Terry Pratchett Challenge Completed

Completed:

Unseen Academicals
Thud
Small Gods
Mort
Hogfather
Guards! Guards!

Four of these were on my original list while the other two I added in based on convenience. I originally thought I wasn't going to be able to do this but I buckled down and get it done. I pronounce this challenge successful!

Guards! Guards!

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
HarperTorch, 1989
355 pages
Discworld; Fantasy; Comic
4.5/5 stars

Source: Library

Summary: A mysterious group decides to summon a dragon in order to overthrow the Patrician and install a king who will malleable to their will.  Meanwhile Sam Vimes is an alcoholic captain of the laughable Watch who finds hidden strength when confronting this crisis. [But really the plot's not that important.]

Thoughts: After reading Thud, I really wanted to read more novels of the Watch.  This is the first one focused on the Watch and it is far different from the much later Thud.  Here the Watch is a joke with four (loyal) members; this is also the novel where he meets his wife, Lady Sybil who I adore.  Their love story, which is not the focus if you're someone who doesn't like love stories, was my favorite part.

But there are also a lot of funny bits.  Carrot is a human raised by dwarves who does not understand figures of speech and has tremendous strength.  He is important to revitalizing the Watch. We also see Nobby and Colon who continue in the Guard.  Then there is the Patrician, my third favorite Discworld character (after Death and Moist von Lipwig).  He gets some great lines here and I loved getting to read more about him.

Overall: Another funny story with a bit of a romance that really elevates the book for me.

Quotes:
"A book  has been taken. A book has been taken? You summoned the Watch...because someone's taken a book? You think that's worse than murder?" -Yes the Librarian does think that, p.108

"Never trust a ruler who puts his faith in tunnels and bunkers and escape routes. The chances are that his heart isn't in the job." -Sound advice from the Patrician, p. 286

Cover: Love the green! And the dragon is fitting.

Hogfather

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
HarperPrism, 1996
292 pages
Discworld; Fantasy; Comedy
4/5 stars

Source: Library

Summary: The Auditors exist as a blob with no distinguishable traits.  They hate people for messing up the world and consequently have decided to "kill" the Hogfather (he can't exactly be killed like a human but it's similar).  In order to maintain the very fabric of the universe Death assumes the role of the Hogfather and very definitely does not ask his granddaughter Susan to interfere.

Thoughts: I was a little confused about everything going on here.  There are basically three threads: Death fulfilling the Hogfather's duties, Susan tracking down what's going on, and occasionally the Auditors would show up for short stretches of the book.  Death and Susan each had their own plans and couldn't communicate straightforwardly which caused my confusion.  I love Death as I think I've mentioned a lot.  Susan was a great character.  Having read Mort and knowing about her family, I could appreciate her more.

Quotes:

"If you left off traditions because you didn't know why they started you'd be no better than a foreigner." -footnote on page 115

"It's amazing how good governments are, given their track record in almost every other field, at hushing up things like alien encounters." -footnote on page 155

Lawyer slam! "It's a nicer version of Death Row, with the bonus of now lawyers." -footnote on page 213 (I guess I really enjoy the footnotes!)

Overall: A very funny story although I was a little confused.

Challenge: This is book 5 of 6 for the TP challenge and guess what's tomorrow?

Mort

Mort by Terry Pratchett
Signet, 1987
181 pages
Discworld; Comedy; Fantasy
4/5 stars

Source: Library

Summary: Mort has been chosen as an apprentice to Death.  As Mort tries to tamp down his human side (which keeps insisting on fairness), Death tries to experience the life of a human.  Neither is quite successful and Death and Mort end up dueling.  But all ends well in Discworld!

Thoughts: This is actually the fourth Discworld novel to be published.  I'm more familiar with Pratchett's later work so it was interesting to read a book from the start of the series.  I was super excited about this because Death is my favorite character in Discworld (well tied with Moist von Lipwig).  He is an anthropomorphic personification and he is so much better in these books than in other books which have also used Death as a character.  In this book, he takes Mort on as an apprentice.  Mort is introduced to the mysterious Albert and to Death's daughter Ysabell.  On one of his first solo jobs, Mort accidentally doesn't kill a princess which sets in motion the main plot.

Meanwhile Death is off trying to experience happiness through gambling, drinking, and other human activities.  He also has a fondness for cats, which endears him even more to me; you know, people can be so mean to cats sometimes and it just breaks my heart.

You can kind of tell that it's an early book because it's so narrowly focused; I feel like the later books I've read tie together more strings and are just generally more ambitious.  That doesn't make this a bad book; it's just one of the differences I noticed.

Overall: A good entry in the Discworld series; recommended for fans of Death.

Challenge: This is the fourth book for my Terry Pratchett challenge.

Small Gods

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1992
272 pages
Discworld; Fantasy
4/5 stars

Source: Library

Summary: The god Om is a tortoise and is sustained by the belief of a single man, Brutha.  In order to regain his position, Om must use the simple but good-hearted Brutha to manipulate events and enact real change.

Thoughts: I am so bad at summing up and reviewing Pratchett's novels. They're really good and really funny-what more could one want?  This one had some really good bits, including jabs at religion, philosophy, war-mongerers, etc.  At the beginning, there's a lovely passage about history.

As far as I'm aware the only recurring character to appear is Death.  I'm not sure that Brutha or any of the other characters are in any other Discworld novels. In fact, I'm pretty positive that they aren't which could make this a good first choice to be introduced to Discworld; you don't have to know any backstories although you do have to be prepared for Pratchett's writing style.

Overall: As I said, this could be a good introduction to the series as it's not a series that has to be read in order although that could be interesting too.

Cover: The tortoise is very important to the story.

I thought this completed my challenge but it turns out that I signed up for 6-8 books, not the 1-3 that I thought I  had (I guess I should have checked this earlier).  I don't think I will have time to read three more before the challenge ends but I hope to get at least one more read and reviewed.

Thud

Thud by Terry Pratchett

Harper Collins, 2005

373 pages

Fantasy; Discworld

4/5 stars

Source: Bought at a book signing about five years ago so this is autographed!

Summary: Sam Vimes is the Commander of the Watch is seeing increasing tensions in the city of Ankh-Morpork between the trolls and the dwarves before the pending anniversary of the Koom Valley battle. A lot of other stuff happens in typical Discworld fashion.

Thoughts: It took me FOREVER to read this; I've had it since it came out; one of my friends told me it was her favorite three years ago but still I didn't read it until I started my personal read my own books challenge.

I wish that I had read more of the Discworld novels before I started this one as there were references to many previous books. Of course that just provides more encouragement for me to go back to all of them, sooner rather than later.

I liked Sam Vimes: He's a devoted family man, fiercely protective of his city, and has a sensible attitude toward bacon (as in more is better). Then there were the trolls and the dwarves.

I definitely need to read some of the other Watch novels especially if any feature Sam's courtship of his wife Sybil or the birth of their son. It looks like I should read Guards! Guards and Men at Arms; I will try to do so later this year. I also want to read more about Lord Vetinari-does he have any books devoted to him? But DEATH is still my favorite character and he makes a brief appearance here.

Overall: This should not be your introduction to Pratchett's writing or Discworld but if you've read some of the others, it's a fine addition to the oeuvre.

Cover: It's not my favorite; the club is representing the trolls and apparently Thud is also a game so...meh.

Read for Terry Pratchett Challenge

Unseen Academicals

Unseen Academicals

Back in November, I signed up for a Terry Pratchett challenge. I forget that it started in December and so planned to wait until January and then I was reading other things so it is just now that I read my first book for the challenge. I knew that my school library would have it so as soon as I had a chance I went there and checked it out.

Overall, I really enjoyed it (although I prefer football to the soccer described here!) I will try to summarize it although that may be a little hard. Basically the wizards at the university have to play football in order to continue to receive a bequest. Unfortunately football is currently a dirty unregulated sport but the Tyrant of the city has plans to clean it up through the wizards. Trev Likely, a worker at the U and the son of a football legend, falls in love with Juliet, a gorgeous girl who roots for his team's rival. Glenda tries to look out for Juliet and becomes interested in Trev's mysterious coworker Nutt.

I was excited about the idea of a Romeo/Juliet love story which this isn't so much and I ended up really loving Nutt. He doesn't know exactly what he is (not human, dwarf nor troll) but he's exceeding erudite and polite. The wizards are mad fun and Death even pops by very briefly (wish there had been more of him but then again I didn't want any of the characters to die)

Overall: I would say 4 and say that it reminds me that I need to do a lot more reading of Discworld instead of being distracted by other books.

Terry Pratchett Challenge

I've liked Terry Pratchett since my friend introduced his books to me in 10th grade (she also introduced me to Tamora Pierce-isn't she a great friend?) However I still haven't read that many of his books. So when I saw that Marg at ReadingAdventures is hosting a challenge for the upcoming year to read the Discworld novels, I was very excited.

It starts December 1, 2009 and will run to November 30, 2010 so plenty of time to read! I'm signing up as Academic at the Unseen University which means I'll read 6-8 books. I own The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, and Thud although somehow I've never read them so those will be my first three. Then I will probably reread Going Postal and/or Making Money because I've enjoyed them a lot and I love Moist von Lipwig. I'd also like to read the newest book Unseen Academicals. To finish I will definitely want to read some books starring Death who is my favorite character. If I am very successful at acquiring the books, I may move up a level. But for now I want to aim for 6 to 8 since I know I will have a lot of other reading to do.

Tentative List:
1. The Colour of Magic
2. The Light Fantastic
3. Thud
4. Going Postal
5. Making Money
6. Unseen Academicals
7. Mort
8. Hogfather

Thank you for hosting Marg; I'm very excited to get started!