Conquer Club

I personally think he is really funny. What do you guys think?

I love them, moist von lipwig is my favourite of his charachters and i also like the book monstrous regiment

I liek the Last continent(partly because I live in Australia). I also like Moist Van Lipwig. He's cool.

Iliad wrote:I liek the Last continent(partly because I live in Australia). I also like Moist Van Lipwig. He's cool.

Except for the name.

And its Moist von Lipvig.

I think...

DAMN YOU LIBRARY VERSION OF 'GOING POSTAL'!

Ill check when I borrow it again.

And I think Rincewind is the best.

"Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography'

Just gold.

Yeh I really like Terry, although I've not read one for a while. To be honest I think he's past his peak now. The original books were too complicated and silly, then he hit the jackpot with the Guards books, the death ones and the Witches ones and now he's gone too far, in my opinion. There seems to be too much of taking a real-world concept and skewing it for cheap laughs.

Take a closer look, yes, the books are leaning closer to the real world and he's been making use of current (more or less) topics. But for cheap laughs? No, not really. I feel he's simply putting more emphasis on getting a message across.

MeDeFe wrote:Take a closer look, yes, the books are leaning closer to the real world and he's been making use of current (more or less) topics. But for cheap laughs? No, not really. I feel he's simply putting more emphasis on getting a message across.

I'm afraid they just don't make me laugh out loud to the same degree. Its just my opinion, of course, and I can certainly see the merits of the more recent books. The plots are more driven and they seem more exciting, but I miss the complexity of the 'peak' books.

Terry Pratchet is amazing. Nuff said.
Small gods is one of my favorites...

Ive got a shelf-full of them, ive not read any auther better (although douglas adams is about on a par)

I've read a lot of them and I think they're great. Not sure if hilarious is the right word but I love how abstract the books are yet also sometimes so linked to our own world. My favourite character has to be Death, definitely

I'm a fan of Douglas Adams and Robert Asprin, both of whom seem to be similar. I've never gotten into Terry Pratchett. Is their a book that is the best to start with, or shines above the others. Maybe I haven't started with the right ones.

I would suggest: guards. The guards is funny and he really hit the spot with those characters. The witches are good too.

CrazyAnglican wrote:I'm a fan of Douglas Adams and Robert Asprin, both of whom seem to be similar. I've never gotten into Terry Pratchett. Is their a book that is the best to start with, or shines above the others. Maybe I haven't started with the right ones.

The first written was The Colour of Magic.

But some good ones (IMO) are Guards! Guards!, The Truth, Going Postal and Small Gods.

And Witches Abroad

MeDeFe wrote:And Witches Abroad

Oh ya, true true.

Pyramids was also pretty good.

Yeh definitely start with Guards! Guards!... The City Watch series runs like this if you enjoy it:

* Guards! Guards!
* Men at Arms
* Theatre of Cruelty (Short Story)
* Feet of Clay
* Jingo
* The Fifth Elephant
* Night Watch
* Thud!

But check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld_reading_order and you could really start with any at the top of the lists!

Thanks I'll keep an eye out for those. I love having a job where I'm paid to read silently for 15 minutes four times a day

You can read the latest novel and probably still understand it. But start with slightly earlier books.

bump

Never heard of him.. Until I saw the Discworld game.. But I still don't know him

^Can't believe that - he's written a shit load of books, even if many of his best works may be behind him.

Who the hell said that Pratchett's early work was his best?!? The first two books were, of course, perfect. Mort remains, in my mind, the best of the lot in pure storytelling terms. But apart from that, what was good? Pyramids was good, but stand-alone. Wyrd Sisters was momentarily entertaining but pales when considered in light of the latter Witches books. After Eric (which was BAD), they pretty much all blew ass, with the exception of the half of Reaper Man that had Death in it, the beginning and middle of Small Gods, and the bits in Lords and Ladies where the witches did witch things. The problem was that he was trying too hard to jam gags into these horrendous ensemble comedies, when really his best talent is with satire. What was good about Witches Abroad? NOTHING. Interesting Times? BORING WASTE OF IT (with the exception of that one scene, Horde vs Ninjas.) Men at Arms? MEN AT WORK WAS A BAND BELOVED BY MANY PEOPLE THAT ALSO BLEW.

He began to find his way again around Feet of Clay, but fell briefly on his ass with The Last Continent (the WORST BOOK IN THE CANON, a book so painfully unentertaining and unimaginative as to deserve BURNING. Why do you think Rincewind hasn't been back? He's DEAD now.) And then come an unbroken string of fantastic books* beginning with The Fifth Elephant and ending with Thud!, a book so current, so urgent, so biting, that it deserves to be ASSIGNED to children, rather than risking that they might not read it through some kind of cosmic accident. Not that adults shouldn't read it too, but if adults aren't reading it then they're already WRECKED for this world and will have to hope the next is halfway as interesting.

