Sir Terry remembered: Dickens' fire, Tolkien's imagination, and the wit of Wodehouse

RIP

I am reading this at work trying to not to weep at my desk. I love his books and need to reread them.

Another vote for Guards Guards as an intro

for an IT angle what about the troll in the freezer whose intelligence increases as the temperature drops ?

I particularly love small gods.

RIP TP

I met Terry several times at various (and rather wonderful) Unicorn Theatre productions of his books, and found him unfailingly charming and modest. It was nice to see the witty chap I'd chatted to on CIX was the same in real life. I won't join the debate about what t read first as it depends so much on what your sense of humour is, but will add that I have reread several of his books many times - Interesting Times, Night Watch, Mort are all excellent.

I am also a proud owner of a rarity, an unsigned copy of Mort :)

Quoting Big Fish seems apt.

"Most men, they'll tell you a story straight through. It won't be complicated, but it won't be interestin' either."

"A man tells his stories so many times that he becomes the stories. They live on after him, and in that way he becomes immortal."

Farewell Sir Terry

Drinking Songs!

A great loss, my condolences to his family.

I think tonight will require the sinking of a few pints in his honour, before trying to kick off a bit of a sing-song with a round of 'A Wizards Staff has a Knob on the End' and Nanny Ogg's favourite 'The Hedgehog Song'!

The thing is

When one of the books was based upon something you know well the most absurd jokes were actually the true bits.

The Truth is the best satire of the newspaper business since Scoop and probably better. And in Making Money the truly absurd thing about all of the economics is that it's absolutely completely and totally correct.

Yes, even down to the hydraulic computer for modelling the economy.

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

Although, to be fair, it's only one half of the economics profession who thinks that if you can get the model right then it will affect the real economy.

He'll be missed in my house

I recently got round to rationalising the Pratchett books in my house and passing the spares on to the deserving. I didn't want to be greedy though, so I kept the books he signed for me as they're probably not worth as much as the pristine ones!

Today I was on a clearly very dusty train as my eyes started to moisten quite noticably as I read "The Colour Of Magic" on the way to the office.

I met him a few times and enjoyed that he took the time out to visit my school (for such was the place of our first meeting) and I always found him patient and amusing.

My first Pratchett was The Light Fantastic back in 1988 or so when I was really far too young to be reading them. Luckily no one told me so I kept on reading them.

A pint shall be raised to him tonight.

Oook :o(

Ahem, > "usually wearing in his trademark black fedora "

I recall reading an interview when he stated it is a "Borsalino".

I wrote to him once, ending, as usual wiht "Irealise you are very busy and will understand if you are unable to reply". After a couple of months I got a reply, apologising for the delay, and responding in detail to what I'd written.

de Chelonian Mobilus!

Small Gods

Everyone supporting ISIS, the Taleban, Al Quaida, or indeed any religious moveoment that believes in killing people should read Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods".

Both my favourite authors gone now ...

First George MacDonald Fraser* and now Terry Pratchett*. Their two series account for about 50% of the fiction on paper in my house.

No more Sir Harry and now no more Rincewind :o(

* I wonder if it's just because I like long footnotes ? They just don't work so well in ebooks !

ZX-81

"In 1980, he moved into PR and became the press officer for three nuclear power plants run by the UK's Central Electricity Generating Board."

"A computer enthusiast since the early days (his first machine was a Sinclair ZX81), [...]"

Well, of course.

I was never huge fan but anything I did read by him, I always thoroughly enjoyed. The typical British sense of humour was so well captured. It's never nice when someone who gave so much genuinely innocent pleasure to so many, is no longer around.

Among many gems

...was his 'pork futures warehouse' where ghostly pig carcasses faded in and out of existence as the economy rose and fell. Absolute genius.

I will savour his few remaining books that I've yet to read, like bottles of vintage Bordeaux.

I can kinda imagine him having specified that his coffin should be made from Sapient Pearwood.

Haven't read one in years, but must say that I think they are truly the only books that have ever consistently made me chortle out loud.

An amazing author, a legend who I will greatly miss. Long live the great a-tuin

RIP

Not fortunate enough to have met him. But he has provided me with hours of entertainment with the Discworld (in all its printed forms), and pause for thought with the Long Earth and Nation.

Farewell.

