Discworld
Have you ever been to Discworld?
Discworld is round and flat and rides through the universe on the back of four elephants which, in turn, stand upon the great star-turtle, A’tuin. It is the creation and playground of Terry Pratchett who writes regularly about it, it’s countries and people.
It begins here:
The Color of Magic
While there is no particular need to start with this book, it is here that the Discworld is introduced. We meet a particularly inept wizard named Rhincewind who is attached to the Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork - one of the most colorful cities on the Disc. Despite his apparent inabiltity to manage magic, Rhincewind does have one tremendous talent (some might consider it to be two talents, but I tend to see them as sides of the same coin). He gets himself into the most dire, life-threatening circumstances imaginable. And he survives - much to the amusement of one of Discworld’s other prominent citizens - Death.
Reaper Man
Magic and sorcery are a big part of life on the Disc. There are the wizards at the UU but there are also witches who practice a more earthy and rustic version of the art. Unlike the wizards, who seem often to get wound up in inconsequentials and who’s formality is more fog than substance, witches take a more direct approach. When the wizards might debate whether calling a spade a “spade” is correct, proper and appropriate, the witches have long since calle the spade “a @#$%^& shovel” and moved on.
Witches Abroad
Night Watch
And there are the odd side trips. While many of the books (and there are a lot of books - thank goodness!) revolve around the above mentioned sets of characters, some books take up a different theme and a different character on a one-off basis.
Small Gods
The reasons I find these books so compelling is complicated. First of all, for me, a novel is only as good as its characters. A bourgeois reqirement I guess, but that’s how fiction works for me. If the character has no depth - why should I care what he does or what happens to him? Pratchett’s characters have depth and personality. Even incidental characters have their own voice.
Second, these books are funny - and I mean laugh-out-loud funny. But it’s not esoteric humor. You’ll recognize yourself and many of the people you know in these characters and their humor and charm is based on their recognizability - well, and Pratchett’s finely honed sense of the ridiculous.
Finally, and I admit that for me, I had read many of the books (some several times) before I recognized it, there is the message. You may not always agree with it, but it’s usually worth thinking about. Pratchett is not just writing comedy here - he is writing satire and under the laughs, there is usually something far more trenchant. For example, this - from “Hogfather”, where the Disc’s Santa Claus analog has been kidnapped and Death is filling in for him:
“Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape...You need to believe in things that aren’t true. How else can they become?”
Hogfather
The L-Space Web
and
The Discworld Compendium
Come for the laughs, stay for the story, leave with something to think about. What more could you wish from a novel? Except more novels!
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:::sends love:::
Terry Pratchett rocks my socks off.
Small Gods is one of the best religion books I’ve read.
Have you discovered _Good Omens_ or _The Bromeliad Trilogy_ yet? They’re faboo!
Hey Christina! I have read “Good Omens” but will probably have to read it again, as I wasn’t too thrilled with it. It did get me started on Neil Gaimen though, and I’m very thrilled with him. “The Bromeliad Trilogy” was tres cool, though :)
"Binky?!” TOO funny!!! Reminds me of the two sweet and tame hamsters that I had in college that I nevertheless named Killer and Fang.
Heheh - Or Hagrid’s three-headed dog, Fluffy?
Small Gods was the book that launched my Terry Pratchett obsession, too! He’s awesome. I re-read the books like crazy. Only one I don’t like is The Colour of Magic. Oh, and I really like all the ones about Vimes. There’s a hilarious knitting scene in one of the picture books… I’ll have to look it up.
Krista Jo - I re-read these a lot too. Sam Vimes is one of my heros, though Rhincewind remains a favorite. But I definitely want to be Nanny Ogg when I grow up :)
