Discworld Fans Read This!
Aug 26 '03 (Updated Dec 02 '03)
The Bottom Line Just a bit of fun for Pratchett fans. Nothing more, nothing less.
Okay, before I start let me just say that this one is for Discworld aficionados only, so if you’re not familiar with Discworld please don’t bother reading or rating this as it will be meaningless to you.
Right, now that’s out of the way, let’s get down to the serious business of… a bit of fun.
Since joining epinions and especially reading / writing many Discworld reviews, it’s struck me that many people like Discworld but seldom agree in their praise for particular books and characters. Therefore I thought it might be interesting to see who liked which books and characters, and for what reasons.
My favourite book is:
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Mort
I just love this book. Mainly because Death is such a great character, and I liked Mort (the character) as well. There are many Discworld books that are probably as funny as Mort (Moving Pictures, Pyramids, Soul Music, The Last Continent, Small Gods, The Fifth Elephant, etc), but this book just has a certain charm that stayed with me far longer than the others I’ve just mentioned, even though I did really enjoy them (and even though Death featured strongly in other books as well). I can’t put my finger on exactly why this is my favourite, I think that maybe the pairing of Death and Mort is the strongest partnership of main characters in any of the books I’ve read ) though Brutha and Om in Small Gods come pretty close), combined with a fast-paced plot and more laughs than you could shake a stick made of sapient pearwood at. It’s one of the first Discworld books I ever read, but despite increasingly stiff opposition it remains my favourite.
Favourite Characters:
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1. Death. It will come to no surprise to anyone who’s read my reviews before that my favourite character in Discworld (and indeed in any work of fiction ever) is Death. He’s just wonderful. I think it’s his extremely dry sense of humour combined with his puzzlement regarding humans, and his inept (sometimes bizarre) attempts to understand them – must be something to do with being an anthropomorphic personification, I think.. Despite his “everything must follow an established order” type of attitude, he does soften after a while… He opposes the Auditors in “Reaper Man” and “Thief of Time”, for instance. He even has a tender side – Susan’s mother was Death’s adopted daughter, who he saved when she should in fact have died. (This was in Mort). He appears to some degree in just about every novel, but stars or has a leading role (to a greater or lesser extent) in Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather, and Thief of Time.
2. Arch-chancellor Ridcully. He’s just great. The head of the wizards of Unseen University (at least by the time of Reaper Man – not sure exactly where in the stream of time he took over), he’s more an administrator than wizard and apparently an ignoramus, but there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye. He looks at things from a completely different angle to the rest of the wizards, and as such neither can he understand them or the other way around – but he’s the boss so they have to do what he says anyway. He plays a large role in Reaper Man, The Last Continent, Soul Music, and The Hogfather.
3 ”Cut-my-own-throat-Dibbler” Seems to appear in all of the Ankh-Morpork based stories, and has counterparts in every city, it seems (there’s definitely one in Omnia (Small Gods) and EcksEcksEcksEcks (The Last Continent). But they’re not as good as the original dibbler. Whether he’s an actor’s agent (Moving Pictures), the manager of a music band (Soul Music), or just peddling his meat-of-dubious-origin pies around the back streets of Ankh-Morpork, Dibbler is your definite con-man. And why do you know he’s giving you a good price? Because after the offer he’ll tell you: “and that’s cutting my own throat, you know”.
4 Gaspode. Subtitled “The Wonderdog” (named after someone famous who no-one’s ever heard of), Gaspode is a talking dog with a rather bleak outlook on life. He also has a tremendous sense of humour and fun. Despite appearing to be a coward, he proves himself to be rather heroic in the end (Moving Pictures) – though he doesn’t actually get the credit for it. He also has a starring role in The Fifth Elephant.
5 Stan Vimes. One of the very few – or maybe the only – competent, honest officers of The Watch. Sadly he’s surrounded by bumbling incompetents such as Nobby, and this is what provides much of the humour in in the books he’s in. He stars in The Fifth Elephant and also Night Watch (though I haven’t yet read the latter.
Characters that almost made my top 5:
Susan (Death’s granddaughter) – possesses some of Death’s abilities, often reluctantly called in to save the universe. (Soul Music, Hogfather, Reaper Man).
Death of Rats – the only part of Death not absorbed into a single personification. Says “SQUEAK” a lot.
Ronnie Soak – The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse. (He left before they became famous due to irresolvable artistic differences). Became a milkman. Really only missed out because I’ve seen him in only one book (Thief of Time).
Ponder Stibbons – One of the wizards. More interested in science than wizardry – spends a lot of time using Hex, Unseen University’s equivalent of a computer. In quite a few of the Discworld novels, I found him funniest in The Last Continent.
God of Hangovers – Only appeared in The Hogfather (to my knowledge), but was soooooooooooo funny!
NB – the lists of books these characters star in is by no means exhaustive, just what I can remember and bearing in mind that there are still a few Discworld books I still haven’t read – and of course TP keeps churning them out! :-O
Well that’s all folks. Please post your fave book and top five characters in the comments – I expect Hist will say Reaper Man is his favourite book, but I’m not sure about everyone else, and Death seems certain to be the most popular character overall, but apart from that who know?!?!
Cheers all,
Dave.
My Reviews of Discworld Novels:
The Colour of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Mort
Sourcery
Reaper Man
Soul Music
Moving Pictures
Pyramids
Small Gods
The Last Continent
The Fifth Elephant
Thief of Time
The Hogfather
My Reviews of Other Pratchett Books:
Diggers
Only You Can Save Mankind
Computer Games
Discworld: Noir (this is the third Discworld game)
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