This man is a genius. Seriously, his literary work is stuff of legend. I can only hope that somehow they transfer his brain to some sort of robot thing, so in 100 years time he’s still churning out Discworld books. For some reason, they don’t tire out.
Normally anything gets tired after several copies, like the books and movies. You can’t really drag it on, people lose interest and the work seems to be losing its edge. That doesn’t happen with Discworld.
Each book is pretty much a self-contained story, you don’t need to read any other story to enjoy the current one. Sure, it does get better if you read them in order, but it isn’t essential.
Discworld is named after their planet, as it is not spherical like the worlds made up in universe’s of logic and mathematics, but a flat disc on the back of 4 giant elephants standing on the back of a gigantic tortoise, who is the size of the disc. This makes sense, since everyone knows that elephants can carry large loads, and tortoises are known to plod along. So nobody questions it really (Except the few who venture off to sail around the world and prove it is in fact round. Funnily enough, none of them ever return to report their findings).
The stories started out introducing the Disc, and the main city of Ankh-Morpork. That’s pretty much old London, with the Ankh river winding through it. Whether this river actually deserves the classification is a lively debate. People don’t sink more as they walk as the silty sludge has a almost solid form.
Earlier books focused around characters such as Death, Rincewind, Granny Weatherwax while later books focus around Sam Vimes, Moist Von Lipwig and Lord Vetinari, although earlier characters still occur in the later books.
Here are some examples of quotes, they give an indication to the humour level.
“When he (Death) discovered that he had tied the two ropes on branches either side of the trunk, he simply removed the offending trunk as opposed to repositioning the ropes. This has not in the least affected the growth of the tree.” - Soul Music
“In Thief of Time, Kaos, the Fifth Horseman, was introduced, having previously left before they became famous and now works as a milkman under the name Ronnie Soak”
“Since Death is professionally involved in almost everything that is going on everywhere, the Rite is usually performed so that he can be asked questions. Death hates this because he is always summoned at the worst possible time, like when he is at a party. The senior wizards performing the Rite are not too happy about it either, though, since they don’t enjoy drawing Death’s attention to them; they are often very senior.”
“I said I hope it is a good party”, said Galder, loudly. At the moment it is, said Death levelly. I think it might go downhill very quickly at midnight. “Why?” That’s when they think I’ll be taking my mask off.
“I am Death, not taxes. I come only once.”
Billious is - the “Oh God of Hangovers,” who gets all of the bad effects of drinking even though he has never touched a drop. He has a supreme dislike of people who drink often.
Libertina is - the Goddess of the Sea, Apple Pie, Certain Types of Ice Cream and Short Lengths of String.
Urika - The Goddess of Snow, Saunas and Theatrical Performances for Fewer than 120 People.
I could just go on and on, I’m having fun finding these out. I laughed when I say “and Theatrical Performances for Fewer than 120 People”.
One of my absolute favourite references is in regards to the sandman. People wondered about how he could have enough sand to knock all those children out each night, when in reality he had a rather small sack and didn’t need to take the sand out at all (Hinting he actually whacked them with the sand bag).
Ok, I’ve gone on enough about Discworld. Just promise me you’ll visit your local library or bookshop and give one a try.
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