Tag: Discworld

Guarding Ankh-Morpork

On By cherylmahoneyIn Summer in Discworld3 Comments
Not Pictured: Snuff, which isn’t in paperback yet

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about one of Discworld’s most frequent recurring characters, Death.  This week, let’s look at my favorite group of regulars, the City Guard of Ankh-Morpork.  There are eight books focused on this group of rather hapless police officers, and they’re the one subseries I’ve read all the way through (but completely out of order).

The City Guard are led by Sam Vimes, the relatively sane focus point in the middle of some very odd characters.  I think Vimes is what makes these my favorite set of books.  Besides being an awesome character, he’s the straight man who makes the comedians even funnier.  Vimes is a world-weary police officer with a cynical streak a mile wide, who nevertheless believes in honor and justice and above all, the rule of law.  He’s uncorruptable while completely practical about the corrupt city he guards.  He undergoes more evolution than most Discworld characters, and even though I read him all out of order it’s interesting to see his character grow through the books.

Vime’s righthand man is Corporal Carrot, biologically a six-foot human and culturally a dwarf (it’s complicated).  He’s simple, but not stupid.  He also believes in honor and honesty, but unlike Vimes, he believes everyone else is honorable and honest too.  The funny thing is, around Carrot, they are.

Sargeant Fred Colon and Nobby Nobbs typically appear together.  Colon always knows the best place for a drink or a smoke, and the best ways to avoid any and all trouble.  Nobby has to carry around a card to verify that he’s human; descriptions are vague, but I picture him short, skinny, pimply and hairy.  He’s convinced of his own vast wisdom and sophistication, and is a guardsman who is nevertheless addicted to petty theft.

There are a few women on the force: Cheery Littlebottom is a dwarf who breaks dwarfish taboos by openly admitting to being female, and Angua is a brilliant fighter and tracker, largely because she’s a werewolf.

There are some other regulars among the guards, but those are my favorites.  They’re a motley and very funny crew, who generally manage to pull success out of chaos.  Guards! Guards! is the first in the subseries, and Jingo, Night Watch and Thud! are among my favorites.  But really, they’re all good, and you can probably just grab any you like.  It’s Discworld–you’ll figure things out.

Going Postal Group Read, Week Three

On By cherylmahoneyIn Summer in Discworld8 Comments

It’s Week Three of the Going Postal Group Read!  We’re past the halfway point now.  Here’s the discussion for the next quarter of the book:

1) So far we’ve talked about characters and settings.  What are your thoughts on either the plot or the romance?  Anything surprising, or anything you particularly enjoy?

I do enjoy the mere fact that Pratchett has a plot.  Some comedy writers rely only on the humpr and have novels that are basically just strings of jokes.  I like that Going Postal has a compelling plot driving it forward, centered on the restoration of the Post Office, the conspiracy and business competition of the Clacks, and of course Moist’s character development.  The romance is an interesting aspect of that.  He’s lived his whole life showing people only the outside.  I love that when he starts to fall for a girl, it’s because of what’s behind her outside, stern exterior.  “Outside exterior” is redundant, but I trust you know what I mean!

2) Pratchett has used a number of ideas throughout the book as satirical commentary on our society—golem rights, pin collecting, collective responsibility, business corruption…  What have you found the most interesting?

The Golem rights and the business corruption are probably the most obvious satires.  I was most intrigued, however, by Stanley and the pin collectors.  On the face of it, collecting pins is ridiculous, with all his fascination in precisely how they’re made and what year they’re from and so on.  But on the other hand, how many collectable items have value beyond what we put into them?  With all due respect to cute china figurines, for example, they don’t have any actual use.  And even things that may be useful in some capacity end up endowed with far more value because collectors decided they’re valuable.  On the other hand, is that genuine value?  I think to a certain extent it is–and at other times, as with Stanley’s pins, it can be taken to an extent that’s ridiculous!

3) And of course, share your favorite quotes and moments from this section of Going Postal!

The headlines screamed at [Moist] as soon as he saw the paper.  He almost screamed back.