I've read and re-read most of them down the years. Being a D&D and fantasy literature fan, the Colour of Magic/ Light Fantastic really tickled my funny bone. I do remember looking forward to each book, to find out which story arc it would be for. I think he wasn't considered "literary" for the simple reason, his style was fun and accessible, without a degree in English Lit.

Very sadly missed.

A Life Changer

A great loss of somebody who changed my life.

I remember being told about the colour of magic by a friend when it was released. I was not interested - I didn't read books! But I remembered the name. Some years later, when at an airport about to depart on a long flight to the w.indies for a holiday, I thought about what I would do on the plane (and whilst sitting round the pool). I saw a book stall and thought hmm. By then there were 6 books in the discworld series so, having a bit of an addictive personality, I bought all six. I started to read the colour of magic whilst waiting for the plane and had read 2 books before we landed - I was hooked. Since then I have become a big reader, TP started all of that - not just discworld but lots of comic fantasy (Robert Rankin, Tom Holt, etc).

I had the fortune to meet Sir Terry only once (as with others on the forum it was a book signing, for Jingo). The queue was long but even so, her took the time to chat, and sign other items brought along (he signed a DEATH christmas card to me, and penned 'the turtle moved' on a discworld map. What a great man.

You will be sadly missed.

Bootnote - When I told my wife about the sad departure of Sir Terry yesterday she said 'that was a surprise'. "Not really", I said, "It was a million to one shot". She naturally didn't get the reference, but I'm sure most here will.

Ooook :(

Ooook :(

What more can be said?

Sir Terry is easily my favourite author and always will be. I reread every book in a year back in 2008. It's time to start again. Maybe we should have a mass Terry Pratchett / Reg Reader day somewhere.

incredibly good writer

I enjoy reading immensely. Especially Pratchett.

And I believe I'm very clever.

But while reading the Discworld series, I noticed some kind of unexpected development:

The first books read like very humorous fantasy novels, great for a bit of light escapism.

But some (not all) of the later books, as he grew in his craft of master storyteller, contain layers that I found difficult to penetrate and understand.

There are some of his books, maybe beginning with Small Gods, that shows that he imbued the world he perceived with meanings that are difficult to explain or to talk about. Yet during the whole book he managed to convey these meanings in a way that I usually understood. (after re-reading in some cases). It's like he wrote about things, in our real world, that most people probably don't even know exist, and that are difficult to explain in words.

Maybe that just means I haven't understood them very well :-) but here follows a list of what I personally *believe* he talks about:

Small Gods - religion (I understood, but what a wonderfully insightful book!)

Jingo - the difference between police and military

Hogfather - mythology (I think I understood after re-reading a few times. Completely blew my mind)

The Fifth Elephant - love (I feel like I'm missing a large part of what he's saying, this was the most difficult book for me)

Thud! - terrorism

many of the witches' books - duty, and the maintenance of a society

He just kept getting better and better!

And if you read them all, then it's a mixed bag of "easy" and "difficult" books, and maybe for you a completely different subset is easy or difficult.

It's like he was saying: "the Discworld, just like our world, is a complex mess. Deal with it, and be happy with it!"

Books never written

I discovered Terry back in the 80s and went on to play several of his characters on stage. He was generous to let a bunch of amateurs loose on his masterpiece but was incredibly supportive through the years.

I remember in his first biographical notes he said he would write about his experiences at the nuclear power stations if he thought anyone would believe him. I would have wondered what he left out. I shall be reminiscing later with a the Archchancellor (amongst many DW roles).

I will miss his razor wit and would loved to have seen him deconstruct our current times.

Favourites?

Moving Pictures, Lords and Ladies, Jingo,Maskerade and Making Steam. Best introductions Mort,Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters

I've never managed to get through an entire Prachett novel - and comparing anyone to Wodehouse is simply a non-starter, DIckens too for that matter.

But I have to congratulate him on flourishing after working on the Bucks Free Press, which I remember from my early days as a completely awful rag.

And the nobility of his final years.

Oh Waily Waily :(

My sister

gave me a book that I very much like.

She did not 'gift me with' a book.

Terry Pratchett has given the english-reading world much good writing, he did not 'gift' the world 'with' it.

Yes, that usage of 'gift' as a verb originated in New York, very recently, and irritates the hell out of me, even worse, people who claim to be writers, as on this article, don't even seem to recall give, gave, given, it becomes gift x with, gifted x with, gifted x with.

Illiterate crap.

Cheap as hell.