The Discworld series – Terry Pratchett (Part 2)

on the disc, the Gods are not so much worshipped as blamed.

Now settled into the series and established, the Discworld books continue in the same vein with their unique brand of humour and satire, there is more of a focus on established characters with a lot of the action being based around Ankh-Morpork, the biggest city and a nice nod to olden times London.  Of particular note from books eleven to twenty-four would be sharp satire on organised religion, The Phantom of the Opera, a nice cliché wink towards Australia( Four Ecks) and a jaunty Christmas tale where Death – complete with beard – has to take over as the Hogfather (our Santa) has gone missing.

Found on io9.com

These books all made me laugh a lot, there was comedy in abundance and I looked to each new tale with eagerness, yet from book twenty-five onwards the humour seemed to change and had been changing for a while on reflection, it was becoming more observational based comedy which was fine and did raise a smile still but there a lot less were less laugh out loud bits.  The series has evolved like the characters and Discworld itself, the places outside Ankh-Morpork were marginalised which makes sense from a realism point of view as that is where the books are heading.  I do miss the more fantastical elements but the drive towards modern times is inevitable even in fantasy, the bringing in of newspapers, banks and trains, does allow for more parody on the everyday things that we are familiar with.

“You’re dead,” he said.
Keli waited. She couldn’t think of any suitable reply. “I’m not” lacked a certain style, while “Is it serious?” seemed somehow too frivolous.

With the latest book Raising in Steam, it was rare I even raised a smile but that doesn’t detract from the actual writing, I still enjoyed the book, I think Pratchett has moved his creation from a whimsical place of magic to one somewhat more grounded in reality and although a lot of readers hanker for the old style hilarious books, it’s a comfortable world, it’s grown up and we readers have grown up with it.  When a world gets to real we wish for the more fantastical elements to be brought back into it and this is just another facet of the Discworld to mirror our own despite is differences.

The recent young adult books haven’t made an impression on me at all, in fact apart from an overdone caricature of the Scots I don’t remember much at all in these books, except possibly a whale at some point, perhaps I am just to enamoured of the series as it is, I enjoy lots of Children’s books but I think I expected too much from these ones, one day I will reread them again, hopefully with a less grumpy mindset. .  A special mention will also  have to go to The Science of the Discworld books, that see the wizards of Unseen University create our universe and one of their number travels around our humble planet giving and then in each alternate chapter real scientists write about the Earth through various times, some parts of which can be a little dry but overall it’s a good aside from the main series.

Just erotic.  Nothing kinky.  It’s the difference between using a feather and using a chicken.

As ever with an established group of novels (which I should have pointed out at the beginning of the review are not one complete story but a series of different stories, except for the first two books which do a good job of establishing the world), it pays to begin at the beginning so you can appreciate all the in jokes and to really see the established characters grow.   As a constant companion to my reading life, I have a lot of time for these stories and if you wish for humour, some honest philosophy on the human condition and a lot of satire on everything from literature, to government to ‘music with rocks in’, then you can’t go far wrong for sheer variety.  In fact were there to be no more books to come, then Raising Steam would be a wonderful send off as it manages to name check so many familiar places and names from the series’ history, so this really is the time to DISCover the series and enjoy some wry English humour at the same time.