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Just finished Night Watch and it was fantastic. It did have a few odd lines in the end. Like "Vimes; The richest man in Ankh-Morpork" I knew he was married wealthy and was a Duke and all but the richest man in the city wasn't the impression I had. He then takes out 100.000 Dollars from the bank and gives them to someone out of sheer gratitude as if it was all just loose change. Which is just such an alien amount for a character like Vimes who when last seen discussing money would squabble over single dollars. At the same time this little portion does nothing to carry the story itself. It jut felt like finding a fish-bone really. Zephyrine fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Aug 30, 2014 |
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Aug 30, 2014 08:15
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Zephyrine posted:Like "Vimes; The richest man in Ankh-Morpork" I knew he was married wealthy and was a Duke and all but the richest man in the city wasn't the impression I had. He then takes out 100.000 Dollars from the bank and gives them to someone out of sheer gratitude as if it was all just loose change. Which is just such an alien amount for a character like Vimes who when last seen discussing money would squabble over single dollars. Jingo hammered pretty heavily home how rich he was, and... hell, Sybil's first introduction to us way back in Guards, Guards was as the stunningly richest person in Ankh-Morpork. It went on for paragraphs what an impossibly huge amount of money she had.
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Aug 30, 2014 09:29
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Zephyrine posted:Like "Vimes; The richest man in Ankh-Morpork" I knew he was married wealthy and was a Duke and all but the richest man in the city wasn't the impression I had. He then takes out 100.000 Dollars from the bank and gives them to someone out of sheer gratitude as if it was all just loose change. Which is just such an alien amount for a character like Vimes who when last seen discussing money would squabble over single dollars.
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Aug 30, 2014 14:27
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Nihilarian posted:Are you talking about the bit where the guy saved Sybil and Young Sam's lives? Because that seems very reasonable to me. I don't think it says that they're in danger but just that things are difficult. 100.000 dollars just seems like such an unimaginative reward. I'm sure Pratchett could have worked something into the story that the doctor lost in the past or always wanted or always wanted to do that Vimes could then give him.
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Aug 30, 2014 15:17
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Um, did you miss the bit where he also signs over "the freehold of a large site in Goose Green", which I always then assumed became the location of the Lady Sybil Free Hospital (with Lawn in charge) in later books?
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Aug 30, 2014 15:36
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Trin Tragula posted:Um, did you miss the bit where he also signs over "the freehold of a large site in Goose Green", which I always then assumed became the location of the Lady Sybil Free Hospital (with Lawn in charge) in later books? That's alright but the 100.000 dollars seems very out of place.
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Aug 30, 2014 15:41
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Zephyrine posted:I don't think it says that they're in danger but just that things are difficult. As far as the reward goes, Vimes is funding Dr. Lawn's attempt to drag medical practice into the century of the anchovy. That takes money.
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Aug 30, 2014 17:04
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Zephyrine posted:That's alright but the 100.000 dollars seems very out of place. Well, because they've also had that conversation about memory, and how beneficial silence can be, and what he knows about the identity of John Keel. The money is to buy him off so he won't squeal about who Sergeant-at-Arms Keel was, and the hospital is his reward for delivering Young Sam.
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Aug 31, 2014 00:01
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Zephyrine posted:I'm sure Pratchett could have worked something into the story that the doctor lost in the past or always wanted or always wanted to do that Vimes could then give him. He did. He got a big plot of land and enough money to build and run the hospital of his dreams. Remember, thirty years ago twenty five dollars a month was very good pay for a sergeant of the Watch. Inflation hasn't gone that far since then. A hundred grand will go an incredible distance in Ankh-Morpork. Stroth fucked around with this message at 01:09 on Aug 31, 2014 |
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Aug 31, 2014 01:05
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Stroth posted:He did. He got a big plot of land and enough money to build and run the hospital of his dreams. Remember, thirty years ago twenty five dollars a month was very good pay for a sergeant of the Watch. Inflation hasn't gone that far since then. A hundred grand will go an incredible distance in Ankh-Morpork. I think in either Guards Guards, or Men at Arms, Vimes made $30AM a month, so yeah, I'd say roughly convert your expectations by a factor of 100. (I'm basing this off Vimes making 60k today, which seems low, but the watch was underfunded)
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Aug 31, 2014 01:36
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That I recall, Vimes marries Lady Sybil and then has it landed in his lap that he is now in charge of seven million dollars. SEVEN. MILLION. DOLLARS. Vimesy is someone who gives no fucks about money except its utility - cf Boots theory of reflected sound of underground spirits - and would just treat it as some useful thing if he got any.
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Aug 31, 2014 01:57
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rejutka posted:That I recall, Vimes marries Lady Sybil and then has it landed in his lap that he is now in charge of seven million dollars. SEVEN. MILLION. DOLLARS. Vimesy is someone who gives no fucks about money except its utility - cf Boots theory of reflected sound of underground spirits - and would just treat it as some useful thing if he got any. He's also not the kind of person who thinks of giving someone money as a "boring" or less than thoughtful gift. That is the kind of thinking you do when you're used to having plenty of money.
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Aug 31, 2014 02:04
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rejutka posted:cf Boots theory of reflected sound of underground spirits When I was 12 yrs old I was SO proud of myself when I worked out what this meant :P
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Aug 31, 2014 13:49
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StrawmanUK posted:When I was 12 yrs old I was SO proud of myself when I worked out what this meant :P Could you walk me through it again? Feeling a bit dumb tonight.
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Sep 1, 2014 09:32
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Pidmon posted:Could you walk me through it again? Feeling a bit dumb tonight. LSpace annotations: LSpace.org posted:Surprising as it may seem (or at least as it was to me), there are quite a few people who do not understand this cryptification of 'economics', even though it is explicitly explained by Terry a bit later, on p. 71/63: 'echo-gnomics'. Some of the confusion perhaps arises from the fact that we don't usually associate gnomes with spirits, as in: ghosts. But I think Terry here simply means spirits (as in: souls) living underground, with the emphasis on the word 'underground'.
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Sep 1, 2014 09:35
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Pidmon posted:Could you walk me through it again? Feeling a bit dumb tonight. "Theory of reflected sound" = Echo "underground spirits" = Gnomes Economics Edit: Beaten.
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Sep 1, 2014 09:35
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motherFUCKER, that pTerry.
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Sep 1, 2014 09:36
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rejutka posted:That I recall, Vimes marries Lady Sybil and then has it landed in his lap that he is now in charge of seven million dollars. SEVEN. MILLION. DOLLARS. Vimesy is someone who gives no fucks about money except its utility - cf Boots theory of reflected sound of underground spirits - and would just treat it as some useful thing if he got any. Seven million a year, just in terms of ongoing income, not even starting on the value or appreciation of the assets themselves. This comes from Lady Sybil owning "approximately one-tenth of Ankh, and extensive properties in Morpork, plus of course considerable farm lands". And yeah, that's probably more like seven hundred million a year in modern money. MikeJF fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Sep 1, 2014 |
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Sep 1, 2014 13:11
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Working my way through Monstrous Regiment. This book has got to be based on the Sven Hassel series of books. Everything from the characters to the events and the obsessions with cooking is like straight out of Sven Hassel.
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Sep 1, 2014 19:44
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Monstrous Regiment is the least funny Disc novel by a wide margin. You can really tell it was written after, and inspired by, the poo poo the world went through right after 9/11. It's still good and does have some great humor but I don't think I ever laughed out loud, except maybe at some of a certain character's "flashback" dialogue.
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Sep 2, 2014 05:57
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precision posted:Monstrous Regiment is the least funny Disc novel by a wide margin. You can really tell it was written after, and inspired by, the poo poo the world went through right after 9/11. It's still good and does have some great humor but I don't think I ever laughed out loud, except maybe at some of a certain character's "flashback" dialogue. I really like it. Though some of the deaths in it strike me as very out of place for discworld. Like the guy killing himself with cyanide and the soldier who literally losses his head by running into a troll.
