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Moist von Lipwig posted:Heart attack. It was a quick descent? I think they were referring to the descent in quality of Adams' writing. Mostly Harmless really was an amazingly depressing piece of business, made all the worse because the Dirk Gently books were incredibly and showed a maturity that Hitchhiker's books never really got around to. I loved Douglas Adams as a kid, but honestly, once I found Pratchett I never looked back (much how Adams himself had replaced my affection for Robert Asprin).
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Jan 13, 2008 10:41
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Thirded on Hogfather being good; I'll be interested to see how The Colour of Magic turns out, especially with Sean Astin as Twoflower, Tim Curry as Trymon, and Christopher motherfuckin' Lee as Death. Could be quite awesome. I too have no idea what Nation is about, which is really bizarre. All I can find out is that it's a work of fiction that is political in nature.
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Jan 28, 2008 12:21
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Lars Blitzer posted:What? Who would be Rincewind, though? Rincewind is being played by the actor who played Alfred in Hogfather.
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Jan 29, 2008 04:56
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It's strange, I really could never pin down an age for Rincewind. When I read the first two books, I did think of him as really old. Plus, aside from Ponder Stibbons, every wizard in the series is described as being around 50-70. In the later books, there are times that Rincewind acts somewhat younger, however, so I gradually began to think of him as 30-ish.
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Jan 29, 2008 18:25
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quote:"Rincewind's life-timer is described as resembling something created by a glassblower with the hiccups in a time machine; most likely as a result of his constant mishaps involving magic, the nature of reality, and shiftings into alternate dimensions. This represents something of a curiosity to Death who keeps the hour-glass on his desk. The complicated and sometimes changing nature of the life-timer can not only slow the flow of Rincewind's sand, but also stop and even reverse it. As such, even Death himself is unaware of how old Rincewind is supposed to be or when he will die" On a somewhat related note, I do hope that before PTerry stops writing we get another Discworld novel that directly deals with the Gods of the Disc, and how they are adapting to the growth of technology. I always thought that the sections where the Gods were sitting around playing a game with the Disc's characters were fun. It'd be especially neat to have a whole book that revolves around The Lady and Fate (I realise the first two books are sort of already like that, but still). I think I initially thought of Rincewind as old because he's drawn as being old on the original cover of The Light Fantastic, which was the first Disc novel I read. Oddly enough, I found it at a K-Mart, of all places, in 1987 or so, and picked it up on a complete whim.
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Jan 30, 2008 00:10
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Nosy_G posted:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I always remember Death speaking as the old "voice in the head" sort of thing. Yes, I do believe that is actually explicitly stated at least once in the series. THAT'S WHY HE TALKS LIKE THIS.
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Jan 30, 2008 04:06
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Sulevis posted:He semi-retired the Witches and totally retired the Wizards and Rincewind. I think you have it backwards. He's retired the Witches (except that they appear in the Tiffany Aching books) and the Wizards will be prominently featured in the next Disc novel, Unseen Academicals, which he has already began notes on. Plus, the wizards and Rincewind appear in the Science books.
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Feb 11, 2008 18:36
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That's odd, I thought Carpe Jugulum was one of the better books in the series. I like Esme much more than Vimes, honestly.
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Feb 12, 2008 23:31
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There's not much point in making a distinction between "canon" and "non-canon" when it comes to the Disc, sine PTerry himself has said that he makes no distinction. The only thing to worry about is if he wrote it or not; everything else is Quantum, innit?
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Feb 17, 2008 22:18
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Pope Guilty posted:Didn't Pterry have a line about how there's no continutity errors, only multiple continuities that are slightly different, or something like that? It seems like that could well apply to questions of what is and is not canon. Yeah, something like that. He knows he's made mistakes in the books and doesn't try and explain it. Probably a wizard did it.
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Feb 27, 2008 09:49
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I think that Christian Bale could pull off Carrot pretty well, based on a balance of his performances in American Psycho and Batman Begins.
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Apr 15, 2008 00:43
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Would it be too obvious to say that Alan Rickman would be the perfect Vetinari?
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Apr 15, 2008 05:55
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Pope Guilty posted:My personal reality does not allow for the existence of a worse book than The Last Continent. I'm always too busy reading new books to re-read old ones, so I haven't read any Discworld book since it came out (well, actually, I've re-read Mort, Small Gods and Lords and Ladies) but through the haze of my memory I was profoundly disappointed by that one, so much so that I thought, at the time, "Wow, this could be the shark-jumping point for Pratchett's writing". Thankfully I was proven very wrong by every Disc novel following it being pure gold, particularly the very next one, Carpe Jugulum.
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Mar 11, 2009 19:33
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The Witches have always been my favourite series (until Moist came along), so I'll take Granny angsting over Vimes' angsting in Thud! any day. I am really hoping, before he gets too sick, that he gives us a book dedicated entirely to Vetinari.
