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Author: Terry Pratchett
Published: 2015
Source: Local Library
Summary: The fairy nation is set on invading our world, and the witches who would normally stand in their way have just lost their not-a-leader. It's up to her presumptive heir, Tiffany Aching, to defend the Discworld from them just as she's struggling to cement her place among the witches and among the community.
First Impressions: Sniff. Last Terry Pratchett ever. I think it was a good one to go out on, especially with Granny Weatherwax, but others were better.
Later On: Tiffany is still working out how to be a witch of the chalk, how to belong someplace and bear responsibility toward a whole community. While she's battled the queen of the fairies and the hive mind and all sorts of other monsters, she's absorbing the lesson that has been built over the series that people are the most complicated of all.
The death of Granny Weatherwax seems oddly prescient. Where Pratchett has faked us out before, this time he went for it, and the way that Tiffany feels rudderless and lost after the loss of her second major matriarch figure (the first being her own grandmother before the start of the series) serves to bookend this series and emphasize that you never quite get there to that magical place where you just always know what you're doing at all times, but you can get a little further along.
My love for the Tiffany Aching series comes from the realism of her growth over the series. Where she started as a young girl (albeit a ferocious, clear-sighted, and competent one), this Tiffany is wobbling on the edge of adulthood, and it's as good a place as any to leave her.
As has been stated in many places, this book is essentially unfinished. Oh, it has a beginning, a middle, and an end, but it doesn't quite have all the flourishes that make up about 75% of the enjoyment of a Terry Pratchett book. He died during the editing process, so this unfinished feeling is completely valid. Still, it feels like a Pratchett book (an early one, maybe, before he really developed his powers) and I enjoyed it as such.
More: Book Nut
Emily Brand, a fan of Sir Terry Pratchett, has launched a Change.org petition. She hopes to encourage the city council of Salisbury to install a permanent statue of the late fantasy fiction author.
Prior to his passing, Pratchett resided in this English town for more than two decades. So far, the petition has drawn more than 7,000 signatures.
Some of the supporters behind this project include Pratchett’s family and Pratchett’s longtime friend Neil Gaiman. BBC News reports that “a spokeswoman for the family said he would ‘undoubtedly’ have found the amusement ‘in almost any statue.'” Gaiman wrote a post about this venture on Facebook and encouraged his followers to sign the petition.
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By: Heather Dixon,
on 12/25/2015
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StoryMonster
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Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope it’s been great so far. Here in Utah we got a white Christmas, and I can’t think of anything better.
…Except giving an awesome gift to my blog readers!! Y’all know I work as an artist, but you may not know that I also write books on the side. (I love creating stories.) A few months ago, a book I wrote, “Illusionarium” was released, and I found out just a couple days ago that it made the NYT bestseller list! Cool!
If you haven’t heard of the book, here’s a short summary–
16-year-old Jonathan lives a quiet life on a far north aerial city, with hopes of one day becoming a surgeon. But when his mother and sister fall ill with a mysterious and fatal disease, Jonathan must travel through an alternate London full of illusions and monsters to get the cure. But can he find it before his family dies…and before he turns into a monster himself?
We just finished producing the audiobook, and as a Christmas gift, I want to give it to you guys…FOR FREE! Behold!
Isn’t that a fabulous cover? Kevin Keele, one of the best artists I know, painted it. You’ll want to check out his blog and tumblr for more beautiful artwork.
Elyse Todd made that gorgeous steampunk title, and you’ll want to check her out on Behance.
I love the audiobook cover, I feel like it’s a great match for the book.
Upside down…
Really great match! Hahaha yissssss.
Ben Cummins is the reader, and he does a stupendous job. His voices are perfect!
Do you like Terry Pratchett-esque steampunk books with lots of humor and lots of monsters? Then you’ll wanna download this audibook! All you need to do is click on the link below. This will lead you to a site (totally safe, I promise) that prompts you to enter a password. Once entered, the audiobook will begin downloading.
Illusionarium Audiobook
Password = RIVEN
Merry Christmas! I hope all the best things happen for everyone in this upcoming year ^_^
By:
Bianca Schulze,
on 12/5/2015
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Fans of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book will embrace this darkly funny debut novel from Laurel Gale about Crow, a dead boy, who has a chance at friendship—and a chance at getting his life back.
