Terry Pratchett/Discworld

rrraven

Dagobah Resident
FOTCM Member
When all the esoteric stuff gets too much for me ,I give my brain a holiday and read a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett .My favorite one is "Thief of time" Here is the blurb from the back cover:
Time is a resourse.Everyone knows it has to be managed.
And on Discworld that is the job of the Monks of History,who store it and pump it from the places where it's wasted(like underwater-how much time does a codfish need?)to places like cities where there's never enough time.
But the construction of the world's first accurate clock starts a race against,well,time for Lu Tze and his apprentice
Lobsang Ludd.Because it will stop time.And that will only be the start of everyone's problems.
I find T P very funny and his clever device of setting his stories on the Discworld-not a spherical planet but a flat
world carried through space on the back of 4 huge elephants which stand on a even huger turtle-gives him the opportunity to address any issues whithout offending
anyone, he is talking about discworld not earth,but he still hold up a mirror for us.
I have often wondered if Terry has read some of the material on this site(Hi Terry ,if you are reading this,come in and say hallo)as there are some paralleles eg. Monks of history-Templars? or in "Lords and Ladies" the Elves
are evil hyperdimentionals with the power to "befuddle "the mind of their victims
TP has a way with words that reminds me of the Cassies
in how he uses puns and clues ( the name of the first
monk of history is Wen)
So if you are after something lighthearted funny and yet thought provocing - grab a Pratchett book RRR
 
I first read a Pratchett book when I was about 9 or around that age and I didn't really 'get it' but still found his writing and descriptive style fascinating. Since then I have read many of the Discworld series and now I enjoy them even more, they still rarely make me actually laugh out loud but they are just full of great ideas and characters which parody, and at the same time pay respect to, the fantasy genre.
 
DonaldJHunt said:
Should they be read in any order?
I have read them out of sequence except for the first ('The Colour of Magic'), which is probably a good way to go about it because this introduces the Discworld. Many characters appear in multiple books but from my experience it is not neccessary to be familiar with them.
 
yeah, I have read most of them, and in roughly the order they were written in. Some better than others, but a lot of excellent characters, and situations (mostly slightly mad).

I particularly like the books set in Anhk Morpork, containing the 'Patrician' - the ultimate Pathocrat! There's a lot of social observation going on in Pratchett's work, lots of satire and ridicule, done in a very sympathetic way. great stuff! (especially the earlier ones)
 
I've been reading Pratchett for a number of years now. I think the prequel to the discworld series is called "Strata"

I've noticed the author often seems remarkably prescient in both his politcal/social satire (or parody?) as well as in his satire of modern science. On numerous occasions the first mention I've heard of a new scientific theory or paradigm has been in one of his books. And I try to follow the new science stuff pretty closely (as time allows). At times it's been uncanny.

I also get great entertainment from his work. At times I had to quit reading at night because I would laugh so hard my wife couldn't sleep - sometimes I laughed so hard I was afraid to wake the neighbors.

I consider him on the level of Voltaire or Jonathon Swift for his social and political commentary - I think he gives much to both learn and laugh from.
dj
 
Hello,
I've been reading Terry Pratchett's books for years also..
One thing I loved was in The Truth, where William DeWorde starts Ankh Morpork's first proper newspaper. He starts reporting the truth of things that happen. He comes under a lot of pressure from the various guilds and factions who don't want the truth of their actions revealed.. they tell him to say things which aren't true. So he simply reports exactly what they say, but states that it is just that - *what they have said*... not that they are necessarily telling the truth...

I'm a bit foggy on the details - haven't read it for a couple years - but it basically turns out that he is in a way protected from harm by reporting the truth, and nothing but. When people threaten him, he reports it in his newspaper, and because the info of their threats is out there, they can't touch him - which seems to me to be like what SOTT/Cassiopaea does.

As I said, I haven't read it for awhile.. hopefully i've remembered it right.

Brandon
 
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