A Sad Day in Ankh-Morpork

Censura Posts : 4377 Join date : 2012-01-05

Author of the Discworld series of books, Sir Terry Pratchett has died age 66;

A Sad Day in Ankh-Morpork Terry-Pratchett-2008-001

Censura Posts : 4377 Join date : 2012-01-05

The inevitability of this character turning up sooner or later;

A Sad Day in Ankh-Morpork Death_Discworld

as illustrated by Paul Kidby

Subject: Re: A Sad Day in Ankh-Morpork Thu 12 Mar 2015, 16:12

... I'm sure 'Binky' was there too.

But seriously that is sad news. His books were good 'companions' to me throughout my university and later years, and though lately he'd made no secret that he was ill, he still seemed to be able to write the same imaginative fiction, if just a little slower. And sixty-six is no great age at all is it?

Censura Posts : 4377 Join date : 2012-01-05

Binky would be there too, Meles.

Hard to believe there will be no more adventures with Sam Vimes and The Watch or scheming from Lord Vetinari.

Censura Posts : 2602 Join date : 2011-12-27

Sad indeed but there is a little consolation in that he, and those who loved him, was spared what could easily have been years of a horrific living death.

Subject: Re: A Sad Day in Ankh-Morpork Thu 12 Mar 2015, 16:38

I've never read any of Terry Pratchett's books - maybe it's to do with being single and childless - perhaps otherwise I would have read them to children and grand-children. Ferval, in your post above you may have something - Alzheimer's is no respecter of persons unfortunately.

Censura Posts : 1515 Join date : 2012-01-09

Yes, very sad, and in the end quite sudden? Or do we just miss the hints you sometimes get close to a famous person's death?

He was well read in our household, more by my son and husband than me, but even I would have read a good half dozen of his books. I really liked Good Omens when I read it years ago, but got a bit muddled sometimes in Discworld - didn't read enough of them to have the characters and places clear in my head. And thought I should start at the beginning but I don't think The Colour Magic was the best one. I read The Truth, a couple of children's ones with a young girl as main protagonist - Wee Free Men perhaps? - and one or two others. I always like best the theme and the way it was set in the adventure stories (the journalism in The Truth, Macbeth in Wyrd Sisters, etc.).

Yesterday I told a little book club that I never read fantasy but I do read Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, had forgotten them at the time. And they don't write those ridiculously long books that every light writer nowadays seems to feel it incumbant upon them to come up with. (Publishers' demands?)

Censura Posts : 1560 Join date : 2011-12-27

I was lucky enough to start with one of the most stand-alone of the lot - Pyramids. I loved the thought that camels cause mathematics because that explains why I struggle with the subject - and not get to TCOM for quite a while. That's more a satire or critique of common-or-garden fantasy than a satisfactory beginning to Discworld. A sad day, but hardly unexpected.

Censura Posts : 4377 Join date : 2012-01-05

From the Daily Mash:

No, Grim Reaper told

DEATH has been told it is not allowed to take Sir Terry Pratchett until an investigation is held.

Following the passing of the author, the final ferryman has been suspended and will be held to account by an independent body before making any further decisions that are patently wrong.

Deathologist Roy Hobbs said: “Any rational person would agree that only after the publication of another 30 Discworld books, at least two of them starring Rincewind, would it have been correct for Terry to die.

“And for this to happen only two years after the death of Iain M Banks, leaving a number of massive Culture novels unwritten, smacks of incompetence.

“At this point the Grim Reaper looks less like an implacable, unanswerable end and more like a haphazard dick on roller skates swinging his scythe about like a fat kid at a piñata.”

Censura Posts : 4377 Join date : 2012-01-05

LadyinRetirement wrote:: I've never read any of Terry Pratchett's books - maybe it's to do with being single and childless - perhaps otherwise I would have read them to children and grand-children. Ferval, in your post above you may have something - Alzheimer's is no respecter of persons unfortunately.

LiR, they're for adults as well. Try one from your local library and see what you think.
The one that Gil mentioned, Pyramids, is a good choice;

A Sad Day in Ankh-Morpork 9780552166652

There was an old interview,from 4/5 years ago, with TP shown last night, in which he argued the case for assisted suicide.

I wonder if this was the case?

unassisted according to the BBC report;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31858156

Consulatus Posts : 278 Join date : 2012-04-24

Triceratops wrote:: The inevitability of this character turning up sooner or later;

as illustrated by Paul Kidby

Tony Robinson has said that Terry Pratchett has shaken hands with one of his greatest creations.

Terry himself once commented in one of the Discworld books that no-one is truly dead until the last ripples they cause in the world have faded away. An interesting point for us historians. In any case, those are some big ripples he's left. A sad loss, but a life worth celebrating.

Censura Posts : 4377 Join date : 2012-01-05

There is one more Discworld book in the pipeline, The Shepherd's Crown, due to be published in September.

Censura Posts : 1560 Join date : 2011-12-27

Triceratops wrote:: There is one more Discworld book in the pipeline, The Shepherd's Crown, due to be published in September.

Title suggests a Tiffany Aching book, IMO.

Censura Posts : 4377 Join date : 2012-01-05

It is, Gil. This particular series is one I've never really tried.

Censura Posts : 1560 Join date : 2011-12-27

Not my bag - being neither the right age, nor of the female persuasion.