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Revision as of 13:49, 19 March 2003
Terry Pratchett is an English fantasy author (born April 28, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Bucks), best known for his Discworld series.
Now containing some 20 books, the Discworld series is a humourous fantasy work that parodies everything under the sun where the disc-shaped world rotates on the backs of four giant elephants supported by the enormous turtle Great A'Tuin swimming its way through space. Major topics of parody have included many science fiction and fantasy characters, ideas and tropes, Ingmar Bergman films, Australia, film making, newspaper publishing, rock and roll music, religion, philosophy (mainly Greek), Egyptian history, trade unions, monarchy, and on and on.
Pratchett's novel The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents won the 2001 Carnegie Award for best children's novel (awarded in 2002).
The covers of all of the Discworld novels sold in the United Kingdom until 2001 were created by Josh Kirby.
The Discworld novels:
- The Colour of Magic
- The Light Fantastic
- Equal Rites
- Mort
- Sourcery
- Wyrd Sisters
- Pyramids
- Guards! Guards!
- Eric (Originally published as a 'Discworld comic': larger format & fully illustrated by Josh Kirby; more recently reissued as a normal paperback.)
- Moving Pictures
- Reaper Man
- Witches Abroad
- Small Gods
- Lords and Ladies
- Men at Arms
- Soul Music
- Interesting Times
- Maskerade
- Feet of Clay
- Hogfather
- Jingo
- The Last Continent
- Carpe Jugulum
- The Fifth Elephant
- The Truth
- Thief of Time
- The Last Hero (Illustrated by Paul Kidby)
- The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (The first Discworld book intended for younger people)
- Night Watch
The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Mort, and Guards! Guards! have all been adapted as graphic novels. Several have also been adapted as plays by Stephen Briggs. Mort and Soul Music have also been adapted as animated cartoons.
Other non-discworld books by Pratchett:
- Strata (though this does feature a disc shaped world, the novel is more a parody of Larry Niven's Ringworld)
- The Dark Side of the Sun
- The Carpet People (Pratchett's debut novel)
- A trilogy of children's books (known as The Bromeliad):
- Diggers
- Truckers
- Wings
- Good Omens (co-written with Neil Gaiman)
- The Unadulterated Cat (with Gray Jolliffe. An homage to real cats)
- Only You Can Save Mankind
- Johnny and the Dead
- Johnny and the Bomb
Other books containing contributions by Pratchett:
- Meditations on Middle-Earth (2002)
Pratchett's books have received a level of critical acclaim unusual for their genre. A collection of essays about his writings is compiled in the book, Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature?, eds. Andrew M. Butler, Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, Science Fiction Foundation, 2000.
It is even possible to get a character in one of the future Discworld books named after yourself. Usually people appear in the books by bidding for the priviledge in charity auctions.
See also: Discworld, Discworld characters
External links:
- The L-Space Web
- Discworld Monthly (free monthly newsletter about Terry Pratchett OBE and his Discworld and other novels.)