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Mar 12, 2009 20:16
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Pope Guilty posted:I really liked how Pratchett went back to elves the way they originally were in legends I really liked how he connected them to cats and aliens. As far as great, dramatic scenes, he writes plenty. The earliest one I can think of is the intro to Sourcery; that is really gold stuff right there. Also see: the climax of Mort.
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Mar 16, 2009 04:25
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I have to admit I don't know why the vast majority of Pratchett fans like the Watch books the best. I really liked Vimes when he was like Columbo, but lately, now that he's all serious and fighting to "control the beast inside", it's just... meh. The parallel with the Witches is obvious, because of Esme knowing she could be evil but knowing she has to do the Right Thing, but for some reason I find her a lot more of an interesting character. Maybe because she has better one-liners. Also, Michael Emerson would in fact be the perfect choice to play Vetinari. Please God, someone in Hollywood realize how amazing a Discworld film could be. I mean, Stardust was a hit movie and Pratchett has quite a few more fans than Neil Gaiman, especially in the UK.
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Mar 20, 2009 20:30
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DontMockMySmock posted:I find it a blessing that Hollywood has not gotten their hands on Discworld. They would defile it. The film versions of Stardust and Coraline are both incredibly faithful to the novels and very good movies. Automatically hating all things Hollywood is kind of a tired old trope, don't you think?
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Mar 20, 2009 22:36
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DontMockMySmock posted:It didn't become a tired old trope by being false. Besides, I don't hate "all things Hollywood," just adaptations of novels/comic books/videogames/etc. that overwhelmingly tend to be terrible. OK, but do you not realize that the majority of EVERYTHING is terrible? Most music, most art, most novels, most films, Hell, even most people! Surely you're aware of the notion of the Bell Curve?
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Mar 21, 2009 00:01
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Let's be fair, The Last Continent is the only bad Rincewind book, and arguably the only bad Disc book period. Well, except for Monstrous Regiment, which isn't a bad book, but as a Disc novel it's fairly atrocious inasmuch as it doesn't feel like it's even connected to the rest of the Discworld.
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Mar 21, 2009 18:04
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I don't know why people dislike Equal Rites, if you read the books in order it definitely feels like an improvement over the first two. And I didn't say I disliked Monstrous Regiment - I did like it, though I only laughed at the vampire's 'Nam flashbacks - I just don't think it felt like a Disc book at all. He could easily have made it a standalone. EDIT: Hey, I liked Making Movies. Then again, as previously mentioned, I read the books as they were published so I might not like it if I went back to it now.
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Mar 21, 2009 19:03
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I agree about Soul Music, it did feel like an overly-intentional cultural parody that didn't quite have a good plot. Though "music with rocks in" and "We're Certainly Dwarves" are comedic gold.
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Mar 21, 2009 20:25
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The only characters he has "officially retired" are the Witches, I believe. He said something to the effect of "nothing on the Disc could ever stop Esme Weatherwax, so there's no point in me trying to think up conflicts featuring her". Obviously they make cameos in the Tiffany Aching books, but as main characters they're Right Out. Which makes me sad, especially given his next main Disc novel is about the wizards playing football. I mean, really? Unless he has some curveball planned, that sounds like something he would have done far earlier when the series was a lot more silly. And yes, Small Gods is in fact pretty much the one Disc book everyone should read.
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Mar 23, 2009 04:45
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Entropic posted:I remember reading that he had an idea for "Unseen Academicals", a book about the UU faculty starting a football league, but said he didn't want to write it because he actually didn't care for football. Has he gone back on that and decided to actually write it? As far as I know, yes. He had stated in an interview not long ago that he already had most of the notes for it ready.
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Mar 23, 2009 23:52
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Entropic posted:How can anyone dislike Mustrum Ridcully and Ponder Stibbons? Don't forget the Bursar.
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Mar 29, 2009 23:55
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Test Pattern posted:On another, but connected note, an Esme/Havelock staredown would be epic. A multi-hour staredown that ends in a pair of smirks and silent compromise Actually, I don't think even Vetinari could stand up to Esme. Every time he tried to be sneaky or say something to trick her, she'd roll her eyes and say "That's just headology". It would be a great scene because I think she is the only person who could befuddle him. As to the Watch, I don't think that the way A-M is evolving demands a new Vimes; the new A-M needs a Carrot, which is, I think, the whole point of why he is such an effective officer in the more recent Watch books. Vimes is a relic of the Olde Fantasy Dayes, when you had to wrangle shadowy thieves out from gutters; Carrot understands that the most important and prominent crimes in the New Era are being committed by Men Of Power who are used to thinking they can outwit the Watch in plain sight. I just realised that Carrot is actually kind of the exact same as Vetinari, except in a sort of opposite direction which gets the same results in a similarly deadpan way. Perhaps this is intentional.
