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2022-11-05
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|Terry Pratchett - God?
by Freak of NFA.
Terry Pratchett has finally come into the limelight and is currently
enjoying the very successful career that he has deserved for so long:
his books are selling very well; second-hand prices are rising; there
are model kits available of many of his Discworld characters; and he's
taken a bold step into the Computer Games world with his CD-based game
on the P.C. - Discworld.
For those of you who have just returned from that once-in-a-lifetime
trip to Pluto and back and have therefore never heard of the guy, or
have heard of him but never read his work (eh? such people exist?),
here's a quick guide to the stories, the characters in them, and the
places that these characters inhabit...
===================================================
|Where in the World?
The Discworld is what it says, it's a large flat disc, with a Rim and a
Hub as opposed to Poles, so you'd describe a geographical location as
being "Rimward" or "Hubward" instead of Longtitudinal, and "Turnwise"
instead of Latitudinal.
The Disc has it's own sun, and is on the back of four giant elephants,
which in turn are standing on the back of the Great A'Tuin, a giant, nay
HEEEUUGGE bloody space turtle, which swims through space, obviously.
Due to the orbit of the sun around the Disc, it is necessary for one of
the elephants to cock a leg to allow it to pass every day. This does
not happen anywhere else in the Universe.
Once you've heard of a place on the Disc it's pretty difficult to forget
it again as they all have their own peculiarities. The main city in the
Discworld series is Ankh-Morpork, and is most noted for it's smell. The
river Ankh does not flow so much as it Oozes, and you can't drown in it,
in fact you can't even SINK in it. Ankh-Morpork is known as "The City
that Never Sleeps", because the crime in the city doesn't take time out
to go to bed.
There is an even worse part of Ankh-Morpork called the Shades, where it
is not advised to go at all, let alone in any party of less than three
persons. Crime was eventually legalised so that the governing body (The
Patrician) could at least excercise SOME control over it, in fact it
worked rather well because the licensed criminals would take steps to
get rid of anybody committing unlicensed crimes, and they are now only
allowed a certain quota of Mugging, Burglary etc.
Also in Ankh-Morpork is the Unseen University. This is basically the
home of Magic on the Discworld, Wizards are trained here and the
building itself is actually changing all the time due to the random
leakages and concentrations of magic. Servant staff frequently quit
the Unseen University because they are tired of waking up a different
shape than they were when they went to bed.
In the centre of the Disc, at the Hub, is Cori Celesti - Home of the
Gods. Unfortunately the Gods don't really take too much notice of
what's happening on the Disc, they're usually too busy quarrelling with
the Ice Giants, who frequently "forget" to return the Lawnmower.
At the edge of the Disc is Krull, this island has a large proportion of
it's coastline actually hanging over the edge of the Disc. The only
Krullians who did not appreciate this were those who did not look where
they were going or who walked in their sleep. Natural selection ensured
that there were not many of these.
There is also a small island which has no name and only appears in
"Small Gods" because one of the fishermen got caught up in events. It
has just 51 inhabitants and exists in blissfull ignorance on the rest of
the Disc, the only God is a very large Newt called P'tang P'tang who
can't count, and as everyone is related to everyone else on a very close
level indeed, they don't have a word for "War"...
...or "Metal", or "Fire" as it happens...
===================================================
|Some Characters from the Discworld
Like the places on the Disc, the characters who inhabit it are pretty
hard to forget as well. Here are a few just to whet your appetite, more
can be found in the books, obviously.
Rincewind - A magician by definition only because he
wears a pointy had and has a beard. He
only manages the odd spell in life-or-
death circumstances, and usually with
outside (or indeed - inside) help.
Luggage - Made from sapient pearwood, Luggage is
basically a wooden chest with hundreds
of little legs and admirable loyalty.
It manages to convey an expansive array
of expressions with a couple of knotty
planks and a keyhole, bizarre!
The Librarian - Head librarian at the Unseen University,
has was accidently changed into an
orangutan by a stray discharge of magic
and has since refused to be changed back
as the long arms, increased strength and
head for heights seemed more suited to
the job.
Granny Weatherwax - Definately NOT the leader of the witches
in the general area of the Ramtop
Mountains (Because witches don't HAVE
leaders you understand), with her chums
Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, save the
Disc from marauding elves.
Cohen the Barbarian - The greatest hero of all time on the
disk, he's fought innumerable battles,
but unfortunately is getting on a bit
and has lost all his teeth.
Death - An Anthropomorphic Personification who
ushers the souls of the recently
deceased into the next world, and who
appreciates a good curry.
