Tag: Humor

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The Bookish Owl – The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchet

Here’s The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett.

I’m still playing catch-up with these posts. And honestly? I’m not doing well. I’m devouring books at a pace total unheard of for me, so every time I get around to doing a post, I will have read another two books.

This one was another reread. It’s not even purely about being unable to let go of Discworld anymore – I’m reading so much I have to reread some old books, otherwise I’ll run out of books. Imagine the horror!

‘The Light Fantastic’ is the continuation of The Colour of Magic, though it has only slightly more plot than the first book (which doesn’t say a lot), but it introduces Cohen the Barbarian and there’s nothing not to love about an eighty-seven year old barbarian hero with arthritis.

The Light Fantastic
by Terry Pratchett

It is known as the Discworld. It is a flat planet, supported on the backs of four elephants, who in turn stand on the back of the great turtle A’Tuin as it swims majestically through space. And it is quite possibly the funniest place in all of creation…

As it moves towards a seemingly inevitable collision with a malevolent red star, the Discworld has only one possible saviour. Unfortunately, this happens to be the singularly inept and cowardly wizard called Rincewind, who was last seen falling off the edge of the world.

The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchet

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The Bookish Owl – The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

I present to you: The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett!

Are you getting tired of seeing the same grumpy owl next to yet another Discworld book?

Well, too bad. The owl is not going to stop being grumpy and I got enough Discworld books left to reread to last me until the end of February.

This is the very first book in the series and, unlike the later ones, it has absolutely no plot, but lots of humor and insanity, and sometimes that’s just what you need.

Enjoy!

(Or give my some ideas for new blog posts, so we can get a bit of variation on this site…)

The Colour of Magic
by Terry Pratchett

In the beginning there was…a turtle.

Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different.

Particularly as it’s carried though space on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown). It plays by different rules.

But then, some things are the same everywhere. The Disc’s very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the world’s first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land.

Unfortunately, the person charged with maintaining that survival in the face of robbers, mercenaries and, well, Death, is a spectacularly inept wizard…

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

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The Bookish Owl – The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett

Second on this year’s reading list was The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett.

I’m even more behind on these posts than I was the last time I posted, so this is another book I have already read. It’s the last, not only of the Tiffany Aching books, but of the Discworld series, so I’m all melancholic about finishing it, even though I’m still rereading all my favorites (so it’s not like I’m done with the series at all).

But really, I’m just here to deliver your grumpy owl picture, so let’s get on with it.

The Shepherd’s Crown
by Terry Pratchett

Deep in the Chalk, something is stirring. The owls and the foxes can sense it, and Tiffany Aching feels it in her boots. An old enemy is gathering strength.

This is a time of endings and beginnings, old friends and new, a blurring of edges and a shifting of power. Now Tiffany stands between the light and the dark, the good and the bad.

As the fairy horde prepares for invasion, Tiffany must summon all the witches to stand with her. To protect the land. Her land.

There will be a reckoning . . .

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett

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The Bookish Owl – Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

In case you have somehow missed all the pop songs now featuring jingle bells and the excessive advertising for shit you don’t need – it’s Chriiiiistmas and that means it’s time to (re)read Hogfather by Terry Pratchett!

I’m by no means a Christmassy person – I can’t keep up cheer for an entire month and I have a burning hatred for elves that I can’t quite explain – but I’m all for Christmas stories (or, in this case, Hogswatch stories!) if they’re about Santa Claus (or the Hogfather) disappearing and Death having to do his job with absolutely no experience.

What are you doing for Hogswatch this year?

Hogfather
by Terry Pratchett

Susan had never hung up a stocking . She’d never put a tooth under her pillow in the serious expectation that a dentally inclined fairy would turn up. It wasn’t that her parents didn’t believe in such things. They didn’t need to believe in them. They know they existed. They just wished they didn’t.

There are those who believe and those who don’t. Through the ages, superstition has had its uses. Nowhere more so than in the Discworld where it’s helped to maintain the status quo. Anything that undermines superstition has to be viewed with some caution. There may be consequences, particularly on the last night of the year when the time is turning. When those consequences turn out to be the end of the world, you need to be prepared. You might even want more standing between you and oblivion than a mere slip of a girl – even if she has looked Death in the face on numerous occasions…

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

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The Bookish Owl – Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

Toot, toot! Time for Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett.

This is the last Discworld book about Moist von Lipwig, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he’ll con everyone this time around.

I’m also looking forward to seeing how Lord Vetinari will – very subtly – threaten to have him killed if he doesn’t use those conman skills for the good of Ankh-Morpork.

…

Also, the above is total hogwash, because I already finished the book. But I wrote the draft of this post before I started and I’m not going to change it just because the sun has been hiding for a week, so I haven’t had the lighting a photo of a Discworld book deserves.

On to the owl photo. Hoot, hoot!

Raising Steam
by Terry Pratchett

To the consternation of the patrician, Lord Vetinari, a new invention has arrived in Ankh-Morpork – a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all the elements: earth, air, fire and water. This being Ankh-Morpork, it’s soon drawing astonished crowds, some of whom caught the zeitgeist early and arrive armed with notepads and very sensible rainwear.

Moist von Lipwig is not a man who enjoys hard work – as master of the Post Office, the Mint and the Royal Bank his input is, of course, vital… but largely dependent on words, which are fortunately not very heavy and don’t always need greasing. However, he does enjoy being alive, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse…

Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man wi’ t’flat cap and sliding rule who has an interesting arrangement with the sine and cosine. Moist will have to grapple with gallons of grease, goblins, a fat controller with a history of throwing employees down the stairs and some very angry dwarfs if he’s going to stop it all going off the rails…

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett