Discworld

Okay let’s get off the negativity track for at least one post. Summer ’08. Terry Pratchett has been busy. They recently aired The Hogfather on Ion channel, which is a Pax-TV type channel. And I recently watched The Colour of Magic/The Light Fantastic. These were the first 2 Discworld books and did read as one long story, as COM ends in a cliffhanger…literally. They did a great job with all 3 films, Terry Pratchett even made a cameo. They were pretty faithful to the books. Now I want them to do a witches movie, hopefully Lords & Ladies. Great book.

If you haven’t read any of the Discworld series, the world is round…and flat. Kinda like a pizza. Kinda like…a disc. This disc sits atop 4 elephants (the book The Fifth Elephant clarifies the situation), who in turn sit atop the space faring turtle The Great A’Tuin (see above).

The thing is, once you get into the series, you realize that it could take place almost anywhere. They’re very funny. I tell people it’s Hitchhiker’s Guide done as Fantasy instead of straight Sci-Fi.

Currently, I’m reading Making Money, which is a sequel of sorts to Going Postal. Moist Von Lipwig is a common thief. He was saved from the gallows by Lord Vetinari and put in charge of the then-defunct Post Office of Ankh Morpork. In the new book, he is tasked with reviving the banking industry in the city. I read online that Going Postal is the next movie they’re working on, which I’m sure I’ll be happy with. I’m looking forward to it.

I guess I should explain how I found the Discworld. Funny story really. Some years ago, after meeting Larry Niven at a book signing, I re-read Ringworld and decided to read the sequels. When I was done with those, I looked into other books which took place on other types of worlds. . So I knew that the Ringworld was the first step. I knew the next step was the Dyson Sphere. Those were the Orbitsville Series. Both series were serious in tone and involved heavy Sci-Fi elements.

I then heard about the Discworld series of books and dove right in. Of course, they were not what I expected but I loved them nonetheless. I found I had to be careful where I read them (similar to Hitchhiker’s Guide) because I would laugh out loud and get weird looks from people.