Tag: Sir Pratchett

Terry Pratchett – Pyramids | Review

April 17, 2016
Authors P-T (By Surname)

Title: Pyramids

Author: Terry Pratchett

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 384

Rating: 7/10

 

Terry Pratchett - Pyramids

Terry Pratchett – Pyramids

 

Pyramids is, of course, Sir Pratchett’s take on ancient Egypt, a subject that I’m interested in. It’s always fascinated both myself and my mom, and we were planning on visiting some of the sites until unrest in the country put a rest to that. You’d think that a Discworld book about Egypt would be like a dream come true for me.

Unfortunately, I struggled to get into it, and whilst I did ultimately enjoy it, it’s not a book that I’d bother to re-read, with so many others available to me. I’m honestly not sure how I’m going to meet my word count, because I don’t have much more to say – it was just filler material, at least to me.

I don’t even want to dig into the plot, and for once it’s not because I don’t want to ruin it for you – it’s because it leaves me feeling kind of apathetic, and I just don’t really want to talk about it. And it’s a shame, because I thought it started out well, with the future king (spoiler alert, my bad) training to become an assassin in Ankh-Morpork.

 

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

 

You’d think that would make for a good book, right? Unfortunately, you’d be wrong – the protagonist, whose name I can’t spell, leaves Ankh Morpork not long after you start reading, and things gradually go downhill from there. I’m not saying this is a bad novel, not at all – it’s just that it’s average, and average isn’t good enough when we’re talking about Terry Pratchett.

Personally, I’m close to recommending that you avoid it, but that’s just going too far – still, you might want to save it, so you can read it when you’re starting to run out of Discworld novels to devour. Pyramids almost sits in isolation to the other books in the series, which might be part of the reason why I didn’t think much of it, but that also means that you can skip past it if you’re reading them in order, without any repercussions.

Overall, then, feel free to proceed with caution – you might enjoy it, who knows? But as for me, I won’t be recommending it to any of my friends. Not any time soon.

 

Terry Pratchett on the difference between erotic and kinky...

Terry Pratchett on the difference between erotic and kinky…

 

Click here to buy Pyramids.

Terry Pratchett – I Shall Wear Midnight | Review

April 16, 2016
Authors P-T (By Surname)Fiction

Title: I Shall Wear Midnight

Author: Terry Pratchett

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 424

Rating: 9/10

 

Terry Pratchett - I Shall Wear MidnightTerry Pratchett - I Shall Wear Midnight

Terry Pratchett – I Shall Wear Midnight

 

I didn’t think much of the first Tiffany Aching novel, but my opinion has slowly improved with each successive book. By the time I got around to reading this one, I was hooked, and I think she’s now up there as one of my favourite Discworld characters, and certainly one of my favourite witches (behind Granny Weatherwax, of course).

Part of that might be due to the fact that this was the only Tiffany Aching book that I hadn’t read, and I read it with the knowledge that Sir Pratchett sadly passed away, and now there won’t be any new ones. I also think that it takes you a little while to get used to some of Pratchett’s characters, and that with the Tiffany Aching books, the order that you read them in probably has an impact on your enjoyment of them, although you don’t necessarily need to read them in chronological order.

In this story, Tiffany Aching has to wage war against a sinister opponent – a spectral figure with holes where his eyes should be, who brings poison ‘wherever poison’s wanted’. Basically, his mere presence can make a crowd turn upon a witch, and it’s thought that he’s behind the spates of witch burning that happened in our own reality, except a real witch would never be dumb enough to get caught.

 

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

 

The witches of the Discworld are fascinating, because the witching ethos has been so well-developed by Sir Pratchett that you can almost predict the way that a witch might act, based on the way that you know how a witch should act. And let me tell you, we’re not talking about cackling or building houses out of gingerbread – that’s a sure sign that a woman’s been witching too long and she’s started to lose her marbles.

One particular highlight here is the fact that Eskarina Smith, one of the main characters from right at the start of the Discworld series, in Equal Rites, makes an appearance. Truth be told, I can’t really remember much about her character from the first time round, but she was delightfully eccentric here. However, Roland turns into a bit of a knobhead in this book, but I can’t talk about that.

I strongly recommend this if you’ve already read and enjoyed a Tiffany Aching book, and while it might not be the best introduction to the Discworld, you could do a lot worse.

 

Terry Pratchett on the difference between erotic and kinky...

Terry Pratchett on the difference between erotic and kinky…

 

Click here to buy I Shall Wear Midnight.