Terry Pratchett: Robe or Anorak?

What I read of Pratchett when I was a wee lad was good, especially his character Death.

Really, the only missteps he's made are _Carpe Juggulum_, _The Last Continent_, and selected bits of _The Fifth Elephant_. The rest are brilliant, particularly the Hollywood pisstake _Moving Pictures_, the opera pisstake _Maskerade_, and the rock and roll pisstake _Soul Music_. The man has created a pantheon of hilarious characters, from the various guardsmen to the witches, to Death and his granddaughter Susan.

I did actually 'meet' Pratchett once - a friend was a fan so I accompanied him to a book-signing. TP seemed to be precisely like one of his stereotypical fans (dorkish, goofy). Perhaps he was playing to the gallery.

At any rate, I can see why Susan would seem like a very obvious idea based on a passing mention. If you read either of the books she was in, though, you might change your mind.

I hate it when people judge a book by it's cover, or in Nick's case, by it's author, whom they've never met or read anything by. Seems a bit closed-minded.

Discworlds are popcorn books. Not food for thought. Just amusement. (My favorites are Soul Music and the Last Continent. Men at Arms was good, too.)

I like that Umberto Eco has bestsellers for much the same reason, I think

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2226306,00.html

: (

Just coming here to post that.

i thought he'd made a career out of it!

I loved the The Bromeliad Trilogy. I've read Jingo from Discworld series and didn't like it.

They should def put "In the grand tradition of Iris Murdoch" on the front of all his bks from now on

Jingo sucks.

Never worked up any speed with the jokey adult books but the YA tril with the Wee Free Men and Tiffany Achin is the smartest best bit of fantasy that I've read in a very long time that doesn't belabor the point.

I am reading I Shall Wear Midnight right now, having not touched one of his books in over 20 years because I didn't like Colour of Magic when I was in high school. But this is much much better, way more subdued, better writing, character development. I gather this isn't the case with everything but did he greatly improve over the last 10 years (yeah I know he has Alzheimers now)

he's gotten notably bad in the last two books, from the Alzheimers and attendant inability to compose or rewrite - the Tiffany Aching books are all good though, you should pause and go back to the start (also the cat and mice one previously)

I mean, the vast majority of the Discworld books are much much better than the first one, too.

RIP :-(

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31858156

let's bump this one instead of the one with the shitty thread title. RIP.

Terry Pratchett is dead and Jeremy Clarkson is alive. Sometimes I hate this world.

Posted on the other thread from Pratchett's official Twitter feed. I think there's something in my eye.

Terry Pratchett @terryandrob · 57m 57 minutes ago
AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.

Terry Pratchett @terryandrob · 57m 57 minutes ago
Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.

Terry Pratchett @terryandrob · 56m 56 minutes ago
The End.

That is perfect.

I love the Discworld books, I thought he was great and I'm incredibly sad to think I won't be getting a new one at Christmas anymore.

He was a legend.

I've been slow-rolling them for a while now I know there won't be an inexhaustible supply.

RIP

Our whole household is in mourning. I'll never forget a few years ago, a long drive from Iowa to Albuquerque driving my daughter, she wanted to play the audiobook of Going Postal and we listened to it all the way through that trip.

Another family in mourning here - can't think of another author we've all read, except maybe Douglas Adams or Jonathan Coe.

I think that _Small Gods_ is his best by a mile nowadays.

I've only read 6 or 7 of his books, mostly in my teens - but even as an uncritical young anorak, this seemed quite a bit better than the other ones, except maybe Good Omens. Did he do anything else like it?

people be protesting too much again:

"Nor, before Pratchett, did it have any jokes."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/12/without-terry-pratchett-world-less-magical-discworld

this was the first funny fantasy book i ever read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverlock

pratchett had to have been a fan.

Ah, Brown's just stealing from what I said on the other thread (which appears to have been taken off Site New Answers, presumably by someone who isn't a Pratchett fan?)

