I had another rant post planned for today, but then I read the above last night and needed to wax lyrical about it – well, ok, pimp it – to you all.
Those of you who’ve been hanging around for a while know how much I adore the satirical genius that is Sir Terry Pratchett.
I have talked about him before, taken two of his characters with me to DIK, and gone on and on about the fact that he ‘will go down in history as the only author Kris religiously buys in hard cover.’
His latest book from the Discworld series, Unseen Academicals, is a shining testament to his awesome skills at word smithing and story telling. His sly, wicked and, above all else, extraordinarily clever humour and gift for parody and satire will have many laughing out loud throughout the book. Indeed, Unseen Academicals has lept to being my #1 favourite Terry Pratchett of all time.
There are so many scenes which I’d love to share with you (including a classic about the meaning of oral sex being when you listen to it *wipes tear from eye*), but I thought the romance readers out there would appreciate this gem:
She reached down surreptitiously, even though there was only a three-eyed teddy bear watching her, and picked up the latest Iradne Comb-Buttworthy from the cache unsuccessfully hidden below. After ten minutes of reading, which took her some way into the book (Ms Comb-Buttworthy producing volumes that were even slimmer than her heroines), she experienced deja vu. Moreover, the deja vu was squared, because she had the feeling of having had the deja vu before.
“They’re really all the same, aren’t they?” she said to the three-eyed teddy bear. “You know it’s going to be Mary the Maid, or someone like her, and there’s got to be two men and she will end up with the nice one, and there has to be misunderstandings, and they never do anything more than kiss and it’s absolutely guaranteed that, for example, an exciting civil war or an invasion by trolls or even a scene with any cooking in it is not going to happen. The best you can expect is a thunderstorm.” It really had nothing to do with real life at all, which, although short on civil wars and invasions by trolls, at least had the decency to have lots of cooking.
The book dropped out of her fingers and thirty seconds later she was sound asleep.
This will be an auto buy for fans of this author, but for those of you who haven’t read him before I would heartily-to-the-power-of-infinity recommend you try this one out. Not only can it be easily read as a stand alone, but IMHO is one of his very best.
Oh, and look, it comes in ebook format. How tempting very expensive fantabulous is that?! 🙂
Kris + Books = Good. *Sometimes*. 
I absolutely love that cover.
I MUST read one of these. Why haven't I read this yet? Maybe since it's e-book I'll read it. Or do I need to read other ones first? Where do I start?
Holy shit. $25 for e-book. Umm. I'll stick with paper for that price.
KZ: The artist is Paul Kidby (http://www.paulkidby.com/ or http://www.paulkidby.net/). His artwork rocks.
Tam: You haven't read them because you were all 'no, it's fantasy' blah, blah. I keep on telling you, you will LOVE these.
This one can be read as a stand alone. Try this one first and, if you like it, I'll give you some more recs. 🙂
Tam: Did you not see my very expensive comment?? Yeah, I crossed it out, but…. how come you never believed me??!!!
It's like when no one believed the TMI thing from yesterday and then blamed me for Jen's comments.
Did I not warn people??
Did I not give people the impression that prob'ly the conversation would degenerate into naughtiness because of those not-so-innocent redheads from the US?!?!?!?!?!?!
Do you all not believe me because I have a habit of making shit up all the time and then secretly laughing at everyone when they believe me???
WTF!
PS – Please ignore that bit about laughing at you all behind your back because I was carried away and lost myself in the heat of the moment. It's not true at all.
PSS – Okay, maybe it is partly true, but I swear to God it's only happened maybe once.
PSSS – Okay, maybe about five times, but I swear no more than that. Honest.
Well, there's expensive and then expensive. That's extreme. That's the same price as hardcover. Why on earth would I pay the same price in e-book as hardcover? Insane.
I always believe you love, I was just stunned by the price. And I think you need to stop blaming American redheads and just go for redheads in general. 😛
Tam, it might be the same price as a hard cover for you, but a hard cover is way more here. WAY more.
'Sides, I buy him in hard cover so expensive is.. pfft to me. 🙂
“And I think you need to stop blaming American redheads and just go for redheads in general.”
Well, I do have this theory about redheads taking over the booky world, but perhaps we'd better talk offline about it. Don't want 'em to know how much I'm on to their evil plan.
<-- feels glad for having ordinary blond hair. As for TP, I think I picked up one of his books like 17 years ago or so but brought it back unfinished.
Ingrid, you should try TP again now that you are older and wiser. 😉
If you started at the beginning you may have hit the 'Rincewind' novels. Have to be honest that I'm not a huge fan of those that focus on this character myself, but don't let that stop you from trying another.
I've read about the first few hundred of his books but haven't read one for a while now. I'm not sure why, but it may be to do with getting a bit bored with the style and then he went through a lull after about book 450. Plus I kept forgetting stuff which had happened in previous books which you don't NEED to know for the book I was reading but which greatly enhanced your reading enjoyment if you could remember it. So I would have to go back and scan a previous book to find out what that was which took time and effort.
The books I've read have all been very funny and I love the world and the opportunity for satire. My favourite book is Mort – although I actually love all the books with DEATH as the main character and used to scan through the books where he wasn't a main character to check that he appeared and they were usually the best scenes.
My favourite Terry Pratchett book is Good Omens. I haven't read the others – I love fantasy but the Terry Pratchett books never grabbed my attention. I'm sorry Kris, I know that's sacriledge.
orannia *who is desperately hoping for the end of the evil project so lurking online can be a more regular occurrence*
Jen: I really thought that this was him at his best. The word play and satire was very, very clever. This is definitely a stand alone because it focuses on new characters and the boys of the Unseen University. It's fabbo. 🙂
Orannia, the only reason I'm speaking to you right now is because Good Omens is one of my all time faves, too. I love that book muchly.
(Is that the project that was causing you trouble last week?? That's been going on for a while now, hasn't it. Poor you. :()
We were lucky a few years ago to see him at a speaking engagement. What a gem of a man. 🙂
I'm positively green with envy, Sarah. GREEN, I tells ya!