Terry Pratchett

[Deep Black]

What are peoples thoughs on "Sir Terrance"?

I 1st read his stuff at school, the 1st 10 or so Diskworld novels. Liked them but didn't love them. Also read some non-Disk stuff, again reasonable but nothing awsome.

In the years since I've often heard that his mid/later books are better.

I read "Reaper Man", found it light & entertaining.

Recently I've been listening to Night Watch on audio book (cassetts:eek:).

Gotta say for a humorous fantasy there is very little humour or fantasy. That said it's a decent book, good characters, good story, pretty grim in places (especially where they fine the torture victims).

[198505]

I am a fan of his stuff, I found the middle books to be rather weak, the last few are classics. I agree that the disc isn't really fantasy any more it's more Victorian in feel, but the humour is more satire than laugh out loud

[RedKing]

Can't stand his books - seeing a wall of them in any sci-fi section makes my heart sink.

[Conscious Bob]

Read three of them and I liked them but the problem is there's loads of them. The problem is made greater by the fact I like Robert Rankin who is widely regarded as Terry's contemporary and he's written loads too. I've read four Robert Rankin books.

That just leaves the approximate combined total of sixty books left.

[Deep Black]

Ahhh now I'm a big Robert Rankin fan, if you're gonna go for one or the other, I'd always recommend Rob over Terry (much nicer guy too)...

Although they are often lumped together, they aren't really all that similar though

[Chiaroscuro]

I've read everything up to and including Eric so far.

I really enjoyed the first two novels, and I have a big soft spot for Rincewind and the Luggage. I like the fact that a lot of the wizards are fairly inept and/or petty but for some reason when I reached the first witches book I wasn't so keen on them and their bickering.

I think as with any author when you read a few novels in a row you get used to the style and even see a similarity in characters in different novels, but considering how many characters he's created that hasn't happened much so far in the novels I've read.

I can't comment on Night Watch regarding it not being humorous or having much fantasy, maybe your take on that depends on the sort of fantasy novels you usually read and, of course, people's humour is so diverse what one person might find hilarious can leave you (one) cold. Accordingly to some his later novels are darker though, there's a recorded message from him on his Website where he says some of his readers had questioned the fact the novels were getting darker and he said he felt you need "darkness to the let the light show up".

I must admit the main reason I decided to start reading Pratchett's novels was because of some quotes of 'the Igors' in a newspaper quiz about fantasy novels, they made me laugh so much I thought it was worth giving the novels a try. Think I've got another 13 books to read before they appear though!

One final thing, I know the Josh Kirby cover illustrations are generally popular but that's the one thing I don't like about the books. I think they actually make them look a bit too comic. I'd never have even picked up one of his novels just judging it by the cover. I've noticed some with black covers creeping into the shops and, for me, they're much more appealing - and yes I know we shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

But we still do. ;)

[edash]

The Kirby covers stop in 2003 with Thief Of Time, as he died in 2001.
The covers are now done by Paul Kidby. Night Watch is much less cartoon looking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Night_watch_discworld.jpg), being based on Rembrandt's 1642 painting The Militia Company Of Captain Frans Banning Cocq (The Night Watch) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Nightwatch_by_Rembrandt.jpg).

[Deep Black]

The late Kirby appears in Kidby's Night Watch picture. & yeah I prefer the newer covers too

[Champagne Socialist]

Obviously I read Diggers, truckers and fliers when I was young. Along with 90% of my generation. For English Lit we covered Jonny and the dead as well.

I'm currently reading Nation, and it's good so far, but it's quite different to what the first thing most people think of when talking about Terry Pratchett, the diskworld.

I guess I came to the series quite late, although that has given me the chance to read through all the novels in each series back to back.
I don't know how well the humour will work as an audiobook though, it's very literary and depends a great deal on how you read it.

The Rincewind series, wasn't so hot as far as I'm concerned. The Falstaff'ian cowardly lead character didn't do anything for me, though the humour was.

The witches series was a marked improvement, much more interesting, lots of old myths and fairy tales covered, and the elves!
I don't know if the Tiffany aching trilogy counts as a seperate thread or as a follow on, but A hat full of sky is one of his best books, and one of my favourites of all time.

Then there's the Death series, a very interesting character development line, and quite fun with his interaction and poignant commentary on humanity.

Then there are the odd novels that don't fit into any series, Maurice and his amazing educated rodents, which is brilliant, and pyramids and small gods which kind of share a theme.

The Ankh Morpork series, the indomitable CMOT dibbler and Moist Von Lipwig.

The Watch series is overall my favourite series of diskworld novels, the character of Sam Vimes, Sybil, Carrot, et al. Brilliant Brilliant stuff.

There's another 3 diskworld novels been leaked.

I shall wear midnight, the final tiffany aching novel. Raising Taxes, another Moist Novel and Unseen Academicals.

Oh, and his daughter, Riana Pratchet is writing compelling stories for games like mirrors Edge.

[Halmyre]

Great stuff, and darker in tone than some people would expect. Fascinating, well written characters as well

Oh, and I think the fact that Terry has incipient Alzheimer's is definite proof that there is no god. Or if there is, he's a nasty horrible bastard. If he's got to pick on authors, he could at least start at the 'A's...

[rac]

I've fallen behind during the past few years- as my own writing output has increased, I've found the time I have for reading diminishing.
The last one I read was Monsterous Regiment- which was superb.

[phazedout]

I'm a huge pratchett fan, attending conventions and events in Wincanton, we're a diverse community and also quite fun in many ways.

I do enjoy the books and also met my partner through the discworld community also in my expericne Terry is a nice guy not met Robert Rankin so cannot comment.
Phaze
on the "when I don't post for a while i tend to post a lot more" ID