Night Watch is the sixth of the Discworld novels about the City Watch (if you don’t count The Truth which is less about the Watch and more about de Worde. [I'm currently reading it.] If you want to count The Truth, it would be the sixth book and Night Watch the seventh) by Terry Pratchett [reviews of the others here].

Plot:
During the pursuit of a criminal, Sam Vimes (and said criminal, Carcer Dun) gets swept into a magical storm which sends him back 30 years. In the past, he takes on the role of John Keel, his own mentor and has to orchestrate a revolution and try to get Carcer Dun and himself home.

Night Watch is very different in tone from the City Watch books before it - it is much darker and less funny (though there’s still plenty to chuckle about). Inicidentally, it’s also the City Watch book I like most so far. I like Pratchett when he’s darker.

Night Watch is almost completely focussed on Sam Vimes. And it is really amazing to see the character development Sam Vimes has been through: The (mostly subtle) comparison between Future!Vimes and Past!Vimes is beautifully done.

It’s also nice to get an impression of what Ankh-Morpork was like before Vetinari (and btw, Past!Vetinari is already all kinds of awesome).

But apart from all that, Night Watch is one of the best time travel stories ever. Completely logical, interesting and surprising.

I actually thought that Night Watch was the last book about the Watch and I was ready to cry myself to sleep every night after reading it. But then deadra comes along and hands me The Truth and tells me that Monstrous Regiment is kind of about the watch too and that there’s still Thud! Now I’m a little consoled, even if I’ve been reading as slowly as I can to delay the inevitable end…

And finally, have a quote:

“Don’t put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That’s why they’re called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes.”

The Fifth Elephant is the fifth of the Discworld novels about the City Watch by Terry Pratchett [reviews of the others here].

Plot:
Sam Vimes gets send to Überwald on a diplomatic mission by the Patrician. Überwald is the home of the dwarfs, the vampires and the werewolves. Things are brewing in Überwald – a new dwarf Low King is about to be throned, the werewolves are planning something and Angua and Carrot get mixed up in all of this as well.

I liked the Fifth Elephant – Sam Vimes as a diplomat is always an awesome sight. Though I don’t think that it’s the best book in the series, it’s not the worst either. Getting a look at society in Überwald was also really cool.

I’m quickly approaching the end of the Watch books  – and I really don’t wanna… I like all of the characters but I love – with all of my heart – Sam Vimes. Life without him is going to be dire indeed.

I really liked the whole werewolf thingy – Angua’s ex and Carrot’s chasing after her with Gaspode, but also the look we got at Angua’s family.

And Colon in charge! Almost made me wish to have him in charge more often.

I don’t know if there’s anything else I can say about this book that I haven’t said about the others, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Synopsis from www.terrypratchatt.co.uk:

Mightily Oats has not picked a good time to be priest. He thought he’d come to Lancre for a simple ceremony. Now he’s caught up in a war between vampires and witches.

There’s Young Agnes, who is really in two minds about everything. Magrat, who is trying to combine witchcraft and nappies, Nanny Ogg … and Granny Weatherwax, who is big trouble.

And the vampires are intelligent. They’ve got style and fancy waistcoats. They’re out of the casket and want a bite of the future. Mightily Oats knows he has a prayer, but he wishes he had an axe.

Carpe Jugulum is Terry Pratchett’s twenty-third Discworld novel – but the first to star vampires.

As the synopsis says, this is the 23rd book in the Discworld series, and the stars of this book are the Witches. In this adventure they are fighting vampires – or vampyres as they wanted to be known as. These are modern vampires, who want to fit in with the population, until they need to fed of course. Influencing people with mind tricks they are set on domination. Except they picked a fight with Granny Weatherwax. Seemingly old and weak, how will Granny fight back?

I love the Witches novels. Nanny Ogg is my favourite. She has a vast collection of rude jokes and carries everything she could possibly need in her knickers. She is practical, blunt and just hilarious. I had to laugh at Agnes as well, with her second mind.

There is a lot of humour in this book. Pratchett is very good at writing books which make me laugh. I loved the idea of modern vampires and them learning how to become immune to things such as garlic. The Count and his enthusiasm made me laugh. Pratchett also writes a good adventure and great fight scenes. This book had me gripped and I finished in within a couple of days. I loved it. I laughed and cringed, enjoyed the characters, loved having vampires in the book and alongside Death, the Witches are my favourite Discworld characters. I have no complaints about this book. Top marks from me.