This section featured Mr. Groat’s trip to the hospital, leading to some very funny remarks from the examining doctor.

“His trousers were the subject of a controlled detonation after one of his socks exploded.  We’re not sure why.”

“Oh, and do take his wig, will you?  We tried putting it in a cupboard, but it got out.”

As usual, leave links to reviews in the comments! 🙂

Favorites Friday: Fantasy Worlds

On By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday12 Comments

I recently read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, about a future where most of humanity spends most of their time in a massive virtual world (stay tuned for a review!)  Made up of thousands of planets and universes, there’s a tantalizing mention that many fictional worlds have been created within the virtual universe.  Which got me thinking about which fictional universes I’d most like to visit…

Star Trek is an obvious first choice.  It’s such an idealized future, both in terms of technology and humanity’s advancement, that it would be an amazing place to live.  I’m not so sure about being a tourist there, because I don’t know precisely what I’d like to see–the universe in general is amazing, but isn’t so much big on the landmarks.  If I was just visiting, I’d be most interested if I could hang out with the known characters (by which I mostly mean Kirk, Spock and McCoy).  It’s a very much character-driven fictional universe for me, and they’re wonderful characters who also live in a really nice universe.  So either meeting them or having a whole life there sounds…well, fascinating!

I find more appealing a vacation on Pern, Anne McCaffrey’s dragon world.  I’d like to come by long enough to fly dragon-back and visit the Harper Hall for a concert.  If I managed to discover that I have musical ability, I could see living at the Harper Hall (the Harpers are, after all, the storytellers), but that’s a big if.  It would be a great place to visit, though, and then come home to my air conditioner and indoor plumbing.

I’d also like to visit Discworld, but only with a friendly native guide.  I love reading about the corrupt city of Ankh-Morpork, but I know I’d get into an enormous amount of trouble if I was actually there.  For one thing, I’m not paid up with the Thieves’ Guild!

I’d like a long trip to Diana Wynne Jones’ Time City, where residents seem to be able to get the best bits of every period of history, from the ancient world on up to 100,000 AD.  I’d just be so fascinated to find out about the whole sweep of history.  I could see myself spending a very long time in the library (or equivalent) and being perfectly happy.

On first thought I have doubts about going to any of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ worlds–I guess the significant one is Barsoom (or Mars).  It is, after all, a rather violent place.  I think I’d only want to live there if I could be a Burroughs heroine, because nothing really bad ever happens to them; and, of course, they all get brave, noble Burroughs heroes!

Much as I love Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books, I don’t think I’d much like to live there.  There’s magic, but it’s magic in a rather gritty, historical-fiction-type world and, well, see air conditioning and indoor plumbing above.  I’d love to visit long enough to meet my favorite characters, but the world itself doesn’t particularly draw me in.

There are lots of other worlds I love reading about, and lots of characters I’d love to meet (which I guess would mean visiting their worlds, but it’s not the world that counts there), but that covers at least some of my top choices for worlds to visit or take up residence in.  I know as soon as I post this I’ll think of somewhere else!

It’s funny how in some books, the setting is just the background, and in others, it’s really an integral part, as interesting as anything else.  The worlds I’m most drawn to, besides being reasonably pleasant places (for contrast, the world of The Hunger Games? Never want to go there), are also immensely detailed and elaborate worlds.  Perhaps I can imagine living there because I can believe in them as places, and because there are plenty of details to be fascinated by.

Your turn!  Where would you go if you could?

Going Postal Group Read, Week Two

On By cherylmahoneyIn Summer in Discworld8 Comments

It’s Week Two of the Going Postal Group Read!  Here’s the discussion for the next hundred pages of the book:

1)      Pratchett has done some lavish setting descriptions by now, notably the Post Office but also rooms at Unseen University, and other places around Ankh-Morpork.  What’s your favorite one?

I was unusually struck by Pratchett’s setting descriptions in this book–I don’t remember that so much in other Discworld books, though that may also be a product of re-reading and noticing new things.  I love the descriptions of the mountains of letters in the Post Office.  That’s such a fantastic, over-the-top image.  I also loved Pelc’s study, especially this bit: “It was a wizard’s study, so of course it had the skull with a candle on it and a stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling.  No one, least of all wizards, knows why this is, but you have to have them.”

