Terry Pratchett fans.

Jeebizz · 06-10-2007, 06:01 PM

I am wondering, are there any Terry Pratchett fans here?

I have just seen The Hogfather, (it was a rip from SkyOne), and I do not live in UK but across the pond. It was quite good actually, and unfortunately there are not any US DVDs of The Hogfather, but there is a Wyrd Sisters and Sould Music release for the US, I do have at least one of his books out of the many books of the Discworld series (Men at Arms), though how I got introduced to Discworld was through two games on the Playstation. Discworld and Discworld II Mortality Bytes.

To those who are familiar with his works, what books have you read, and what book would you recommend I actually start with?

St.Jimmy · 06-10-2007, 07:46 PM

I like diskworld, and my sis _loves_ it, but I just cant get into it much. Start with the second one, the first one is hard to get into.

Jeebizz · 06-10-2007, 08:13 PM

Could you tell me the title?

It seems that Men at Arms is Terry's 28 book, released back in 1998.

St.Jimmy · 06-10-2007, 08:24 PM

1st:The colour of magic
2nd:The light fantastic

Jeebizz · 06-10-2007, 08:55 PM

Ah excellent. If you do happen to still have a PSOne laying around, try acquiring a copy of Discworld I and II for that console. The main character Rincewind is voiced by non other than former Monty Python Eric Idle. Its great!

St.Jimmy · 06-10-2007, 09:09 PM

MONTY PYTHON!!!???one!!!!eleven!!!
<rousing chorus>
I'm a lumberjack and that's ok
</Rousing chorus>
sweet, I gots me a ps1, and a computer with a joypad for emulators!

Jeebizz · 06-10-2007, 10:45 PM

Whoa! Ok I just found something interesting, www.lspace.org seems to be all things Pratchett/Discworld related. An interesting link goes to the Discworld games, AND THEY HAVE THE INTRO SONG FOR DISCWORLD II (sung of course, by Eric Idle), worth a listen: http://www.lspace.org/ftp/games/discworld2/death.mp3

St.Jimmy · 06-10-2007, 11:38 PM

ahahaha! I loved that death.mp3...

alred · 06-12-2007, 06:36 AM

who is Terry Pratchett ... ??

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Valkyrie_of_valhalla · 06-12-2007, 07:16 AM

I've already read 3 of his books, and hope to buy and read more soon.
So far, I've read:

1. "Reaper Man" - my first book. Given to me by a friend.
It's about how Death found out He was going to die and started "spending time" on earth, and the consequences this had (he stopped collecting souls, and all kinds of weird things start happening on earth because of this).

2. "Going Postal" - another funny book about a criminal who is forced to run a post office as a punishment, that has mountains of letters in every room.

3. "The dark side of the sun" - a neat SF of a man searching for an ancient alien culture, long lost, that have left behind a few lost relics that nobody understands. Also has a few robots with AI, to please the average geek

Terry Pratchett is a great author, with a good sense of humour and amasing fantasy. Most of the outcome is quite unexpected, and I like that in a book. His works are good to relax with after a hard stressful day.

I also plan on getting "Mort", if I can find it anywhere in my country.

alred · 06-12-2007, 07:30 AM

i donno ... generally speaking ... i always make it a habit to skip the "latest arrivals" or "most popular" section ...

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samael26 · 06-12-2007, 07:59 AM

Great writer ! I've read Carpe Jugulum, Men at Arms, Mort, The Colour of Magic, Soul Music, Night Watch, Lords and Ladies and others in French. Funny stuff, too.

Jeebizz · 06-12-2007, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by alred
who is Terry Pratchett ... ??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett

Although his books are humorous there is a message in all of his books, and his books are a comment on society as a whole, relating Discworld to our world, and the city of Ankh-Morpork seems to have references to 'real world cities'

Quote:

From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ankh_Morpork
Real-world connections
Ankh-Morpork was twinned with the town of Wincanton in Somerset, in the south-west United Kingdom on the spherical planet Earth (known in the Discworld books as Roundworld) on the 7th December 2002 [1]. The town is home to a Discworld shop called The Cunning Artificer which is named after a street in Ankh-Morpork. However due to legal reasons, the twinning is not officially displayed on the road sign. Fans however have added stick-on notices to some of the signs [2]. This has now been changed and a new town sign prominently declaring the twinning with Ankh-Morpork and other Roundworld places has been erected. This sign was designed by the Cunning Artificer himself, Bernard Pearson. There are rumours of a footpath to be named the Ankh-Morpork Way coming to pass in due course.

The University of Southern Queensland Roleplaying games club is called The Mended Drum.

Many details of Ankh-Morpork appear to have been inspired by Fritz Leiber's fictional city Lankhmar (although Pratchett has said "I didn't -- at least consciously, I suppose I must say -- create Ankh-Morpork as a takeoff of Lankhmar"[3]).

The most obvious similarities include the names of the two cities, the similar-sounding titles afforded to the respective rulers (a Patrician for Ankh-Morpork, a Patriarch for Lankhmar), the browned-iron equipment that characterises both sets of city guards, some conspicuous buildings (Tower of Art, Rats Tower), the similar names of associated countries (in particular; Klatch and Klesh) and what may be termed a certain general atmosphere. This resemblance is most marked in the earliest Discworld books, and becomes increasing diluted as the series moves away from parody into satire.

Lankhmar's only Patriarch to feature prominently in one of Leiber's stories was Glipkerio Kistomerces. Like Ankh-Morpork's Lord Vetinari, Glipkerio is described as tall, thin ("emaciated" is the word most frequently used), and dressed in black. After which resemblance ceases, as "Glippy" is an inept ruler, a hopeless sadist and an extreme physical and moral coward.

Another real-world similarity is the River Parrett running through Bridgwater in Somerset, which is renowned for its similarity to the River Ankh.

I just like his style of writing, and so far my two favorite games are Discworld I and Discworld II (Mortality Bytes), but on the PC Discworld II was called "Missing Presumed?" I never had a chance to play Discworld Noir. I would definetly like to buy more books.

alred · 06-12-2007, 08:24 AM

ok ... i will give it a try ... but no commitments or anything of that sort for i(admitedtly) cant even finished a page of a comic book(western or japs) that comes with either too much oblongs of text or cartoons along both sides ... i prefer to look at the cover ...

//btw :: the only comics book that i like and i can actually finished reading them is probably "lau foo zhi" which i think is a hongky ones ...

//sorry ... cant find ready examples on the internet ...

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Jeebizz · 06-12-2007, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Valkyrie_of_valhalla
1. "Reaper Man" - my first book. Given to me by a friend.
It's about how Death found out He was going to die and started "spending time" on earth, and the consequences this had (he stopped collecting souls, and all kinds of weird things start happening on earth because of this).

Sounds simliar to Discworld II (Game) However in this game, death is doing his usual routine until an explosion knocks him off his horse and away into the distance, and because of that souls are not being collected when people die, and so Rincewind must find death and when he does, he also must convince death to come back (since Death gets blasted to XXXX (Four-X)) and enjoys his sudden vacation.