Btw, anyone who thinks Alzheimer's simply means "dementia" should look into his specific condition, posterior cortical atrophy (PCA). It's a type of early onset Alzheimer's that affects spacial perception, among other problems, but particular hinders/complicates reading and writing (and driving and mobility) abilities way before the more traditional symptoms manifest themselves. I can only imagine how hard it was for a writer.

His best books IMO are:

Small Gods
Night Watch
Feet of Clay
Maskerade
Interesting Times

(Good Omens I count as a separate thing since it was co-written)

otm list

I never read any of his solo works, but Good Omens was one of the first two or three 'adult' books I read (age 10, right around the time I read A Connecticut Yankee) and I still keep copies to give to people when they say they haven't read it. RIP and thanks

He was also enormous on the pre-web internet - alt.fan.pratchett was I think the largest writer-based newsgroup, despite being on the alt.* network. It was also the first place I saw a lot of fan community tropes, including a particular thread of US Anglophilia that still makes my toes curl (not evidenced anywhere on this thread!). He tended to tolerate but not encourage it.

His influence on hats, however, was entirely malign.

Scott I read Silverlock in high school! Did a report on it for English class.

It was not my first funny fantasy, though. I was already a veteran of spellsinger, mythadventures, xanth, Jesus there was a lot of it already in the early 80s

You gotta understand, before furries this stuff was all in good fun. The slippery slope wasn't slippery yet

this sucks, he was my favorite writer during my teenage years

Small Gods holds up as his best work, as others have noted. most of the others kind of blur together for me but the night's watch books were all v good, & my favorite later-era ones were Going Postal and Making Money in which he managed to throw his ambitious plotting at more mundane scenarios and still stick the landing

His best books IMO are:

Small Gods
Night Watch
Feet of Clay
Maskerade
Interesting Times

Good list. Think I'd also throw in Thief of Time.

Thief of Time was good, yeah. In a more expanded list I'd also include Lords and Ladies, I Shall Wear Midnight, Men At Arms, Thud!, Equal Rites, Sourcery, Going Postal and The Truth

Looking back at the Discworld bibliography, the alarming dip in quality in 98/99 really sticks out and the rebound in quality after The Fifth Elephant is even more impressive

best lists need to acknowledge the Tiffany Aching books (and Amazing Maurice which set the tone for that run)

on the whole I think the '00s are his strongest periods

Dan's list is pretty otm. I'd throw in The last Continent, not because it is particularly good but because between that and the Bruce's philosophers sketch it taught me everything I need to know about living in Australia.

Really sad to wake up to the news this morning, Terry Pratchett gave me a lot of pleasure over the years.

I liked Small Gods...also was gifted The Truth & that was p fun

Most of my love for him is vicarious through my bff, who is a huuuuge Pratchett lover...she got a peck on the cheek from him at a Discworld convention which will be a nice treasured memory for her now :(

Interesting Times is a fave I go back to now and then to re-read.

RIP dear sir.

I vaguely recall Carpe Jugglum being ace too (was that the goth pisstake one?)

As Ned points out on Twitter, Pratchett wrote terrific female characters and so many varied ones at that. I love that a character like Cherry/Cheery Littlebottom, for example, appeared in a book that millions of people have read.

I think I've bought Good Omens like four times already - the copies I had were always getting stolen ("borrowed").

Carpe Jugulum had excellent goth pisstake elements, yes.

Thanks for the ^^ recommendations for Feet of Clay. I loved TP as a teenager but assumed I'd find him completely lame if I read him again as an adult. Anyway - some duff/smug jokes in the first 50 pages but I just *adored* it by the end, and definitely up for reading some more. Can I zoom to Night Watch without reading the inbetween (and apparently less good) Watch books?

All watch books are essential tbh

yeah dude, if you're back on the Pratchett train just keep riding

at the VERY least, read all the Ankh-Morpork books, and I'd recommend not sleeping on the ostensibly YA ones either*

*these are actually just Discworld books with chapter breaks and in a smaller format. but after the first three he added chapters to the 'adult' ones, and the YA ones became the same size as the rest.