Christmas stories are a comparatively recent phenomenon in literature (Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol was published in 1843, less than 200 years ago) but Christmas as we know it today can probably be dated to a similar age: frankly, if we hadn’t had the Victorians and their fascination with cards, trees and carols, Christmas might … Continue reading The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 20: Hogfather
Category: Comedy
The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 19: Feet Of Clay
This 19th Discworld novel begins with some golems building a king for themselves and Commander Vimes creating a coat of arms for himself, as befits a man who has recently married into the aristocracy. It gets progressively less normal after that. Feet Of clay is the 19th Discworld novel and the third Watch novel. As … Continue reading The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 19: Feet Of Clay
The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 18: Maskerade
Since several of the previous Discworld books had dealt with populist topics like movies and music and theatre and exposed some of the ridiculousness of them, it seemed only fair that Pratchett would take a good hard look at one of the most elitist art forms and give that a good solid kicking as well. … Continue reading The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 18: Maskerade
The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 17: Interesting Times
When we last saw Rincewind, he was walking nonchalantly, calmly and fast out of the Disc’s version of Hell, accompanied by Eric, the titular demonologist of that adventure. Since then he has been living on a tropical island leading a dull and uneventful life where his only concern is where his next meal is going … Continue reading The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 17: Interesting Times
The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 16: Soul Music
After exploring some of the big issues of life in the last few books, Soul Music marked a bit of a return to the Pratchett of old, with loads of puns, slapstick and a menace from beyond-the-universe-we-know. It’s the story of Imp y Celyn, bard. Having had an argument with his father on the nature … Continue reading The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 16: Soul Music
The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 15: Men At Arms
After their triumph in Guards! Guards!, Captain Samuel Vimes and his squad of watchmen are on the up and up. Lord Vetinari has charged Vimes with the task of recruiting more watchmen… but there’s a catch: Vetinari is insistent that they need to be representative of all the races resident in Ankh-Morpork. So Vimes recruits … Continue reading The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 15: Men At Arms
The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 14: Lords And Ladies
After the colossal success of Small Gods, you might think that Terry Pratchett might have wanted to try out some other new ideas. However, given the way that publishing works, any ramifications from a successful novel weren’t likely to be felt for a couple of books down the track, what we got next was a … Continue reading The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 14: Lords And Ladies
The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 13: Small Gods
There’s a phenomenon known as “capturing lightning in a bottle” that describes the sensation of being in a particular place at precisely the right time to take advantage of a situation that nobody really knew existed before. In 1992, there was a bit of a renaissance for speculative fiction that we hadn’t seen since the … Continue reading The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 13: Small Gods
The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 12: Witches Abroad
When we last left the Witches, all the way back in Wyrd Sisters, things seemed to have settled down a little bit in the mountainous kingdom of Lancre. There was a new king who seemed prepared to give witches the respect they deserved, the coven of Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick appeared to … Continue reading The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 12: Witches Abroad
The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 11: Reaper Man
As I said in the last entry in this series, it was more than a year before I was able to read a new Discworld novel after buying the hardback of Moving Pictures. Reaper Man, the eleventh book in the series, was what I was waiting for. But in paperback this time. At first glance, … Continue reading The Great Discworld Retrospective No. 11: Reaper Man
Stuff Ian Likes 