ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
To answer the question more accurately, no, Vimes does not have two left hands in that picture; the crossguard on the sword he's holding is placed over his fingers, which makes it look like his hand is weird.
The unfinished books of Sir Terry Pratchett have been destroyed by a steamroller, following the late fantasy novelist’s wishes.
Pratchett’s hard drive was crushed by a vintage John Fowler & Co steamroller named Lord Jericho at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, ahead of the opening of a new exhibition about the author’s life and work.
They're releasing the entire Discworld series in hardcover, with really beautiful illustrations instead of cartoons on the front. I've decided to collect them all!
Here's Hogfather. You can't see in this pic but all of the art has parts that are kind of a reflective foil that glitters in the light. The overall look is super classy:
I may have to purchase this, all of them.
Oh, these look like the same as the Gollancz discworld collectors library. They've been releasing them since 2013. If they've got the rights negotiated to release them in the US finally, maybe they'll get the rights for beyond Jingo, so I can finish the complete set!
The Steam Roller thing reminded me of the time I met Pterry.
So this was back in February '96 (back in the days when his dustcovers still had a blurb about how he used to work at a nuclear power plant, and he could write a book of stories about his experiences). I was futzing around and found out at the last minute that Pterry was doing a speaking/signing at the local conference centre, so I jumped straight on the bus and arrived 5 minutes before he was about to start speaking.
He spoke for about an hour, about the usual "where does he get his ideas from". He recounted the story about how he was talking with a lady and the topic of Shoemaker-Levy hitting Jupiter came up - the impact hit with the force of 6,000,000 megatons of TNT (600 times the world's nuclear arsenal), and Pterry commented that if a similar comet hit Earth then that would be the end of human civilization. The lady responded that she was unconcerned because, despite Jupiter being just "next door" in the cosmic sense, she said "those kind of things happen in space all the time" - which prompted a sidenote in the early pages of Last Continent. He was engaging, often going off into wild tangents like a more softly-spoken and slightly lisped Eddie Izzard, and gracious with taking questions from the audience.
At the end of the allotted time, he said "Okay, one more question!" and picked a young man out from the audience. The young man went to the microphone and said, "Can you tell us a story from your experience working at the power plant?". The audience roared in approval.
Pterry obliged, and continued answering the "one more question" for an additional hour.
One of those stories (and the reason why the Steam Roller reminded me), was that there used to be a junk "graveyard" for the various vehicles and equipment that had broken in service of the power plant, as their usage in a nuclear plant meant that they couldn't be disposed with other scrap materials (although I suspect the real answer was they were too lazy to have them transported off site). When he was working in the small hours of the night, especially during dark and stormy weather, he used to envision that a lightning strike would hit these "dead" machines and they would rise from the grave like (mildly radioactive) mechanical zombies. Possibly this was some of his recent thinking on golems, as Feet of Clay was just about to be published.
In any case, afterwards he went out the front to a desk to commence the ritual signing. Whereas the other, better prepared, audience members had a number of prized books in their possession for Pterry to sign, I had come on short notice and had nothing on me. So I went to the bathroom and removed my t-shirt (fortunately I was also wearing a jersey) and joined the queue. I got to the front and handed over my (to my eternal embarrassment, still warm) t-shirt to sign.
Pterry gave me a furrowed-brow glare, but gamely picked up a marker and signed his name. He handed the t-shirt back to me, and commented "There - now you can get your mum to stitch the signature into it".
They're releasing the entire Discworld series in hardcover, with really beautiful illustrations instead of cartoons on the front. I've decided to collect them all!
Here's Hogfather. You can't see in this pic but all of the art has parts that are kind of a reflective foil that glitters in the light. The overall look is super classy:
I may have to purchase this, all of them.
Oh, these look like the same as the Gollancz discworld collectors library. They've been releasing them since 2013. If they've got the rights negotiated to release them in the US finally, maybe they'll get the rights for beyond Jingo, so I can finish the complete set!
They got the rights for all of them a while ago (though I don't know if the side ones and YA ones are counted in that, so maybe no Last Hero or Tiffany Aching books?)
Up to The Truth have already been released I think, and they've got previews/preorders for the next four up to Going Postal. There's a full list here.
(I don't know about US orders, but I'm sure there's a way)
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
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Mego Thor"I say thee...NAY!"Registered Userregular
The unfinished books of Sir Terry Pratchett have been destroyed by a steamroller, following the late fantasy novelist’s wishes.
Pratchett’s hard drive was crushed by a vintage John Fowler & Co steamroller named Lord Jericho at the Great Dorset Steam Fair, ahead of the opening of a new exhibition about the author’s life and work.
I can picture Arthur Dent standing in front of that steamroller, with Ford Prefect rushing onto the scene with six pints of bitters.
One thing that I've been thinking about recently is the troll counting system (one, two, three, many, many-one, many-two, et cetera). I would posit that this is evidence for trolls having only three fingers and a thumb.
the second long running protagonist character ever established finally dies
, you can't ignore that in the official set list
My wife has a book/manga/graphic novel backlog literally taller than our bed — both stacks of it. She still has not read Shepherd's Crown (or Raising Steam). I need to keep an eye on it to see when/if it ever surfaces. Maybe by then I'll be prepared to read it again.
