Terry Pratchett has left early to avoid the rush

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
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StoneCold Skywarp
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Post by StoneCold Skywarp »

:(
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Bollocks.

Leonard Nimoy seems to have made the notable last Tweet a thing. I'll have to prepare mine, just in case.
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Post by Denyer »

Just get someone to post photos of you underneath the wardrobe.
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Post by Skyquake87 »

"should have gone to Ikea". That should do it, dalek.

And thanks for all the books Terry. They were ace. And so were you.
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Post by tahukanuva »

I started reading Pratchett because some of you guys recommended him, so thanks for that, guys.

(This is probably the most personally upset I've been by a celebrity death. I don't want to get overly poetic, but his writing is Pretty Important to me. Of course, he managed enough books to probably last until my own death, so at least I'll still have him around for a while yet.)
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Skyquake87 wrote:"should have gone to Ikea". That should do it, dalek.
Or "Skyquake was right!"

I think part of the reason this has hit me so hard (Terry's death, not the wardrobe) is that my own Nan, though I don't think she's ever been formally diagnosed with dementia, has absolutely no idea what's going on these days and will ask the same questions over and over again.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Browsing Wikipedia, it looks as if what will now be the final (assuming his daughter sticks to her original intent that we talked about in the Snuff thread a few years ago of just nurturing it in other media rather than producing new prose) Discworld book will be a Tiffany one. Which will actually be a nice way to bow out, not only one of the successful newish characters but one that would have been the entry level for a lot of younger fans.

Presumably the Stephen Baxter books will still carry on with Pratchett as co-author though? Assuming they haven't run their course, I've not really been paying attention to those.
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Post by Denyer »

Started with Equal Rites back in the day... have enjoyed the Tiff books, though (much more than the later Ankh Morpork character ones). Bit of trepidation about another because I Shall Wear Midnight is a capstone itself, and feels a bit kitchen sink due to the earlier characters and dictation.

Haven't read the Baxter collabs... any good?

I'd be open to other Discworld authors. Pratchett's style changed a lot even over the first dozen.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Started with Colour of Magic but didn't really kick off for me until Guards (which was the second I read... amazing to think that even as recently as 20 years ago this sort of thing was dictated by what libararies bothered to stock).

Kind-of happy if the books stop, TBH. Been on the downslide from the zenith for a while anyway and some showed that most of the interesting things in the universe had been already written about.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

I honestly can't remember which one I read first, would have been around the time of Men at Arms/Soul Music, and I know Moving Pictures was a very early library borrow for me as well. I discovered Robert Rankin at the same time (but never managed to get into Tom Holt).

I listened to the Radio 4 version of Good Omens at work last night. It starts off suffering from trying to keep all the main gags in by turning large chunks of narration from the book into dialogue with very mixed results (the "the time is always "Too late" gag is bludgeoned to death), but this settles down into quite a fun audio play with some thankfully good performances from the kid actors.
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Post by Denyer »

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Post by Heinrad »

The first book of his I read was Sourcery. I was hooked from that point on. I think my favorite is Night Watch.
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Post by Denyer »

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Post by Cliffjumper »

For the best. As I've said elsewhere I think the quality's been diluted over the last ten or so years anyway - understandable but unavoidable; it's not for me to demand an ill old man stops doing the thing he loves but I don't have to pretend some of the books weren't utter shite either. With the best will in the world his daughter wouldn't stop the rot.

Nice big budget film or two might be nice, though. Preferably starting off with Guards, Guards but would basically settle for anything that wasn't Colour of ****ing Magic or made by Sky.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Yeah, nice to see common sense prevail for once, I suspect her being a successful writer in her own right with her computer game work means she both has less need to ride her father's coat tails and a better understanding of these things than many people who wind up inheriting a literary estate.

I'll be amazed if new Discworld books don't happen within the next 20/30 years (they'll be a lot of pressure from publishers, and maybe even other family members, to do so), but at least everyone is thinking sensibly for now.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

I'll be dead by then, so whatever. There'll be some sort of continuation I know (though TBH it's never struck me as a series that's particularly going anywhere despite the recent shift from being broadly medieval fantasy to industrial revolution pastiche) but as long as there are a few years between to make it less legitimate I'll settle.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Cliffjumper wrote:I'll be dead by then, so whatever.
That's the spirit!

TV film is always a tricky one for Pratchett, how do you adapt books easily when the authors narrative voice is so strong?

I didn't mind the Sky ones, possibly because (with the exception of Going Postal) they didn't really pick classic books, so them being cheerful wallpaper wasn't hugely soul destroying for me in the way it would have been if, say, they'd done Mort. I still think TV Hogfather is better than the book.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Front cover Hogfather is better than book Hogfather. Teatime was the first of several big time charlies parachuted into books to make regulars look like ****wits who was actually really irritating, like Drift or Sentinel or something.

TV film? No, just make a proper film. More chance of it actually being good and not featuring people who are in Midsummer Murders or some shit.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Cliffjumper wrote:Front cover Hogfather is better than book Hogfather. Teatime was the first of several big time charlies parachuted into books to make regulars look like ****wits who was actually really irritating, like Drift or Sentinel or something.
I suppose the problem with Teatime was he was the first (and last, indeed there's only one more Death book after that isn't there? Perhaps he felt that thread had run out of steam as well) attempt to create a human who was capable of being a threat to death. The other books tend to have super beings or abstract challenges for him to face off, Teatime has to be given all these odd quirks to try and make it look like he might be a challenge and it doesn't quite work.

That period of the books is a bit flabby and tired anyway, it's telling after such a long absence (and with him being on the record that Sorcery was his least favourite in the series as he'd done it because the publisher wanted a Rincewind book rather than because he wanted to do one) you get two Rincewind novels in rapid succession.

It's around The Truth things turn round and it feels like a new leash of life has been added to the series, with new ongoing characters and types of plots getting introduced whilst some of the older characters were faded back into more supporting roles.

As I think we've talked about before, it really felt for a while there he was building up to a passing of the torch/next generation of Discworld, though obviously (though as there's about four of the more recent books I still need to read I might be wrong here) that wound up not happening.
TV film? No, just make a proper film. More chance of it actually being good and not featuring people who are in Midsummer Murders or some shit.
Oh, that should have been TV/film. And you'd love Bergerac as Vimes.

The odd thing about the Colour of Magic adaptation is both the leads are horrendously miscast (and Pratchett's "I never said Twoflower was Asian" was a low point for him. No, that line isn't in any of the books but you wrote an entire novel about the guy coming from ****ing Discworld China! Bit of a clue there), but they're both really good and entertaining in the roles making for a pleasant enough couple of hours viewing that, again, is more fun than the book.
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