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Sep 2, 2014 06:03
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Zephyrine posted:I really like it. Though some of the deaths in it strike me as very out of place for discworld. Like the guy killing himself with cyanide and the soldier who literally losses his head by running into a troll. Monstrous Regiment would be one of my favorites up until (and please don't read this Zephyrine major MR spoilers) the big reveal at the end. It changes the story from "this country is in an insanely desperate situation and as such an entire generation of combat troops do not legally qualify to be soldiers" to "this group of people are cross-dressing Amazons for no real coherent reason." It robs the story of the desperation of the situation; presumably there have been lots of Monstrous Regiments, which implies that girls regularly just up and disappear  The sergeant's "nuclear option" is to ruin all of these individuals lives for no reason other then an unjust law exactly like what the antagonist Strappi did. Don't even get me started on the logistics of half your army secretly having different biology then the other half? And the tonal shift is colossal, and it pivots entirely on that scene; before that it's Platoon, after that it's Pirates of the Penzance. The vampire is going insane, they're running out of food, and they've accidentally made themselves the biggest and most valuable targets in the war: the stakes are set for something really interesting to happen, and then the opposite does. It should be a darker book in the vein of Night Watch or Small Gods where unpleasant topics can be brought up even in a very pleasant universe. As is it grabs for both "serious war melodrama" and "high farce" and misses both. edit: sorry am I using spoiler tags correctly here? We're in a discussion thread but Zephyrine explicitly hasn't finished it. Sorry if I'm wrong! CoolCab fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Sep 2, 2014 |
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Sep 2, 2014 08:37
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CoolCab posted:<Spoilers> I would agree with you there if it had turned out that half the army were actually women. That's not what I got out of that scene, I thought that it was half the high-ranking officers, not half of the whole army - Jackrum implies that lots of the women she trained made it to officer rank, and that couldn't be true of most of the soldiers she trained. My reading is that while girls disappear to join the army semi-regularly, they don't make up a significant proportion of soldiers, but they do tend to rise through the ranks. I'm not arguing that you're wrong, just that the tonal shift isn't as big by my reading. It might also be that I saw the "twist" coming because I knew what the title was referring to.
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Sep 2, 2014 11:20
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AlphaDog posted:It might also be that I saw the "twist" coming because I knew what the title was referring to. I didn't know about the title's significance at the time, but the front cover gave it away for me.
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Sep 2, 2014 14:34
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Zephyrine posted:I really like it. Though some of the deaths in it strike me as very out of place for discworld. Like the guy killing himself with cyanide and the soldier who literally losses his head by running into a troll. I enjoy it too, It must have been ah very different for Terry researching and writing as aside from Jingo he rarely goes much into the Military side of things. The tone of that sort of comedy can be quite bleak at times. I kind of like the idea of Napoleonic and Regency uniformed guys running around using pikes and machined crossbows too.
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Sep 2, 2014 14:55
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CoolCab posted:Monstrous Regiment would be one of my favorites up until (and please don't read this Zephyrine major MR spoilers) the big reveal at the end. It changes the story from "this country is in an insanely desperate situation and as such an entire generation of combat troops do not legally qualify to be soldiers" to "this group of people are cross-dressing Amazons for no real coherent reason." It robs the story of the desperation of the situation; presumably there have been lots of Monstrous Regiments, which implies that girls regularly just up and disappear Just finished it. Loved it. And as a girl who was in the youth guard at age 14. A lot of it felt really close to home. Jackrum being a woman really was a necessary twist though because up to that point they were just girls "doing it as well as the men" but still under the direct supervision of another man who they depended on for direction It gave me the same feeling as I got from Kerrigan in heart of the swarm. Where she's all strong and independent up until her boyfriend shows up and then she turns into butter. I did really like the book though. It stirred a lot of personal feelings for me.
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Sep 2, 2014 20:35
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I'm re-reading some of the old books (Equal Rites at the moment) and I really do prefer the rougher feel of the older Discworld. Things haven't quite settled into the smooth rut of replicating every Earth concept in Discworld terms. When the dwarves act just like auto mechanics while repairing the broomstick, it's funny because it's out of place, it's not like they spent a bunch of time establishing CMOT's Discount Broomstick Lot and how all the people of A.M. have been flying these new-fangled broomsticks and how Vimes is going spare over left-lane bandits (right-lane bandits, I guess, because AM is London).
