Forum

Share:
Notifications
Clear all

[Closed] The Turtle Moves: The Discworld Special Feature

Bookwyrm
(@bookwyrm)
NarniaWeb Guru

"It was all very well going on about pure logic and how the universe was ruled by logic and the harmony of numbers, but the plain fact of the matter was that the Disc was manifestly traversing space on the back of a giant turtle and the gods had a habit of going round to atheists' houses and smashing their windows."

The Discworld series of novels written by British author Sir Terry Pratchett have sold more copies than pretty much every British series with the exception of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. Engaging characters and wickedly funny parody of anything and everything from Shakespeare, The Phantom of the Opera, and vampire fiction all the way to the postal system keep this series fresh and vibrant even after 30+ novels.

Each story is set in the Discworld, an enormous flat world resting on the backs of four elephants, who in turn stand upon the Great A'Tuin, an impossibly large turtle. The world of the Disc is a varied one, filled with mammoth cities, assassin guilds, witches, wizards, vampires, werewolves, gods, and Death himself.

So which is your favorite Discworld book Favorite arc? Favorite character? And we can always discuss the adaptations of the books, such as SkyOne's recent miniseries.

Topic starter Posted : February 27, 2011 7:34 pm
Lady Haleth
(@lady-haleth)
NarniaWeb Junkie

Oh, Discworld!
I've read The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, Men at Arms, Going Postal, and Hogfather. My favorites are probably A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith, though I enjoyed them all. I want to find some more of the Watch novels because I love Vimes and Carrot. And after meeting Granny Weatherwax in the Tiffany Aching books, I definitely want to read more about her. Going Postal was the one that I was surprised to find myself liking, since the concept was so unusual. But I found Vetinari's dry humor to be hilarious. I liked Death, in Hogfather, too, and I want to find more about him.
So I have read a small selection of Discworld, but it has made me hungry for more!

The glory of God is man fully alive--St. Iraneus
Salvation is a fire in the midnight of the soul-Switchfoot

Posted : February 28, 2011 12:16 am
daughter of the King
(@dot)
Princess Dot Moderator

Yay! I discovered Discworld around Christmas last year and I've been hooked since. I'm pretty sure I'm reading the books entirely in the wrong order, but I've been able to figure it out as I go along.

So far I have read:
Thud!
Thief of Time
The Truth
Night Watch

And I'm pretty sure there's at least one that I'm forgetting. Anyway, my favorite character is Vimes, probably because I read Thud! first and he's great in that one. Sybil is awesome too. And Death.

I think out of the four that I've read the only one that I didn't like as much was The Truth. It was good, but a little slow. On the other hand, since I'm a reporter for the school newspaper I very much appreciated his humour about the newspaper business.

And we can always discuss the adaptations of the books, such as SkyOne's recent miniseries.

There's a miniseries?! Is it on DVD? If it is, I know what I'm doing spring break.

ahsokasig
Narniaweb sister to Pattertwig's Pal

Posted : March 1, 2011 5:57 am
Meltintalle
(@mel)
Member Moderator

I guess I haven't read quite as much Prachett as I thought...

I've read The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Going Postal, and Hogfather. Oh, and the Bromeliad trilogy, which isn't part of Discworld?

So far, Hogfather is my favourite, but I expect I'd enjoy a reread of Going Postal equally well.

Susan and Death are my favourite characters.

We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago! -- G. K. Chesterton

Posted : March 1, 2011 9:44 am
Orious
(@orious)
NarniaWeb Regular

Well, I read The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents a few years ago and that got me started on the Pratchett.

I loved The Amazing Maurice! My favorite part of all was probably the Grim Squeaker. It amused me to no end.

About a year later I borrowed The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, and Equal Rites from the library and read them. I discovered my love for the character Luggage at this point.

In May of last year one of my guy friends found at that I enjoyed reading Pratchett. He happens to own, like, every Discworld book ever printed so he has been loaning them to me fairly regularly.

