Author Reviews: Terry Pratchett

The Random Quote: The Fremen were supreme in that quality the ancients called "spannungsbogen" — which is the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing.from The Wisdom of Muad'Dib by the Princess Irulan
FRANK HERBERT - DUNE

I recently tried to set up a Squidoo lens reviewing some of my favourite authors - well, I first knew I was in trouble when I tried to quickly sum up Terry Pratchett. I knew I was doomed when I started on George RR Martin.

That... degenerated into an over ambitious morasse, so I am relocating the writeups over here.
However, it does still contain a lot of links to relevant sites for each of the authors, so it is still worth looking over.

The Random Quote: All witches are very conscious of stories. They can feel stories, in the same way that a bather in a little pool can feel the unexpected trout. Knowing how stories work is almost all the battle. For example, when an obvious innocent sits down with three experienced card sharpers and says 'How do you play this game, then?', someone is about to be shaken down until their teeth fall out. TERRY PRATCHETT - WITCHES ABROAD

Terry Pratchett, writer extraordinaire, creator of the Discworld.

*icon author unknown.

One of the most well known and prolific authors around, this British writer is best known for his (30 books plus) Discworld series (well... sort of series. There's a kind of 'do it yourself' order).

He writes in a pun-filled, flow of thought style* - no chapters being a main trademark, until recently - as well as continual little themes that popped up throughout certain books (frogs... nougat... Death... YES? I wasn't talking to you. OH. FINE THEN, I'LL JUST GO OVER HERE AND WAIT SHALL I? Wait for...wha- nevermind. SUIT YOURSELF)

He lampshades, satirizes and lampoons almost every established cliche and accepted fantasy or social aspect under the sun - and rephrases the most serious and philosophical matters into obvious, and even highly amusing, phrases.

For new readers, I would definitely recommend trying his Bromeliad series (the little Nomes, who live under the floorboards in a Store - sorry, THE Store - that was clearly created for them by Arnold Bros.), the Maurice and His Amazing Educated Rodents or his Tiffany Aching series. These are... written for childrens to young adults, which means he's tried to stay on track and taken the sex jokes out (Yes, Mrs Rosy Palm, we ARE looking at you). They are Good Books - and introduce you to his writing style. Most people who end up picking up the Colour of Magic (his first - and arguably worst written - Discworld novel) don't really enjoy it...

His darker works - such as Thud, Nightwatch - are definitely among my favourites (revolution, murder and politics galore). For Neil Gaiman fans... there is of course: Good Omens. This books was cowritten by Pratchett and Gaiman and is probably one of the most quoted and widest read. It's good.

And the point of this IS of course to indoctrinate more mindless addicts into his army.

Go forth. And beware the pattering of little feet.


*Also is probably singlehandedly responsible for the common usage of little footnotes to add humourous and completely irrelevant text**
**This... being relevant text, of course***
**this isn't, though****
****I CAN'T STOP*****
*****THE ASTERISKS ARE GETTING LONGER THAN THE FOOTNOTE!!!!!^
^There. Knew I'd get the exclamation marks in somewhere. No Terry Pratchett reference is complete with out an abuse of exclamation marks - because it is self evident that all Teryy Pratchett referencers are touched, stirred and baked with insanity (...little insanity raisins in the toasted figgins of our brains)