rincewind, where art thou...?

WhiteWashMan

its been a while since we saw a rincewind book, and off the top of my head i cant recall the last 'wizards' book.

i do recall much talk a year or so ago about one of the main characters being killed off, and most people thought it would be rincewind. has anyone herd any update on that?

are we due another rincewind novel?

OfflerCrocGod

Apparently Pratchett doesn't like Rincewind at all, he hates writing his books but fans keep asking for him back so he writes the occasional one to keep them happy - I and my mother both think Rincewind is brilliant He was in The Last Continent and that was only a few books back.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

rincewind is my favourite character, how can pratchett dislike him?.. me no understand..

still if it's true, nice of him to throw out some RW books for the fans every now and again.. writing a book about a character you don't like, and keeping it funny and interesting musn't be easy.

WhiteWashMan

actually, last continent is getting on a bit...

coz it was the last one i could think of as well.

Lafortezza

I personally don't like the RW books. I much prefer the Vimes/Watch books, and even the once off type books like Moving Pictures are better.

regeneration

I would imagine the reason why Pratchett hates rincewind is because he's the most 1-dimensional character created in the books; I suppose Pratchett could try and give more flesh to his most OTT comic character, but you would bet the fans would have huge hissy fits.

Tranzz

WhiteWashMan wrote:

actually, last continent is getting on a bit...

coz it was the last one i could think of as well.

The last book with RinceWind was "The Science of Diskworld"

A.S.H.

Tranzz wrote:

The last book with RinceWind was "The Science of Diskworld"

thanks but he only had a small part. we be wondering when he gets front and centre starring role I think the reason Terry hates writeing him is that it's the same thing time and time again and coming up with clever ways to deal with the running away is getting harder and harder.

Bazookatone

Rincewind was one of the primary characters in "The Last Hero". He used to be my favourite, but now I prefer Vimes and the watch books.
why? Rincewind doesn't actually grow as a character, the whole point of him is that he's a complete coward and only inadvertantly saves the world. Unfortunately, it's near impossible to write many stories featuring a person who, basically, is the same at the beginning as he is at the end. For the same reason, The Patrician, while one of my personal favourites, couldn't be the main character in a book either.

On the other hand, Vimes has steadily gone up in the ranks and changed from a drunk to an admirable person (not by the Guild, obviously), that's why there are so many books featuring him.

WhiteWashMan

well, there was a spate of books at one stage that had one of characters, like pyramids and moving pictures etc.

but i think as pratchett style has matured, he is writing more like a murder mystry where everything needs tobe unravelled at the end of the book.

it seems to be more about the formula than about the story telling. even monstrous regiment (which i enjoyed) was pretty forumlaic (sp?)

the jokes are now down to slap stick comedy like the nac feagle, or in-jokes (cmot dibbler). it just seems the real belly laugh quotiant has dropped somewhat over the last 8-10 books.

thats why i think i liked the wizard books, because they were always damn funny

regeneration

Hmmm strange I would have applied the same theory to the RIncewind books - the setup was always "lets pull the rug from under rincewind and drop him into a scenario where his cowardice ends up saving the day" I reread Interesting Times and didn't enjoy it as much for that reason
Hell even twoflower got more character development than rincewind. Id love to see one last rincewind novel where he gets to settle down, maybe even someone to settle down with and that's it - give him a happy ever after, he deserves it.

Bazookatone

I think Pratchett is writing books with a more serious theme nowadays, maybe he feels he's getting old or something. "Night Watch" and "Monstrous Regiment" had very strong themes on opression and war. "The Truth" had a strong undercurrent as to why democracy needs free press. While the Pratchett books are still funny, I think they have very strong moral messages that usen't to be to relevent. Rincewind doesn't really fit into that mould, in my opinion.

Fysh

I agree completely as to the suddenly overt themes in Pratchett's work, and sadly I don't think it works too well. The Truth, Monstruous Regiment, and Going Postal all felt contrived - particularly when re-reading them, they just don't have that spark that earlier works had. It's quite telling that Night Watch doesn't suffer as badly for this, because Vimes pretty much holds it together (although tbh I was bored of him by the end of this book, and can't see how he could be interestingly used again).

Sadly, I haven't enjoyed Pratchett as much recently as I used to. It's down to one of two things and I don't know which. Either:

a)I'm getting too old and cynical for his style, or

b)he is (quite understandably) running low on original ideas (and who can blame him, after 40 odd books!) and starting to resort to easily-likeable characters and formulaic plotlines.

Either way, I'm now at the point where if I notice a new Pratchett out, I'll have a look. Whereas I used to be aware of the release dates for the next two or three books (in both hardback and paperback versions) and await them anxiously, usually trying to decide whether to wait until the next opportunity to be given them as a present or just buy it for myself.