Fantasy Books -Terry Pratchett

[ebikeerwidnes]

I have read Thomas Covenent a few times

After I started for the 3rd time I started to realise that when I was reading them I got really depressed
and I mean depressed and not miserable

I felt i had to finish the series I was in but I did it in large chunk and hardly watched teh telly until I had finished
Once I stopped I started to feel normal again


I know (now - I didn;t then) that I can get depressed if I am not careful but this book did seem like a trigger for me
probably very specific for me
I am after all not exactly normal - e.g I don;t know anyone else who cries if I heard Puff the Magic Dragon (yes really!)


but ain;t exactly cheerful from what I remember (I have obviously not read it for many years now!)


ALthough I have thought that it must be a very well written book to generate such emotion!

 

[AndyRM]

The Night Watch Trilogy by Sergei Lukyanenko is pretty incredible.

 

[Alex321]

I think i missed the boat on that series, dune series , dragonriders of pern, thomas covenent , hhtggt to name but a few .

I've read all of each of those series.

The Dune & Pern ones are more Sci-Fi than fantasy IMV, though the latter is somewhat borderline.

But I enjoy a lot of both Sci-Fi and Fantasy, so don't really mind which category any particular book/series falls into.

 

[Time Waster]

I have read Thomas Covenent a few times

After I started for the 3rd time I started to realise that when I was reading them I got really depressed
and I mean depressed and not miserable

I felt i had to finish the series I was in but I did it in large chunk and hardly watched teh telly until I had finished
Once I stopped I started to feel normal again


I know (now - I didn;t then) that I can get depressed if I am not careful but this book did seem like a trigger for me
probably very specific for me
I am after all not exactly normal - e.g I don;t know anyone else who cries if I heard Puff the Magic Dragon (yes really!)


but ain;t exactly cheerful from what I remember (I have obviously not read it for many years now!)


ALthough I have thought that it must be a very well written book to generate such emotion!

Puff the magic dragon is really sad. I come close to you in reaction to that. And do not start me on the theme tune to watership down (or whatever that rabbit animation film is called). However Bambi makes me think of venison sausages!! Mmmmm!

Brave new world had a huge impact on me in a way 1984 and animal farm never did. I think Aldous Huxley is superior to George Orwell in the dystopian story style. Brave new world opened my eyes politically. And I quite liked catch 22, a very marmite book. I heard it was a book that if you liked it you read it cover to cover but if you didn't you simply could not get through it. Kind of unreadable if it does not chime with you in some way.

Fantasy genre I think has subtext to it. LOTR WWI and WWII, Alice in wonderland - God, Pullman puts atheism into everything I believe. There is a series of books about a tree that became a young woman with incredible powers she had to relearn was about adolescence and growing up. I think Ursula leguin has a lot of subtext in her earthsea books. I suppose you get subtext in a lot of books but tbh I do think that it gets overlooked in fantasy genre personally.

Not read Dune series and doubt I will. Saw part of the film and hated the idea of giant sand worms too much to bother with the books or films to the end.

Not fantasy so much but I got a book secondhand called Storyland by Amy Jeffs. It is British mythology. I guess it will have plenty of giants and the linkage with Biblical tales or characters so much part of British myth. Too big for a holiday book though.

BTW I was looking in the library link in the village for a holiday book. Plenty of selection of crime thriller page turners I was looking for. However I noticed that even the paperbacks had grown to a larger size. I mean hardbacks are usually a bigger book than they would be as a paperback, but in the library the paperbacks were bigger than the old hardbacks used to be and the hardbacks were almost A4 in size!!! Have books become bigger of late or is my memory playing up? Could it just be the ones they stocked?

 

[icowden]

Which book number did Vimes start in?
Are the books all standalone in discworld or linked? If you started later on series do you miss out on something you need for understanding of it?

Yes and No and Yes and No.

None of the books are entirely linked but some of them group into collections where it can make a bit more sense if you read them in order.
https://www.discworldemporium.com/reading-order/

this is a very useful page which allows you to see the overall chronology or the chronological groupings of City Watch, Witches, Wizards (Unseen University), Death and then the other odds and sods.

 

[icowden]

Loved just nipping back to read a Pratchett year after year. Don't feel there is snootiness, i know some very clever people and they all read fantasy and Sci fi. Try Ian Banks.

And after Ian Banks, try Iain M Banks ;-)

(Iain Banks is the name he used for contemporary fiction - Iain M Banks for Sci-Fi)

 

[icowden]

I have read Thomas Covenent a few times

You have my deepest sympathy, although I'm impressed that you managed more than once. I struggled to get that far with the needy whinger. This has to be the most depressing fantasy book series of all time. I think I managed to half way into the second book by which point I really wanted to punch Thomas repeatedly and tell him to B***y well cheer up.

