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Revision as of 13:44, 7 April 2002 by Detritus (talk | contribs) (*Capitalized titles of books)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Terry Pratchett is an English author (born April 28, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Bucks), best known for his Discworld series.
Now containing 20-some 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, movie making, newspaper publishing, rock and roll music, religion, philosophy (mainly Greek), Egyptian history, trade unions, monarchy, and on and on. Recurring characters include Rincewind the incompetent wizard, Death, his granddaughter Susan Sto Helit, and Death's apprentice Mort, Granny Weatherwax the Witch, Cohen the barbarian, the Librarian of Unseen University, Carrot, a dwarf by adoption and devoted member of the City Guard, and the Luggage.
The covers of all of the Discworld novels sold in the UK 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 story': 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 three have been adapted as graphic novels. Several have also been adapted as plays by Stephen Briggs.
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)
- Dark Side of the Sun
- The carpet people
- A trilogy of childrens books:
- Diggers
- Truckers
- Wings
- Good Omens (co-written with Neil Gaiman)
- The Unexpurgated Cat (with Gray Jolliffe. An homage to real cats)
- Only you can save mankind
- Johnny and the Dead
- Johnny and the bomb
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.
External links: