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» Hatrack River Forum » Active Forums » Books, Films, Food and Culture » Witches, Wizzards, and Coppers (A Pratchett Thread)

   
Author Topic: Witches, Wizzards, and Coppers (A Pratchett Thread)
Swampjedi
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Since I unintentionally derailed the "Night Watch" thread, I thought maybe I should actually create a Pratchett thread.

I've been on a reading kick recently, and have torn through the following books:

The Fifth Elephant
Night Watch
Mort
Reaper Man
Soul Music
The Hogfather
Maskerade!
Thief of Time

Of course, I've read all of them, but these caught my eye on my bookshelf.

I guess I'll start off talking about how I found Pratchett. I had to read The Colour of Magic my sophmore year in college, for a Scifi/Fantasy class. It took me a while to get into it, but as soon as I did I went and purchased The Light Fantastic. The literal cliffhanger at the end of TCoM had me hooked!

I must say, though, that the wizards thread is not my favorite. There are just only so many things Rincewind can run away from. After the 20th time, it becomes rather... tiring.

My favorite thread is a tossup between Death, Susan, and Vimes. I love Mort and Reaper Man, as well as Thief of Time. Night Watch is a masterpiece, and riveting all the way through. Susan is just cool - it's funny how logical and calculating she thinks she is. However, her "this isn't happening, you don't exist" line is becoming quite stale.

This isn't to say that I don't like the Witches! Granny Weatherwax... [Angst]

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Chris Bridges
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Heads up, there's a new Discworld book coming in September.

Thud! - "Vimes knows the well-being of his smoldering city depends on his ability to solve the Hamcrusher homicide without delay. (Vimes's secondmost-pressing responsibility, in fact, next to being home every evening at six sharp to read Where's My Cow? to Young Sam.) Whatever it takes to unstick this very sticky situation, Vimes will do it -- even tolerate having a vampire in the Watch. But there's more than one corpse waiting for him in the eerie, summoning darkness of the vast, labyrinthine mine network the dwarfs have been excavating in secret beneath Ankh-Morpork's streets. A deadly puzzle is pulling Sam Vimes deep into the muck and mire of superstition, hatred, and fear -- and perhaps all the way to Koom Valley itself."

Interestingly, Where's My Cow? is also being released.

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Swampjedi
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Wonderful! Thanks for the heads-up.

I wonder if I can afford the UK version. The covers are so much nicer. [Smile]

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T_Smith
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While I really enjoyed Mort, to be honest, I found Reaper Man to be one of the best that I've read thus far.

Oh, and the Witch books bore me to no end.

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Swampjedi
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Reaper Man is very well written, all the way through. Bill Door - what a name!

The witches series can get a bit dry at times, but surely they must have some high points?

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Chris Bridges
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They do for me. I love Granny Weatherwax, and I have high hopes that my wife will grow up to be Nanny Ogg. I just hope I survive to enjoy it.
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TomDavidson
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The witches books do have high points. [Smile] And some of them are quite high indeed.

But, then, asking me to pick a favorite Pratchett book -- or even a favorite Pratchett character -- is like asking me to pick a favorite song.

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Eaquae Legit
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I enjoy the Witches and the Night Watch books the most. Rincewind is kinda boring. "Night Watch" is for me the absolute height of Discworld publication, and I can't wait for further Vimes.
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GaalD
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I've never read the discworld series, where do I begin? I looked on Amazon and it seems like there's so many books in the series. Should I just start with The Colour of Magic (which is, according to Amazon, the first book) and just go in chronological order? I think I'll save this series until after I've already read all the the other books on my list and have nothing left to read, since this one seems like it would take awhile.
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Enigmatic
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I prefer chronological order by publication, though after you get past a certain point enough is established that it doesn't matter as much.

Others here have recommended going by character sets: The night watch series, the witches series, Death series, etc.

There isn't really a wrong answer.

--Enigmatic

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GaalD
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Are all of those series interrelated somehow? How come Pratchett did't make all of those into seperate series instead of one big series called Discworld? Just curious.
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romanylass
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So you will feel you absolutley must read everything in the Discworld series, and he can sell more books.
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advice for robots
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I've had the same problem with Pratchett. I don't know where to start. I hate not starting with the first book.
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romanylass
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Oh, and yes, they are inter-related. If you need a definate starting point, "Colour of Magic" is good.
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Bill Door
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quote:
Bill Door - what a name!
WHY THANK YOU!
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Tarrsk
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quote:
Are all of those series interrelated somehow? How come Pratchett did't make all of those into seperate series instead of one big series called Discworld? Just curious.
Because all the stories take place on the Discworld (a flat planet carried through space on the back of a giant turtle). Each sub-series follows a particular group of characters, which sometimes intertwine, both as small cameo appearances and in larger crossovers.

My personal favorites are the Watch and Death/Susan arcs. Rincewind is fun simply because he's such a total anti-hero (in the "coward" sense rather than the "Chronicles of Riddick" sense), but he's ultimately a one-trick pony that gets duller as time passes. The wizards of U.U., on the other hand, only get better with time, particularly once they stop being backstabbing glory hogs and become bumbling parodies of the insanity of institutional academia instead. The same is true of the witches, who are much more interesting once you get past the first few books and they develop individual personalities.

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Storm Saxon
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*points at turtle*

Hey, those are good eating.

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Swampjedi
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SPOILERS about Watch arc -
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I hope we get some resolution about Carrot and Angua - are they going to get married, or not? It's just hanging there.

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Chris Bridges
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He didn't set out to write story arcs, I don't think. He wrote a few Rincewind books when he strated, as a parody of sword-and-sourcery fantasy. Then he started doing parodies of other old standards, like Shakespeare (the witch stories) and the guards the fantasy heroes always beat up (the Night Watch) and the concept of Death in Fantasy (Mort) and the occasional stand-alone book (Pyramids, etc). But then he 'd go back and revisit old characters, and move them along in their lives, and themes would emerge.

I favor reading them in order, but remember his books get better after the first few. The few couple are pretty straight out parodies. Somewhere in there it becomes satire, and that's when the gloves come off.

Just received today Once More* *with footnotes, a collection of his short stories and essays. I've seen a lot of these, but only through diligent searching.

I also highly recommend Good Omens, the book he wrote with Neil Gaiman that consistently vies for top spot on my Favorite Book Ever list.

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Jess N
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My children and I discovered our good friend, Death, quite by accident. I have a book of fantasy illustrations that give info on various characters in fantasy literature. My daughter found an illustration of Mort. I'd never read Pratchett, but we decided to try him on for size. So the first book we listened to (on tape) was Mort. We still go around the house saying, "IT'S CURRY TIME!" and mentioning fried porridge. Mort was only the beginning for us...

Our favorite characters are: Mort, Susan (my daughter wants to be Susan when she grows up),Death, The Librarian (oook?), and most of all the Nac Mac Feegle (from The Wee Free Men). In fact, we think we might be related to the Feegle as they remind us of some folks in our family.

What I love is the sense of connection between the books. We spent half of the Wee Free Men wondering if Death would make an appearance.

We also loved Reaper Man. Who could not love Death going to the temple of the crocodile god and the priests hiding for fear of ...MRS. CAKE! My kids and I still giggle about that.

The last one we read was Hogsfather. HO HO HO. I read it outloud, so doing Death was a real treat.

I've found Pratchett a very good way to initiate my children into understanding parody and satirical writing. Plus, it's just a bloody good time!

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