Farah Mendlesohn called my attention to this bit of fuckwittery from The Guardian, in which their art critic Jonathan Jones opines that the late Terry Pratchett wrote “trash” while the equally late Günter Grass was a “true titan of the novel,” so why is everyone more sad about the passing of Sir Terry? The dumbness of this point–let’s start with the fact that more people love Pratchett’s books more than people love Grass’s–is exacerbated by the fact that Jones admits, nay, crows, that he’s never read a word of Pratchett and doesn’t intend to.
I have only read about half a dozen of Pratchett’s books and none of Grass’s, so I have no opinion of their comparative merits. (That didn’t stop Jones but I haven’t passed judgment on a book I haven’t read since that time I put Red Shift on a syllabus but never got around to reading it before the class began. I was younger then.) But his argument is straw-man specious–as far as I can tell, the only person comparing Pratchett to Grass is Jones.
He is right, though, that critical discourse is now both puffed-up and flattened. I blame the internet, although God knows even The Horn Book has tossed around words like “brilliant” and “ground-breaking” for books that are in hindsight “smart” and “different from those other books we’ve been seeing lately.” But not only has the internet brought together readers, critics, creators, fans, and publicists in what can be an orgy of self-serving hyperbole, it has leveled distinctions between high, middlebrow, and disposable culture, with TV episodes, for example, dissected with the same assiduousness as, well, the works of Pratchett or Grass. It makes me think of Anne Lamott writing in Bird by Bird about her brief but over-reaching career as a restaurant reviewer, where one of her friends had to remind her gently that “Annie, it’s just a bit of cake.”
It is a peculiarity of books for youth–along with speculative fiction and romance novels–that its devotees frequently feel burdened by the genre’s putatively second-class status of not being “real literature.” The defensiveness is certainly warranted–witness critics like Jonathan Jones!–but it can also lead to claims of greatness than only resound in the choir loft. If I were to write “Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching books are awfully good children’s books” (talk about clickbait) I would inevitably be scolded for putting limits on their goodness. But can’t it be enough that something be an awfully good children’s book without claiming it stands among the titans of literature writ large?
The post If you only had a brain appeared first on The Horn Book.
The release date for the late Terry Pratchett‘s final novel has been revealed. The Shepherd’s Crown, will be published by Penguin Random House on September 10th.
Pratchett completed the book in the summer of 2014. The Shepherd’s Crown is the fifth Discworld novel featuring young witch Tiffany Aching. Previous titles in the Tiffany Aching sequence include: The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith and I Shall Wear Midnight.
“It is a huge privilege to be publishing Sir Terry Pratchett’s final Discworld novel, The Shepherd’s Crown,” stated Tom Weldon, CEO of Penguin Random House. “Terry’s writing is loved and respected the world over and this publication will be an incredibly important and special event for us all at Penguin Random House, and for fans and readers everywhere.”
The late great sci-fi author Terry Pratchett has not been forgotten in east London.
Outdoor murals featuring reproductions of the original book art by Josh Kirby are now up on walls in Brick Lane. The London Evening Standard has the scoop:
The mural shows artwork for the cult writer’s Discworld books Mort and Reaper Man, complete with a massive portrait of the man himself, who died last month at 66 after a battle with Alzheimer’s.
Author Neil Gaiman had a huge amount of respect for how his friend, the late Terry Pratchett responded to a diagnosis with early onset rear brain alzheimer’s in 2007.
In a recent discussion about Pratchett with author Michael Chabon, Gaiman said: “He did something huge and noble, which was after his diagnosis, he went public and he went loud. He risked being trivialized.”
Here is an excerpt from the discussion:
Terry was someone who fought for years to get people to understand that funny and serious are not opposites. The opposite of funny is not funny. You can absolutely be funny and serious at the same time and Terry was.
So here is somebody who has fought to be taken seriously and to make people realize that you can write a serious novel set in a fantasy context on the back of elephants on the back a giant turtle floating through space and it can still be a real novel and he’s got there. He’s won the Carnegie Medal. He’s got serious critical attention and now he risks losing it, but he did. He announced it to the world and he used it to an opportunity to start the dialog.
(Via Electric Literature).
Neil Gaiman and Michael Chabon recently sat for a conversation at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. The two writers talked about their craft, stories, and beloved author Sir Terry Pratchett.
The video embedded above features the portion of their discussion where they talked about Pratchett and his influence on the literary community. Click here to watch a recording of the entire event. On the same day that Gaiman learned of Pratchett’s passing, he wrote a short blog post to express his feelings about his dear friend.
