Terry Pratchett RIP

endacl

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/12/terry-pratchett-author-of-the-discworld-series-dies-aged-66

Not much to say really. Endacl is sad.

PopePalpatine

I've been putting off reading his books for years.

ShaneSter

This is horrible news, such a great author and voice of humor in our times. I will miss reading his books, but as someone who just recently had someone struggle with a year-long Alzheimer battle, I can only hope that his wife and family will find peace knowing that they are saved the worst. RIP…

endacl

PopePalpatine wrote: »

I've been putting off reading his books for years.

Same. I've the last three on the shelf, unread. Kinda because I knew that sometime soon there'd be no more. Strangely affected by this. Never met the man but has been in my life for decades now.

I've just been chatting to another member on here. We'll be Meeting in The Mended Drum tonight to raise a glass.

robindch

Small Gods - certainly my favourite book, but many of the others were excellent too. A great loss.

Anybody care to post a relevant quote or two?

endacl

robindch wrote: »

Small Gods - certainly my favourite book, but many of the others were excellent too. A great loss.

Anybody care to post a relevant quote or two?

"I'd rather be a rising ape than a falling angel".

Brian Shanahan

PopePalpatine wrote: »

I've been putting off reading his books for years.

Read them. Read them now!

Honestly, you should. They're great, as comedy, as satire, as political commentary, as religious commentary, as economic commentary, as whatever Terry wanted to skewer really.

robindch wrote: »

Small Gods - certainly my favourite book, but many of the others were excellent too. A great loss.

Anybody care to post a relevant quote or two?

Two, one on god:

I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs, a very endearing sight, I'm sure you'll agree. And even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged onto a half submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters, who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature's wonders, gentlemen. Mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that is when I first learned about evil. It is built into the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.

From the mouth of a slightly drunk Havelock Vetinari in Unseen Academicals.

And my personal favourite:

If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat. They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar. So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.

Thought by Sam Vimes as he was facing death in Men at Arms.

Turtwig

This stings quite a lot more than I'd have expected. Very sorry to hear this.

Hotblack Desiato

He was only 66 but better off dead than lingering on for many years, dementia is a horrible disease.

GLaDOS

robindch wrote: »

Small Gods - certainly my favourite book, but many of the others were excellent too. A great loss.

Anybody care to post a relevant quote or two?

“There is a rumour going around that I have found God. I think this is unlikely because I have enough difficulty finding my keys, and there is empirical evidence that they exist.”

This is the fourth or fifth forum on boards I frequent discussing his death, just shows how many people his writing has touched.

A genuine genius.

Brian Shanahan

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

He was only 66 but better off dead than lingering on for many years, dementia is a horrible disease.

I can testify to that. I had an aunt go downhill with Alhzeimer's and the regression she had was frankly terrifying.

Bloodwing

I've been meaning to read his books for a long time but what's been putting me off is that I don't know where to start or what order to go in. If anybody can advise I'd really appreciate it.

brevity

Haven't read his books either but was aware of how influential he was....a favourite quote I read one time.

"God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time."

Knex*

A large quantity of the laughter in my life, the thoughts that I have, and my occasional insanity, can be both directly and indirectly attributed to Terry Pratchett.

A true genius, and an absolute gent. He was always up there on my list of "people I'd love to sit at a dinner table with", even though I'm sure he'd have a quip for that sentence in itself.

I'm more sad than I expected, to be honest. One of life's greats.

bnt

Bloodwing wrote: »

I've been meaning to read his books for a long time but what's been putting me off is that I don't know where to start or what order to go in. If anybody can advise I'd really appreciate it.

