Tag: Terry Pratchett

Lords and Ladies and Witches and Elves

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Summer in Discworld5 Comments

I just read my first book for my Summer in Discworld challenge: Lords and Ladies, part of the Witches subseries.  I seem to be reading Pratchett’s Witches books backwards.  I read Maskerade first, ages ago.  Lords and Ladies comes immediately before it, and there are at least two other earlier ones.  But no matter–Discworld is fun in any order (but be warned, spoilers ahead for earlier books).  I wound up here because it’s June, and I wanted to read Pratchett’s Midsummer Night’s Dream retelling for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

It’s a very loose retelling.  There are fairies and royalty and a group of rustics who are trying (without much success) to put on a play.  Beyond that, there’s not much resemblance to the Bard’s story.  Pratchett’s story focuses on three witches–Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick.  They’ve just returned from a trip abroad (a previous book), and Magrat is due to marry King Verence (which she’s almost sure she wants to do).  Meanwhile, there are mysterious crop circles popping up in fields, on heads of hair and in bowls of porridge; there are strange stirrings between the multiverses; and an ancient force is trying to break through from another world.  Unfortunately, as Granny and Nanny know, elves are not nearly as nice as people want to believe…

The plot here is mostly just a vehicle for the characters–and they’re wonderful characters.  Granny Weatherwax is a stiff old crone, in the most literal sense, terrifying for her sheer willpower more than for her magic, and fiercely protective of her kingdom and people.  Nanny Ogg is ever cheerful, ever comfortable and good-natured, utterly incapable of being embarrassed no matter the circumstances and at home everywhere…but you somehow get the impression you don’t want to cross her either.  Magrat is sweet and plain and lacking self-confidence–at least until she gets some inspiration from history.

There are a host of good supporting characters as well.  Verence was originally trained to be a Fool and somehow wound up king (also a previous book), and is very sure that he can learn all he needs to about running a kingdom, handling people and getting married by reading the right books.  The group of rustics don’t stand out individually (especially since they’re all known as Weaver the thatcher or Carpenter the baker or Baker the butcher, and so on), but they’re funny in their jumble–and they’re the closest connection to the Shakespearean play.  The Wizards from Ankh Morpork’s Unseen University come to town for the wedding, and I liked them better than I have in any previous books–they’re finally starting to emerge as individuals to me.  My favorite, though, is the Librarian, who loves books and happens to be an orangutan (a spell gone very wrong).

And the elves, well…they are actually genuinely frightening.  It’s not at all a horror book, and I wouldn’t exactly say any parts are scary–but the concept of the elves, these smiling, beguiling people who see humans as animals, and wreak havoc and inflict pain for the fun of it…it’s quite a frightening concept.

I do have a few small criticisms.  The book takes a good fifteen pages to get going properly.  Pratchett likes to do philosophical prologues, and this book went through a whole series of scenes like that before we got to the witches (though Death had a good scene in this first section).  The point of view jumps about wildly, which sort of bothers me but only in an academic way.  It didn’t actually interfere with my reading, it was just something I noticed every so often and my literary instincts got upset.  More difficult was his lack of speech tags in some places, so I had to go back and count lines to figure out who was talking.

But those are small criticisms.  I enjoyed the book: there was some beautiful writing, excellet character development, good tension and, of course, humor.  I wouldn’t classify it as a favorite Discworld volume, but I liked getting to know the Witches better, and I expect to continue reading their stories–though I haven’t decided whether to go back to the beginning, or keep going backwards!

Author’s Site: http://terrypratchettbooks.com/

Other reviews:
SF Reviews
The Wertzone
The Incurable Bluestocking
Anyone else?

Saturday Snapshot: Discworld Titles

On By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot, Summer in Discworld21 Comments

I thought I’d play with pictures and book titles today.  I just launched a Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge for the summer, so I have Pratchett on the brain–and I decided to have some fun pairing images with his book titles.