He loaned me The Last Continent, I enjoyed this one but I cannot say that this is my favorite. It just didn't get me like some of the others did, I guess. My favorite line would definitely be the line spoken by one of the wizards, "Mrs. Whitlow, would you like a little more br--er, front part of the chicken?"

I read Going Postal and Making Money after that. I enjoyed this arc a lot! This sort of thing is always interesting to read, does the enjoyment of reading about business starting make me a geek? ;) One thing that bothered me was Moist's death. That is one thing I'm not completely thrilled about: how unclear Pratchett can be. Sometimes I read through whole paragraphs that don't touch base. :-s

After that arc I read the first five Sam Vimes books. I liked the Patrician in these books. I liked Sam a lot, too. (Wikipedia has a dreadful picture of him on his page. Nothing like I pictured him at all!)
My favorite book out of this five would probably be Feet of Clay because of the close to homeness that comes with a favorite character being poisoned. Sam was awesome in Feet of Clay.
One character that this series could do without would be Angua. I do not like her. Of course, if we got rid of her there would be no Fifth Elephant. I wouldn't mind loosing that title but I would mind loosing that story.

My most recent Pratchett read was Hogfather. I did not like it much at first because it seemed to be all Susan and no Death. I like Death. Death fans unite! :p It got better near the middle but the ending (the chase scene with the pig) was disappointing. The part where they were creeping around in the Tooth Fairy's house freaked me out. Very stressful scene(s).

I would like to read the Tiffany Aching books sometime soon. :)

KrisTwin: Follower - Sibs AWH&Fauni - SirenSis - PotatoHead

"There are no boring subjects, only disinterested minds."

AV by ForeverFan

Posted : March 1, 2011 10:28 am
Lady Haleth
(@lady-haleth)
NarniaWeb Junkie

I've only seen Angua in one book, so I can't say much about that.

Spoiler
So far the only characters I have honestly really hated (besides the Rat Spider thing), were Roland's aunts from the Tiffany Aching books. They are evil. But they were meant to be that way.

I think you should read Tiffany's books, though. Lots of interesting things happen, and she's a pretty interesting character. Sensible, practical, down-to-earth.
Spoiler
And the Feegles are made of epicness
.
I saw my English professor reading The Color of Magic while we were taking an exam. :)

The glory of God is man fully alive--St. Iraneus
Salvation is a fire in the midnight of the soul-Switchfoot

Posted : March 2, 2011 7:40 am
Bookwyrm
(@bookwyrm)
NarniaWeb Guru

I think I would be hard-pressed to pick a favorite arc, but I adore Death and his books. For a character that normally is portrayed in a rather creepy manner, Pratchett's Death is incredibly endearing. I also really like Susan. Hogfather was one of the first Discworld books I read and her habit of marching off to face monsters armed within nothing but a fireplace poker is pretty awesome.

Topic starter Posted : March 2, 2011 12:41 pm
Lady Haleth
(@lady-haleth)
NarniaWeb Junkie

I like Death too. And Susan is awesome.
As for a favorite character, that would be pretty hard to decide. Tiffany, Death, the Feegles, Vimes, (and Sybil is pretty awesome, too.), and Captain Carrot, who is just sweet.
My favorite scene is probably the one in Going Postal when

Spoiler
Adora fights off that guy with her stiletto heel

The glory of God is man fully alive--St. Iraneus
Salvation is a fire in the midnight of the soul-Switchfoot

Posted : March 2, 2011 1:14 pm
johobbit
(@jo)
SO mod; WC captain Moderator

Please note that this Special Feature will be closing on Sunday, March 27, after which you may discuss Pratchett's Discworld in the Books thread. :)

If you have a suggestion for a Special Feature, hop on over and PM one of the Spare Oom mods, and we will add it to the list. If you need more info on SFs, please see #1 of the SO bylaws.


Signature by Narnian_Badger, thanks! (2013)
7,237 posts from Forum 1.0

Posted : March 21, 2011 10:03 am
fantasia
(@fantasia)
Member Admin

Somehow I have missed out on this series in my lifetime... never read them. I just put The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic on hold at my local library. :)

Posted : March 23, 2011 6:04 am
Share: