Amph Terry Pratchett

I had the honor of meeting Terry at a book signing a few years back, signed a copy of Colour of Magic for me and was nice enough to take a picture with me. It was a nice moment, really kicked started my ambitions to write, inspiration from a truely great author.

Recently picked up Thud! for Christmas, so I'm going through that.

 

You lucky person Terry Pratchett is one of the few celebrities I really, really want to meet. Aside from being a great writer, in interview and so on he actually comes across as being a genuinely nice guy.

Plus I have the greatest respect for the Discworld books and their author simply because of the depth of reference and cross-reference there is in them - the wealth of literary and pop-culture in-jokes in them is incredible. This is why I hate people who dismiss Discworld as "children's books" . . .

 

I am double envious of you; you have Thud and you have met Terry Pratchett

 

you have Thud

That sounds like a disease . . . "I'm sorry sir, it seems you have Thud . . ."

 

No, No, Nooooooooooo.

Its the Thud. AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

 

//supplies extra boiling oil

 

I'm tremendously fond of Pratchett. I have most of the Discworld series, though Eric and Moving Pictures continue to be strangely elusive. I just finished reading Good Omens, which was absolutely amazing. Of course, how could I go wrong with Terry Pratchett AND Neil Gaiman?

 

Pratchett has a huge following here in Australia, and is here on signing trips pretty often, so I guess it's not really a huge surprise.

E_S

 

Out of interest, then, what did you think of Last Continent?

If anyone here is from China or Japan I'd be interested to know what they thought of Interesting Times, too.

 

absolutely adored Interesting times. I love the Curse.
And espceially when Teach's plan fails in the end because what's important is mountains of skulls and lots of blood.
Very true that.
One of the books I löike most, even if I'm not so fond of Rincewind.
The Silver horde is a srteak of genius!
And 'whips in their heads' is a frightening, though sadly real and working, concept.

 

Crivens! I just read Wee Free Men. Its great! Rob and Wullie and gonnagles and TWEET and cat and the and it and snow........ Sorry just a bit braethles.

 

Is that another Scottishism? Looks like one

 

I've read most of Prachett's books, but I don't remember their engilish names. My favourtie one is this about Rincewind's travel around the Discworld as a guide to the first discworld's tourist and his Luggage. I love this book, but I don't know why.
Next book is more serious- it's a story about commendant Vimes. Between Klath and Ankh-Mororpork appered an island. Both countries started to make preperation to war. Vimes and his guardians aren't happy of it- they have to find a mrurder of Klath's prince, but in this sytuation most of them will be sent to the front, and the rest will guide one very firendly Klath's family... Vimes doesn't want to carry on this sytuation and goes to Klath to stop it alone.
Book is very humoristic too, but in our times it sounds so realistic..

 

First one is The Colour of Magic or The Light Fantastic (which are basically two halves of the same story) in English. Second one is Jingo in English.

Where are you from? It would be interesting to know some Pratchett titles in - well, any other language, really.

 

Jingo was second? I read Mort after the Light Fantastic. Im currently waiting to get paid so i can get The Fifth Elephant.

 

I had heard that he visits a lot... That's why I hoped there'd be less of the standard kangaroo/ vegemite etc jokes. But it was a good book. Just not as good as say, Mort. In my opinion, anyway. I loooove Mort.

Most of the Vimes books are excellent as well. I find it interesting to see how Vimes' character has and is evolving over the years, from way back in Guards, Guards. And even the way the others have evolved as well - Carrot, for instance. He's a subtle one, his character.

 

Nope, just the second one Eire mentioned. Sorry for any confusion

Definitely, definitely. I love the way Pratchett presents Carrot as literally simple - he's just an uncomplicated person. But you're never quite sure exactly how clever Cpt. Ironfoundersson is, or what he's up to. He's a fantastic creation.

