In praise of Prachett

Too drunk to really reply, but on the satiric bent the best thing about his Discworld novels is that they all really work as fantasy books. Even if they weren't hilarious, even if they didn't allude to other works, even if they didn't cut down tired fantasy cliches, they'd still be really fun fantasy novels.

My Pratchett anecdote. After buying a book of his, The Light Fantastic I think, I thought it would be a good idea to read it on a bus. It wasn't. I start guffawing loudly and I must admit obnoxiously. I just couldn't stop. Half the bus ended up with their monocles popping out because of my barbarism and the other half laughing at the retard.

A few weeks ago, I got to hear Neil Gaiman do a reading. Afterwards, he answered some questions. When someone asked about Good Omens, he went on a riff with some "Prachett Stories." The stories of them writing Good Omens (and trying to get it made into a film) were the best parts of the evening.

I've never been a fan of fantasy novels, even as a kid, but ever since my little bro got me into Pratchett a decade or so ago he's been the one exception to that. He's not only the single fantasy author I read but over the last few years as I've moved towards reading almost exclusively non-fiction Pratchett has become the single non-fiction author whose work I try to read all of.

His one imperfection is that I find some of his earlier novels drag a little in the middle, as if he was padding things out, but in the second half of his career his pacing has improved to match his championship-grade mischievious wit.


I'm right with you Ken, any time Vimes is in the frame I'm rivetted and the rest of The Watch are brilliantly brought to life too. I like every story of The Watch but Night Watch is my favourite, a down and dirty but beautiful and epic tale of the policeman's lot. As an antagonist Carcer is so genuinely menacing, masterfully cranking up the tension and bringing out the very best in Vimes. And equally awesome is that we get to meet the young apprentice assassin Havelock Vetinari, my second favourite of Pratchett's characters.

It's because The Watch is always down in the belly of the beast, on the lively streets and in the deathly dark corners of Pratchett's brilliantly sprawling, brawling, seething, heaving city of Ankh-Morpork. This is why I find the wizards best when they're support characters rather than front and center. Stories set in academia, even crazy academia, with its settings in the higher places of blinkered society, are never as compelling as stories set in the streets. So I like the staff of the university in those smaller doses but I never get too excited about the books which feature them in the lead.

Thief Of Time is my favourite of the books which don't have Vimes at the centre, combining those vaguely Shaolin themes with good old time travel, but I've come to really like Moist Von Lipwig also. And while I think, like the wizards, Death suffers as a character when he's the main event I always enjoy his cameos.

One of my daughter's favourite bed time stories is "Where's My Cow?" which may be the best kid's book ever written.

I dislike Rincewind a great deal but other than that think Pratchett's stuff is fried gold.

I only read Good Omens, and I know Gaiman a lot, so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna love Pratchett's work, as Good Omens could have been tried for "attempted murder by laughter" on my person.

What's amazing is that Pratchett has written SO MANY Discworld books, yet they just keep improving. Vimes aside, my favourite character is probably Moist Von Lipwig. I have a soft spot in my heart for con-artists.

I appreciated Good Omens, more than I loved it. Discworld I love. My copy of Small Gods is so threadbare and dogeared it is essentially a ghost book. If you put a copy of Night Watch in front of me right now, I would read it.

There is definitely a point, I'm guessing somewhere around Small Gods, where his writing took a distinct turn for the entertaining. Pre-Small Gods, the novels just weren't as well paced, not as colorful, and certainly not as fun. There is another point that I find harder to identify where they became a little repetitive. And the more recent one about Banking... just seemed like time and illness are catching up with the man. But by this point I honestly don't care.

Night Watch was my first book of Pratchett I read. By far a good read. I tried reading Men At Arms and could not get into it. It has been sitting for about a year and I think once I finish The Bachman Books I will delve back into it.

I just buy his books as I find them.

I'm the exact opposite. Men at Arms was my first Pratchett read. I went back and read Guards Guards and found it no where near as entertaining.

This is a tough one because all his books intertwine and characters overlap so it's more fun if you read from "The Colour of Magic" in order to get a lot of the recurring gags. That said, they all stand on their own as complete novels you'd just miss some of the nuances.

