In the Mail and Early, to Boot: The Nightmare Stacks.

A day early: all hail the power of hyper-efficient Amazon delivery systems! A… suggestion? If you have not effectively memorized* Terry Pratchett’s Lords and Ladies at this point, perhaps you should go read that book first. You’re gonna need that mindset up and running, methinks.

Moe Lane

*You have, of course, at least read it, yes? – Because if you have not, well, this is what you need to do this week. The only reason why I’m not calling it Pratchett’s best book is because sussing out which is Terry Pratchett’s best book isn’t something that you do lightly.

15 thoughts on “In the Mail and Early, to Boot: The Nightmare Stacks.”

  1. Besides, we all know the top three are Small Gods, Guards! Guards!, and Hogfather. 😉

      1. I’d put Thief of Time above Hogfather, and Reaper Man is just pitch-perfect, and this is really a goram tough game to play, isn’t it?

        1. Reaper Man is excellent.
          I wasn’t terribly fond of Thief of Time, but was extremely happy to see him returning to form with it.

  2. .. still deciding whether I want to pay early rates for this one.. although if I decide to, it’ll be for Kindle.
    .
    As I understand it, this is yet again not “more Bob” .. Stross seems to have gotten bored with Bob, then – on realizing the fans wanted more Bob – Stross shoved Bob way *way* up the Laundry food chain, perhaps to get him off camera?
    .
    Again, *in my opinion*, the not-Bob stuff has not gone well.
    .
    To say I was disappointed with Bob’s adventure in Colorado (Apocalypse codex) would be .. accurate; as would saying I found Mel’s POV (Annihilation Score) to be .. less than, somehow. She never came across as a complete person…
    .
    Mhari’s return (Rhesus Chart) was adequate, but not a triumph.
    .
    So ..
    .
    A good review here would tip the scales .. is the new not-Bob a compelling character, who does interesting stuff, without – and this is *key* – taking him or herself *too* seriously?
    .
    Mew

    1. You mean Mo (not our gracious host)? i have a question – she’s one of the most unlikeable characters, so a combination of that, the audiobook narrator grating on me in the sample (the way I normally read the Laundry Files books) and up until last week the publishers still wanting thirteen bucks for the ebook meant I skipped it. How necessary is it to the Case Nightmare Green plot moving forward? I mean, I’ll suffer through it if i have to, but I’d really rather skip it until we get a protagonist that isn’t an unlikeable a-hole if I can.

  3. Pratchett is one of those authors that I have never gotten around to reading. Is the “Lords and Ladies” where you would start?

    1. It’s not a *bad* place to start. Depends on which POV arc you’re into, some of which run into each other. Wizards start with Color of Magic, Witches with Wyrd Sisters(I think), Mort for Death, and I can’t remember for Ankh-Morpork City Watch.

      1. Rincewind starts with The Colour of Magic, but Wizards really starts with Moving Pictures and the introduction of The Faculty. Although there’s overlap, I consider them separate series. (After all, there’s less overlap than between the Death series and Rincewind!)
        .
        The Watch starts with Guards! Guards!

    2. As my wife put it: there are no *bad* books in the Discworld series, and Pratchett tried hard to make them stand alone as books, but the impact of Lords and Ladies is improved if you’ve read Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad first.

      Just save yourself some time and buy the lot of them.

      1. What is that, like forty books now? Heh. Of course, based on number of rereads, my favorite Pratchett is probably Good Omens. But I have been slowly listening through the audiobooks, up through the first ten or so, so far.

    3. I’d recommend starting with Small Gods, unlike most of the Discworld books, it’s not really part of a series.

    4. Start with Guards, Guards. Frankly, I think the Witches and Wizards parts of the series are weaker than Ankh-Morpork.

  4. My wife had a $60 B&N credit thanks to the Apple settlement. I tried to order The Colour of Magic, but they cancelled my order, due to the ebook being out of stock. I guess they forgot to pay their electric bill and ran out of electrons?

    Trying to sell books that they don’t have. Brilliant. No wonder brick & mortar stores are going out of business.

  5. I actually picked up Colour of Magic on amazon and finished it in most of one sitting. It is nice to read just a fun novel sometimes. I just got the second one.
    –
    Thanks for recommending the series.

Comments are closed.