Terry Pratchett dead

[SpursRiot2012]

Fuck this month. First Nimoy, now this.

[Chest Rockwell]

Fuck,.

 

 

 

 

Really gutted by this... Everyone has particular celeb deaths that hit them harder and this is one for me.

 

Huge fan of the Discworld books, the Gnomes ones, and other. Met him once also. He was very nice, and put his hat on my friends head when posing for a photo.

[Azrall]

Very sad news. A true inspiration for me growing up. RIP

[Chest Rockwell]

I should add also, that his campaigning for assisted suicide is something that also hits close to home for me, from when my dad was ill. Appreciate the work he did there, and the documentary is worth watching for anyone who has an interest and has not done so already..

[Merzbow]

Sad news indeed.

 

I was introduced to his work through the old Playstation games, and his daughter's doing really well in video games right now. She's the lead writer of the current Tomb Raider games.

[Thunderplex]

If anyone deserves the label Legend, it's this genius. First started reading his books back when I was 16. Not the happiest period of my life, but losing myself in the colourful (well, greeny purple) universe he crafted got me through. Lucky enough to meet the man at a signing at Stockport. Charming, funny and all you would want a hero to be.

 

As Chest said, his work in later life to bring awareness to both the tragedy that is Alzheimer's, and assisted suicide was inspiring.

 

Genuinely gutted by this news. Rest in peace Terry, and thanks.

[HarmonicGenerator]

I had to fight back tears at my desk at work when I heard. I'm devastated.

 

I put a post on Facebook about it, which went a bit like:

 

I am sad.

Terry Pratchett is probably the author who has had the most impact on my life. He's almost definitely the author I have read the most. There are entire shelves on my bookcase that are exclusively Pratchett. I must have read millions of his words, and now I'll never read a new one.

I remember being recommended him by friends when I was probably about 14, and picked up a second-hand copy of Carpe Jugulum from a market stall in Alnwick. (I still have it). I realise that starting with the 23rd book in the series was not the most sensible idea, but it did have vampires in it. That night, I found myself unable to stop laughing at 'James What The Hell's That Cow Doing In Here Poorchick'. Probably about an hour of laughter just at that one line. I was hooked.

For the rest of high school I devoured every Discworld book I could find. I'm fairly sure I almost didn't learn my lines for one pantomime I was in because I was too busy reading Night Watch. When I got to uni, one of the best things about studying in a city was how close I was to a WH Smith on the day a new Pratchett came out. And after three years of reading books to analyse and study, my reward to myself for graduating was to read all of Pratchett again, in order.

In 2011, I was lucky enough to get tickets to 'An Audience with Terry Pratchett' at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane - it was absolutely wonderful to get to hear him speak in person (plus you got a copy of Snuff with your ticket). And in 2012, I realised a genuine ambition when I got the chance to direct the stage version of Wyrd Sisters. Everyone in the cast were brilliant at getting the spirit and sense of humour in Pratchett. Okay, not everyone in the audience got it, but that's the thing with Terry Pratchett. Not everyone gets it, but if you meet someone who does, you know they're good people. And that's been true for every Pratchett fan I've ever spoken to.

He was a superb creator of imagery, and had an incredible knack for making the ordinary become the fantastic. He could throw in a line or a joke that would floor you with laughter. He was the master of the hilarious footnote. But most of all he wrote bloody good stories with bloody good characters. Pyramids, Lords And Ladies, Jingo, The Truth, Night Watch, Thud and others will all be listed among my favourites from any author. The latest books may have suffered from the Alzheimer's he fought and campaigned about so bravely and honestly, but within them were flashes of his genius (the passage in Unseen Academicals where Mr Nutt discovers who he is, is one of the most powerful and gripping things he ever wrote). And it's so sad to think that we'll never hear what happened next to Vimes, Granny Weatherwax, Greebo, Magrat, Gaspode, Carrot, Angua, Mr Nutt, Rincewind, the Bursar, Hex, Death, the Death of Rats, Moist von Lipwig, Lord Vetinari, Fred and Nobby, William de Worde, Sergeant Jackrum, Detritus, Cheery, the Low King, Harry King, Ridcully, the Dean, Nanny Ogg, the Luggage, Cohen the Barbarian, Lady Sybil, Blind Io, Om, Teppic, Tiffany Aching, Great A'Tuin, Nuggan, Otto von Chriek, Susan, Lu Tze, the Librarian, You Bastard the camel or any of the hundreds of other characters on (or above) the Disc again.