2)      In Chapter 7, Moist waxes poetic about the personal nature of letters versus clacks.  This could easily be looked at as email and other online communication versus paper letters.  Do you agree with Moist, or does he exaggerate?  And just for fun, what’s the best piece of paper mail you ever got?

I of course appreciate the speed and convenience of email and other electronic communication, but I do rather regret the demise of paper letters.  I think it’s mostly for their lasting power.  You can talk about the personal-ness of paper letters, but an email can be personal in its contents.  However, I like that paper letters can be saved, and looked at again later.  I suppose emails can be too, but they usually aren’t.  I like letters as history, which they seem to be in a way that emails aren’t.

Best paper mail I ever got…  Certainly the most amusing was when a friend sent me a black spot.  We have a bit of a thing for pirates.  The most glee-inducing letter was when Geraldine McCaughrean sent a personal reply to my letter to her.  VERY glee-inducing!

3)      Share your favorite quotes and moments from this section of Going Postal.

Look, [Moist] said to his imagination, if this is how you’re going to behave, I shan’t bring you again.

Re: the Posthumous Professor of Morbid Bibliomancy at Unseen University:

“Why’s he ‘posthumous’?” Moist asked.

“He’s dead,” said Pelc.

“Ah…I was kind of hoping it was going to be a little more metaphorical than that,” said Moist.

“Don’t worry, he decided to take Early Death.  It was a very good package.”

“Oh,” said Moist.  The important thing at a time like this was to spot the right moment to run, but they’d got here through a maze of dark passages and this was not a place you’d want to get lost in.  Something might find you.

Looking forward to reading others’ thoughts!  Please link your posts below. 🙂

A Humorous Reflection on Death

On By cherylmahoneyIn Summer in DiscworldLeave a comment

Today is Friday the 13th, and I’m currently hosting a Discworld reading challenge–so there’s really only one appropriate topic today.  Death.  Specifically, Pratchett’s character of Death.

There are several books with Death as a major character, and you can trust him to make at least a cameo in most of the books.  He looks rather as you might expect Death to look, a skeleton with a dark hood and a scythe.  Despite appearances, he isn’t really a frightening character.  Death never kills anyone; he appears as a guide when someone has died, which I think is an important distinction.

And did I mention also that Death is frequently extremely funny?  He talks IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, so you always know when he’s arrived.  He’s both insightful and a little baffled by humanity, he takes pride in his work, and he seems to be well-meaning as a rule.  One way or another, whether its telling knock-knock jokes or explaining that he really can’t take off his mask, even his briefest appearances tend to be wonderful.

The two Death-focused books that stand out the most for me are Reaper Man and Hogfather.  In the first, Death’s bosses decide he’s going soft and fire him.  He goes off to find a new job on a farm, while elsewhere no one’s dying anymore…  One of my favorites bits of the book is when he’s out cutting wheat (with a scythe, of course).  The woman who owns the farm notices that he’s very fast, but is cutting the wheat one stalk at a time.  She asks why he doesn’t cut a swathe at once, and Death is horrified.  That would be wrong–every stalk must die in its own time, with individual attention.

Hogfather is Pratchett’s Christmas book.  The Discworld’s Santa Clause equivalent goes missing (more or less) and the fabric of mythology and belief begins to unravel–despite Death’s best efforts to fill in.  This is largely focused on Death’s granddaughter, Susan.  You see, Pratchett’s Death has a family.  He has an adopted daughter, who got married and had a daughter.  Susan desperately wants to be normal, but that’s difficult when she’s inherited some of her grandfather’s talents.  There’s a movie version of Hogfather that’s very good; Susan is played by Michelle Dockery, who you might know as Lady Mary from Downton Abbey.

In other Discworld books, if a character dies you can pretty well expect Death to turn up to guide them to whatever awaits.  And odd though it may sound, it’s always fun when Death arrives.