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

John Charity Spring posted:

Going Postal changes some stuff significantly from the book's version, and the golems are terrible, but I really enjoyed it. Had a great knockabout atmosphere, treating post office logistics like a heist movie.

It kinda runs out of steam in the second part though.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2011 21:35

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

OSheaman posted:

I think you're mis-remembering, at least in Mort and Soul Music.

In those books he was sober.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2011 13:25

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Sophia posted:

I've always considered Tiffany and Susan to be spiritual sisters, in that they're both outsiders who are considerably smarter and more talented than those around them who have to find a way to find an identity while still living in the (often terrible) world. However, the lesson of Susan was to always be yourself so hard that the world around you had no choice but to bend to your will and personality, while the lesson of Tiffany was to know yourself so well that you could fit in around the cracks of the world as it was and still come out whole.

I like Susan because she is unyielding, but I think Tiffany is a more realistic way of growing and thus a better subject for a YA series. But I still think Tiffany is just Susan with a few tweaks. And in that sense it makes sense that Esk would show up in this last book to sort of come full circle with his idea of outsider young women, since she was the first.

Mister Roboto, I like your idea about the books playing out the various types of relationships with men that a girl might have she grows up though. I'd never thought of it that way, but you could be right.

Then again I think about these types of things far too much.

That just make me want just one more Susan book before it's too late

# ¿ Aug 17, 2011 16:48

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Dead Alice posted:

Yep and he absofuckinglutely hated it; says in his autobiography that it drove him spare recording it.

He did voice acting for Discworld Noir touhgh, which is also a really good game.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2012 13:25

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

SeanBeansShako posted:

The best one really, as it had its own (slightly original) story. I liked the first two games but not a big fan of several plots of the book vaguely mashed together motiff they had.

There was also the fact that the puzzles made sense. A crowbar was used to what crowbars is normally used for, you didn't have to combine it with a duck and put in a chimney.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2012 14:18

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Senso posted:

I'm reading The Last Continent and it's pretty funny. Lot of wizards time which is always good, an awesome Mad Max scene, time travel. And I'm not even Australian!

The Last Continent is the only Discworld book I've been unable to re-read. It's so unfunny I'm half convinced it's intentional.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2013 17:14

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Entropic posted:

It seems like Things Encroaching From The Dungeon Dimensions was the plot of half the early books, but hasn't come up in ages. The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Equal Rites, Moving Pictures, I'm probably missing a couple..

The Dungeon Dimension was the plot of the last game.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2013 21:31

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 04:01

Alhazred: Feb 16, 2011

Borogravia also have the worst god, which is quite an accomplishment in Discworld (it's guy in the bottom right):

I would prefer Bel-Shamharoth over Nuggan.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2013 17:04

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The Terry Pratchett Thread: For the sake of prisoners and the flight of birds

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