Blink of the Screen

Blink of the Screen by Terry Pratchett, 286 pages

This is a collection of short works spanning the Pratchett's entire writing career ranging from old school assignments, through his first writing jobs, to his Discworld series and the present day. The stories themselves range from gnomes living in stores, chickens crossing the road, death, virtual reality, and a couple of pieces from Discworld.
 Anyone who likes Terry Pratchett's work should read this book, especially since he puts some his early works that aren't as easy to find.  I was actually impressed by some of the stories that he wrote when he was still in school, if nothing else just by some of the ideas for them.

Equal Rites

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett, 213 pages


This is the continuation of the Disc World series, but it involves no one from the first couple books. So no Rincewind, Twoflower, or Luggage. But it still has all of the humor, sarcasm and flat out silliness that makes this such a great series.

Okay, so in the Disc World boys can grow up to become wizards, but girls can only become witches. Meaning they cannot go to the wizard school and basically have access to earthen magic. Think plants, herbs and such. This is how it will always be, and how it has always been. And it would have stayed that way except a wizard named Drum Billet made a colossal mistake. When he was seeking out an eighth son of an eighth son (known to  make good wizards) and laid his hand upon the child he only realized after passing on his wizards staff that he had not found an eighth son of an eighth son, he had found an eighth daughter. What follows is a hilarious quest following young Esk's attempts to get into the wizard's school.

Equal Rites certainly lives up to its play on words. This book is about getting equal rights for everyone. It goes own to trounce and disprove the words "This is how it has always been, and so that is how it should always be". To many times we hear that in everyday life a refusal to accept change. But as Equal Rites shows change doesn't have to be a bad thing, in fact it can be the start of best way.

While I was dismayed to see that none of the previous characters made an appearance, this was still an excellent book. After finishing it I did some checking to see if this was a branch off series, but it looks like this is just a one and done. My research also has shown that Rincewind wont be back till the fifth book. It appears Death gets his own book next.

Discworld Graphic Novels

The Discworld Graphic novels: The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett and Steve Ross, 272 pages


This might be one of the only cases where I actually read the books before the graphic novels. Sadly I think that really detracted from the entertainment I would have gotten out of this. For starters the characters where not as I expected. When you read a book you form an image of what the characters look like. If when you see those characters fleshed out, be it in a movie or in this case a graphic novel, you expect them to look a certain way. When they don't match your expectations it can be quite off putting. The second thing I noticed when reading this was it seemed lacking. The story was still there but it no longer felt like a Pratchett book. There was no snide writer comments, some of the descriptive lines that add nothing to the story were left out. It was like this was a cliff notes version of the two books.

Since I have or will be soon posting a review of the two books this graphic novel covers I won't go into the plot. If you want to know what happens go read the reviews.

I would not recommend this book to anyone, and in fact would encourage people not to read it. Go read the books instead. They are not long and quite enjoyable, though your sanity may suffer a bit.

Light Fantastic

Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett, 241 pages


The Light Fantastic was, well fantastic. It is the first novel in quite some time that has actually made me laugh out loud. It is the continuation of the Discworld series and so again follows the travels of Rincewind, Twoflower and Luggage.

Following their not quite an escape in the last book they strangely end up not dead. This is of course all the spells fault, but really what isn't in Rincewinds life. Actually their not dying is rather important as it turns out the entire discworld's future relies on them not being dead. This is the strange tale of what happens when they are not dead. From the talking trees and rocks to crazy wizards and redcaps it is one heck of an adventure.

If you liked any of Pratchett's other work or like the puns and silliness of Piers Anthony you should most certainly give this a read. Though unless you read Colour of Magic it wont make much sense. Actually even after reading Colour of Magic, it doesnt make that much sense.

Color of Magic

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett, 210 pages

The Color of Magic in a lot of ways reminded me of Asimov’s Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. There were times that I was laughing, rolling my eyes, and times where I just shrugged my shoulders and said why not. The story follows a struggling wizard by the name of Rincewind as he plays tour guide to an insurance salesman from another part of the world named Twoflower. Of course there are also dragons, barbarians, heroes, thieves, assassins, sea monsters, a large turtle, elephants and an unusual trunk that follows them wherever they go. (If you have read the book you know why I included the turtle and elephants in the list.) With that kind of list you can envision the types of adventures Rincewind and Twoflower go on.

The Color of Magic is very fast paced and action packed. It is a quick read that I think most everyone would enjoy.

Good Omens

Good Omens : The Nice and Accurate  Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, 412 pages

Several centuries ago, a witch by the name of Agnes Nutter predicted the future, with events culminating in an apocalypse. The time for said apocalypse has come. It will be heaven versus hell in one fantastic showdown. The Antichrist has been chosen and born. There are a few snags in the plan, though. The representatives for heaven and hell, Aziraphale and Crowley, respectively, who happen to be friends, aren't thrilled about the apocalypse and would like to figure out a way around it. The child they thought was the Antichrist was switched with a human child at birth. The four horsemen of the apocalypse have some groupies that can't decide what to call themselves.

In other words, an already crazy situation becomes even crazier. This book was very entertaining, a sort of scifi/fantasy blend, with lots of sharp wit and many actual laugh out loud portions. I'd not previously read anything by either of these authors, but I will definitely check out some more of their works.

P.S. Crowley, the representative for Hell, was definitely my favorite character in this book, driving around in his vintage Bentley, taking credit for heinous human acts that he actually had nothing to do with. :)