10/10

Just finished reading The Truth by Terry Pratchett, another of his Discworld series. I feel completely embarrassed to discover that he’s been one of the most popular novelists in the UK (probably only barring J.K. Rowling, really) for decades.

It’s a bit how I felt when I didn’t really get the Stones until my twenties. Oh, sure, I liked the Stones, but I didn’t really get them. Then one day I was listening to Miss You on one of those wretched cross-country road-trips where you can only get bullshit classic rock, and it hit me like a ton of, well, stones: “Oh, you —-ing idiot, there’s a reason this band is considered one of (if not) the greatest ever. Because they are. I mean, that bassline alone…!”

Sometimes wisdom takes its sweet-ass time while you’re embarrassing yourself.

The point is, Terry Pratchett can write like very few people can. The fantasy version of Douglas Adams (although Pratchett is actually a few years older than Adams would have been- they were contemporaries) but with more a humanist beauty to his writing- even his evil-doers have a sympathy and forgiving humorous tick to them. And even though many of his endings tie their knots just so, it never feels contrived, forced or trite. It feels as it should be.

That’s quite the slight of hand. And he’s so very English. Which is why he was knighted, I suppose.

In the past couple of years, I’ve read The Truth, Guards! Guards!, Going Postal, Soul Music, and Making Money. Only 33 more to go!

Terry also was diagnosed with Alzheimers in  2007. Anyone wishing to make a donation in his name can do so at Match it for Pratchett.org.

( Not the cover as I have, but I couldn’t find the cover I have.)

8 Cds, aprox running time 8 hours and 20 mins.

Read by Nigel Planer

Isis Audio Books

On the Back cover:

How difficult could it be to make sure that a servant girl doesn’t marry a prince?

For the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, traveling to the distant city of Genua, things are never simple. For one thing, all they’ve got is Mrs Gogol’s voodoo, a one eyed cat and a second-hand magic wand that can only do pumpkins. And they’re up against the malignant power of the godmother herself, who has made Destiny an offer it can’t refuse.

I really enjoyed listening to this installment of Discworld. In Witches abroad you get to go travelling  to far-flung Genua with Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. Magrat Garlick ( the wet hen) has inherited the job of fairy Godmothering and has been given a mission to save a young servant girl from marring a prince. In this adventure, Greebo , the cat, helps the witches in a way a cat is not usually able  to do!

I think this is my favourite adventure for the witches so far!  I was listening to this as I was doing my daily housework chores and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud and I had finished my chores quicker then I had ever finished them before! If you haven’t read or listened to any of the Discworld novels  I would definitly recommend them!

****

Waterstone’s Synopsis:

It’s the Discworld’s last continent and it’s going to die in a few days, except…Who is this hero striding across the red desert? Sheep shearer, beer drinker, bush ranger, and someone who’ll even eat a Meat Pie Floater when he’s sober. A man in a hat whose luggage follows him on little legs. Yes, it’s Rincewind, the inept wizard who can’t even spell wizard. He’s the only hero left. Still…no worries, eh?

This has become one of my favourite Discworld books. It is number 22 in the series and features the Wizards – the Wizards on holiday in fact! While trying to find someone who knows about geography they stumble through an open window onto a hot island. This window closes and they are stuck. Meanwhile, Rincewind is loose and trying to escape from whatever it is he is expected to do, as usual.

I loved this book. There were moments in it that I was crying with laughter – such as when the wizards trying to explain sex to a god. The wizards just lack common sense and magic, and it was so funny reading about them on a desert island and their attempt to get back to Unseen University. And there is the fact that they are stuck on the island with a woman….they are like hormonal teenage boys – very funny. And of course Rincewind always makes me laugh. He manages to save everyone in all his adventures, but essentially he does this by running away and being scared; and drinking beer.

I really enjoyed this book and got through it very quickly. We get a visit from Death in the book too which always makes me laugh – his wit is hilarious. The book is full of adventure and humour, as well as gripping storylines – I really wanted to know if they wizards would make it back in an edible boat – and amazing descriptions. Without fail Pratchett always transports me to the Discworld with no trouble and I love it. This is highly recommended.

