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Drunken Baker
Feb 3, 2015

VODKA STYLE DRINK
Never read Pratchett before but I was idly browsing some books at lunch and picked up Colour of Magic.

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3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

Drunken Baker posted:

Never read Pratchett before but I was idly browsing some books at lunch and picked up Colour of Magic.

Word of warning: it's a bit zany.

subx
Jan 12, 2003

If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

Drunken Baker posted:

Never read Pratchett before but I was idly browsing some books at lunch and picked up Colour of Magic.

I enjoy Colour of Magic but it's not the best book in the series. If you even remotely enjoy parts of it make sure to give his other works a chance.

Drunken Baker
Feb 3, 2015

VODKA STYLE DRINK
It was good that on this very page there were some recommendations about where to start off. I don't mind zany because I'll be juggling it with Dune and IT which I imagine will leave me a bit dry.

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

Drunken Baker posted:

It was good that on this very page there were some recommendations about where to start off. I don't mind zany because I'll be juggling it with Dune and IT which I imagine will leave me a bit dry.

The weird thing is it manages to be funny despite being zany. That's a rare thing.

Drunken Baker
Feb 3, 2015

VODKA STYLE DRINK
I know nothing of Pratchett's work besides Death talks in a unique font so I'm eager to get stuck in.

I'm half tempted to smuggle it the bogs in work for a quick half hour.

Rush Limbo
Sep 5, 2005

its with a full house
I like the first few books because it's clear that the image of the Discworld as it would be is forming but it's not quite there yet.

They're very charming in their own way but not hugely representative of what follows which got better as it got more focused.

Rand Brittain
Mar 25, 2013

"Go on until you're stopped."
Speaking of Death's ALL CAPS, which voices do people like best for Death? I find that most of the people doing Death tend to overdo the exaggerated bass in a way that makes it hard to emote and comes out stiff.

I really liked whoever it was that did Death in the full-cast recording of Thief of Time, who was just very, very calm and measured. (Although, that one had plenty of other problems, most notably that the person reading Susan's sections did a bad Lobsang and the person doing Lobsang's sections did a bad Susan. Then again, Stephen Briggs does everybody from the monastery with a bad Chinese accent, so we have to count our blessings.)

VanSandman
Feb 16, 2011
SWAP.AVI EXCHANGER

Rand Brittain posted:

Speaking of Death's ALL CAPS, which voices do people like best for Death? I find that most of the people doing Death tend to overdo the exaggerated bass in a way that makes it hard to emote and comes out stiff.

I really liked whoever it was that did Death in the full-cast recording of Thief of Time, who was just very, very calm and measured. (Although, that one had plenty of other problems, most notably that the person reading Susan's sections did a bad Lobsang and the person doing Lobsang's sections did a bad Susan. Then again, Stephen Briggs does everybody from the monastery with a bad Chinese accent, so we have to count our blessings.)

Death doesn't emote much.

SeanBeansShako
Nov 20, 2009

Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.
I kind of liked how he was done in Discworld Noir.

Dirty Frank
Jul 8, 2004

Rand Brittain posted:

Speaking of Death's ALL CAPS, which voices do people like best for Death? I find that most of the people doing Death tend to overdo the exaggerated bass in a way that makes it hard to emote and comes out stiff.

Just like I thought that Fear & Loathing was impossible to film, I think that Deaths VOICE is impossible to film. I hope I'm just as wrong.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.

Rand Brittain posted:

Speaking of Death's ALL CAPS, which voices do people like best for Death? I find that most of the people doing Death tend to overdo the exaggerated bass in a way that makes it hard to emote and comes out stiff.

I really liked whoever it was that did Death in the full-cast recording of Thief of Time, who was just very, very calm and measured. (Although, that one had plenty of other problems, most notably that the person reading Susan's sections did a bad Lobsang and the person doing Lobsang's sections did a bad Susan. Then again, Stephen Briggs does everybody from the monastery with a bad Chinese accent, so we have to count our blessings.)

I liked Christopher Lee.

Jedit
Dec 10, 2011

Proudly supporting vanilla legends 1994-2014

MonsieurChoc posted:

I liked Christopher Lee.

Christopher Lee was very good, but I don't know if Ian Richardson wasn't better.

Rush Limbo
Sep 5, 2005

its with a full house
Matt Berry as Christopher Lee as Death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vGkgC_5Ppo

Could work

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

Jerry Cotton posted:

The weird thing is it manages to be funny despite being zany. That's a rare thing.

I just noticed last night that Pratchett's foreword for Equal Rites says the book is neither wacky nor zany. Which is true. That book isn't.

double nine
Aug 8, 2013

Would Night Watch be considered a noir Discworld novel?

The Evil Thing
Jul 3, 2010
I don't think Vimes really fits the noir protagonist archetype all that well, but I guess if you stretched the label a bit you could kinda sorta make it fit to Night Watch. I've always just thought of it as a riff on Les Mis. Certainly, noir tends towards melodrama; Night Watch's events are quite momentous by comparison.

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

Vimes started out as a hard-boiled dick pastiche, not noir. Then again none of the books are hard-boiled..

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

The Ankh-Morpork books are kind of like the seminal computer video game Timesplitters: Future Perfect.

Screaming Idiot
Nov 26, 2007

JUST POSTING WHILE JERKIN' MY GHERKIN SITTIN' IN A PERKINS!

BEATS SELLING MERKINS.

Rand Brittain posted:

Speaking of Death's ALL CAPS, which voices do people like best for Death? I find that most of the people doing Death tend to overdo the exaggerated bass in a way that makes it hard to emote and comes out stiff.

I really liked whoever it was that did Death in the full-cast recording of Thief of Time, who was just very, very calm and measured. (Although, that one had plenty of other problems, most notably that the person reading Susan's sections did a bad Lobsang and the person doing Lobsang's sections did a bad Susan. Then again, Stephen Briggs does everybody from the monastery with a bad Chinese accent, so we have to count our blessings.)

Nigel Planer did the best Death, I think, by overplaying the implied gravitas of Death's unique voice. Death doesn't really emote -- emotions need glands, and Death's fresh out of those -- so he would use the same "tolling of the iron bells of impending entropy" tone of impending doom whether the subject at hand was the end of the world or his favorite brand of biscuit.

I gotta cut Briggs some slack with Sweeper's voice, though. A bad Chinese accent with hints of lower-class British suits his character perfectly. "Is it not written, 'there's a lot going on we don't know about?'" And Briggs's take on the Auditors was hilarious -- a flat, generic, almost American accent really worked with the characterization. I wish we could have heard more from the Auditors, and I wish even more that Unity LeJean didn't commit suicide at the end.

Rush Limbo
Sep 5, 2005

its with a full house
So who would people cast as various characters for tv/film adaptions?

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Miranda Hart would be an excellent Sybil.

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

I recently had the idea of Rowan Atkinson as Vetinari and the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became I was on to something.

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

Matt Damon as Gaspode.

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames
Peter Falk as Vimes, quite obviously.

e X
Feb 23, 2013

cool but crude

precision posted:

Peter Falk as Vimes, quite obviously.



Yeah, I see it.

BizarroAzrael
Apr 6, 2006

"That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."

Ddraig posted:

So who would people cast as various characters for tv/film adaptions?

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Miranda Hart would be an excellent Sybil.

I think Joanna Scanlan for Sybil actually.

I really like Charles Dance as Vetinari, but I could see Mark Heap in the role.

Peter Serafinowicz as Brian Butterfield as Fred Colon.

I liked Brigg's Sweeper, he sounded like he came from a London Chinese community which seems to suit him well.

My Lovely Horse
Aug 21, 2010

Fred Colon is surely Nick Frost.

Drunken Baker
Feb 3, 2015

VODKA STYLE DRINK
So I might shelve "Colour of Magic" for now as it's not quite clicking for me. The only other Pratchett book the local shop has is MORT so I might get that tomorrow.

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

My Lovely Horse posted:

Fred Colon is surely Nick Frost.

More like A Touch of Frost. Except he's way too old and possibly dead already.

Trin Tragula
Apr 22, 2005

I repeat my call for Tony Stamp and Reg Hollis off the Bill for Colon and Nobby.

subx
Jan 12, 2003

If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

Drunken Baker posted:

So I might shelve "Colour of Magic" for now as it's not quite clicking for me. The only other Pratchett book the local shop has is MORT so I might get that tomorrow.

IMO, Mort is a much better introduction to the series than Colour of Magic.

Hate Fibration
Apr 8, 2013

FLÄSHYN!

subx posted:

IMO, Mort is a much better introduction to the series than Colour of Magic.

I think Guards! Guards! is also an excellent place to start.

Oh, I didn't see the post you were replying to. Yes, Mort is a much better place to start than Colour of Magic. If Colour of Magic was the first book in the series I read, I probably never would have stuck with it.

Hate Fibration fucked around with this message at 05:02 on Sep 29, 2016

SystemLogoff
Feb 19, 2011

End Session?

I got through Color of Magic, then picked Thief of Time for my second book.

Yep. Susan, the monks, auditors, Soak...

It was the best. :allears:

I think Thief of Time is the best spoiler filled book to start with.

chiasaur11
Oct 22, 2012



SystemLogoff posted:

I got through Color of Magic, then picked Thief of Time for my second book.

Yep. Susan, the monks, auditors, Soak...

It was the best. :allears:

I think Thief of Time is the best spoiler filled book to start with.

My first Discworld was "Pyramids". A decent starting place, I think. Standalone, good enough to not be a turnoff, but not so good as to make the next book disappointing, and late in enough that Ankh Morpork was starting to feel proper.

The next one was Men at Arms, followed by Night Watch. The time gap between the two was a BIT disorienting, but Night Watch made up for it by being so very good. Still my pick for top Pratchett.

Liquid Communism
Mar 9, 2004


Out here, everything hurts.




Khizan posted:

I wish he'd done more with Carrot and Vimes. My favorite Carrot moment is in The Fifth Elephant where Vimes was thinking about the way that Carrot's destiny warps the world around him, and wondering how he'd stand up to it if he had to. I wish that he had had to.

That would be a hell of a thing. Carrot, convinced the city needs a King for it's own good (say because Vetinari finally decided he was officially Too Old For This poo poo and took off to Uberwald to retire as a vampire), and Vimes ready willing and able to go nose to nose in favor of populism.

VanSandman
Feb 16, 2011
SWAP.AVI EXCHANGER
Jo Brand is obviously Nanny Ogg though, right?

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

How tall is Willem DaFoe? I'm thinking Nobby Nobbs here.

3D Megadoodoo
Nov 25, 2010

Bobcat Goldthwaite for bursar.

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames

My Lovely Horse posted:

Fred Colon is surely Nick Frost.

Simon Pegg with makeup on for Nobby and deal.

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Rush Limbo
Sep 5, 2005

its with a full house
I can't help but think of anyone but Tony Robinson as Nobby because it's so obvious Nobby is a Baldrick style foil. Doesn't help that Terry and Tony were good mates.

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