# Terry Pratchett



## Cora Windover (May 29, 2004)

Terry Pratchett is a hilarious British author who writes novels set in a mostly fantasy setting that parody society, other novels, and random things like Shakespeare, organized religion, and the press.

They can be read mostly in any order, HOWEVER! There are kind of "groups" that the books (27 or 28 so far) can be put into:
Death and Death's family
The Witches
The Watch
Rincewind

And then there's a few books without a grouping.

Of those, Death and The Watch are the two best. Anyway, in each of these groups, there is a certain order in which to read the books:

Death etc:
Mort
Reaper Man
Soul Music
Hogfather
Thief of Time

The Witches:
Equal Rites
Wyrd Sisters
Witches Abroad
Lords and Ladies
Maskerade
Carpe Jugulum

The Watch: (my personal favorite)
Guards! Guards!
Men at Arms (my favorite of the favorites)
Feet of Clay
Jingo
The Fifth Elephant
Night Watch

Rincewind: (least favorite)
The Color of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Sourcery
Interesting Times
The Last Continent
The Last Hero

Non-group books:
Pyramids
Eric
Moving Pictures
Small Gods
The Truth
Monstrous Regiment (my favorite out of ALL of his books)

The best books out of all Pratchett's wonderful stories:
Men at Arms
Small Gods
Maskerade
Thief of Time
Night Watch
Monstrous Regiment

About Monstrous Regiment, my personal all-time favorite: 
It's the story of a girl who dresses up as a man joins the army of the 'underdog' country, Borogravia, who's soldiers are fighting for a Duchess who may or may not actually be alive. The story's strengths are in it's wonderful characters - Maladict, a vampire addicted to coffee; Sergeant Jackrum, a really fat guy who's freaking awesome and IS my friend Paul, it's scary..... Paul's fat and everything too... O_O *shivers*; Lietenant Blouse, the girliest man among the manliest women.......; and so and and so forth. It's wonderful, and the ending ... well, it should have ended differently let's just say. I'm rewriting it, because I belive such a wonderful book should not end that way.... the joke just went a bit too far.

In summation - Terry Pratchett is a parodist, funny and wonderful, but in the true tradition of satire, manages to make lasting comments about society and life and people in general.

An excerpt from Small Gods (because Monstrous Regiment is, regretfully, at a friends house  ):

"... it's more to do with how people live."

"What, lolling around all day while slaves do the real work? Take it from me, whenever you see a bunch of buggers puttering around talking about truth and beauty and the best way of attacking Ethics, you can bet your sandals it's because dozens of other poor buggers and doing all the real work around the place while the fellow are living like-"

"-gods?" said Brutha.

There was a terrible silence.

"I was going to say kings," said the Great God Om, reproachfully.

"They sound a bit like gods."

"Kings," said Om emphatically.

"Why do people need gods?" Brutha persisted.

"Oh, you've GOT to have gods," said Om, in a hearty, no-nonsense voice.

"But it's GODS that need PEOPLE," said Brutha. "To to the believing. You said."

Om hesitated. "Well, okay," he said. "But people have got to believe in something. Yes? I mean, why else does it thunder?"

"Thunder," saud Brutha, his eyes glazing slightly, "I don't -

" - is caused by clouds banging together; after the lightning stroke, there is a hole in the air, and thus the sound is engendered by the clouds rushing in to fill the hole and colliding, in accordance with strict cumulodynamic principles."

"Your voice goes all funny when you're quoting," said Om. "Anyway, that's just an explanation. It's not a REASON."

"My grandmother said thunder was caused by the Great God Om taking his sandals off," said Brutha. "She was in a funny mood that day. Nearly smiled."

"Methaphorically accurate," said Om. "But I never did the thundering. Demarcation, see. Bloody got-a-big-hammer Blind Io up on Nob Hill does all the thundering."

"I thought you said there were hundreds of thunder gods," said Brutha.

"Yeah. And he's all of 'em. Rationalization. A couple of tribes join up, they've both got thunder gods, right? And the gods run together - you know how amoebas split?"

"No."

"Well, it's like that, only the other way."

"I still don't get how one god can be a hundred thunder gods. They all look different..."

"False noses."

"What?"

"And different voices. I happen to know Io's got seventy different hammers. Not common knowledge, that. And it's just the same with mother goddesses. There's only one of 'em. he ust got a lot of wigs and of course it's amazing what you can do with a padded bra."

There was absolute silence in the desert. The stars, smeared slightly by the high-altitude moisture, were tiny, motionless, rosettes.

