Terry Pratchett's Discworld
Years ago my friend Steve, gave me the first two books of Terry
Pratchett's Discwold, The Colour of Magic, and The Light Fantastic. I
read the first and while I thought it humorous, I wasn't impressed
enough to give it further reading time, relegating it to the "I'll
listen to the audio book if I can find it" virtual pile.
Around the same time I discovered (no doubt thanks to Steve's
recommendation) the work of Douglas Adams, and became a big fan,
devouring all of his books in prose and audio adaptations. Alas, Adams
passed away at an early age and left a gap in the various genres that I
like to switch between as I read.
I should mention here that my son Cory is also a big fan of the
Discworld but he primarily like the sub-series featuring stories of the
gaurds. His further recommendation was pushing me to try some more of
the books, but he couldn't pinpoint a jump-on point. So recently I
talking to my friend Shawn (neenerneener.net) who is also a big
Pratchett fan, and he says, with very little thought, "oh, that's an
easy one, read Small Gods, its one of Pratchetts best Discworld books
and its also a stand alone for the most part.
Small Gods is the story of a young man named Brutha who has the bad luck
to make the acquantance od a small one eye turtle who claims to be the
god Om, that he and the peoples of Brutha's country believe in. Om
himself is frustrated in that he has no idea why he's stuck in the body
of a small one-eyed turtle when he used to manifest himself as gian
golden bulls and the like. The rest of the story tells of Brutha's
reluctant quest to help Om regain his former position, while at the same
time having fun with religion and religious beliefs.
I enjoyed reading Small Gods so much I asked Shawn, "okay, what next?!"
to which he (virtually) shrugged and said, "well, they're kind of hit
and miss so you might want to go back to the beginning." Remembering
enough of Colour of Magic not to have to go back and read it, I went out
and picked up Light Fantastic, which starts off rather weakly (in my
opinion anyway) but ends pretty well. It is a sequel to Colour of magic
and like its predecessor, pokes fun at all kinds of fantasy stories,
from Tolkien to Conan (you've gotta love the octagenarian Cohen the
Barbarian!) and somewhere along the way, I think Pratchett finally
started to like his characters and realize that he had a good thing
going. If nothing else, the first two books do pretty well set the stage
and rules of this very different fantasy world.
So now I'm hooked and stopping into Borders every Friday with my latest
20 or 25% off coupon to buy another volume, the third of which, Eqaul
Rites, is the one I'm now reading. You see, my theory is, that it isn't
so much that they're hit and miss as it is that Pratchett just gets
better over time with what he's doing and where he's heading. So far my
experience is bearing that out.
Equal Rites starts out with a dying wizard willing his powers to the
eighth son of an eighth son, the only hitch being that the son is a
daughter. The local witch/midwife, Granny Weatherwax, who is anything
but wicked, trys to help the family ignore their new daughters
birthright, afterall, women are witches, not wizards! She even attempts
to bring young Esk up as a witch, but things aren't going to be that
easy! I won't to tell you any more as I don't want to spoil it, and
anyway, I'm only 60 pages into the book myself! But I can tell you that
this book easily has the promise of being as good as Small Gods was. The
story reminds me just a little of The Sword In The Stone by T. H. White,
but presented with Pratchett's own marvelous tongue in cheek
storytelling.
Pratchett's Discwold, The Colour of Magic, and The Light Fantastic. I
read the first and while I thought it humorous, I wasn't impressed
enough to give it further reading time, relegating it to the "I'll
listen to the audio book if I can find it" virtual pile.
Around the same time I discovered (no doubt thanks to Steve's
recommendation) the work of Douglas Adams, and became a big fan,
devouring all of his books in prose and audio adaptations. Alas, Adams
passed away at an early age and left a gap in the various genres that I
like to switch between as I read.
I should mention here that my son Cory is also a big fan of the
Discworld but he primarily like the sub-series featuring stories of the
gaurds. His further recommendation was pushing me to try some more of
the books, but he couldn't pinpoint a jump-on point. So recently I
talking to my friend Shawn (neenerneener.net) who is also a big
Pratchett fan, and he says, with very little thought, "oh, that's an
easy one, read Small Gods, its one of Pratchetts best Discworld books
and its also a stand alone for the most part.
Small Gods is the story of a young man named Brutha who has the bad luck
to make the acquantance od a small one eye turtle who claims to be the
god Om, that he and the peoples of Brutha's country believe in. Om
himself is frustrated in that he has no idea why he's stuck in the body
of a small one-eyed turtle when he used to manifest himself as gian
golden bulls and the like. The rest of the story tells of Brutha's
reluctant quest to help Om regain his former position, while at the same
time having fun with religion and religious beliefs.
I enjoyed reading Small Gods so much I asked Shawn, "okay, what next?!"
to which he (virtually) shrugged and said, "well, they're kind of hit
and miss so you might want to go back to the beginning." Remembering
enough of Colour of Magic not to have to go back and read it, I went out
and picked up Light Fantastic, which starts off rather weakly (in my
opinion anyway) but ends pretty well. It is a sequel to Colour of magic
and like its predecessor, pokes fun at all kinds of fantasy stories,
from Tolkien to Conan (you've gotta love the octagenarian Cohen the
Barbarian!) and somewhere along the way, I think Pratchett finally
started to like his characters and realize that he had a good thing
going. If nothing else, the first two books do pretty well set the stage
and rules of this very different fantasy world.
So now I'm hooked and stopping into Borders every Friday with my latest
20 or 25% off coupon to buy another volume, the third of which, Eqaul
Rites, is the one I'm now reading. You see, my theory is, that it isn't
so much that they're hit and miss as it is that Pratchett just gets
better over time with what he's doing and where he's heading. So far my
experience is bearing that out.
Equal Rites starts out with a dying wizard willing his powers to the
eighth son of an eighth son, the only hitch being that the son is a
daughter. The local witch/midwife, Granny Weatherwax, who is anything
but wicked, trys to help the family ignore their new daughters
birthright, afterall, women are witches, not wizards! She even attempts
to bring young Esk up as a witch, but things aren't going to be that
easy! I won't to tell you any more as I don't want to spoil it, and
anyway, I'm only 60 pages into the book myself! But I can tell you that
this book easily has the promise of being as good as Small Gods was. The
story reminds me just a little of The Sword In The Stone by T. H. White,
but presented with Pratchett's own marvelous tongue in cheek
storytelling.
So far I've got nine of the thirty-eight books that Pratchett has
written about the Discwold and I'm reading my fourth, so I've got a lot
of good reading ahead of me. You're even luckier if you've never read
any Pratchett, because you've got even more good reading ahead of you!
check out my latest podcast at:
http://komicskast.libsyn.com
my comics at: http://dutchydigest.tripod.com/
And my blog at: http://rosey462.blogspot.com
posted by Bruce R at 10:56 AM
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