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Pratchett II: The Wrath of Om

Werthead

By Werthead,
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Jussi Council Member

Jussi

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http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/apr/15/terry-pratchett-memorial-neil-gaiman-tony-robinson-discworld-barbican

A raft of Pratchett-related projects and adaptations were announced or confirmed, including:

• A BBC documentary about Pratchett’s life, with footage of some of his last conversations with Wilkins.
• A TV adaptation of Pratchett and Gaiman’s novel Good Omens, to be adapted by Gaiman himself at Pratchett’s request.
• A film adaptation of Pratchett’s 2003 novel The Wee Free Men by his daughter, Rhianna Pratchett.
• A biography of Terry Pratchett, to be written by Wilkins.
• A film adaptation of the 1987 novel Mort, to be written by the second-highest-grossing screenwriter of all time, Terry Rossio.
• A fan-funded film of Pratchett’s short story Troll Bridge, which is in post-production.
• The long-rumoured fantasy police procedural The Watch, set in Discworld.
• A series of Discworld encyclopedias – volume one is titled Death.

Despite the overwhelming list of announcements, fans were reassured that Pratchett’s legacy is in safe hands; Wilkins insisted once more that the 10 unfinished novels sitting in Pratchett’s archives would not be published or finished by another author.

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Jo498 Council Member

Jo498

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Finished "The 5th elephant" a couple of days ago. Again, pretty good and entertaining with a good mix of humor, "themes" and mystery plot. Although the watch strike because of the overstrained acting captain Colon was underdeveloped and not all details of the Uberwald plots are completely revealed or made clear. The Chekhov references were apparently only for fun or did I miss a deeper meaning there?

Spoiler

What was the role of the vampires? Did Wolfgang (who does not seem the type for the plot element with the scone of stone) collaborate with the reactionary faction of the dwarves or was his plot and the dwarves' more or less "happy" coincidence). Seeing how the werewolves "keep to their traditions" it seems also somewhat gullible by everyone else in Uberwald (and even more by the secret agents from Ankh-Morpork) not to keep a few hidden silver daggers or bolts "just in case")

 

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Jo498 Council Member

Jo498

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By now I re-read "Guards!Guards!" (in German), "The Light Fantastic" and "Equal Rites". (Again I am not sure if I read the last two before or not; some things like Cohen the Barbarian and stuttering Simon seem familiar but large parts of the plot were not)

The books are problematic in translation (as to be expected with humor relying often on puns and funny names), I am somewhat surprised that I liked them so much in translation 20-25 years ago. Pratchett seems a little too fond of the joke with naive young people not understanding prostitution (done with both Esk and especially Carrott). Still, Guards!Guards! is very good and full up to the standard of later books. (The main quibble might be that the Vimes of the beginning of that book is very different from the tough guy of the later ones.)

Equal Rites is quite good (and the Unseen University is much closer to the later standard than the shark pool from the Light Fantastic) but I found the end somewhat disappointing. It did not really become clear to me what happened with the "dungeon dimensions" and their creatures

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Jo498 Council Member

Jo498

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Finished "Pyramids" and "Hogfather". Again both are pretty good with some flaws. Pyramids is hilarious at times but the end is somewhat disappointing. (Does the camel mathematician appear in another (early) book? I am quite sure that I read something with that camel but I don't think I ever read Pyramids before as I did not remember anything else.)

Can't quite understand why Hogfather is one of the more controversial ones. The main theme is quite fascinating and it is overall well done. I did not care too much for the wizards/UU scenes, thoug. and quite a few things I did not really understand at all:

Spoiler

How exactly did the assassin or the auditors put the Hogfather out of action (chase him as "dogs" in his boar avatar?) and how could Death (he obviously did not "kill" the Hogfather) know this early enough to replace him? Why are the assassin and his buddies actually in the "tooth fairy's" domain? To terminate it as well? Or ist this all a red herring to finish the Hogfather without anyone interfering?

And Gaiman seems even more indebted to Pratchett than I thought. With "Small Gods", "Hogfather" and similar stuff Pratchett basically prefigures American Gods and many other aspects of Gaiman's work.

Probably going to take a break from Pratchett as I ran out of cheap books and have some other things o the reading list as well.

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polishgenius Council Member

polishgenius

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4 hours ago, Jo498 said:

Finished "Pyramids" and "Hogfather". Again both are pretty good with some flaws. Pyramids is hilarious at times but the end is somewhat disappointing. (Does the camel mathematician appear in another (early) book? I am quite sure that I read something with that camel but I don't think I ever read Pyramids before as I did not remember anything else.)

Can't quite understand why Hogfather is one of the more controversial ones. The main theme is quite fascinating and it is overall well done. I did not care too much for the wizards/UU scenes, thoug. and quite a few things I did not really understand at all:

  Hide contents

How exactly did the assassin or the auditors put the Hogfather out of action (chase him as "dogs" in his boar avatar?) and how could Death (he obviously did not "kill" the Hogfather) know this early enough to replace him? Why are the assassin and his buddies actually in the "tooth fairy's" domain? To terminate it as well? Or ist this all a red herring to finish the Hogfather without anyone interfering?