Away toward what the Church called the Top Pole, and which Brutha was coming to think of as the Hub, the sky flickered.

Brutha put Om down in the sand.

Absolute silence.

Nothing for miles, except what he had brought with him. This must have been how the prophets felt, when they went into the desert to find... whatever it was they found, and talk to... whoever they talked to. 

He heard Om, slightly peevish, say: "People've got to believe in something. It might as well be gods. What else is there?"


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## tekp (May 29, 2004)

Unfortunately I have only read the Johnny Maxwell series by Terry Pratchett, and I have read Truckers, DIggers and Wings, but have long since forgotten them.

My father loves the author and we have every single Discworld novel - I think - and so I really have no excuse, I shall read them in good time, though.


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## lain (Jun 1, 2004)

I should read Terry Pratchett. I really should.
I can never find any of his novels at the library or book store. Very frustrating


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## Csira (Jun 1, 2004)

AHH!! You reminded me, Cora, that I have to read Terry Prachett. I promised like two people already. I simply have to read his books and Neil Gaiman too. Argh, very frustrating that I can't do this sooner. Grr, frustrating college school work. =.=

*breathes deeply* I will read these books one day. One day!

~Csira


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## Dustin (Jun 9, 2004)

Rincewind seriously 'pwns'. (For the complete retards that would be: elite...)


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## Emma LB (Jul 21, 2004)

I can't believe there are people out there who still haven't read the Discword books! You should read them straight away, now! ;-)


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## Spider (Jul 22, 2004)

Good Omens. You canNOT forget about Good Omens, Pratchet's collaboration with Sandman/American Gods writer Neil Gaiman. Brilliant book.


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## Cora Windover (Jul 25, 2004)

>_&lt;

i haven't read that one, I know it's great, my friend read it and he said it was awesome and I should read it NOW NOW NOW but he hasn't lent it to me yet, and i'm not paying for it because I'm broke -_- ah well I'll get around to it, this was basically a Discworld post and Good Omens isn't Discworld right?


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## Emma LB (Jul 25, 2004)

No, Good Omens isn't discworld... I have that book too, but haven't read it yet :-(.
BTW Cora, do you know any pages on the web with Discworld fan art? :-D


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## Emma LB (Aug 1, 2004)

My favourite Discworld novels are probably Jingo, Small Gods, The Truth and Pyramids, but I like all the others a lot too, lol.


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## Flyk (Oct 1, 2004)

Yay! More Terry Pratchett people!

I completely agree with you, Cora. Monstrous Regiment is a great book. One of my all-time favourites. -hugs Monstrous Regiment- I haven't read a lot of Terry Pratchett's books, having only discovered them a little while ago. The Last Hero would have to be another of my favourites, being the first one that I read. 

The stage-version of the Fifth Elephant is coming to my city soon, and I am definitely going to go and see it.


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## daniela (Oct 1, 2004)

There is a stage version?  I wish I lived in Australia...

--DM--


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## Flyk (Oct 1, 2004)

Yeah, it should be pretty good. I've heard from a friend that there was a stage version of Wyrd Sisters as well. It was on TV a while ago.


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## Emma LB (Oct 8, 2004)

Maybe I should re-read Monstrous Regiment... for some reason I didn't actually like that one quite as much.


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## Pawn (Oct 13, 2004)

Good Omens is the best Terry Pratchett novel, in my humble opinion (written, as noted above, with the Sandman himself, Neil Gaiman). The discworld books are great, but I don't find any of them individually memorable. I'll pick one up if I want an easy going weekend of reading. I find his mockery of fantasy occasionally slightly annoying. Ah well, he's undeniably a very, very funny man.


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## Cora Windover (Nov 2, 2004)

I've heard this absolutely wonderful radio play version of Wyrd SIsters... a book I enjoyed because of the relation to Shakespeare =^..^= ah. I'm trying to get together some people to film parts of Monstrous Regiment for the fun of it.... not to sell it or anything, just to stick in my portfolio, hey yeah, I can direct too.


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## Rob (Nov 2, 2004)

Another Terry Pratchett fan here. I've read the first four Discworld books, and will read the rest eventually. Had to stop after four because he was influencing my writing too much. Funny stuff, I love it.

Omni


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## Cora Windover (Nov 2, 2004)

lol =^..^= i can see how it would interrupt.


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## demonic_harmonic (Nov 2, 2004)

The Discworld series made me laugh. I love the walking luggage. I only read the first two, though. Just never bought the rest. It's sort of really fun to read a book that is lighthearted and...

OMG. Good omens. I seriously LOVED that book...*drool*.


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