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Sep 2, 2014 21:00
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Ultimately the Man Who Was Thursday ending was basically inevitable, given Pratchett's love of Chesterton.
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Sep 2, 2014 21:01
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Pham Nuwen posted:CMOT's Discount Broomstick Lot and how all the people of A.M. have been flying these new-fangled broomsticks and how Vimes is going spare over left-lane bandits (right-lane bandits, I guess, because AM is London). You just made me want a Discworld book that probably won't exist: someone invents broomsticks that can be driven by anyone and manufactured cheaply. Goddamn it, it's writing itself in my head at this very instant!  e: Ridcully buys a flashy red one because midlife crisis! Nobby and Colon as traffic cops! Argh!
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Sep 2, 2014 21:47
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precision posted:Nobby and Colon as traffic cops! Argh! I think they already did this, although I can't remember in which book. Edit: also yeah, it's a pretty obvious thing to come up with after we've recently had the discworld invention of: Newspapers, paper money, the Post Office, steam engines, telegraphs/the Internet, and what else? Edit 2: I won't deny that a Blues Brothers style chase involving Nobby and Colon would be pretty enjoyable. Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Sep 2, 2014 |
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Sep 2, 2014 21:54
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Too bad "we're on a mission from Glod" has already been used.
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Sep 2, 2014 22:25
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Pham Nuwen posted:I think they already did this, although I can't remember in which book. From the end of Jingo until...one of the more recent books, I think, where Colon gets to semiretire to "community liaison" (or something), which translates to "Sit in the old lemonade factory across the street from the downtown office and gossip with retired cops instead of getting in trouble". I want to say Thud!. precision posted:You just made me want a Discworld book that probably won't exist: someone invents broomsticks that can be driven by anyone and manufactured cheaply. Goddamn it, it's writing itself in my head at this very instant! Given the recent steam aspect, I think "horseless carriages" are a more likely result than mass-produced broomsticks. Alliterate Addict fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Sep 2, 2014 |
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Sep 2, 2014 22:49
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Lord Vetinari instructs Vimes to put Colon and Nobby in charge of a traffic police unit at the end of Jingo, and we then get to see them (and hear about them) in action at the beginning of The Fifth Elephant.quote:'Now...what do we have to discuss...?' [Lord V] pulled another document towards him and read it swiftly. Presumably when Mister Vimes gets back and finishes going spare, they return to clamping duty until some point after Night Watch when Fred begins to slow down even more than he had done already.
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Sep 2, 2014 23:04
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Ursine Asylum posted:Given the recent steam aspect, I think "horseless carriages" are a more likely result than mass-produced broomsticks. Pterry has said that however many more books he gets to write, Discworld technology will not advance beyond its present level. However, he also said that the current level of Discworld technology allows for crystal radios...
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Sep 3, 2014 01:01
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Trin Tragula posted:Presumably when Mister Vimes gets back and finishes going spare, they return to clamping duty until some point after Night Watch when Fred begins to slow down even more than he had done already. 
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Sep 3, 2014 04:29
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DACK FAYDEN posted:They put clamps on the Opera House And a troll haha.
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Sep 3, 2014 05:18
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cptn_dr posted:"Theory of reflected sound" = Echo I was always fond of inn sewer ants too.
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Sep 3, 2014 14:22
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/r4-good-omens BBC Radio 4 is doing an audio adaptation of Good Omens!
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Sep 5, 2014 23:08
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Does anybody have that quote by Pratchett about how sometimes his characters do things that he, the author, wasn't expecting them to do? Carrot declining the throne for example.
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Sep 5, 2014 23:27
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Just finished "Going Postal" and I loved it. One thing that did make me sad was that Guilt died in the end I did like his character and all the work that went into it and I would have looked forward to seeing him turn up every now and then in the position he was offered.
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Sep 6, 2014 09:21
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