Terry Pratchett dead

[HarmonicGenerator]

I had that same feeling, Onyx, but finally read it over Christmas. It's really good and you should give it a read. There's one part in particular in the second chapter

 

 

that might be the most quietly, gently devastating thing he's ever written. I've never cried reading Pratchett before (except from laughter), but the death of Granny Weatherwax reduced me to a blubbering wreck. The description of each character from across the Disc, including those she'd never even met, feeling the impact of her passing, was so beautifully done, and you can't help but connect it with Pratchett himself. The idea of someone's life and their work affecting and improving the lives of others, not just their friends and family but people half a world away, without even knowing what you've done for them... That's Pratchett right there. And the final sentence when Death returns home after it's done... It gives me a lump in my throat just thinking about it. And then I remember the tweets that announced Pratchett's death and I'm a blubbering wreck again.

 

 

I thought when I finished it that I'd be sad that there'd be no more, and in a way I was, but it ends in such a way that it feels right. If he was to have chosen an end to the series this may well have been it. Then you get a little addendum from Rob Wilkins about all of the ideas for future books he had that we'll now never see, and I was sad again. But then I thought, I could re-read them all again - and again - and still get pleasure from them. So there is that!

[Duke]

HG I wanted to mention that. My girlfriend stil mocks me for how I responded. Amazing.

[Onyx2]

Encouraging words guys.

 

 

Well here it goes then.

 

Edited March 12, 2016 by Onyx2

[Onyx2]

It is done. Read. Finished. And I'm sat on the poxy commuter train to Southend, eyes welling.

 

Thank you for spoilering that section. I had no idea that was coming.

 

 

It makes perfect sense. Granny Weatherwax was often said to be Terry's conscience, his voice of righteousness and it's only fitting she should pass on in this book. As news tumbles around the Disc, it feels very real.

 

 

The book seems underdeveloped and as much is admitted in the postscript. The threat is dealt with extremely quickly and over before you know it. But the character work as always is concrete-solid. Tiffany is among his best, and Geoffrey is a Pratchett staple to the bone.

 

Yes it's over. So I'll start again.

 

PS. I'm still furious that no bastard has ever translated it to screen with the flavour intact. It's getting to the point where I want to learn how to make a film just to see it done right.

[Carbomb]

Let me know if you ever figure out how to get Octarine on-screen.

[Onyx2]

Unless you're a wizard or a cat, you won't know how accurate I got it.

[Onyx2]

Sir Terry died five years ago this month. And I'm still pining for more Discworld books. Is it morbid to use a thread about his death to keep discussing him? He'd probably find it really funny so I'm going to. 

Some fricking genius wrote a text analysis programme in R, trained it in Terry Pratchett's and Neil Gaiman's text, then pointed in at Good Omens to figure out who wrote what. It's bloody fascinating. 

http://www.elizabethcallaway.net/good-omens-stylometry

[Carbomb]

It's not directly Pratchett, but I shared in the Gaming thread a couple of weeks ago that I'd bought (well, contributed to a Kickstarter for, but it had already made its target several hundred times over) a copy of The Lost Worlds of Josh Kirby. Basically, a load of unpublished, unused sci-fi artwork Kirby did emerge years after he died, and a company formulated and created a space empire/civilisation boardgame using it - looks absolutely gorgeous, and being a fan of both Pratchett and Kirby I just had to buy it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lostworldsjoshkirby/the-lost-worlds-of-josh-kirby?ref=341h4g&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=retargeting_B&fbclid=IwAR3ZreDCa28mkIaxjqctY-qIqcGtLlgATEzYvdrnyg0EtOiH3fBlvuFYwmc

 

[Onyx2]

I always found Kirby's work a bit... lumpy. And he clearly didn't read the works before writing.