I like the Wizards books, I do. The scenes involving them are always a good time in making fun of bureaucracy and tradition and old white men. They are also usually very silly. But I have yet to love one of the Wizard books. It’s just so hard for them to have an emotional through line like so many of Pratchett’s other books do. Like, this book wasn’t really about anything. Sure, on the surface it’s the Wizards flouncing off accidentally to Not Australia (aka […]
And so it begins…
I attempted the second Cannonball and failed miserably (seriously – the ancient blog I managed to cobble together for the effort shows that but a single book review ever got posted). I’m finally back to try again, although I’ve lowered the bar to just a Quarter Cannonball in the hopes it will be more manageable. I am the sort of person who buys books in the hopes that perhaps I will someday find a way to read them and this challenge may be the impetus […]
Where the falling angel meets the rising ape
He’s had a near-death experience! We all have. It’s called ‘living’…. Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather was a Cannonball Read book exchange gift to me from Malin. On my wish list, I had indicated that I hadn’t read anything by Pratchett, and Hogfather is a delightful introduction to his world, aka Discworld. It’s a twisted and sometimes demented place, which means it’s quite a lot like the world we inhabit, except for the magic, gnomes, talking animals, etc. The action here is set on Hogswatchnight, which is […]
Plutonium may give you grief for thousands of years, but arsenic is forever.
It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people. I cannot emphasize enough how much of a treat Good Omens is. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett will also tell you how much of a treat it is. They will tell you in their introduction and their afterward how much they wrote it for the love of it […]
This book is fun as hell and should be read by one and all
“You haven’t really been anywhere until you’ve got back home.” Step right up, step right up. It’s the sequel to the color of magic. It’s the light fantastic! It’s got your terrible puns: “Rincewind, all the shops have been smashed open, there was a whole bunch of people across the street helping themselves to musical instruments, can you believe that?” “Yeah,” said Rincewind. “Luters, I expect.” It’s got your on the nose social commentary Not for the first time she reflected that there were many […]
Oh, Imperialism….
Somehow I never heard about this book until I read Sir Pratchett’s non-fiction where he references it. I don’t know how I could have missed this awesome story, but I’m glad I picked it up to read on vacation. In normal Pratchett fashion, it’s hilarious, provocative, and deep. In happenstance, it was also interesting to read about a small island nation that gets hit with a hurricane while vacationing in a small island nation that narrowly missed a hurricane. “Nation” encompasses two interlocking stories, […]
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