The Tiffany Aching books were sold as young adult novels here in the US, but they were never dumbed down or anything. It was just Pratchett writing a story where the protagonist happened to be an intelligent young woman.
Also, I Shall Wear Midnight is arguably the darkest of all the Discworld novels.
YggiDeeThe World Ends With You ShillRegistered Userregular
I think Pratchett said that the only difference between his usual stuff and his Young Adult stuff is that they needed to have chapters and sometimes he was told to use shorter words.
I think Pratchett said that the only difference between his usual stuff and his Young Adult stuff is that they needed to have chapters and sometimes he was told to use shorter words.
I mean, this was the book series with the whole susurrous thing so....well let that serve as an idea of how much he toned down the vocabulary for you. (Yes, that word was defined in the text so it's a little different.)
I think it really, really fits in with a lot of what he taught and valued in his writing. Things exist for a time. In that time, let them be decent, or good enough, or even glorious. But the time of things comes to and end, and when they do, let them be at and end, and make way for new things.
To me, it seems extremely true to who he was as a person to want to put a solid period on his works.
I managed to convince my fiancee to listen to the Discworld audiobooks. She's loving them, but wants to mix it up a bit with books from authors of a similar style to Pratchett.
I managed to convince my fiancee to listen to the Discworld audiobooks. She's loving them, but wants to mix it up a bit with books from authors of a similar style to Pratchett.
I'm kinda drawing a blank - any suggestions?
Gaiman? I've only read Anansi Boys and Neverwhere, plus Good Omens of course (holding off on American Gods until the Starz series is over) but they were as close as I've found. Douglas Adams is the other obvious pick I guess.
I managed to convince my fiancee to listen to the Discworld audiobooks. She's loving them, but wants to mix it up a bit with books from authors of a similar style to Pratchett.
I'm kinda drawing a blank - any suggestions?
Gaiman? I've only read Anansi Boys and Neverwhere, plus Good Omens of course (holding off on American Gods until the Starz series is over) but they were as close as I've found. Douglas Adams is the other obvious pick I guess.
I managed to convince my fiancee to listen to the Discworld audiobooks. She's loving them, but wants to mix it up a bit with books from authors of a similar style to Pratchett.
I'm kinda drawing a blank - any suggestions?
Douglas Adams is who Pratchett used to get compared to before he became a thing in of himself. It's more science fiction-y instead of fantasy and not usually the same thing with riffing on a theme rather than just being more general.
I managed to convince my fiancee to listen to the Discworld audiobooks. She's loving them, but wants to mix it up a bit with books from authors of a similar style to Pratchett.
I'm kinda drawing a blank - any suggestions?
...Douglas Adams, maybe? They're not really all that similar, but they're both comedic with that British sense of humor.
I managed to convince my fiancee to listen to the Discworld audiobooks. She's loving them, but wants to mix it up a bit with books from authors of a similar style to Pratchett.
I'm kinda drawing a blank - any suggestions?
In terms of writing style, Douglas Adams. Genre aside there are passages in Hitchhikers Guide that are so Pratchett-esque I get confused about which book I'm reading.
I managed to convince my fiancee to listen to the Discworld audiobooks. She's loving them, but wants to mix it up a bit with books from authors of a similar style to Pratchett.
I'm kinda drawing a blank - any suggestions?
What does she like about them?
If it's the later books and the strange mix of magic and a hard to place historical time in something Londonesque, then you should check out China Mieville's Bas Lag series, or maybe Railsea. They're definitely not comic fantasy though, but do have their light-hearted and humorous moments, and a firm grasp of the absurd viewed from a normal perspective.
If it's the mix of an odd slant on the world, British humour and a bit of magick, then Charles Stross' Laundry Files might be up your alley. Though that's more James Bond meets H.P Lovecraft during a powerpoint presentation from HR on why they're nixing the "Bring Your Own Device" policy and where the memorial card and collection is (Janet's desk, since you asked).
Neither are Pratchett, but then nothing else really is. Douglas Adams also has a special place in my heart, and honestly you should read his stuff anyway on it's own merits.
Tastyfish on
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TraceGNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam WeRegistered Userregular
I'll second the Laundry Files series. It's Cthulu mythos mixed with computer programming mixed with silly spy stuff mixed with magic.
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Steam: adamjnet
First book I got:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51KEEDlNUsL._SX280_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
Ah well.
I would consider The Shepherd's Crown the last one. The Tiffany side books are technically in Discworld. Also, they are great.
Oh, these look like the same as the Gollancz discworld collectors library. They've been releasing them since 2013. If they've got the rights negotiated to release them in the US finally, maybe they'll get the rights for beyond Jingo, so I can finish the complete set!
