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Roytrommely261 In reply to XeruFury [2019-04-13 20:07:59 +0000 UTC]

I think you mean Keel....

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finiens In reply to XeruFury [2016-01-29 13:18:43 +0000 UTC]

Nope, I´d guess it´s the young Vimes there in the back.

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XeruFury In reply to finiens [2016-01-29 21:23:24 +0000 UTC]

THAT'S RIGHT! THIS IS NIGHT WATCH! I forgot the story lol.

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finiens In reply to XeruFury [2016-01-30 00:29:54 +0000 UTC]

It´s my favourite of the whole discworld series.^^

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XeruFury In reply to finiens [2016-01-30 00:46:42 +0000 UTC]

My favorite is a tough tie between Making Money, Going Postal and Thud.

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finiens In reply to XeruFury [2016-01-31 01:16:20 +0000 UTC]

Going Postal is amazing, too. It´s rare that a book makes me laugh out loud, but this one managed it several times.
It´s a very close second place to Nightwatch, followed by Hogfather, pretty much any novel about the witches and The Truth.

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XeruFury In reply to finiens [2016-01-31 01:33:34 +0000 UTC]

You're certainly well versed. If I had to pick an honorable mention... Snuff.

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finiens In reply to XeruFury [2016-01-31 13:29:09 +0000 UTC]

Ah, yes. I knew I had forgotten one. Some of the later books got much more serious and critical than the older works. On the one hand this change in tone was a great development, especially for the adult readers. On the other it is kind of sad that he felt the need to adress such themes in a once lighthearted homage to the fantasy genre and its tropes.

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XeruFury In reply to finiens [2016-01-31 13:34:25 +0000 UTC]

Well, didn't he always do that? Going Postal addressed a sad and underfunded government work force that was quickly bcoming obsolete at the time and would put thousands out of jobs.

Thud dealt with a pointless war (Iraq) that no one wanted to back out of and, frankly, no one wanted to deal with or remember how it started.

He's always trying to say something and I love it.

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finiens In reply to XeruFury [2016-01-31 13:51:51 +0000 UTC]

Thud is among his newer books, I mainly refered to the first half of the series. Although even there exceptions (like Jingo or Small Gods) can be found.
To me it seemed like the general tone got darker and more serious over time, but this could be due to me not getting all the references to our society in his older works. Probably because I was too young to understand or because of me having a slightly different background/culture.
I might have to re-read them again with that in mind when I get the chance.

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XeruFury In reply to finiens [2016-01-31 14:05:26 +0000 UTC]

I feel that the books including Sam Vimes always had a darker undertone to them, as his archetype is generally just a dark person. So when Vimes stepped into the scene, his job was underfunded, under appreciated, and the whole system was falling apart. As it progresses, he deals with withdrawal issues with alcohol and, notably, beating the shit out of people. Vimes is only happy with his street life and is a father who is not around often. So...

I think Pratchett got slowly darker and darker the more often he wrote with Vimes as a tool.

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finiens In reply to XeruFury [2016-02-01 18:49:03 +0000 UTC]

That´s probably why I didn´t like Vimes at first. I couldn´t identify with him at all, what made it challenging for the books about him to hold my attention. It took me several tries to read through the first nightwatch novel. Over the years, however, not only Vimes, but also the other watchmen really grew on me.
I´d have loved to see what plans Pratchett had in store for them (and the other discworld inhabitants, for that matter), as well as which socially critical topic he´d have tackled next. Guess we´ll never know now.:/

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XeruFury In reply to finiens [2016-02-01 23:50:14 +0000 UTC]

Honestly, Vimes has always been my favorite character (minus Vetinari). Vimes has always been kind of a dark character, as i said, and I'm sort of a dark person; fits really well. My probable least favorite character in the whole series would have to be Magrat from the Witch subseries. I never liked her simply because I didn't find a homely bumpkin girl all that interesting.

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finiens In reply to XeruFury [2016-02-02 00:24:22 +0000 UTC]

Well, that´s prove of your good taste then.^^
He is my favourite character by now, too.

Magrat never bothered me, even though she admittedly is kind of bland compared to the other witches. My least favourite character might be Rincewind... simply because he barely shows any character development and the side characters in the books he appears in always outshine him.

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XeruFury In reply to finiens [2016-02-02 00:51:00 +0000 UTC]

I like Rincewind quite a lot, actually. This could be attributed to my cowardly nature, though. Something I could always identify with was the unwilling but necessary being to do jobs no one else wanted to do.

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finiens In reply to XeruFury [2016-02-02 01:44:57 +0000 UTC]

It´s not a matter of him being an unrelatable character. It´s just that the stories with him are always carried by the side characters rather than Rincewind himself. He is just unwillingly dragged along most of the time. That does make him your everyday guy in this crazy world and I totally get how people like that about him. It´s one of the things that I like, too. That and him trying to do the right thing when it matters, even if he is scared to death and doesn´t have remarkable skills that would help him out of a tight spot. But still, this is pretty much all there is to his character. There are no hidden depths or secrets to discover about him. For me that works well for one, maybe two books, but then it becomes stale.:/

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XeruFury In reply to finiens [2016-02-02 01:58:03 +0000 UTC]

I will grant one thing, Rincewind does require a lot of help to become an interesting character, with things like The Luggage (also a great under-appreciated character, mute or no), TwoFlower (a character I did not like at all), and Cohen (awesome). But I still can't help liking Rincewind as, just as you said, a normal coward juxtaposed against a world built on magic and madness. It's wonderful to see a normal person subjected to that, in a sadistic kind of way.

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finiens In reply to XeruFury [2016-02-04 15:07:38 +0000 UTC]

That´s exactly what I said.XD

Well, Twoflower is a bad combination of all common asian/tourist stereotypes. This character is kind of embarassing and I can imagine Pratchett had to deal with accusations of being a racist back when the book came out.
But, to his credit, the guy is a lot more bearable in Intersting Times and manages to be somewhat likeable.

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XeruFury In reply to finiens [2016-02-04 20:20:54 +0000 UTC]

I actually didn't think of that... But then again, a lot of what Pratchett released could e construed as biased against some group or another. For instance, the pictsies in "The Wee Free Men" are HEAVILY stereo-typical Scottsmen, including a few bad ones (not washing, drunkards, etc).

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finiens In reply to XeruFury [2016-02-05 00:53:12 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, they are. On the other hand they are extremely funny and kick a**. A lot.XD

Also when he invented the Wee Free Men, he was already well known as an author who likes to pick up stereotypes and twist them until they fit into the discworld, both as a parody and as an homage. Over time it became more of a compliment than an insult if he did something like this. But Twoflower was in his first discworld novel, no one really knew how to react to him or what he wanted to express with this character.
I remember reading somewhere that Pratchett was accused of stealing other fantasy authors ideas (i.e. H. P. Lovecraft) by several critics who just didn´t get that he was making fun of/paying tribute to the genre and therefore HAD to use common fantasy tropes and world building elements.
I´m just glad Pratchett didn´t let that criticism get to him and stayed true to his style of writing.

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XeruFury In reply to finiens [2016-02-05 01:44:46 +0000 UTC]

In the end, it boils down to a few words, right? Our whole conversation.
Pratchett is very likely the best author there ever will be. I've even become somewhat infamous for reading his books four-five times apiece... It keeps raising, of course.

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EliBurrySchnepp In reply to Brobyster [2015-09-02 02:01:09 +0000 UTC]

Night Watch is probably the best book I have ever read. Before reading it, though, I'd suggest reading "Guards! Guards", "Men at Arms", "Feet of Clay", "Jingo", and "The Thief of Time" (not a direct precursor but it explains a LOT of the weird stuff in the story)

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MindlessCreator In reply to Brobyster [2015-01-03 15:37:29 +0000 UTC]

It's the first volume on the "Night Watch" story arc, and flat out amazing. Give it a go, you won't regret it.

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MarcSimonetti In reply to AndersTN [2012-11-06 09:38:50 +0000 UTC]

You can dinf the calendar, featuring this illustration, on amazon:

[link]

Some posters will be available soon on the Discworld emporium website...

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The-French-Belphegor In reply to septiawan [2012-10-28 19:17:21 +0000 UTC]

It's lilac, a recurring image in the book

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