Moe Lane

I assume that most of you have read Terry Pratchett’s Lords and Ladies by now, but on the off chance that you haven’t: Terry Pratchett understood folklore. And he knew what lay behind the Victorian flower fairies and Tolkien’s mighty, yet noble Elves. Oh, my, yes, he knew.

So read it, if you haven’t.

And so, adieu to Bugs in the System.

From TV Tropes:

• Interestingly, the surgical team who treated Terry Pratchett for a minor procedure – which after patient questioning on his part, turned out to have become somewhat more complicated and turned into a more urgent Situation – told him afterwards that he’d sat up during the operation, demonstrating the anaesthesia wasn’t quite working, and had a one-sided conversation with an unseen Other in the operating theatre. Pratchett had apparently asked that if he had to go at this point, could a packed lunch be provided? Ham sandwiches with mustard would be appreciated. Apparently he was only offered plain ham with no condiments, and had expressed dissappointment. Terry was both perplexed and oddly reassure by this, and this account of his own NDE – which he didn’t remember at all save through the doctor’s recollection – ended up in a Discworld novel as a discourse between an elderly witch and Death. This is recollected in A Blink Of The Screen, a collection of his non-fiction writings. Hopefully Death remembered the mustard, when the time did arrive.

Seriously, this is pretty dang cool.

!!! RT @Discworld_com: JIM HENSON COMPANY PARTNERS W/ NARRATIVIA TO DEVELOP “WEE FREE MEN” AS FEATURE FILM: https://t.co/k2XQSaINY1

— Diane Duane (@dduane) July 19, 2016

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If this Graeme Whiting had just stuck with being generally dismissive of Game of Thrones, he’d have been fine. I mean: the statement “I’m not going to let my nine year old watch GoT” is an absolutely uncontroversial opinion. Virtually nobody reading this is going to go Oh, sure, it’d be a fun bonding experience for the family. And I figure that not letting my kids read the GoT books until puberty teaches them how to successfully hide things from me is likewise a perfectly valid parenting choice.  So this Whiting guy was actually not in a bad rhetorical place, if he had just been smart enough to realize it. (more…)

The Shepherd’s Crown is the last Discworld novel. To mangle Sir Terry himself: it is impossible for you to have gotten this far and not understand what that means.

And so, adieu to The Bunker. (more…)

I can’t.  Not right now.

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett is the eleventh one in his Discworld series, and they’re being SOLD FOR FOUR BUCKS APIECE ON KINDLE, so why are you still here?  Seriously. This is, like a steal. :waving fingers: Go! Shoo! Buy Discworld books for four bucks!

And so, farewell to Superego.

Moe Lane

It is a testimony to Terry Pratchett that The Compleat Ankh-Morpork: City Guide – which is, after all, a guide to a city that does not actually exist – can still come across as being a guide (complete with ads) to a city that could exist. Provided, of course, that a city that included dwarves, trolls, vampires, wizards, thieves, assassins, imps, and barbarian heroes among its citizenry could exist, whether sitting on a flat Disc on four elephants on a turtle swimming through space, or not.  Probably not.  Although we may be just not looking with a big enough telescope.

Anyway, if you like the Discworld this would be a handsome addition to your library. Including the map! – Which I don’t know what to do with, honestly: I already have a map of Ankh-Morpork framed, and on the wall. (more…)

Terry Pratchett’s latest, and I fear possibly last, Discworld novel. I read Raising Steam and I enjoyed it very much and God damn early-onset Alzheimer’s. God damn it to Hell.

…Sorry.

New Laundry novella from Charles Stross:

And of interest is this passage from the blurb:

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“Swedish researchers report the successful trial of a vaccine that helps individuals develop protective antibodies that can prevent progression of Alzheimer’s disease.”

I don’t know if it would work in Prachett’s case, but… dammit, I lost Ray Bradbury this week. Enough said.

Via Instapundit.

Snuff: A Novel of Discworld has arrived.  It’s one of the Sam Vimes police procedural ones, which are probably my favorite subcategory of Terry Pratchett Discworld novels*.

Go on ahead; I’ll catch up with you later.

Moe Lane

*Well, yes, except for DEATH, of course.  Everybody likes him.