Pratchett II: The Wrath of Om

[lokisnow]

It could have just been an innocent pleasant thought for Vetinari and lacking in malicious intent, but yes, he did.

[SkynJay]

Didn't Vetinari basically condone or give implicit approval to have Gravid Rust killed via poison Foureck spider?

Yes.

I enjoyed Sybil growing and showing her strengths, Vimes relationship with his son, and many of the jokes.

I disliked some major loose plot points(what happened to the twirling maids, the hermit, and really, did the pub keeper do anything important)?

,Still enjoyed it though.

[Jussi]

Plot synopsis for The Long Earth:

Larry Lynsey is a recluse. Aggressively protective of his singular solitude, he has searched long, far, and wide to find the perfect isolation. Deep in one of the farthest regions in Long Earth—a series of parallel worlds that become increasingly un-Earthlike with distance—in the region known as the High Meggas, the curmudgeon has found his Eden. He isn’t just the only living person on the planet; he is, in fact, the only person on the closest ten planets. It would take a ridiculously long time to reach him even if anyone tried.

Life for Larry is exactly how he likes it.

Unfortunately, Larry only thinks he’s alone...

Hapless travellers Anna Shea and Seven Valiente must have taken a wrong turn at a wrong star somewhere in the back of beyond deep space and have now gotten themselves stranded in the High Meggas. Larry’s High Meggas.

For the likes of the hermetic Larry, three is way too big a crowd, accidental tourists or not. Which means, he’s got to do something about them.

Which means, this being a Terry Pratchett story, hijinks, mishaps, and hilarity will ensue.

Infused with Pratchett’s subtle satire and vibrant, believable world-building and with award-winning author Stephen Baxter’s bold speculative insight, The Long Earth is dazzling feat of skill and imagination sure to enthrall fans old and new.

http://www.harpercol...33135303837.htm

[Jussi]

Here is another blurb:

The UK’s bestselling fantasy writer and a giant of British SF combine forces to write an astonishing, mind-bending new series... The Long Earth.

2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Junior cop Sally Jansson is called out to the house of Willis Lynsey, a reclusive scientist, for an animal-cruelty complaint: the man was seen forcing a horse in through the door of his home. Inside there is no horse. But Sally finds a kind of home-made utility belt. She straps this on - and ‘steps’ sideways into an America covered with virgin forest. Willis came here with equipment and animals, meaning to explore and colonise. And when Sally gets back, she finds Willis has put the secret of the belt on the internet. The great migration has begun...

The Long Earth: our Earth is but one of a chain of parallel worlds, lying side by side in a higher space of possibilities, each differing from its neighbours by a little (or a lot): an infinite landscape of infinite possibilities. And the further away you travel, the stranger the worlds get. The sun and moon always shine, the basic laws of physics are the same. However, the chance events which have shaped our particular version of Earth, such as the dinosaur-killer asteroid impact, might not have happened and things may well have turned out rather differently.

But only our Earth hosts mankind...

http://www.randomhou...ocument?id=1033

[Jussi]

Pratchett's new YA novel Dodger will be published in September. Now we have a synopsis:

In an alternative London, ruled by the young Queen Victoria, an enterprising lad can find adventure and opportunity—if he is very smart, and very, very lucky. Dodger has the brains, the luck—and the cheek—to scrape by on his own.

Everyone knows Dodger, and everyone likes Dodger. Which is a good thing, because life for a boy on the streets is anything but easy. And it’s about to get seriously complicated as a simple haircut turns momentous when Dodger unknowingly puts a stop to the murderous barber Sweeney Todd.

From Dodger’s encounters with fictional villains to his meetings with Darwin, Disraeli, and Dickens, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking tale of adventure and mystery, unexpected coming-of-age, and one remarkable boy’s rise in a complex and fascinating world.