I think "Guards, Guards" is the best place to start and work your way through the Watch books.

Yeah, I've got to throw down the "read them in order" recommendation. A few of the earlier ones do drag a little, but to watch how his storytelling improves time after time, and how the characters develop...and how he calls back to earlier stories without shouting "hey look, everybody!! a reference!" is a -ing joy.

I -ing love the -ing bastard. We share a birthday...a fact which I am inconsequentially very proud of.

I'll throw a little love out there for his young adult novels too. Particularly the Amazing Maurice and the Tiffany Aching novels. Tiffany is an amazingly good role model for those of you with young daughters...despite her tendency to use her little brother as bait for monsters.

I just finished up Witches Abroad, which was actually stronger than I remembered. The witches are nearly as interesting as the Watch...not *quite*, but I was really surprised to how much I've enjoyed the witch books after rereading the Watch books. Witch/Watch...hmm...Terry could think of something funny, but not me.

Oh, and if you get a chance to see the documentary about his battle with Alzheimer's that the BBC produced, do it. Parts of it are -ing heartbreaking, but the Terry's energy and determination are truly inspirational.

Yeah, he needs to be part of the whole to work.

Speaking of Rincewind, the TV miniseries of "The Colour of Magic" had its moments of brilliance (Death was particularly good and I love Jeremy Irons as Vetinari) but the lack of chemistry between Rincewind and Two Flowers seriously hampered it.

Apart from the most recent 4 or so, I haven't read any of the novels in order and I have to say that it hasn't bothered me in the slightest.

This. I have bounced all around his Discworld books and never once feel I have missed out on my understanding of character, story or the jokes. Pratchett goes to great lenghs to paint a full picture with every book. I end up returning to every book to re-read them, anyway, so any added colour from backstory only sweetens the experience.

Guards! Guards! and Men At Arms are my favourites, but I like to bust out The Hogfather every Christmas too.

The man has a brilliant mind and what's happening to him is just a tragedy, I hope he gets plenty of time to churn out many, many more books (because he clearly loves his job) before it becomes impossible to continue,

Man, I've depressed myself. Sorry, everyone!

Please tell me it's a Watch movie. And that they cast Damian Lewis as Vimes!

ETA: Damn it, it's not a Watch movie. On the other hand, it's Going Postal. With Richard Fuckin' Coyle as Moist!

Here's the trailer. Nice cameo from Angua at the beginning.

I loved the first 8 up to Guards! Guards! I have startled many people with outbursts of laughter and have re-read them often. But numerous times I have tried reading the next 10 books, but I found them a slog to get through, with the exception of Small Gods. I liked it more when Prachetts was parodying other fantasy works, than when he moved to topics like Hollywood and Rock-and-Roll.

Cut-me-own-throat Dibbler is an example of a character I liked in small doses in the first books. But every time he appears in the later books, I can't stand him.

And Charles Dance as Vetinari! Nice!

I've only seen a bit of the Sky One dapatation of COM, but Jeremy Irons as Vetinari was Genius.
I've been on board with Discworld since reading the first book in spanish, but i soon started reading (and owning) all books in english because its a delight to read Pratchett in his original language.
Echo the love on Vimes being probably his greatest (and my favorite) character; Nightwatch is easily my favorite Watch book...god dammit, the whole sequences were "Keel" interacts with Vimes and when "Keel" is offered a part in the conspiracy are heartbreaking; he also easily gets the most badass (while cynic) moemnt in the series in the ending of "The fifth elephant".
Moist Von Lipwig has grown on me, though..."Making Money" was pure genius.
Loved "Small Gods" and the Rincewing books, specially "Sourcerer".
The Witches series are mostly hit or miss with me, though.

I find Rincewind the most lacking character too. I think it's because he seems to have no agency, he just gets carried bumblingly along by events and there's very little drama to that. It's like a comic relief character thrown into a lead role and it can't help but wear thin for me.


Yeah, he's so devastatingly formidable in so many shadowy ways and he always leaves you wanting more.

This...one of the reasons when I first read 'The Color of Magic' I didn't give Pratchett much of a chance; just thought his Rincewind was the fantasy equivalent of Adams' Arthur Dent.

Thankfully, he made me change my opinion (and that didn't take long)...