And there we are, volume eleven and the second full Death feature in Terry Pratchtt’s Discworld series.
I did not especially care for the city parasite theme; also the undead rights group was just on par. The Death plot, however, was great. There is a deeper philosophy behind Death that seems to speak to me. The romantic end was particularly moving…
I liked watching movies a lot. For a brief period in the late nineties I even did it semi-professionally, writing for an online mag. Nowadays I just have this slightly grown-out-of-proportion private collection of non-dubbed movies – I cannot stand dubbed movies. My movie attendance rate has dropped dramatically, though. For the exact same reason; there are just not enough non-dubbed movies shown in local theaters.
Thus, reading discworld novel number 10 was an extra pleasure. Moving Pictures is all about Holy Wood and the film making business. Many of the classics like Gone with the wind, old Disney full length features and Warner cartoon series, Singing in the rain, Blues Brothers, and many more as well as the big studios are spoofed. It is just fun to identify all the references (the annotations help; yet I think that even they missed a few allusions).
Once you go Pratchett you never go back. The ninth discworld novel, Faust Eric, is a bit shorter than usual. Yet, it has all the right ingredients for a great one with all its witty references to classical literature. The obvious one is Goethe’s Faust, the more funny one is Dante’s Inferno. I certainly like the link from Hell to bureaucracy… and how the literal interpretation of statements is brought to a new level.
Another lengthy trip means another Terry Pratchett novel to pass the time (at the gate and on the plane) reading. And Pratchett’s comic fantasies are exactly what the doctor recommends… to get into the right, good mood for a vacation.
Guards! Guards! is the first full length feature of the Discworld’s City Watch. It is the first detailed description of the inner workings of Ankh-Morpork and its political arrangement. And, accidentally, it was the first Pratchett novel that I actually bought myself, back then when I still read my books in the German translation.
Already the way the City is run makes the novel well worth reading it. The Patrician is just such a brilliant character.
Incidentally, there is again an annotation available. Some of the finer details may be easily missed otherwise.
Terry Pratchett’s novels are all just hilariously funny (at least the ones I have read so far). That is why I like to read them; especially on long trips or on the train to the office. They brighten my mood and sometimes they may even be instructive in one way or another. Pyramids definitely has instructive elements. It is a blend of physics, philosophy, politics, and ancient history. There are references to ancient Egypt (obviously), Greek, and Rome sprinkled with references to modern culture.
The references are so plentiful that – I have to admit – I most certainly did not “get” everything. Luckily, others already (ok, the book is some twenty old) provide some annotations…
Holidays. Vacation time is also the time for me to read some relatively short novels during all the travelling around. Wyrd sisters, Terry Pratchett’s sixth Discworld novel suits my reading needs during my travels perfectly. It’s short. It’s funny. It’s easy to read.
Pratchett borrows from several Shakespeare plays for Wyrd Sister’s plot and from several fairy tales for it’s characters, that is their conversations. Thus, everything is more or less conversant. The familiar plot and characters make it easy to follow the story even in an environment that is full of distractions like a busy train or the airport lounge. Pratchett’s witty style results here in an absorbing little novel. Time just flies by. (Though not as fast as in the novel where a whole kingdom travels through time 15 years into the future.)