Mort
So many to choose from. Each has their own appeal.
I did find Mort exceptional.
Then again so were many of the others.
Thank you pterry, for enriching my life with your writing talent.
Sir Terry remembered: Dickens' fire, Tolkien's imagination, and the wit of Wodehouse
Sir Terry Pratchett has left us at the age of 66, but he has gifted the next generation a massive archive of fiction and non-fiction that will delight, amuse and inform readers for years to come. It's a sad day at the El Reg offices, many of us were devoted fans. He was born on April 28, 1948, and wrote fiction as a teen. At …
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Thursday 12th March 2015 22:19 GMT David Given
Ahem. Equal Rites was written in 1987. Wyrd Sisters was written in 1988.
Equal Rites, in fact, features only a proto-Granny Weatherwax; her character and the way witching works changes considerably in the later books. (One of Pratchett's strengths, I think, is that he's willing to discard continuity in favour of a good book, although he did fall into the Canon Welding trap in the very later books.)
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Friday 13th March 2015 14:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
The witches were introduced in Wyrd Sisters, a parody of Macbeth.
I make this comment just to amplify how Pratchett wrote. Wyrd Sisters is not a parody of Macbeth. It is an amplification of the technique of Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are dead by Stoppard.
[plot spoiler alert]
In Stoppard's play, we see the action of Macbeth through the eyes of a pair of attendant lords. In Wyrd sisters a Macbeth-like plot unrolls, but instead of the witches just being incidentals as in the play, they get involved in the action and completely subvert it, arranging for someone who may or may not be the rightful king - with a huge plot twist on the way - to take over. The Birnham Wood scene acquires a huge mythic dimension. The Macbeth characters are urban in a rural environment and are seen as fundamentally out of place - I feel there is a reference there to the second homers who plague Wiltshire and Somerset, moving in and demanding that farms be closed because they don't like the noise and the smell. (You can probably guess where I live).
A parody is like the real thing but designed to expose the weaknesses of the writer and the improbability of his or her plots. A burlesque is a version of the original in which the jokes are broad and crude. What Pratchett does is to amplify Macbeth and at the same time bring in other related themes.
In Pratchett's world, Middle Earth is just a small part of the more backward region of Discworld, where some very unpleasant little wars took place and missionaries are going out to reclaim the Orcs for civilisation. A book ostensibly about football contains a powerful criticism of the moral void at the heart of Lord of the Rings and its default position that the aristocracy are the only people who matter. (Pratchett has an exchange between the Patrician and a ruler from Uberwald that makes it abundantly clear that this theme is intentional.)
Someone here has compared him to Jonathan Swift; the difference is that Swift is a pessimist and Pratchett, an optimist. Pratchett believes in improvement and perfectibility, and above all he believes in civilisation, whether it is small agricultural settlements like Lancre or large cities like Ankh-Morpork.
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Friday 13th March 2015 22:36 GMT Snafu1
Re: The witches were introduced in Wyrd Sisters, a parody of Macbeth.
[quote]In Pratchett's world, Middle Earth is just a small part of the more backward region of Discworld, where some very unpleasant little wars took place and missionaries are going out to reclaim the Orcs for civilisation. [/quote]
Tell me, have you ever tried /Grunts/ by Mary Gentle? If you've read enough of LoTR to remember it, & appreciate parody, it should knock your socks off! :)
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Friday 13th March 2015 11:02 GMT I ain't Spartacus
In my opinion he started off with one style 'Colour of Magic' and 'Light Fantastic', and then spent the next few books tweaking things*, and changing his writing styles and techniques. In my opinion Sourcery and Pyramids were some of his weaker books because of this. I still enjoyed them, but didn't feel much desire to re-read them. Admittedly they've been in a box for the last 15 years, and I've only just dug them out after several moves, and some time in storage - perhaps they're due another read?
Anyway, I think he'd really got himself going again with Wyrd Sisters. Which I very much like (and have re-read). And might be a good starting point. I love the way he can be doing a multi-page literary parody, sometimes within a book that is already a literary parody (Wyrd Sisters / Macbeth for example) - and then he'll put in a proper groan-inducing pun and suddenly there'll be a knob gag, or he'll drop in a stupid footnote for the hell of it. His writing style plays on so many different levels that you can appreciate the books in different ways, depending on your mood, and that makes them worth re-reading too. So Wyrd Sisters then Witches Abroad (where I loved the short Hemingway parody) then hooked.
Or you could go for for Guards! Guards!, and read along with the Watch, as someone else also suggested. There's also the Death novels. But I didn't think Mort was one of his strongest books, so I wouldn't start with it, just like I think Equal Rites (the first witches one) isn't even in the same style as his later stuff. Everyone likes different things though. And I do fear recommending books / music that I love to people, because so much of it is personal. And then when they don't like it, they've stabbed me in the back. The bastards!