  

I really wanted to come up with a photo for The Fifth Elephant, but I don’t seem to have a single good elephant picture on hand.  Oh well.

Check out At Home with Books for more Saturday Snapshots!

Summer in Discworld: REVIEWS

On By cherylmahoneyIn Summer in Discworld3 Comments

This post is the gathering place to share about your adventures reading Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books this summer. Continue reading “Summer in Discworld: REVIEWS” →

Summer in Discworld: Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge

On By cherylmahoneyIn Summer in Discworld25 Comments

Have you ever considered spending the summer with witches and wizards, dwarfs and trolls, a vampire photographer or even a walking piece of Luggage?  Care to visit a Post Office literally overflowing with mail, or to stroll beside the river Ankh?  (Actually, I wouldn’t recommend that last one during the warmer months; it’s a bit, shall we say, odorous!)

Come explore the Discworld (a disc carried on the back of four elephants, on top of a turtle) and add some hilarity to your summer by joining us for a Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge!

The “Challenge”

Pratchett is consistently responsible for the funniest books I read each year, and I wanted to share the laughs.  This is a challenge only in the loose sense–all you have to do to participate is read any book from Pratchett’s sprawling 40-book Discworld series between June 1st and August 31st, and tell us about it.  I’m putting up a separate post where you can link to your reviews or share your thoughts in a comment.

Feel free grab the image above if you’d like to share about the challenge on your blog.  Maybe some of your friends will want to join in too.  If you need suggestions on where to begin reading, check out my earlier post on favorite Discworld books, or explore the comments to see what other people are planning.

For those new to Discworld, there are three rules to keep in mind:

1) You don’t have to read the books in order.

2) Don’t start at the beginning (the first few are funny, but weaker than later books).

3) Don’t read them somewhere where it will be awkward to laugh out loud!

Group Read

I’m also holding a Group Read of Going Postal during July (not a requirement of the challenge, just a fun bonus).  Going Postal won the group read poll, and is a great place for people to start out with Discworld.

Chapter One begins: “They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man’s mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged.”

The plot: conman and criminal Moist von Lipwig inexplicably survives a hanging, only to find the Patrician offering him a goverment job, as Ankh-Morpork’s new Postmaster General.  Moist uncertainly accepts, becoming master of a Post Office overflowing with old mail (some of which seems to be talking to him), leading a troop of mad postmen.  And then there’s the business competition with the telegraph service to think about…

I’ve divided the book roughly into quarters to cover four weeks.  I’ll send out discussion questions early each week, and reviews should be planned for the following Tuesday.  Here’s the schedule:

Week 1, from “The Nine Thousand Year Prologue” through “Chapter 4: A Sign” – reviews on July 10

Week 2, from “Chapter 5: Lost in the Post” through “Chapter 7: Tomb of Words” – reviews on July 17

Week 3, from “Chapter 7A: Post Haste” through “Chapter 11: Mission Statement” – reviews on July 24

Week 4, from “Chapter 12: The Woodpecker” to the end! – reviews on July 31

Book Your Ticket to Discworld

Sign up for the “challenge” with MisterLinky below, and feel free to share in a comment what you’re thinking about reading.  Let me know also if you’d like to join the group read.

I look forward to visiting Discworld with you!

Sharing the Scene of the Blog

On By cherylmahoneyIn RuminationsLeave a comment

A fun announcement today–Cathy from Kittling Books invited me to be part of her weekly feature, “Scene of the Blog.”  She invites bloggers to share photos and some thoughts on the places where they write their blogs–desks, mostly, although not in my case.  If you’d like to see where I’m doing my writing, check out the post on her blog.

Thanks for the opportunity and the very kind post, Cathy!

A few other bits of business…  I recently joined Twitter; if you’re there too, I’d be happy to connect!  I’m @MarvelousTales.

And just a reminder, my Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge starts this Friday, so if you want to explore Discworld with us, be sure to come back for details and to sign up.