Beloved and bestselling author Terry Pratchett writes at the height of his powers, combining high comedy with deep wisdom, to the delight of fans old and new.

http://www.harpercol...33038393939.htm

[Jussi]

Blurb for A Blink of the Screen - Collected Short Fiction:

A collection of short fiction from Terry Pratchett, spanning the whole of his writing career from schooldays to Discworld and the present day.

In the four decades since his first book appeared in print, Terry Pratchett has become one of the world's best-selling and best-loved authors. Here for the first time are his short stories and other short-form fiction collected into one volume. A Blink of the Screen charts the course of Pratchett's long writing career: from his schooldays through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press, and the origins of his debut novel, The Carpet People; and on again to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful Discworld series.

Here are characters both familiar and yet to be discovered; abandoned worlds and others still expanding; adventure, chickens, death, disco and, actually, some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas, all of it shot through with Terry's inimitable brand of humour. With an introduction by Booker Prize-winning author A.S. Byatt, illustrations by the late Josh Kirby and drawings by the author himself, this is a book to treasure.

http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385618984

[Datepalm]

Say, having finally watched the original Highlander, is the Queen thing in Good Omens riffing off of that? Or was it just in the air in the late 80's that everything is always Queen? Hm? (and then I started Songs of Love and Death right after watching it, to find a Queen reference - to "Who dares to Love Forever", no less - in the first page of the first story. They do turn up, Queen.)

/end, er, total pointlessness.

[Iskaral Pust]

I only just read Snuff and I thought it was very weak. I agree with the criticisms above, especially Mindonner.

Stratforth is a pale copy of Carcer; yet another newly introduced species to hang a plot on (and I had thought the orc insert was the worst so far); weak humor; absurd moral grandstanding (Pratchett has gone from moral teacher to moral bludgeon); the gathering dark was poorly executed and the book would have been better without it; sudden over-exposure of Willikens; a second step too far for Vimes toward infallibility and invincibility -- the character peaked gloriously in Night's Watch and it's sad to watch him jump the shark.

But the things that really bothered me here were

- Vimes was a bully throughout the book.

- Heavy overtones of "white saviours" helping the cringing, pathetic goblins

- Far too many loose ends. The whole book felt shabby and thrown together.

I recently read I Shall Wear Midnight, which I thought was at least better crafted and more thoughtful. But I was disappointed that he invented yet another improbably specific antagonist just for Tiffany to battle. It felt like the Hiver again.

Perhaps Terry needs to slow his prodiguous production to focus a little more on quality.

[Jussi]

Official Dodger trailer:

You can look inside the book and read first chapters.

[Gigei]

Say, having finally watched the original Highlander, is the Queen thing in Good Omens riffing off of that? Or was it just in the air in the late 80's that everything is always Queen? Hm? (and then I started Songs of Love and Death right after watching it, to find a Queen reference - to "Who dares to Love Forever", no less - in the first page of the first story. They do turn up, Queen.)

/end, er, total pointlessness.

I cannot believe that I actually know the answer to this question. From The Annotated Pratchett: http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/good-omens.html

- [p. 19/3] "[...] all tapes left in a car for more than about a fortnight metamorphose into 'Best of Queen' albums."

In an interview in Comics Buyer's Guide with Terry and Neil, shortly after the American release of Good Omens, Terry proposed the theory that, when you're driving through the country late at night, and there's nothing on the radio, you find yourself stopping in at an all-night gas station and looking through the tape rack; the only thing there remotely tolerable is a Best of Queen, so you buy that. Two weeks later you can't remember how the thing got there, so you get rid of it, only to go through the same process again. Neil's theory was that tapes really do turn into Best of Queen albums.

[Bronson]

My favorite Pratchett novel thus far is Moving Picture Hilariously funny but underneath the humor is very nasty concept. If Pratchett had ever decided to write horror , he would have been one the greats in that category, easily.