So this was back in February '96 (back in the days when his dustcovers still had a blurb about how he used to work at a nuclear power plant, and he could write a book of stories about his experiences). I was futzing around and found out at the last minute that Pterry was doing a speaking/signing at the local conference centre, so I jumped straight on the bus and arrived 5 minutes before he was about to start speaking.
He spoke for about an hour, about the usual "where does he get his ideas from". He recounted the story about how he was talking with a lady and the topic of Shoemaker-Levy hitting Jupiter came up - the impact hit with the force of 6,000,000 megatons of TNT (600 times the world's nuclear arsenal), and Pterry commented that if a similar comet hit Earth then that would be the end of human civilization. The lady responded that she was unconcerned because, despite Jupiter being just "next door" in the cosmic sense, she said "those kind of things happen in space all the time" - which prompted a sidenote in the early pages of Last Continent. He was engaging, often going off into wild tangents like a more softly-spoken and slightly lisped Eddie Izzard, and gracious with taking questions from the audience.
At the end of the allotted time, he said "Okay, one more question!" and picked a young man out from the audience. The young man went to the microphone and said, "Can you tell us a story from your experience working at the power plant?". The audience roared in approval.
Pterry obliged, and continued answering the "one more question" for an additional hour.
One of those stories (and the reason why the Steam Roller reminded me), was that there used to be a junk "graveyard" for the various vehicles and equipment that had broken in service of the power plant, as their usage in a nuclear plant meant that they couldn't be disposed with other scrap materials (although I suspect the real answer was they were too lazy to have them transported off site). When he was working in the small hours of the night, especially during dark and stormy weather, he used to envision that a lightning strike would hit these "dead" machines and they would rise from the grave like (mildly radioactive) mechanical zombies. Possibly this was some of his recent thinking on golems, as Feet of Clay was just about to be published.
In any case, afterwards he went out the front to a desk to commence the ritual signing. Whereas the other, better prepared, audience members had a number of prized books in their possession for Pterry to sign, I had come on short notice and had nothing on me. So I went to the bathroom and removed my t-shirt (fortunately I was also wearing a jersey) and joined the queue. I got to the front and handed over my (to my eternal embarrassment, still warm) t-shirt to sign.
Pterry gave me a furrowed-brow glare, but gamely picked up a marker and signed his name. He handed the t-shirt back to me, and commented "There - now you can get your mum to stitch the signature into it".
They got the rights for all of them a while ago (though I don't know if the side ones and YA ones are counted in that, so maybe no Last Hero or Tiffany Aching books?)
Up to The Truth have already been released I think, and they've got previews/preorders for the next four up to Going Postal. There's a full list here.
(I don't know about US orders, but I'm sure there's a way)
I can picture Arthur Dent standing in front of that steamroller, with Ford Prefect rushing onto the scene with six pints of bitters.
My wife has a book/manga/graphic novel backlog literally taller than our bed — both stacks of it. She still has not read Shepherd's Crown (or Raising Steam). I need to keep an eye on it to see when/if it ever surfaces. Maybe by then I'll be prepared to read it again.
Also, I Shall Wear Midnight is arguably the darkest of all the Discworld novels.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I mean, this was the book series with the whole susurrous thing so....well let that serve as an idea of how much he toned down the vocabulary for you. (Yes, that word was defined in the text so it's a little different.)
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-41093066#
WRYYY?
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
That's not a typo.
Oh.
Oooooooh.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
To me, it seems extremely true to who he was as a person to want to put a solid period on his works.
Had to be him. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.
Okay now I'm sad for two entirely different reasons.
You can if you want to avoid long-term eye-leak damage.
She's said she's not interested.
I'm kinda drawing a blank - any suggestions?
Gaiman? I've only read Anansi Boys and Neverwhere, plus Good Omens of course (holding off on American Gods until the Starz series is over) but they were as close as I've found. Douglas Adams is the other obvious pick I guess.
Christopher Moore, maybe?
Douglas Adams is who Pratchett used to get compared to before he became a thing in of himself. It's more science fiction-y instead of fantasy and not usually the same thing with riffing on a theme rather than just being more general.
...Douglas Adams, maybe? They're not really all that similar, but they're both comedic with that British sense of humor.
I'll have a look at Christopher Moore
In terms of writing style, Douglas Adams. Genre aside there are passages in Hitchhikers Guide that are so Pratchett-esque I get confused about which book I'm reading.
Steam: adamjnet
What does she like about them?
If it's the later books and the strange mix of magic and a hard to place historical time in something Londonesque, then you should check out China Mieville's Bas Lag series, or maybe Railsea. They're definitely not comic fantasy though, but do have their light-hearted and humorous moments, and a firm grasp of the absurd viewed from a normal perspective.
If it's the mix of an odd slant on the world, British humour and a bit of magick, then Charles Stross' Laundry Files might be up your alley. Though that's more James Bond meets H.P Lovecraft during a powerpoint presentation from HR on why they're nixing the "Bring Your Own Device" policy and where the memorial card and collection is (Janet's desk, since you asked).
Neither are Pratchett, but then nothing else really is. Douglas Adams also has a special place in my heart, and honestly you should read his stuff anyway on it's own merits.