 

[icowden]

Not read Dune series and doubt I will. Saw part of the film and hated the idea of giant sand worms too much to bother with the books or films to the end.

Dune itself is very good, as is the sequel, although a difficult read with the necessity to refer to an in-world dictionary/glossary quite a bit. By book three I struggled to maintain interest.

On the comedy side of sci-fi fantasy I will also recommend Robert Rankin's extensive collection of Brentford based books with silly names, full of running gags and B-movie-esque escapades.

Another off the wall series is Jodi Taylors Chronicles of St Mary's featuring historians who do like a cup of tea and definitely don't do time travel, just observe history in contemporary time (which always seems to go wrong).

Charles Stross has a very interesting sort of Cthulu based series of books involving computer nerds (it turns out that you can use computers to run and control rudimentary pentagrams and rites to summon soul eating entities into the world).

I also have a soft spot for Terry Brooks Shannara series (and word and the void), and Raymond E Fiests epic sagas.

 

[icowden]

BTW I was looking in the library link in the village for a holiday book. Plenty of selection of crime thriller page turners I was looking for. However I noticed that even the paperbacks had grown to a larger size. I mean hardbacks are usually a bigger book than they would be as a paperback, but in the library the paperbacks were bigger than the old hardbacks used to be and the hardbacks were almost A4 in size!!! Have books become bigger of late or is my memory playing up? Could it just be the ones they stocked?

Top tip - get a kindle fire or other tablet and download Libby. Take as many books as you like on holiday and read them on your tablet :-)

 

[Time Waster]

I usually use my kindle e ink as I don't like tablets to read books on. I can get photophobic when reading on a tablet particularly in bright lights. Mind you paper books do still have the tactile advantage I am afraid.

 

[icowden]

I usually use my kindle e ink as I don't like tablets to read books on. I can get photophobic when reading on a tablet particularly in bright lights. Mind you paper books do still have the tactile advantage I am afraid.

They do, but the kindle does help with the luggage weight allowance...

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I too like the books, in particular any featuring Vimes, Carrot & co

I'd like to see a live-action that was true to the (or 'a') book, like Going Postal was, or as close as it could be
If a Watch programme was made, I'd suggest Geraldine James as Lady Sybil (Lady Maud, in the TV adaptation of 'Blott On The Landscape')
Enjoyed the railways in Raising Steam with the idea of 'live steam' taken to its literal conclusion

 

[Time Waster]

They do, but the kindle does help with the luggage weight allowance...

The kindle is light but some of the tablet forms of kindle such as the fire, etc weigh a bit more IIRC. Plus the charge is unlilely to last a full holiday like a kindle with e-ink. Better with a trad kindle type not the tablet kindle type.

What with doing all the things I do on holiday I generally only have time for one book per week holiday do provided you can find the old, smaller paperbacks you have something the same weight as a kindle e-ink version.

 

[Bazzer]

My favourite author and I have almost every one of the Disc world series either as a first edition or a signed copy, plus paperbacks. I would start with the first couple of books just to give some idea of Disc World and some of the characters there. But personally I think his writing and characters improved from the first books.
Suggestions;
The Death series, in particular Reaper Man and Hogfather.
The Tiffany Aching series.
The Witches series. I recall my former manager looking at me weirdly as at an end of year assessment, I quoted from Witches Abroad.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Just catching up
I had forgotten about Feist - wonderful epic series - well worth reading

and yes - Thomas Covernant was a struggle - all 3 times!


as far as Kindles are concerned I pretty much only read books on mine - never read "real" books anymore
I have discussed this with several people of different viewpoints
I think it depends on your mindset - to me the story and the characters are everything and anything getting in the way is unwelcome
including turning a page especially if I am e.g. lying on my side so the "other" hand is not where the book is - I find the kindle much easier and enhances the experience
I have met other people for whom the tactile feel of the book is a large part of the experience


as far as holidays are concerned I can easily get through 3-6 books on a holiday so using my Kindle helps a lot with packing
it also makes it easy to switch to something lighter for a while when a book is getting a bit heavy in terms of content

my wife would get through even more books - even in a normal week


BTW - I get most of my books from Amazon - because it is easy and I can wait and get them on offers

but I do get some from other places - some of which as free
you can get them onto a computer and email it to the kindle - there is an email address in the setting section
You just need to be aware that it only goes to that device - so it doesn;t appear on other things like tablets or phones unless you email it to their different address as well