You've got a whole load of books to look forward to. Assuming you liked the first couple you read. Happy days. There's a bunch of kids/young adult books in the Discworld series as well, but I just ignored that and read them anyway. I really enjoyed the Tiffany Aching books (Wee Free Men, Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith). More witches.
He then did a bunch of other stuff. I remember not particularly liking Strata and Dark Side of the Sun - but that's all I remember, I read those sometime in the early 90s I think. There was Truckers, Diggers and something else, which I've never read, and I seem to recall the name 'The Carpet People'. All kids books I think.
Then finally, Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman). Radio 4's recent adaptation was excellent. The book is even better. Hopefully, happy reading to you. Oh and the ones with Stephen Baxter, that I haven't read, the first one's on my bedside book pile.
* I just had a major fat-finger issue and typed twerking1 (should I have left that in?).
1 I put this comment in brackets, then realised that in honour of the Master himself, it should obviously be done as a footnote2. I also particuarly liked his footnotes inside footnotes gags.
2I should probably have stopped after 2...
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Friday 13th March 2015 12:13 GMT theblackhand
Reading order
I would recommend starting with either The Witches Trilogy or Death Trilogy as they provide a gentle introduction to Discworld life.
Avoid starting with the Colour of Magic unless you really enjoy classical fantasy books - once you've read some of the other Discworld books coming back to the Rincewind series makes more sense when the pace of the books slows.
Alternatively, far wiser people have created the following reading order:
http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-20.jpg
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Friday 13th March 2015 13:12 GMT Neil Barnes
Re: Reading order
All the above are excellent suggestions - my taste would be for Guards! Guards! and the other Sam Vimes books - but no-one has mentioned Soul Music... which is worth it for a two-hundred page lead-up to an absolutely appalling pun on the last page (and incidentally gives an interesting cross section of Pterry's taste in music).
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Thursday 12th March 2015 22:55 GMT Gordon861
Another vote for Guards Guards as the best newbie Discworld book to start with. It is a great introduction to the world and humour without really needing to know anything about the disc. I have lent copies to friends in order to get them hooked and it never fails.
As to the man himself, I met him once after queuing for hours in Kingston to get the new book signed, he will be greatly missed.
... the turtle moves ...
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Friday 13th March 2015 10:57 GMT jai
I was wondering whether to suggest watching the TV adaptations?
I thought Going Postal was brilliant! but then maybe it helps to have read the book first and that's what makes the tv show so good?
From the books - i would recommend Guards! Guards! as a good starting point too. it's a great story by itself, full of fantastic characters. the rest of the books with those characters are great.
Then again, Wyrd Sisters might be a great place to start, as you'll be familiar with the underlying story that it is parodying.
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Thursday 12th March 2015 21:33 GMT CYMinCA
Missed
met him at hay on wye festival where he gave a great rambling talk. Took my son who remembers it even now and treasures his signed copy of colour of magic.
As my wife said what the hell is she supposed to buy for my birthday now she can't rely on a new discworld book, a sentiment I'm sure would amuse sir terry
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Thursday 12th March 2015 22:05 GMT Robert E A Harvey
Death
Pterry and his friend Neil Gaiman both had a character called Death. In both cases, they were the most compassionate characters in their respective universes. Another writer I am fond of, Phil Rickman, has mentioned the angel of death as a comforter.
The older I get the more I understand it. It iwas the genius of Sir Terry to be able to pass that wisdom, and a lot more insights like it, straight to young people. To grant them wisdom without any other experience.
The truly great writers are not the tragedians, who hold a mirror to that part of humanity we have known since childhood. But the comic writers, who can teach us the unexpected and the true.
One of his books was called 'The Truth'. It was his only stock in trade.
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Friday 13th March 2015 00:11 GMT veti
Re: Death
Death as a "comforter" is an old idea. Pterry's take on it was wonderful, but still just a new take on an old idea.
If you re-read 'The Colour of Magic', it's interesting to note that the Death in that is a very different character from what he became in the later books. I'm not sure if he ever completely forgave Rincewind for his unpunctuality.
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Thursday 12th March 2015 23:04 GMT Anonymous Coward
I met him in 198x at Exeter Uni when he sneaked in incognito despite being the star guest. I remember he cracked the Elrond Hubbard joke and we spent ages debating which book that character should have been in.
Only one more book in the pipeline (The Shepherd's Crown), doesn't seem to be listed on Amazon yet ? I'll be sad all over again when I have the first Christmas in so very long, that's without one of Terry's books.