[Werthead]

Pratchett has given his daughter Rhianna permission to write more Discworld novels after he has passed away/is no longer capable. He has also made her a producer and co-writer on The Watch TV series, on which apparently there is huge casting news they are waiting to unveil.

Pretty good move. Rhianna Pratchett is a good writer herself, having cut her teeth on magazines like PC Zone. She's also written for computer games, apparently penning the storylines to Mirror's Edge and the new Tomb Raider game (as well as the Overlord series).

[SkynJay]

Ok, I am slightly optimistic about a Watch TV series, even though I know it will get no steam and very doubtfully be good.

As for his daughter writing, I am of course OK with it, it is his world and can do whatever he wants. But I sure hope she takes it her own direction, and doesn't copy his style throughout. I just don't see that working well.

Lastly, I finished Dodger about a week ago, and I think it is the best book Pratchett has written in a few years. I found it better than Nation, and certainly better than any non Aching Diskworld books that have come out recently.

[3CityApache]

Lastly, I finished Dodger about a week ago, and I think it is the best book Pratchett has written in a few years. I found it better than Nation, and certainly better than any non Aching Diskworld books that have come out recently.

I wonder what you meant by 'recently'. Is it better than Thud! ? Better than Making Money? Because the latter would be something IMO.

And I've just received a package from Amazon with Dodger, The Blink of the Screen, Compleat Ankh-Morpork (awesome!) and Lands of Ice and Fire. Yessss!

[Luke Scull]

Pratchett has given his daughter Rhianna permission to write more Discworld novels after he has passed away/is no longer capable. He has also made her a producer and co-writer on The Watch TV series, on which apparently there is huge casting news they are waiting to unveil.

Pretty good move. Rhianna Pratchett is a good writer herself, having cut her teeth on magazines like PC Zone. She's also written for computer games, apparently penning the storylines to Mirror's Edge and the new Tomb Raider game (as well as the Overlord series).

Rhianna penned the script for Heavenly Sword also - a successful PS3 launch title. I thought the story and dialogue were the best part of the game.

Didn't Charlie Brooker also write for PC Zone? A veritable hotbed of talent, that magazine.

[Luke Scull]

Lastly, I finished Dodger about a week ago, and I think it is the best book Pratchett has written in a few years. I found it better than Nation, and certainly better than any non Aching Diskworld books that have come out recently.

I picked up a special advance reader copy of the first chapter of Dodger from Waterstones months ago. I wasn't impressed - it seemed really rough - and decided not to add it to my Christmas wish list. I'm curious if the final book is much improved on what was in that sampler, which was after all uncorrected. I'm guessing so, especially when one considers Terry now dictates his stories and probably relies more on back-end editing. Perhaps I'll give it a try after all - though I didn't think Snuff was up to snuff either...

[Jussi]

I found it better than Nation,

Agreed, I'm not a big fan of Nation.

In October, Pratchett was writing the next Discworld novel:

The last, hugely successful Discworld novel, Snuff, came out last year and he is mid-way to finishing the next one now.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/terry-pratchett-what-keeps-me-going-is-the-fight-8205971.html

I wonder if this is Raising Taxes, the third Moist von Lipwig adventure.

[SkynJay]

I wonder what you meant by 'recently'. Is it better than Thud! ? Better than Making Money? Because the latter would be something IMO.

Everyone with different tastes, I would put Thud! as the last of my re-readable Diskworld pile(non-Aching). Didn't love Making Money, Unseen, or Snuff.

[3CityApache]

Yeah, different tastes and no mistake. I really enjoyed Making Money, probably even more than Going Postal. I enjoyed Thud! as well, but less so. I didn't like Unseen and especially Snuff, which is one of the poorest Discworld books ever written to me. And I didn't particularly like Nation as well.

[alguien]

I really enjoyed Thud. Snuff not as much. Too much Vimes and not enough of the rest of the Watch. Still fun though.

Don't know if I've ever read a Pratchett book I disliked though...