Terry Pratchett is ONLY IMPROVING and his recent work is by every noble standard superior to what came before.

*Except the ending of Thief of Time was WORTHLESS. And I'm not counting the Tiffany Aching books... I only read Wee Free Men and it felt like he was holding too much back to make it "acceptable."

ZawBanjito wrote:Who the hell said that Pratchett's early work was his best?!? The first two books were, of course, perfect. Mort remains, in my mind, the best of the lot in pure storytelling terms. But apart from that, what was good? Pyramids was good, but stand-alone. Wyrd Sisters was momentarily entertaining but pales when considered in light of the latter Witches books. After Eric (which was BAD), they pretty much all blew ass, with the exception of the half of Reaper Man that had Death in it, the beginning and middle of Small Gods, and the bits in Lords and Ladies where the witches did witch things. The problem was that he was trying too hard to jam gags into these horrendous ensemble comedies, when really his best talent is with satire. What was good about Witches Abroad? NOTHING. Interesting Times? BORING WASTE OF IT (with the exception of that one scene, Horde vs Ninjas.) Men at Arms? MEN AT WORK WAS A BAND BELOVED BY MANY PEOPLE THAT ALSO BLEW.

He began to find his way again around Feet of Clay, but fell briefly on his ass with The Last Continent (the WORST BOOK IN THE CANON, a book so painfully unentertaining and unimaginative as to deserve BURNING. Why do you think Rincewind hasn't been back? He's DEAD now.) And then come an unbroken string of fantastic books* beginning with The Fifth Elephant and ending with Thud!, a book so current, so urgent, so biting, that it deserves to be ASSIGNED to children, rather than risking that they might not read it through some kind of cosmic accident. Not that adults shouldn't read it too, but if adults aren't reading it then they're already WRECKED for this world and will have to hope the next is halfway as interesting.

Terry Pratchett is ONLY IMPROVING and his recent work is by every noble standard superior to what came before.

*Except the ending of Thief of Time was WORTHLESS. And I'm not counting the Tiffany Aching books... I only read Wee Free Men and it felt like he was holding too much back to make it "acceptable."

Wow you're a pretty militant fan! I think it may be me you're referring to... I said I find the 'middle' books to be the best. They strike the balance for me between the humour and complexity of the first books and the plot-driven aspects of the later ones. Just my opinion though.

I actually think either Interesting Times or Feet of Clay are my favourite books overall! I prefer the books in the Guards and Death series for their continuity and I like the way jokes and plot-lines carry through to an extent. The newer books seem to pick a 'theme' (say the Library or Post Office) and go with that. As I said before, though, I can see their merits so don't jump down my throat with caps-lock

I have never been a fan of the witches books, especially not equal rites. Witches abroad was groovy though. Big, big fan of jingo, and most of the guards books. Sourcery+Small Gods+Jingo+Night Watch+Hogfather are my suggestions for his best stuff.

ZawBanjito wrote:Who the hell said that Pratchett's early work was his best?!? The first two books were, of course, perfect. Mort remains, in my mind, the best of the lot in pure storytelling terms. But apart from that, what was good? Pyramids was good, but stand-alone. Wyrd Sisters was momentarily entertaining but pales when considered in light of the latter Witches books. After Eric (which was BAD), they pretty much all blew ass, with the exception of the half of Reaper Man that had Death in it, the beginning and middle of Small Gods, and the bits in Lords and Ladies where the witches did witch things. The problem was that he was trying too hard to jam gags into these horrendous ensemble comedies, when really his best talent is with satire. What was good about Witches Abroad? NOTHING. Interesting Times? BORING WASTE OF IT (with the exception of that one scene, Horde vs Ninjas.) Men at Arms? MEN AT WORK WAS A BAND BELOVED BY MANY PEOPLE THAT ALSO BLEW.

He began to find his way again around Feet of Clay, but fell briefly on his ass with The Last Continent (the WORST BOOK IN THE CANON, a book so painfully unentertaining and unimaginative as to deserve BURNING. Why do you think Rincewind hasn't been back? He's DEAD now.) And then come an unbroken string of fantastic books* beginning with The Fifth Elephant and ending with Thud!, a book so current, so urgent, so biting, that it deserves to be ASSIGNED to children, rather than risking that they might not read it through some kind of cosmic accident. Not that adults shouldn't read it too, but if adults aren't reading it then they're already WRECKED for this world and will have to hope the next is halfway as interesting.

Terry Pratchett is ONLY IMPROVING and his recent work is by every noble standard superior to what came before.

*Except the ending of Thief of Time was WORTHLESS. And I'm not counting the Tiffany Aching books... I only read Wee Free Men and it felt like he was holding too much back to make it "acceptable."

Tiffany aching was good, Interesting times and last continent were good too! What are you talking about. If you had actually been in Australia or knew anything about it you would've enjoyed it too.