My favourite Carrot scene has got to be the one in Men At Arms where he's talking to Dr. Cruces. It's a perfect example of Carrot's extraordinary ability to tell the absolute truth all the time and, somehow, have this work to his advantage.

 

sapient pearwood, an ape librarian, witches, dragons that explode, anthropomorphic characters... what more could you want?


Almost all our pratchett books are in some state of disrepair as they've been read by my family so much.

Of his most recent I have to say wee free men is one of the funniest.
"not a big as big jock but bigger than wee jock jock"

or maybe it's wee wee jock
I forget
Crivens!

But I was going to make a point. Oh yes! The johnny and the dead, only you can save mankind etc are great little set generally they weren't as laugh out loud funny as wee free men but i really enjoyed them especially in johnny and dead where the ghosts learn to talk to people on the phone

 

I'm from Poland. Some pepole say that our language is too difficult to learn but I don't thing so. How do the titles look like in my country? For example:
Stroocery- Czarodzicielstwo
The wree free man- Wolni Ciutludzie
Guards, Guards-Stra¿, stra¿
Men At Arms-Zbrojni
Colour of Magic-Kolor Magii
Jingo-Bogowie, honor, Ankh-Morpork(Gods, honour, Ankh-Morpork)
The light fantastic- Blask fantastyczny
Mort-Mort
Hat full of Sky- Kapelusz pe³en nieba
Small Gods- Pomniejsze bóstwa
Soul Music- Muzyka duszy
And some characters
Carrot-Marchewa
Luggage-Baga¿
Twoflowers-Dwókwiat
All books was translated quite literally and didn't lose anything from their comism.

 

I imagine that it's mainly the spelling in Polish that people find frightening - just the way the letters are put together is unfamiliar. An average English speaker won't know quite what sound to make when they see the letters CZ together. Once you know how the spelling relates to the sound I imagine it's much easier to learn.

Colour of Magic-Kolor Magii - That's nearly the same even in spelling, so no surprises there.

Jingo-Bogowie, honor, Ankh-Morpork(Gods, honour, Ankh-Morpork) - That's really interesting that it has a different title altogether. I suppose that "Jingo" was just too hard to translate. It seems that only English has one word for the whole idea. We'd probably say "Queen and Country" rather than "Gods, honour and Ankh-Morpork"

The light fantastic- Blask fantastyczny - That sounds similar to the Russian title. Why do I know the title of The Light Fantastic in Russian? I have no idea . . .

Thanks for posting that, Eire. I don't know about anyone else, but I thought it was interesting

 

Did you notice that strange marks? Some polish letters are too difficult to this forum too

Have you ever heard German? THIS language has "one word for the whole idea"

=

The light fantastic- Blask fantastyczny - That sounds similar to the Russian title. Why do I know the title of The Light Fantastic in Russian? I have no idea . . .

Polish and Russian are booth Slavic languages, but they aren't the same. For me Russian is a bit softly in spelling than Polish.

 

If you read Thud! you'll know that there are three golems on the Watch.

Discworld is great. My faves include Monstrous Regiment and Interesting Times. Favorite character is Rincewind, and I was a bit dissappointed that he only appears in a couple of the books.

Read that the other day. "You're only picking on us 'cause we're Blue!"

 

Rincewind appears in The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Interesting Times, The Last Continent, and The Last Hero (illustrated only - and it's worth it just for the drawings, which are incredible). He also has a cameo appearance in Mort.

7 out of 31 isn't bad - 22.6% of the Discworld books have Rincewind in.

 

Did you hear that Sam Raimi is directing the movie of Wee Free Men?

 

just throwing that in here:

the first of his books that i read was good omens which he wrote with neil gaiman. and i loved that. especially death.
and then a friend gave me the fifth elephant.
and i read a novel more aimed at children, i guess, about a rat-cather.. the title is something like maurice.. or something
i can't say i'm totally sold on him, it's sort of enjoyable but not something i would want to read every day.

which?