9/10

Waterstone’s Synopsis:

Discworld goes to war, with armies of sardines, warriors, fishermen, squid and at least one very camp follower. As two armies march, Commander Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch faces unpleasant foes who are out to get him…and that’s just the people on his side. The enemy might be even worse. “Jingo”, the 21st in Terry Pratchett’s phenomenally successful “Discworld” series, makes the World Cup look like a friendly five-a-side.

This is book 21 in the Discworld series and features the Watch. After finding an unoccupied area of land, Ankh-Morpork finds itself at war to claim this land – even though it is deserted and not particularly impressive. Everyone seems to have their own agenda and different ways of conquering and taking the land as their own.

I much preferred this book to the previous Watch book, Feet of Clay. I found the storyline more gripping and the characters amused me a lot more. The Watch are an amusing group of individuals – not all human, and they have many different talents. Carrot, the human raised as a dwarf always cracks me up. He is so sensitive and literal, and Detritus the troll was hilarious. Listening to him going “I’m gunna be thick” just made me laugh. His approach to politics – intimidate to get results amused me a lot.

I found this book back to Pratchett’s high standard. His writing style whisked me off to the Discworld and took me on an adventure as the Watch fought for politics which I enjoyed. The book was funny, full of fantasy and adventure and an enjoyable read. I love this series and cannot get enough of it.

8/10

Anyways, listening on the main chat channels on the game i play yields some funny things.

Karok wisps:

I am so hungry
it is time for a breakfast
I have no bacon

Acantha wisps:

Pancakes are frying
Breakfast has great potential
I have no bacon

Obatanan wisps:

I have no bacon
and well, neither does karok
but I have egg nog

Acantha wisps:

Eggs and pancakes cooked
hot breakfast on winter morn
I have no bacon

Karok wisps:

my kidneys could beat up your kidneys

Y aunque es verdad (creo que este año me he comprado como una docena de libros en la tienda online, y ya tengo la cesta repletita de próximos títulos a adquirir), mucho me temo que el comentarlo es poco más que una excusa para colgar en el blog la imágen que hay sobre estas líneas, que he encontrado en el blog Book lovers never go to bed alone…

Los próximos libros que tengo intención de encargar a la web? The Coffin Dancer de Jeffery Deaver (con la idea de ir haciéndome con la serie completa de novelas del detective Lincoln Rhyme, de la que he tenido ocasión de leerme ya The Bone Collector y The Vanished Man, y me han dejado un sabor de boca pero que muy agradable), A Storm of Swords de George R.R. Martin (también quiero completar la saga de Juego de Tronos), y The Road, de Cormac McCarthy, que no he parado de escuchar buenas críticas sobre él, y está a un precio irrisorio… Y claro, los tres volúmenes restantes de The Second World War de Winston Churchill!

Por otra parte, tengo intención también de empezar a comprarme los libros de la nueva edición de Discworld, que a pesar de tener ya varios de ellos en castellano, estoy absolutamente enamorado de la edición que está saliendo ahora, desde The Colour of Magic…

Así que si, yo también soy un adicto… en mi caso, a la tinta de imprenta, al olor a papel viejo, y al sonido que hace al pasar hoja. Y mientras tanto, van ya más de 30 libros este año, y aproximándome peligrosamente a las 17000 páginas…

Y para acompañar, unos minutos musicales:

Mais um capítulo do meu diário de leitura altamente eclético. Na verdade ele está um pouco defasado (li esses livros há mais de dois meses, e já li outros depois), mas isso é até bom, pois garante conteúdo para mais alguns posts desta série - já que não ando lendo nada ultimamente.

Guardas! Guardas!, de Terry Pratchett (São Paulo: Conrad Editora do Brasil, 2005) foi meu primeiro contato com o Discworld, o mundo fantástico criado pelo (também fantástico) autor inglês. Interessei-me pela obra de Pratchett quando li em algum lugar que ele era uma espécie de “Douglas Adams medieval”. “Não tem como ser ruim”, pensei. E não tinha, mesmo.

