I'm in the middle of Feet of Clay - he'll be in my heart as I finish it.
Sir Terry Pratchett has died
171–180 of 234 posts
Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
'He was the sort of person who stood on mountaintops during thunderstorms in wet copper armour shouting 'All the Gods are bastards.' - Terry Pratchett
If you're encased in copper, wet or not, you have a fair chance. The copper provides a conductive path around you that is better than through you. Lightning rods and their cables also get wet, and are touching the building, which is also wet.
Only if the copper creates a contiguous channel around you. If you wore armour like say the old Greek breastplate-and-shinguards, there's a lot of space to travel with no copper conduit. Likewise the helmet may not be in contact with any of the other armour, so the next port of call for the electron stream is your scalp...
Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died
#173"Yes. I know. He's Vorbis," said Brutha. "Vorbis changed people. Sometimes he changed them into dead people. But he always changed them. That was his triumph." -- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods) I love this book, Small Gods, one of my favorite books by any author. I think the same could be said of Terry Pratchett, he changed people through his books (and as a bonus generally left them alive). Godspeed Terry.
My favourite Pratchett line is the next bit. Death points out that Vorbis was a bastard, so why help him? Brutha returns "Yes, that was Vorbis. But I am me". A powerful comment to not let yourself be defined by the faults of others.
Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
The main reason for that recommendation is that The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, though fun books and enjoyable fantasy parodies in themselves, are really not representative of what the later Discworld books were to become. When Terry wrote Equal Rites and Mort, he really set out his manifesto for the series as being about this world, reflected in that world, and that theme is what really carries forward.…
Night Watch was amazing. Moral, moving, exciting. It could stand on it's own as literature without any of the other books.
Apart from his pun-a-thon books, most of his Discworld novels have some sort of moral underpinning. Small Gods on being religious versus being good is an obvious one, Feet of Clay being about slavery and what defines a person is another. But if you take a step back and look at most of his books, you'll find a moral lesson intentionally put in there.
Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died
#175I've never read any of his books, although I've been meaning to for some time. Can anyone who's read through them comment? According to the Discworld wikipedia article, publication order may not be the best way to go through the series. This[1] page recommends reading a plot/chronological order. Personally I prefer reading books in publication order, since I get to follow the mind of the author. Given that, there are…
Begin at the beginning. Pratchett's concept of the discworld filled out as the books go on. Read the books in chronological order and you'll see the discworld grow. Things happen in later books that wouldn't make sense in earlier books, and in the later books, the world is much more 'nailed-down'. The first couple of books, as mentioned, are much more lighthearted whimsy, without a formal plot. But they're still a fun read, you get some discworld basics in them, and they're pretty short.
Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died
#176We read and studied "Guards! Guards!" at school, and we were fortunate enough that he visited and spoke to a group of us, answering questions. I seem to recall that I asked a fairly dumb question... This was about 25 years ago, but I'm honoured to have met him and will always remember his enthusiasm and charisma.
Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died
#177AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER. https://twitter.com/terryandrob/status/576036599047258112
just in the off case you didn't notice it (cause I didn't): read the follow up tweets, i.e. the whole profile. https://twitter.com/terryandrob
Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died
#178I've never read any of his books, although I've been meaning to for some time. Can anyone who's read through them comment? According to the Discworld wikipedia article, publication order may not be the best way to go through the series. This[1] page recommends reading a plot/chronological order. Personally I prefer reading books in publication order, since I get to follow the mind of the author. Given that, there are…
Small Gods is a common recommendation from other people, but it is a collaboration with Gaiman. Not that its a bad thing, but it is missing the full Pratchett voice. My favorites are all Moist_von_Lipwig books. I recommend starting with Going Postal. Its comes much later in chronological order, but is the first Moist_von_Lipwig book and is enjoyable standalone.
Seconding Going Postal. It should be noted it's an especially good fit for the Hacker News demographic, parodying hacker culture and even referencing GNU.
Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died
#179I've never read any of his books, although I've been meaning to for some time. Can anyone who's read through them comment? According to the Discworld wikipedia article, publication order may not be the best way to go through the series. This[1] page recommends reading a plot/chronological order. Personally I prefer reading books in publication order, since I get to follow the mind of the author. Given that, there are…
If you have some time on your hands, I suggest the Watch and the Witches series in chronological order. They are fine examples of the amount of character development Pratchett made happen and also of himself growing more and more mature and witty as a writer.
Re: Sir Terry Pratchett has died
#180The first celebrity death that hit me hard. I've read all fourty Discworld novels, some of them 4 or 5 times. His books taught me to approach the world with a twinkle in my eye and a smile quick to come out -- a good change from the cynicism of my teens. So many memories... he wrote amazing characters. Dorfl, a Golem who figured out how to program himself (via writing his own scrolls to feed into his head). His firep…
The magic of Discworld was always that you quoted characters and never Pratchett in person.
It was never the narrative that was quoted, nor the framing - but the words of the Character themselves (Vimes, Brutha, DEATH, Susan, Granny, Moist or Rincewind).
And that stands out whenever someone makes a comic - http://imgur.com/gallery/DXDvM
Note to self: campaign for zenpencils to make one - "Mr Pratchett, Him Diamond".
I don't feel sad for Mr Pratchett today, he was spared of his greatest worry - living in dementia. I do feel sad that we're all poorer in literature that delights and critiques modern society ("Echo-gnomics", heh).