/lit/ - Literature

His talent is gone, Jim. Three bad novels in a row.

>>3822599
What he means Op, is that it's over now. Pratchett has Alzheimers and he's kept producing right through it. But the noticeable decline in quality is here. It's sad.

But never mind that now. Pratchett was a genius, and the Discworld series was brilliant satire. You're going to want to read it. and reread it. Though where to start is always tricky. Since the books don't have a hard continuity, You can technically start anywhere, but most like to start at the beginning, But then there are different sets of characters he follows over time.
The witches, the wizards, Death, and the Watch, etc.
I would say, if you want to just start anywhere, that would be fine, if you want to take them chronologically, be a little forgiving, because the first 3 or 4 are bumpier than the rest, especially The Colour of magic. It's first but it doesn't give a good portrayal of the series.
Guards Guards is the start of the Watch novels,
The Wyrd Sisters is a good place to start the Witches novels.
Mort sets up the Death novels.

You'll enjoy them Op.
But don't forget to read "Nation" it's not a Discworld book, but it's one of his best, if not the best,

Yes. I was a latecomer to his books but many of them are very, very good.
Truth, Night Watch, The Monstrous Regiment and Going Postal are some of my favourites but many others are very good.
Watch his assisted dying documentary for some major feels.

>>3823145
>Watch his assisted dying documentary for some major feels.

Do you mean How to Die in Oregon?

>>3823173
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett:_Choosing_to_Die

>>3823140
Listen to this guy.

To add a little more,

The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic are really shitty and not a good representative of the rest of his brilliant novels, but they are the first 2 novels he wrote and really get you situated in Discworld (They start the Rincewind arc). The Guards series and Death series are by far my favorite, and Small Gods is my favorite stand-alone. Start with any of the three he/she recommended (Guards Guards, Mort, or Wyrd Sisters) and go from there if you feel a couple of shitty intro books would turn you off to the series.

>>3822599
Yeah, poor bastard. He speaks and has someone write what he says from what I understand. I know my speaking and writing abilities are extremely different, so that might play a roll. I commend the man for sticking to the craft he knows and loves, though.

That said, he has a hell of a lot of amazing books that he has written over his lifetime, and enough for any new reader to sink their teeth into for a long, long time.

Are they really any good they always seemed like kiddy books to me. Also always happened to be recommended to me by dumb kids. I had wondered if they were worth reading at all.

I'm not above movies where animals talk but if its harry potter level stuff...

>>3823204
>my ego prevents me from trying new things and I savour the taste of big nigger dick

>>3823216
I don't like stupid kiddy books so what?
They are mind numbingly boring and gay.

Just like you.

>>3823228

>>3823204
No, it's not kiddy books. even the ones that are YA, aren't just kiddy books. It's just comedy.

"Sam Vimes could parallel-process. Most husbands can. They learn to follow their own line of thought while at the same time listening to what their wives say. And the listening is important, because at any time they could be challenged and must be ready to quote the last sentence in full. A vital additional skill is being able to scan the dialogue for telltale phrases, such as 'and they can deliver it tomorrow' or 'so I've invited them for dinner' or 'they can do it in blue, really quite cheaply'."

>>3823204
"My advice is this. For Christ's sake, don't write a book that is suitable for a kid of 12 years old, because the kids who read who are 12 years old are reading books for adults. I read all of the James Bond books when I was about 11, which was approximately the right time to read James Bond books."
Terry Pratchett

>>3821885
yes me likey

I don't know OP.
He ended his best sub series (witches) in the right moment, maybe one book too early.
But the Death books are ale one book repeated with different gimmick and a new coat of paint.
He really likes City Watch series, but it gets really bad. (For the record I stopped after Night Watch) because the world stopped being anywhere near the fantasy world. At first it was a generic fantasy world that made fun on different tropes in the genre and made funny references to the elements of the real world, but after he introduced traffic lights, telegram, banknotes and so on and so on, it became essentialy our world with references to our world.
Not that the umour was his strongest point. Discworld novels were the most enjoyable in short moments of seriousness. Pratchett was really great at doing silly slapstink and suddenly shifting the gears to serious and epic near the end. It always was satysfying and felt organic.

>>3824312
I don't think they were all the same book. They had the same villains, but the strategies the villains were using were different every time, and they explored different themes, and satirized different aspects of society. It didn't get boring because the story wasn't a mystery revolving around figuring out whodunnit And because the other books in the discworld series had different villains, some of which recurred but most of which were specific to their stories.

I also liked that their world progressed. Having a dynamic setting made it feel more real and substantial, even if that had to come at the expense of fantasy. I'd argue though, that it was still a fantasy world, just a fantasy world with newspapers and a functioning post office.

>>3823352
That quote was, ah, cringe-inducing.

>>3824373
Why?

>>3824389
This one can be measured pretty empirically. You read a quote and then see whether you cringed or not. The anon did cringe, and so it thusly goes.

>>3824419
He was asking what about it cause anon to cringe.
Was that supposed to be a humerus misunderstanding? If so you're an unbelievable bore.

Pratchett is good, but his quality declines book after book. I'd certainly recommend Guards, Guards!, but he can get preachy at times in his other works. Not to say he isn't often entertaining at the same time, but it's a fine line, and not everyone has the same tolerances.

>>3823140
That is, indeed, exactly what I meant.

>>3823195
What gets me sadder isn't how the style changed, but the overall plot quality decline. I deal with a lot of pressure being sick myself, always afraid I won't get to finish the stories I try to write down... but it still doesn't sound right to just release what reads as first drafts or slightly expanded on, crude outlines. Which is exactly how I felt about Snuff, for example.

when i was 13 years old he was extremely famous.
his books are not bad but they are not that good either.
i think he tries a bit hard to be the douglas adams of fantasy.

that being said i have this book

Authors like Pratchett would be so much more impressive if they wrote all of their books in private and then released it posthumously as an intact and singular narrative. Writing a series of genre fiction is just so hacky and uninteresting.

>>3821885
Much of his comedy is hit or miss. Thankfully though, he mixes his humor from book to book.