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Apr 1, 2009 20:20
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lpzie posted:I wonder what Carrot is really about. Many allusions are made about him having to be really complex to be so simple. He has killed without warning and just shrugged it off. I always thought of him as a fairly obvious "Superman in a Clark Kent disguise" character.
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Apr 13, 2009 17:17
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bewilderment posted:Hints? I'm pretty sure Men at Arms, I think it is, implies, if not says, Carrot is pretty obviously the heir to the throne, but is happy where he is There are more "hints" than that; Carrot is most definitely the heir. wikipedia posted:In The Fifth Elephant, when faced with the defection of most members of the Watch, Carrot puts his royal sword on a desk in plain sight and reminds Watch members that they had taken an oath to the King, and that the King had not relieved them of it.
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Apr 16, 2009 20:36
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Aussie Crawl posted:The Tiffany Aching books are his Young Adult series, the only proper discworld book with witches and Yac Mac Feggle is Capre Jugulum. Weren't the Yac Mac Feegle in Lords and Ladies as well?
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Aug 14, 2009 18:37
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ibroxmassive posted:The Nac Mac Feegle are brilliant. Are Scottish people offended by them or too drunk too have noticed yet?
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Aug 15, 2009 00:58
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Nilbop posted:That would be like Londoners getting offended at the portrayal of Ankh-Morpork, or Welsh people getting offended at Llamedos. Actually, especially in more recent novels, I've always thought of Ankh-Morpork is an analogue for New York/America. I'm sure there are even quotes which reference how it's a "melting pot" and it certainly seems to have a much more welcoming policy with regards to immigrants than England does.
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Aug 15, 2009 16:09
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Well, that's my point, the Nac Mac Feegle are an extremely specific parody of a people, the sort of thing that if you wrote them as stereotypical, say, Mexicans people would get really offended. Perhaps it's just because, as Renton says, "It's shite being Scottish."
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Aug 15, 2009 18:56
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What's frustrating is that Susan is such a great character but gets somewhat shafted on which books she gets put in. Thief of Time was great, though, and the movie version of Hogfather was brilliant, especially her showdown with Teatime.
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Aug 21, 2009 00:10
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Nilbop posted:I don't understand how people could dislike Hogfather. I doubt most Terry Pratchett fans actually dislike anything he's written. It's just a matter of whether he's on top of his game or not. Hogfather was a lot better than Soul Music, that's for sure. EDIT: No, no, a thousand times no, unless it's Neil Gaiman using Pratchett characters in cameos, the Disc is Terry's and no one else's.
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Aug 21, 2009 19:23
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Entropic posted:Someone ought to preemptively murder Kevin J Anderson just in case. I had to wiki that name, and I really did not need to know there are ELEVEN post-Herbert Dune novels. ELEVEN.
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Aug 21, 2009 20:20
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Unfortunately still happening. Rather soon, in fact. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Another_Thing..._(novel)
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Aug 21, 2009 21:01
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Well, Pratchett has written enough and sold well enough that his family won't have to worry about money until the Century of the Fruitbat, while I believe Douglas Adams didn't leave a whole lot of cash behind. Sure, his books sold well, but there are only seven of them. I mean, Terry is very close to JK Rowling rich. That's why it amazes me that he still has so much passion and creativity to put out so many novels instead of just loving around and doing... whatever the Hell Robert Jordan did instead of writing.
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Aug 22, 2009 02:44
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Jesus gently caress, Rowling is a billionaire(ss?)? The only annoying thing I can think of about Terry right at the moment, and he does it a fair bit, is what I would refer to as "pointing out a joke too much". The best example is in The Truth where, fairly early, a character asks Mr. Pin "Why does your partner keep saying 'ing'?" It's like, dude, Terry, the joke was working, it was ---ing brilliant, we didn't need it spelled out for us.
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Aug 22, 2009 17:58
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LGBT War Machine posted:Think about a conversation where a person cut off parts of words. Wouldn't you wonder why? Sure, but real life =/= funny novels with wizards in.
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Aug 23, 2009 21:24
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LGBT War Machine posted:Doesn't mean that there can't be a realistic conversation. Otherwise you'd think that Terry was just censoring the naughty words and it wouldn't be so funny. But having read the Disc books in order and by that time knowing they were "adult" books, I found it very easy to come to the conclusion that he wasn't censoring his own novel and that it was a joke. Maybe I'm just smart like that. 
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Aug 23, 2009 22:43
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DontMockMySmock posted:I could be wrong, but doesn't someone say "gently caress" sometime in The Truth? I want to say there are few "poo poo"s in the Disc series, but nothing racier. Pretty sure Good Omens had "gently caress" somewhere in there, but one could always blame that on Neil Gaiman, I suppose.
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Aug 24, 2009 03:25
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