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Terry Pratchett Day

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Today would have marked the great man’s 78th birthday so this annual celebration of his work comes around once again.
It’s hard to believe it’s 11 years since he passed, but his literary legacy lives on of course.
Any fans on here….what’s your favourite novel?

2

Comments

  2. Loved Terry P – I must try to re-read them at some stage. No particular favourite book but I liked characters – Sam Vines of course, the moral compass of the novels and DEATH was a remarkable character. Outside the Discworld novels I thought Good Omens was a very good book – so much so that I refuse to watch the TV adaptation for fear of disappointment, even though I’m a big fan of Tennant and Sheen.

  3. Yes, a great writer, although after binging on them for a while I found that I needed a break – his sense of humour was very good but could prove a bit wearing over a few books read in quick succession.

    My favourites are the books involving the City Watch, where TP takes a lot of cop-story cliches and up-ends them very well.

    Strangely, though, and having not read him for several years, when he’s mentioned I find myself thinking of individual characters and scenes rather than whole books. For example:

    The character of Death – beautifully realised and surprisingly full of heart
    Lord Vetinari – the Borgias, Machiavelli, and Bond villain rolled into one
    Sam Vimes and his whole squad

    I get the impression that TP loved writing about Granny Weatherwax and the other witches, but I couldn’t take to them for some reason.

    Thinking of scenes, there’s a bit in the war-themed Monstrous Regiment that reduced me to tears. Can’t recall it now, but it was probably TP highlighting the awful cost of warfare.

    Another scene that got me was where, without her knowing, a humble hero (maybe Brutha in Small Gods, or was it Teppic in Pyramids? Wikipedia couldn’t help) lies/sleeps protectively on the floor outside the bedroom door of the woman he secretly loves. Such a simple statement of his character, but I found it quite moving.

    TP was an author with a real sympathy for the downtrodden in life, but funny as well, and expressed a lot of common sense. Maybe that combination is why he’s so fondly remembered.

    I’ll have to re-read a few of his soon.

    • Towards the end of his non-Discworld ‘Dodger’, Dodger beds down outside the door of the bedroom in which ‘Simplicity / Serendipity’ is sleeping. He has faked her death in London’s sewers, and they are hiding out in Axbridge, in Somerset. Various places nearby get a mention; PTerry lived at Rowberrow for several years.

  4. I liked the witches novels the most and thought it was clever how they weaved in a specific Shakespeare play in each book. I read someone (forget who) saying recently that the relationship between Elizabeth and Joyce in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club books may be based on that between Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg.

  5. I’m currently listening to Men at Arms during my commute and I can’t recall if I ever read it. I recently listened to Small Gods and Monstrous Regiment, both very enjoyable as was the radio adaptation of Good Omens. I use the Irish library Borrowbox service for free audiobooks and usually there are few of Terry Pratchett’s available and a long wait for others. I like to alternate between heavier books and lighter reading. His books are a tonic, reminiscent of Douglas Adams but much better at coherent narratives.

  6. A university housemate was a huge fan and was very excited when Terry came for a signing at the campus bookshop.

    I discovered Robert Rankin a few years later, another sci-fi with a bit of pop culture thrown in, although I probably haven’t read any for 20 years. According to social media, we seem to have a lot of friends in common.

    • I like the story (hopefully true) that when Terry used to be a guest at Fantasy conventions he would wear a T-shirt saying something along the lines of “J.K.Rowling couldn’t come. George R.R. Martin was ill. Hello, I’m Terry Pratchett”.

  7. The City Watch and Witches books are my favourites, over all. Sam Vimes is the character I’d most like to identify with.
    The Tiffany Aching series progressed very well and could have gone a lot further, I think, had Terry not become ill.
    I don’t find Vetinari an especially villainous character. He’s utterly, utterly ruthless of course, but not from self-interest but always to protect his city.

  8. I started when Pyramids was released then read the back catalogue, I bought every book in hardback on release after that so I dare say my collection may be worth a couple of bob. In no particular order I’d say Guards Guards, Men at Arms, Witches Abroad, Small Gods & Feet of Clay are particular favourites. Prior to reading it I read a lot of hype about Mort, lots of people raving about it but it’s one of 3 or 4 of his books I couldn’t take to, see also Hogfather, Unseen Academicals & Jingo all of which seemed to set off at pace then got a bit bogged down and finished with a whimper rather than a bang.

    Advice to anyone who has not read them an is considering doing so, don’t start with book 1, he really doesn’t get into his stride until the Discworld becomes more established which despite what I said above is probably around the time of Mort.

  10. Think he’s great. I started very young with him – I read The Light Fantastic when it was first published, and my transition from annoying pubescent kid to a (somewhat) maturer adult mirrored the way the books went from excuses for one liners to more rounded novels. I think I take a lot of my world view from him tbh – the admiration for how amazing people can be coupled with anger and exasperation at how frequently they’re not is definitely a big part of my outlook. He was a great humanitarian writer, and a rare example of someone being massively commercially successful while producing quality stuff, like an Ed Sheehan who was actually good. Anyone who can come up with the Boots theory is a good egg in my book:

    The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet . This was the Captain Samuel Vimes “Boots” theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

    I “met” him at book signings a few times, the most memorable being for the hardback of Wyrd Sisters. We were in London for a few days, which was a major undertaking from Plymouth in my youth, and I wanted to go to the Fantasy Inn (now defunct specialist SF&F bookshop at the bottom of Charing Cross Road) so off we went and there was a poster in the window advertising him signing that afternoon! Couldn’t believe it so in we went, and he was just sat behind the counter, no queue or anything. Could probably have had a nice chat if I wasn’t such a nervous and starstruck fifteen year old kid.

    Wish he was still with us, and so does my dad who has had to actually think about what to get me for Christmas for the last ten years instead of automatically picking up the new Pratchett.

  13. GNU Terry Pratchett.

    I’ve read all of them many times, apart from the first three and The Lost Continent. I’ve just reread ‘Jingo’, which is one of his best.

    The Night Watch might just be his best, but there are so many good ones.

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