Goodbye, Terry Pratchett. I hope you went the way you wanted to go, and are even now discussing with Death just what shade of blue infinity is.

SQUEAK.

Edited March 13, 2015 by HarmonicGenerator

[Chest Rockwell]

Really nice words there Harmo. Cheers for that... Making me feel a bit teary again, as I did earlier when I saw those tweets from his account.

[Onyx2]

Fucking devestating. We knew it was coming, but couldn't face it.

 

Thanks for sharing HG. I wrote something very similar...

 

Many of you will know what a fan I have been of Sir Terry Pratchett. From accidentally getting one of his books out of the library at age 10 and catching up with the back catalogue in about 6 months, his next book was something I looked forward to with glee. I've infected many more of you with my passion, becoming a one-man lending library. At one point I had a piece of paper pinned to a corkboard recording who had what on loan! There are too many linked friends here to list, but a special mention to my Grandad with whom I shared these books and discussed endlessly. After Grandad died each time I read a new Pratchett I would always wonder what he would've said about it.

 

His writing has influenced me in so many ways, from how you structure stories, to saying something funny, to ways to look on living - and dying. The books have followed me from house to house, from life to life, and have always been there as a constant companion.

 

I had the pleasure of chatting to him once, when I was trying to put on a production of Wyrd Sisters, and I hope I nudged him to write The Hogfather in a letter I sent to him in the 90s.

 

When he came out with his Alzheimer's, his documentary pieces drove me to tears each time. Seeing someone so bright with life, so powerful with words stuttering with frustration was too much to bear.

 

I hope in the last few years he managed to raise the profile of the charities surrounding his illness, and found peace, before linking arms with Death. 

 

Sir Terry, I miss you already. Thank you so much for everything.

 

"Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job."

[Carbomb]

Massive fan of Pratchett, got almost all his books (I kind of fell behind trying to catch up with my book backlog, is the only reason why I haven't read all of them), and several of them are amongst my favourite books ever. An incredible writer, whose lateral storytelling is something I could only dream of ever trying to emulate, and whose creations drew me in like only a select few others - Robert Louis Stephenson, Iain M. Banks and Alan Moore.

 

RIP Sir Terry Pratchett - crossing the desert will be no more than a brief walk for you.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Tributes from other authors have been gathered on Pratchett's website. Choked up again reading them.

[Sergio Mendacious]

 

 

Terry was one of our greatest fantasists, and beyond a doubt the funniest. He was as witty as he was prolific, and that’s saying something…A bright, funny, insightful, warm, and kindly man, a man of infinite patience, a man who truly knew how to enjoy life…and books.

He is survived by Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Mort, Death, Death of Rats, Commander Vimes, the Librarian, Cohen the Barbarian, Rincewind the Wizard, the Luggage and hundreds of other unforgettable characters, whose adventures will continue to delight and surprise readers all over the world for many years to come.

 

This did me in. I've got an hour left of work, I'm not getting anything done. And I wasn't even a big Pratchett fan, I can't imagine how hard these hit his superfans.

[HarmonicGenerator]

I was teetering on the edge right from the off, but this is the one that did me in completely, and did so again clicking on the article to quote it here, because it's absolutely bloody true:

 

 

 

Terry Pratchett brought more joy to my life than any other author.

 

[Onyx2]

I'd extend that to "artist".

[Onyx2]

This was a fucking year ago. Although 2016 appears to be bad for deaths, getting over this one has been miserable.

 

I still have his last book, lying unread on my bedside table, because if I read it, it's over. I'll never again have the thrill of a new Terry Pratchett book.