[gerdesj]

Sir Pterry was a proper old school journalist and writer. He was incredibly well read and was meticulous in his research. Oh and he wrote some books! He had a facility with language that was often breathtaking and an understanding of people and relationships that is easily relatable.

He chose the medium of fantasy and really ran with it. After the first two Discworld novels he really got into his stride and would generally pick on a theme per book and really go to town on it. Who else could turn stamp collecting ("Going Postal") into a real page turner?

You get characters like the Patrician (a sort of medieval Italian city state despot crossed with ... well he's unique and can thrash a cryptic crossword and has an elderly dog) and Sam Vimes (from guttersnipe to Lord in a very complicated lifetime). You get real witches and wizards (some of who end up playing football - soz soccer). You get the memorable Granny Weatherwax and ... and. Basically you get loads of beautifully crafted and rendered characters. Oh and you get Gods and Death too (he rides a horse called Binky)

Pratchett has been accused of Literature and it would probably stick if his works were not so enjoyable and accessible to read. He has been translated into a lot of languages which implies to me that his world view really is that - a world view that is worth investigating.

[mangamadaiyan]

That Sir Terry had a facility with language is true. It also does no justice to that aspect of his writing.

How could anyone with half an imagination read something like "Octarine ... the undisputed pigment of the imagination" and not laugh? I'm not even going to mention the reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits, or Cohen the Barbarian, or the many names of Bloody Stupid Johnson.

I find it marginally painful that someone is hesitant to try reading a new (to them) author. If one turns away from Pratchett in hesitation, what fate might befall Chinua Achebe, or Ryszard Kapuscinski, say? I wonder if it says something about the kind and quantity of pretentious garbage (literary, cinematic, political, and otherwise) that surrounds us and pervades almost all aspects of our lives - so much so that we are afraid of spending a little time reading a book that we might not like?