Binky - Death's horse, he likes to eat hats.
C.M.O.T. Dibbler (Mr.) - Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler is one of the
guys who always turns up to stiff the
tourists out of a bob or three, he
usually sells things on a stick, and is
famed for selling things to the same
people twice, even though they should
have learned their lesson.
===================================================
|Material to Look Out For...
Starting with the most well-known stuff of all...
|The Discworld
The Colour of Magic - Where it all started, introducing
Rincewind and Twoflower (and of
course, Luggage), one of the great
8 spells that were used to create
the world gets into Rincewinds'
skull and doesn't want to leave.
The Light Fantastic - Rincewind the "Wizard" is wander-
ing around the Discworld as it's on
a collision course with a star, and
he's got one of the great spells in
his head, very funny indeed, Luggage
makes it's second appearance.
Equal Rites - Nasty wizard-type-dude tries to
pass on his staff to the eigth
8th son of an 8th son, a wizard.
Unfortunately it's a girl...
Mort - Outrageously funny, Death wants an
apprentice, and he gets stuck with
the hapless Mort. So blood funny
that you have to take breaks from
the mirth!
Sourcery - The eight son of an eigth son has
seven children, and the eigth is a
sourcerer, Rincewind stars again.
Wyrd Sisters - The King is dead, killed by an Evil
duke, and it's up to Granny Weather-
wax the Witch to get a rightful
heir on the throne, very good.
Pyramids - Err...
Guards! Guards! - Um...
Eric - A young whipper-snapper pretending
to be a wizard inadvertedly rescues
Rincewind from the Dungeon
Dimensions, and so believes him to
be a demon.
Moving Pictures - Film comes to the Disc! Holy Wood
is where they're made, the magic of
the Silver Screen is working on the
Disc, what will the Wizards say?
Reaper Man - Ahh...
Witches Abroad - Granny Weatherwax's sister is up to
no good, making stories come true
for her own purposes, and the three
witches have to stop her.
Small Gods - The Great God Om intends to visit
the Disc as a great White Bull. The
only problem is that he only has one
believer left and so can only manage
a tortoise, superb stuff!
Lords and Ladies - Evil Elves are back on the Disc,
it's the return of Granny Weatherwax
and her companions as they struggle
to save the Disc's inhabitants from
the cursed charms of the Elven folk.
|Miscellaneous Bits.
Good Omens - Rediculous, funny parody of all
(With Neil Gaimen) the "Omen" films, Judgement Day
approaches and someone has mis-
laid the Antichrist - The Best!
Strata - Discovery of a Discworld in the
future, by a woman who runs the
Terraforming Company, not bad.
The Dark Side of the Sun - Like Strata, it's more set in a
future, not so funny.
|Other Pratchett
Truckers
~~~~~~~~
The Nomes in The Store are to be turfed out, first in
the triology of what I thought was a rather good read,
even if it IS aimed at younger readers.
Diggers
~~~~~~~
Second in the Nome threesome, the Nomes have left the
store and moved into The Quarry, but now humans are about
and they have to move on again.
Wings
~~~~~
Although it's the final part, it's actually set to run
in parallel with Diggers, it's the story of what happened
to the other Nomes while the rest were at the quarry.
The Carpet People
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Very similar to the Nomes stories, but with less humour
and more fantasy, this is actually the re-write of a book
that T.P. did when he was 17!
Only You can Save Mankind
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johhny (a.k.a Rubber) plays the game on his pooter until
all aliens surrender, which - according to the manual - is
not what's meant to happen.
Johnny and the Dead
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Unadulterated Cat
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|Graphic Novels
The Colour of Magic
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Light Fantastic
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good artwork by Steven Ross and Joe Bennet, the story
isn't quite the same so as to make allowances for the
lack of depth of Graphic Novels.
Mort
~~~~
Graham Higgins (Ex DC and 2000AD) does the honours this
time around, the story is a little more adapted than T.L.F
but it's still a giggle.
The Streets of Ankh Morpork
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not a Graphic Novel as such, it's actually a theoretical
map of what Ankh Morpork should be like, developed by Stephen
Briggs with the help of Mr.T. Pratchett.
|Available on Tape
The Colour of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Equal Rites
Truckers
Diggers
Wings
===================================================
|Overall Recommendation?
If I were to thrust one particular book into your hands and proclaim it
to be essential reading it would have to be "Good Omens" for it's out-
right lunacy. The characters are wonderful, they fret and panic just
like real people do, the scenes are weirdly set, there are wonderful
little side-trips, and the whole book is deliciously funny, read it!