I'd say start with the first of the Discworld books: The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. Of the earlier books, I rate Mort the best, you could happily start there too. However, I've just started re-reading The Night Watch, which (in my opinion) is a great work of literature in its own right - but that one does benefit from knowing how Discworld works (or not). An example, from the scene in which the "revolutionaries" led by Reg are discussing what to do, when Sam Vimes (from the Guards) arrives:

A match flared in the dark, and they turned to see Vimes light a cigar. “You’d like Freedom, Truth and Justice, wouldn’t you, comrade sergeant?” said Reg encouragingly.
“I’d like a hard-boiled egg,” said Vimes, shaking the match out.
There was nervous laughter, but Reg looked offended.
“In the circumstances, sergeant, I think we should set our sights a little higher–”
“Well, yes, we could,” said Vimes, coming down the steps. He glanced at the sheets of paper in front of Reg. The man cared. He really did. And he was serious. He really was. “But… well, Reg, tomorrow the sun will come up again, and I’m pretty sure that whatever happens we won’t have found Freedom, and there won’t be a whole lot of Justice, and I’m damn sure we won’t have found Truth. But it’s just possible that I might get a hard-boiled egg."

Knex*

Reading Guide

http://i.imgbox.com/rTrtn59N.jpg

I messed up completely by reading Night's Watch as my first ever Discworld book. Still found it amazing, mind you.

Nick Park

Very sorry indeed to hear this news. I've only recently started reading his Discworld books ( read 4 or 5 so far this year) and the guy was was undoubtedly one of the smartest (and funniest) writers around.

robindch

Bloodwing wrote: »

[...] I don't know where to start or what order to go in [...]

Well, Strata is the first book with a specifically Discworld themes outlook and many people seem not to have read it, which is a pity. After that, well, The Colour of Magic and the follow-on, The Light Fantastic, are easy intros. The quality of some of the series is variable, but I thought that the best ones were Small Gods (satirizing religion), Wyrd Sisters (a take on Hamlet), Moving Pictures (satirizing Hollywood) and The Truth (satirizing print media).

pauldla

ScienceNerd wrote: »

This is the fourth or fifth forum on boards I frequent discussing his death, just shows how many people his writing has touched.

A genuine genius.

I shared a comment about his passing away on WeChat last night (kinda like a Chinese Whatsapp, or whatever it's called), and I was surprised at the number of comments I got from Chinese students who had read some of his books (in translation; I must find out how they render the way Death speaks).

Depressed all morning today. Not sure if it's caffeine deficiency, or something else.

Favourite characters? Sam Vimes, Nanny Ogg, the Patrician, the Librarian, Death, off the top of my head.

Favourite gag? Too many to list (though the one about how to stop spelling banana springs to mind), and he was the best writer of footnotes since Flann O'Brien.

Absolam

I'm amazed at just how sad I was when I heard the news. I adored Sir Terry as an author, he was absolutely one of the two finest authors in my lifetime. I was also lucky enough to meet him on his visits to Ireland many years ago when he was hosted and feted by the Leprecon/Gaelcon gang and was amazingly tolerant of a bunch of worshipful geeks, so tolerant that he actually appeared to enjoy himself.
For me, Night Watch and Monstrous Regiment capped his Discworld novels, though I worked my way through his 'childrens' books as a very mature adult with just as much enjoyment.
I'm going to miss him terribly.

As for quotes, well, there are so many. But this one seems apt, now.

"Oh," he said.
YES, said Death.
"Not even time to finish my cake?"
NO. THERE IS NO MORE TIME, EVEN FOR CAKE. FOR YOU, THE CAKE IS OVER. YOU HAVE REACHED THE END OF CAKE.”

bnt

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.
-- Good Omens

Seeing, contrary to popular wisdom, isn't believing. It's where belief stops, because it isn't needed any more.
-- Pyramids

MrPudding

robindch wrote: »

Anybody care to post a relevant quote or two?

'It’s not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren’t doing it.'

MrP

Skrynesaver

SmallGods wrote:

'I know about sureness,' said Didactylos. Now the light irascible tone had drained out of his voice. 'I remember before I was blind, I went to Omnia once. This was before the borders were closed, when you still let people travel. And in your Citadel I saw a crowd stoning a man to death in a pit. Ever seen that?'
'It has to be done,' Brutha mumbled. 'So the soul can be shriven and — '
'Don't know about soul. Never been that kind of a philosopher,' said Didactylos. 'All I know is, it was a horrible sight.'
'The state of the body is not — '
'Oh, I'm not talking about the poor bugger in the pit,' said the philosopher. 'I'm talking about the people throwing the stones. They were sure all right. They were sure it wasn't them in the pit. You could see it in their faces. So glad that it wasn't them that they were throwing just as hard as they could.'