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Friday 13th March 2015 00:18 GMT veti
I'd say it's more apt than the comparison to "Tolkein"...
Both (Pratchett and Dickens) were passionate about injustice. Both could be, by turns, sharply witty and satirical, and interminably preachy, particularly in their later works. Both were hugely popular, celebrities in their own lifetime.
The only candidate I can think of who'd make a worthy third to that duo would be Mark Twain, but he's disqualified on account of being American.
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Friday 13th March 2015 00:47 GMT John Gamble
I've had the honor of briefly meeting Pratchett a couple of times. He was, as you'd expect, very friendly and quite witty. I hope his USENET postings are preserved.
Unsurprisingly, he got better as he got more political (public figures make better targets than fantasy tropes), and I've loaned out Small Gods, The Truth, Going Postal and others often, and they've been greatly appreciated.
I'm going to miss him.
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Friday 13th March 2015 04:08 GMT stuartnz
Time to re-read
There's a certain brutal aptness to the fact that smallcaps DEATH is one of my favourite characters ever. I'd love to raise a glass in his honour, but since I have hyper-intolerance to alcohol, I'll settle for re-reading the Death arc, again. And making sure to be extra nice to the neighbourhood cats, since I'm sure Blinky's rider will be in a FOUL mood after this particular hourglass ran out.
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Friday 13th March 2015 07:42 GMT Arctic fox
We all have I am sure our favourite moments from his remarkable canon.
One of mine is from Guards! Guards! when our hero the estimable Vimes holds off a lynch mob in the stables with a dragon tucked under his arm. "The question is,do you feel lucky?" I read that bit on the top of a bus on the way to work. My howls of laughter caused some raised eyebrows!
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Sunday 15th March 2015 17:59 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I never met him personally...
"I must confess that having mocked Diana's funeral hysterics I can see where it comes from."
Except the big difference here is that Sir Terry is someone WORTH mourning, someone who did a lot for a lot of people, who contributed a large amount to the world.
Diana people just jumped on the band wagon because it was "trendy"
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Friday 13th March 2015 08:16 GMT Mike Arthur
Ah, sad day indeed.
His books still have the power to make me properly laugh out loud.
A great writer, made very clever use of the language to provide entertainment to so very many people.
I had the great fortune to meet him on several occasions in the early 90s whilst I was working in a bookshop. Funniest memory was being sent across to the supermarket across the road for a couple of bags of frozen sweetcorn (had to be sweetcorn, not peas) for him to put on his painful hand after spending several hours signing all manner of items.
Anyway, I shall send my assistant off to the shelf to bring me something of his to read.
'Oook?', 'yes please, that one'
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Friday 13th March 2015 08:27 GMT Anonymous Coward
Bugger!
A further recommendation for 'Guards Guards' as a starting point, it was the first one I read and I have read all of Sir Pterry's books since.
A sad comment on the universe when someone who contributes to humanity passes while an oxygen thief like Piers Morgan still wanders this realm.
RIP Sir Pterry, may the Great A'Tuin guide you through eternity (but remember not to fall off the edge of the rim and always head hubwards)
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Friday 13th March 2015 08:35 GMT Sartori
Terribly sad that Sir Terry has passed. So many happy memories of how his books over the years have made me laugh, smile and think.
I was lucky enough to meet him at a book signing once in Liverpool. He was all smiles, witty and so much time given with a sense of fun to all the many fans who queued to see him.
A man who mixed childlike wonder, silliness, endless imagination, with wisdom, sharp wit and intelligence in his work.
He will be missed by millions, thoughts with his family and friends. RIP.
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Friday 13th March 2015 09:18 GMT Killing Time
His work will stand the test of time...
One of the few authors to make me laugh out loud whilst also making me think deeply. Given his output you could list them all day but those that immediately spring to mind, for the comedy are the interchanges between Rincewind, Twoflower and The Luggage and for the insight the whole of 'Money'.
Farewell Sir Terry. DEATH will look after you....
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Friday 13th March 2015 09:37 GMT A K Stiles
Reading order?
I'd quite like a black bush-hat icon to express my combination of sadness and anger, perhaps attached to the phrase "Buggrit Buggrit Buggrem"?
As noted elsewhere, the reading order probably doesn't matter much, though it's probably better to read the various arcs in their own sequences. The later books have an easier style to them, but from my personal experience, I had the pleasure of starting with The Colour of Magic in 1988 at the age of not-quite-twelve, closely followed by The Light Fantastic, then Equal Rites and each subsequent book as it came out, and it does help to introduce some of the recurrent characters and set up some in jokes for later books.
If there really are any gods, and they have had anything to do with this sad event, then they are definitely bastards!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