Here’s an excerpt: “Thirty years and a month ago, a beginning author met a young journalist in a Chinese Restaurant, and the two men became friends, and they wrote a book, and they managed to stay friends despite everything. Last night, the author died. There was nobody like him. I was fortunate to have written a book with him, when we were younger, which taught me so much.” (via The Huffington Post)
The world lost sci-fi novelist Terry Pratchett last week, but he left us one final novel.
The Shepherd’s Crown, will be published, according to the book’s designer Paul Kidby. Kidby told io9.com that he is working on illustrations for the book. He also confirmed that Pratchett had finished the book last summer, before “he succumbed to the final stages of his illness.”
The book is the fifth in the Discworld series and will be based on the witch Tiffany Aching. A release date has not been revealed.
Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015
The literary community is mourning the loss of famed science-fiction writer, Sir Terry Pratchett.
The beloved fantasy author had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for nearly a decade. The news was announced yesterday on Pratchett’s Twitter (embedded above) and Facebook pages.
A number of people have expressed their sadness on social media including Good Omens co-author Neil Gaiman, Stone Mattress author Margaret Atwood, and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron. Below, we’ve collected several messages from Twitter in a Storify post.
I've been reading
Terry Pratchett tributes all day and particularly liked
Tanita Davis's at
Finding Wonderland. Discworld readers will appreciate it. Also, Emily Dickinson fans.
I've started my son and niece on Discworld books. If I hadn't just bought three
Jane Eyre-related books for Becki, whose birthday is next week, I'd run out and get her
Monstrous Regiment, one of my favorite Pratchett books. It will have to wait for another event.
Check out the photo above. That's another generation holding his first Discworld book.
Where's My Cow? is a picture book version of a story that appears in at least one of the Discworld books. Every night,
Sam Vimes runs through the city to get home in time to read
Where's My Cow? to his son before he goes to bed.
I haven't finished all the Discworld books. Some I like better than others. I'm planning to concentrate on the
City Watch books, which feature Sam Vimes.
The reading can go on and on.
I’ve been a little bit sad today ever since I learned this morning that Terry Pratchett died. The outpouring of love for the man and his books on the internet has been overwhelming. It also is comforting, this collective mourning of a beloved author. I can’t begin to link to everything but I thought I’d collect together a few of the places that I have liked most: Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing, Jo Walton at Tor, a gathering of comments and tweets at the Guardian, a lovely mention at the Paris Review. Also at the Guardian, favorite Pratchett quotes which doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the marvelous things Pratchett said and wrote.
Writing humor is hard, writing fantasy humor is even harder. Pratchett is the only author besides Douglas Adams that has reliably made me laugh out loud reading his books. I was terribly sad when he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s a number of years ago, but yet he still managed to keep writing so his death today came as a shock.
Pratchett might be gone but at least we still have his books. And that’s something very special I think, to live on in the hearts and minds of readers around the world. Still, I’m going to miss him. As The Librarian, one of my favorite characters would say, Ook!
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It is with deep sadness that I heard about the death of my hero, Terry Pratchett, today. Terry has played the lead role in the books I read, and write, for many years. The world of fantasy will never be the same without him. Terry had a style and wit that no one will ever be able to replicate, he was a true genius.
I hope that Terry’s personification of DEATH met him with the love and respect Terry so richly deserves. Terry has moved on from the mortal plane, but will live forever in the hearts and libraries of all his fans.
A great man, and a fantastic author. We will not see his like again. My deepest sympathy goes out to Terry’s wife, Lyn, and to his family and friends.
Enjoy your afterlife, Terry. It is very lucky to have you…
posted by Neil Gaiman
I woke up and my email was all condolences from friends, and requests for statements from journalists, and I knew it had happened. I'd been warned.
Thirty years and a month ago, a beginning author met a young journalist in a Chinese Restaurant, and the two men became friends, and they wrote a book, and they managed to stay friends despite everything. Last night, the author died.
There was nobody like him. I was fortunate to have written a book with him, when we were younger, which taught me so much.
This was the last thing I wrote about Terry. I knew his death was coming and it made it no easier:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/24/terry-pratchett-angry-not-jolly-neil-gaimanI'll miss you, Terry.
I'm not up to writing anything yet. Maybe one day.
Fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett has died. He was 66 years-old and suffered from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
“It is with immeasurable sadness that we announce that author Sir Terry Pratchett has died,” reads a post on the author’s Facebook page. “The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds. Rest in peace Sir Terry Pratchett.”
His Twitter page revealed the news through a series of cryptic messages.
Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015
Pratchett was the author of more than 70 books including his most recent novel Discworld, which came out last July. He had collaborated with Neil Gaiman on Good Omens which was recently adapted as a six episode radio play on BBC Radio 4.
What was the reason behind Neil Gaiman’s desire for a Good Omens adaptation?
Gaiman wanted the co-author behind this book, Terry Pratchett, to enjoy it before his dementia became more advanced. In the past, Gaiman has written about the anger he personally feels about Pratchett’s illness.
In an interview with RadioTimes, Gaiman explained: “I do feel that time’s running out. I want Terry to be able to enjoy this while he’s still able to enjoy it…Terry still has all of his faculties. He’s fighting Alzheimer’s, but he has a rare kind of Alzheimer’s which means physical objects no longer make sense to him, but he still has memory, and he still has a mind, and he’s still very much the sharpest knife in the drawer.”
(more…)
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
It’s been about a month now since NaNoWriMo. Perhaps it is time to drag out that November endeavor and see what can become of it.
A recent article by Allen Eskens addressed revision. In 3 Tips For a Better First Revision he says the first revision is probably the most important factor in sculpting your novel. One of his favorite quotes on the idea is by Shannon Hale who wrote: “I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” Eskens says the first revision is the building of those sand castles. Though there are numerous tips to a successful rewrite, his three to make a novel better are: conflict check, transitions, and the “was” edit.
Conflict Check:
As Terry Pratchett says, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story,” so it is centered on getting the main storyline established. Eskens says that Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that every character in a scene should want something, even if it’s only a drink of water. In his second pass, Eskens asks what does every character in each scene want, and what obstacles are standing in his or her way, trying to add suspense. Rarely does a first draft take advantage of all the opportunities for tension and conflict. They can be added in the revision.
Transitions:
Quite often in the first draft we may tend to jump abruptly from one plot point to the next. Eskens says transitions should be eloquent and have wait on their own, not just move the reader from one scene to the next. He compares reading a novel to kayaking a river, sometimes shooting through rapids, bound up in the excitement of the action. At other times, one floats peacefully, admiring the landscape. “The pace of a novel is the balance between those two competing forces (between plot and scene),” says Eskens. If your transition floats, maybe you can go off on tangents that deepens characters or enriches the scenes. If you’re shooting through the rapids, the transition will be shorter.
The “Was” Edit:
I’m guilty of including passive language and probably nowhere as much as in my first drafts. Esken uses a word find function to look for instances when he’s used “was,” then tries to find a way to rewrite the sentence to make it stronger. “He was taller than me,” may be revised to say “he stood three inches taller than me.” Other times, “was” may work just fine, but at least the “was” edit forces one to examine their word choices.
If you’re ready to dust off an old first draft and start revising, incorporating these tips may be of use.
By:
Bianca Schulze,
on 11/14/2014
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Kat Beyer has an M.A. in medieval history and has loved all things Italian for as long as she can remember. Her first novel was The Demon Catchers of Milan.
Neil Gaiman has written the foreword for Terry Pratchett’s forthcoming collection, A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected Nonfiction. The Guardian published a section of Gaiman’s piece where he talks about Pratchett’s “angry” side. Here’s an excerpt:
“There is a fury to Terry Pratchett’s writing: it’s the fury that was the engine that powered Discworld. It’s also the anger at the headmaster who would decide that six-year-old Terry Pratchett would never be smart enough for the 11-plus; anger at pompous critics, and at those who think serious is the opposite of funny; anger at his early American publishers who could not bring his books out successfully.”
(more…)
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
BBC Radio 4 will be creating a six-part dramatization of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Both writers will be involved with this adaptation.
Actors Mark Heap and Peter Serafinowicz have been brought on to play the lead roles. The first installment is set to air in December 2014. Gaiman announced the project on his Facebook page; the post has received more than 21,000 “likes.”
Here’s more from BBC News: “The story, published in 1990, sees an angel and demon join forces to try and stop the end of the world coming about…The play will be broadcast in five parts across one week, culminating in an hour-long finale on Saturday. The precise transmission dates have yet to be announced.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
By: Powell's Staff,
on 4/29/2014
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It's spring! The sun is shining. The flowers are in bloom. The Blazers are winning (fingers crossed). We're in a good mood. So for our latest round of Required Reading, we lined up our 25 favorite funny novels. Whether biting, riotous, savage, or slapstick, each of these books consistently makes us laugh. ÷ ÷ ÷ [...]
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Title: The Shepherd's Crown