Hogfather wrote:

'And there's the sign, Ridcully,' said the Dean. You have read it, I assume. You know? The sign which says "Do not, under any circumstances, open this door"?'
'Of course I've read it,' said Ridcully. 'Why d'yer think I want it opened?'
'Er...why?' said the Lecturer in Recent Runes.
'To see why they wanted it shut, of course.'†
† This exchange contains almost all you need to know about human civilisation. At least, those bits of it that are now under the sea, fenced off or still smoking.

And of course my current sig

DapperGent

"In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.”

robindch

God understandably nervous to meet Terry Pratchett

http://newsthump.com/2015/03/13/god-understandably-nervous-to-meet-terry-pratchett/

News Thump wrote:

God has expressed the fact that he was ‘very shaky’ today when he met creative genius Terry Pratchett for the first time. Speaking via an Angel so as not to blow up our minds, God said “You can probably understand where I’m coming from.” “This man inspired me to create the Earth after I read the creative masterpiece that is the Discworld series. They are the best books ever written, and I include my own in that.”

“I’m kind of nervous to ask him what he thought of the world I created – I realise it’s a bit dull compared to his. You’re probably wondering how I read Terry’s books millions of years before he was born. Well, I am God, don’t forget. I’ve seen everything that has come and everything that is to come. So I’ve read pretty much everything you people have written, and nothing beats Pratchett for sheer force of imagination.”

“Incidentally, don’t bother reading Dan Brown’s next book. Or any of his other books, for that matter.”

Terry Pratchett’s death has provoked sadness amongst authors, book-lovers, and anyone who has ever used their imagination to dream of a world more colourful and interesting than our own. Sci-Fi and fantasy author, Ruth Wheeler, said “It’s almost pointless writing fantasy at all these days, Pratchett made up almost all of the good stuff ages ago. We’ll give it a bash, but don’t expect us to even get close. We’re all very jealous of God right now.”

God and Pratchett first met at the pearly gates, God having put on his best suit and taken the Grim Reaper along, who was dying to shake Pratchett’s hand.

“HE MADE ME POPULAR AGAIN,” said Death personified, “HE MADE ME SEEM ALMOST HUMAN, A LIKEABLE CHARACTER. THAT BIT WHERE HE HAD ME DRESS AS FATHER CHRISTMAS FOR A CHILDREN’S PARTY? SUBLIME. HE’S A TRUE GENIUS AND I CAN’T WAIT TO THANK HIM FOR SOME TERRIFIC PR WORK ON MY PART.”

Terry Pratchett received a standing ovation from heaven’s residents when he entered the gates of heaven, and applause so loud as to provoke an enormous thunderstorm back on earth.

legspin

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/no-grim-reaper-told-2015031396200

Shrap

legspin wrote: »

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/no-grim-reaper-told-2015031396200

"Deathologist Roy Hobbs said: “Any rational person would agree that only after the publication of another 30 Discworld books, at least two of them starring Rincewind, would it have been correct for Terry to die.

“And for this to happen only two years after the death of Iain M Banks, leaving a number of massive Culture novels unwritten, smacks of incompetence.""

That's great. My feelings exactly - the two creators of my favourite fantasy worlds cruelly taken from us in the space of two years. Very, very sad that although I can re-read all their wonderful books, I may never again be so transported to another place

legspin

https://www.change.org/p/death-bring-back-terry-pratchett

legspin

robindch wrote: »

God understandably nervous to meet Terry Pratchett

http://newsthump.com/2015/03/13/god-understandably-nervous-to-meet-terry-pratchett/

“I’m kind of nervous to ask him what he thought of the world I created – I realise it’s a bit dull compared to his. You’re probably wondering how I read Terry’s books millions of years before he was born. Well, I am God, don’t forget. I’ve seen everything that has come and everything that is to come. So I’ve read pretty much everything you people have written, and nothing beats Pratchett for sheer force of imagination.”

This just proves how stupid God is. Absolutely no concept of L-space....

Akrasia

Todays XKCD is a lovely tribute

http://xkcd.com/1498/

Knex*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXpADdYpLsI