I was very sad to hear the Terry Pratchett had passed away today, he was very much one of those figures that seemed immortal to me as a child, and good omens inspired me on countless level through out my teenage years. I think fallen London’s dedication was very fitting and I’m glad that a game that is so clearly inspired by his writings (it was the first thing that interested me in the game) has paid some form of homage.
Here, here.
The Discworld books have been with me for the longest time.
Monstrous Regiment was my first, loaned to me in High School by the nurse. We had similar tastes in books, and set up a book exchange. Every week, we’d trade five books. She let me read Monstrous Regiment and Thief of Time, and I was hooked.
His death makes the world a poorer place. He had so much left to write.
Sixty six is too d*mned young to die.
Wish we could hold some sort of in game memorial.
I’ll be reading thief of time again, it’s my favorite.
Susan AND the Men in Safron.
Hard to resist.
I started reading prattchet very recently, but it made me pretty sad. but it’s nice that he passed away at home, and his health was already pretty bad.
… i found out while playing fallen london. i just saw his name and got all excited, then realized and got sad.
I imagine him in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, supping with Douglas Adams, finishing off the tales they both left unwritten.
I can’t feel sad though. I was very, very sad a few years ago when I heard he got ill. Living with Alzheimer’s is so terrifying (I’ve endured two family members go through it) that passing on is relief all round.
And he was, after all, an old confidant of Death…
I loved the Discworld Books from the first one I read, but one thing that made them really special is how I shared them with my dad. He has a form of dyslexia, so sustained reading is difficult for him. So, in order to share my favorite books, I would read aloud to him, like he used to do for me when I was a kid.
Our favorite was Night Watch; it really struck home with my dad when we read it together. Second favorite was Going Postal. He was in the military, so when he deployed to Iraq, I would send him a Discworld book in the care package.
Sad to hear that the author passed, but he gave both of us a precious gift.
I’m still feeling broken up about his passing, I grew up in the UK and have all his novels in the original versions (hooray for used book stores). My personal favorite is probably Mort, I even saw a live play of it once.
I do have to say his final tweets were fitting, poignant, and so perfectly him. After all, “What can the harvest hope for, if not the care of the reaper man?”
"Perhaps I’ll just try to pack up his Pratchetts." That was me Tuesday morning, overwhelmed, trying to bring a little order to my son’s bedroom after his move to Boston for his first post-college real-life job. Thirty-five books, and a nose full of dust later, Pratchett left the shelves to Lloyd Alexander, Brian Jacques, Jack London, Orson Scott Card, Nick Sagan, Cory Doctorow and on… I looked at the progression of authors central to my Son’s life and our conversations, and felt blue. Yesterday morning I texted my son on Terry’s passing. My Son’s reply: "I’m so sad. I’m really glad you packed up the books for me too. Thank you for introducing me to such a brilliant author, Momma. I love you." Thank you Terry Pratchett for years worth of meaningful conversations with my adolescent, teenaged, and young adult son. We shared jokes, quotes and ideas over milkshakes, coffee and croissants for years. I am forever grateful.[li]
edited by patwalsh_2000 on 3/15/2015
The first Pratchett I read was Equal Rites, and I was blown away by the humour and cleverness. He’s been a favourite ever since, and a great influence on my life, indirectly.
I was at a largeish social gathering, and at some point in the proceedings, I made a Pratchett reference. One person laughed. Eyes met, smiles were exchanged and … Reader, I married him.
(Not right then, obviously, we waited a couple of years, for decency’s sake. But still, a happy accident indeed.)
I was very sad to hear of his passing, and found the little detail - that his cat was asleep on his bed as he passed - unbearably moving.
CATS. CATS ARE NICE.
edited by Lady Eris on 3/14/2015
The sun goes down upon the Ankh,
And slowly, softly fades -
Across the Drum; the Royal Bank;
The River-Gate; the Shades.
A stony circle’s closed to elves;
And here, where lines are blurred,
Between the stacks of books on shelves,
A quiet ‘Ook’ is heard.
A copper steps the city-street
On paths he’s often passed;
The final march; the final beat;
The time to rest at last.
He gives his badge a final shine,
And sadly shakes his head -
While Granny lies beneath a sign
That says: ‘I aten’t dead.’
The Luggage shifts in sleep and dreams;
It’s now. The time’s at hand.
For where it’s always night, it seems,
A timer clears of sand.
And so it is that Death arrives,
When all the time has gone…
But dreams endure, and hope survives,
And Discworld carries on.
Reddit user poem_for_your_sprog wrote this a few days ago.
Well what can i say about Pratchett. Truly a gifted man. Ive read ever so many books but hes the only author that had me laughing out lodu so many times. Ive also watched him in a few documentaries and he really seemed to be a good guy.
I had the honor of meeting him; he was truly as witty, and bright, and as much of a gentleman in person.
It seems to me that the best way to honor Sir Terry is to do our best to give back to our communities and the world, for that is what he did.
The financially well-off might consider a donation to the Save the Orangutangs fund. He was well known to be an advocate for wildlife in general, and orangutangs in general.
I met Sir Terry twice, both times when I was at school. He came to give a talk in our library which was attended by maybe 30 people. I am pretty sure I was the only one who had actually read any of his books and kept putting my hand up asking the kind of fanboy questions that one would expect from the super-cool schoolboy that I was.
The second time was a year or two later, when he came to do a very brief signing in the bookshop in the tiny village just down the road from my school. I went along, and was the only person there for the 10 minutes or so that I hung out with him! We were really lucky - he lived in Somerset (where my school was) and was always doing tiny community stuff like that.
He signed Small Gods for me with a quick sketch of a turtle and "The turtle MOVES…" written on it. It’s old and battered, but still a treasured possession.
Thank goodness he was so prolific and we’ve got so much of his writing to enjoy. It seems awful that someone whose mind was so wonderful ended up suffering from Alzheimer’s. Obviously it would still have been tragic if he’d been run over by a bus or something, but this seems much worse.
Night Watch was my favourite of his books too - having read all of them chronologically as they were released, that was the first one that felt really dark to me, in the sense that it was confronting very adult issues like mortality, disillusionment and fate in a way that his previous ones hadn’t done. By which I mean much more seriously, I think.
It’s all very sad.
How Do They Rise Up.
I can’t remember when I first heard of the discworld series. I guess it was from the ill-fated computer games. Got addicted to the series after reading Nightwatch back in 2004 or so. From there on I was pointed in the right direction(recommended reading order) by some Wheel Of Time fans I used to chat with on some olde message board.
ah, the guides have been updated. i’ve really only read the citywatch-related novels and a few others.
The city-watch novels are great, but you should also take a look at the witch novels. And Mort.
Brilliant, brilliant man. I was literally stunned when I found out. I know it was bound to happen sooner or later, but still… I’m not generally a crybaby, but just thinking about him and his work (and I think about that A LOT, The Discworld is so closely related to ours) gets me turned on like a tap, whoosh, suddenly I’m all tears and sobs.
It was really fitting, how I found out about his work. One day I just decided to pick up two books at random at my local library. The two books were The Phantom of the Opera and Maskerade.
edited by Felix Merivel on 3/24/2015