And Gaiman seems even more indebted to Pratchett than I thought. With "Small Gods", "Hogfather" and similar stuff Pratchett basically prefigures American Gods and many other aspects of Gaiman's work.

Probably going to take a break from Pratchett as I ran out of cheap books and have some other things o the reading list as well.


On why are they in the Tooth Fairy's domain - this was fairly explicitly explained, no? With the teeth in the fairy tower, they can control what children believe, and if they stop believe in the Hogfather, he'll vanish.

As for the Gaiman connection - this is a two-way street. After all, Gaiman started writing Sandman in 1988 and he was already developing a lot of the themes there, some of which are visible in those two Pratchett books you named which came later.

[/spoiler]

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AncalagonTheBlack Council Member

AncalagonTheBlack

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Discworld Comes to Life in Omar Rayyan’s Artwork for Mort

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The Folio Society is publishing a new edition of Terry Pratchett’s Mort, a classic Discworld tale of Death and his young inept apprentice. For this special edition, award-winning artist Omar Rayyan has provided 7 color illustrations that capture the humor and vibrancy of Pratchett’s remarkable work.

 

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Pilusmagnus Council Member

Pilusmagnus

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Hello.

Sorry for upping this old topic but I need some information and I didn't feel like starting a new topic for it.

I'm writing an essay about translation of names in The Lord of the Rings and I would like to use a Terry Pratchett quote in my conclusion.

The quote is "Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can."

It is cited on all the quote websites there are, but none provide the actual source for the quote. Do any of you know in what book or conference he said or wrote that?

I would be very grateful if you could point me in any direction regarding that quote. 

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Plessiez Council Member

Plessiez

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1 hour ago, Pilusmagnus said:

The quote is "Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can."

Lspace says that the original (somewhat differently worded) version of this quote ("Fantasy is like alcohol - too much is bad for you, a little bit makes the world a better place. Like an exercise bicycle it takes you nowhere, but it just might tone up the muscles that will.") appears in the essay 'Turtles All The Way' from The Discworld Companion.  I don't have my copy of the latter to hand to check though.

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Pilusmagnus Council Member

Pilusmagnus

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17 minutes ago, Plessiez said:

Lspace says that the original (somewhat differently worded) version of this quote ("Fantasy is like alcohol - too much is bad for you, a little bit makes the world a better place. Like an exercise bicycle it takes you nowhere, but it just might tone up the muscles that will.") appears in the essay 'Turtles All The Way' from The Discworld Companion.  I don't have my copy of the latter to hand to check though.

Thank you! I think that quoting the article might be enough. If someone else owns the book I would be glad to get a confirmation though.

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AncalagonTheBlack Council Member

AncalagonTheBlack

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Michael Sheen, David Tennant to Star in ‘Good Omens’ at Amazon

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Michael Sheen and David Tennant have been cast in the lead roles in the Amazon series adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s “Good Omens,” Variety has learned.

The show is set in 2018 on the brink of an apocalypse as humanity prepares for a final judgment. But Aziraphale, a somewhat fussy angel, and Crowley, a demon, aren’t enthusiastic about the end of the world, and can’t seem to find the Antichrist. Sheen will play the role of Aziraphale, while Tennant will play Crowley. It will consist of six one-hour episodes.

“I first read ‘Good Omens’ as a teenager and it’s been one of my favourite stories ever since,” Sheen said in a statement to Variety. “To be part of the team entrusted with bringing it alive on screen is a bit of a dream come true to be honest. To work alongside Neil, who I think is one of the greatest storytellers of all time, is incredibly exciting. And, just like the rest of the world, I’m a huge fan of David’s so I relish trying to save it with him.”

 

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AncalagonTheBlack Council Member

AncalagonTheBlack

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Terry Pratchett's unfinished novels destroyed by steamroller

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The unfinished books of Sir Terry Pratchett have been destroyed by a steamroller, following the late fantasy novelist’s wishes.

Pratchett’s hard drive was crushed by a vintage John Fowler & Co steamroller named Lord Jericho at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, ahead of the opening of a new exhibition about the author’s life and work.

After his death, fellow fantasy author Neil Gaiman, Pratchett’s close friend and collaborator , told the Times that Pratchett had wanted “whatever he was working on at the time of his death to be taken out along with his computers, to be put in the middle of a road and for a steamroller to steamroll over them all”.

 

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alguien Council Member

alguien

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On 4/27/2016 at 7:45 AM, HairBearHero said:

Billy Connolly was born to play a Wee Free Man. Also, Simon Pegg in full Scotty mode.

IIRC, Big Yan is named and drawn after Billy Connolly. So he could play... himself!

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