Bom, decidido a conhecer o autor, não foi difícil escolher por qual livro começar:  o primeiro, claro. O problema é que não consegui achá-lo para comprar; optei, então, pelo volume que traz um dragão desenhado na capa. Adoro dragões.

Guardas! Guardas! é, em síntese, uma história de aventura envolvendo guardas e dragões. Os guardas são os membros da Vigilância Noturna, uma espécie de guarda municipal da cidade de Ankh-Morpork; o dragão é um bicho gigante da espécie Draco Nobilis, que foi invocado ao mundo por um homem misterioso com pretensões perversas e resolve ficar, fazendo da cidade seu domínio. Por ser um dragão de raça nobre, o bicho decide se tornar o rei do pedaço, mas terá de encarar a (nem tão) valente oposição da Vigilância. A história nonsense é recheada de situações inusitadas e personagens cativantes, com destaque para o ingênuo brutamontes Cenoura e o capitão Vimes, um beberrão cheio de dilemas morais.

Não direi aqui que o livro é perfeito: Pratchett não é muito bom em fazer descrições, e algumas vezes é meio difícil imaginar a aparência dos personagens ou mesmo entender o que está acontecendo. Além disso, como sua obra tem a pretensão de ser engraçada, é natural que algumas passagens soem meio bobas e forçadas. Mas nada disso chega a comprometer o resultado final: um livro divertidíssimo, agradável, viciante, daqueles que fazem você deixar de trabalhar/dormir/estudar para ler “só mais um capítulo”, que você pega e não larga até terminar, e fica desconsolado quando percebe que acabou. INDISCUTIVELMENTE relevante.

Que em nada se parece com Carrie, a estranha, o primeiro livro de Stephen King (Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 2007). Este livro até já saiu em filme, embora eu nunca tenha visto. Conta a história de Carrie, uma menina impopular com poderes telecinéticos.

Maltratada incessantemente pelos colegas de colégio e sempre reprimida pela mãe, uma mulher insuportável e extremamente religiosa, a vida de Carrie não é das mais fáceis ou agradáveis. A garota carrega muita raiva consigo, e o ódio se desenvolve na mesma proporção que seus estranhos superpoderes – para o azar de seus desafetos.

A narrativa tem um ritmo meio estranho, misturando romance com documentário, intercalando passado e futuro. O andamento da história é quebrado por depoimentos e trechos de reportagens (fictícios, obviamente) que se passam depois dos acontecimentos do livro. Esses trechos pseudojornalísticos são meio chatos mas acabam sendo úteis, já que aumentam o suspense e servem para dividir os capítulos em partes menores.

Apesar do jeitão meio teen/colegial do livro, algumas das principais características da obra de King estão nele: há suspense, terror, violência, coisas sobrenaturais, personagens moralmente questionáveis e psicologicamente perturbados. Se você já leu outro(s) livro(s) do autor e gostou, provavelmente vai gostar deste também.

Um ótimo livro, embora não dos melhores. Bastante relevante.

It’s already half way through November and I’m only just getting around to writing about October’s books – let’s hope I can spin a full post from my half-arsed notes.  As always, all my books are kept in chronological order, I then alternately read the book I’ve had longest (marked B.H.L.), followed by a free choice (F.C.).  For a full description of my insane book selection rules, please click here.

Books Read

I started the month by reading Street Magic (B.H.L.) by Paul Zenon.  I bought it a few years ago, probably from Borders, because I suddenly got it in to my head that it would be a good thing to be able to do a few magic tricks.  Please don’t ask me where this spurious thought came from as I don’t have a clue.  Anyway, I did read some of it at the time but it all seemed a bit like hard work, and, not being afraid to give up when something proves tricky, it found its way to my To Be Read pile.

As I started my second reading of the book I soon remembered my original sticking point: palming.   Not wanting to divulge too many magician’s secrets, this is the skill of concealing a coin in your hand.  And I just couldn’t do it.  I did practice, but, although I could have practised more,  I didn’t feel myself getting any better at it, and so I wondered if I was missing something fundamental.  Anyway, this time I decided just to read it through and see what happened.

There is actually a variety of impressive tricks within the book and it soon became apparent to me that it’s not enough to know the secrets of a magic trick; in order to pull it off you need equal measures of expertise and performance.  Far from spoiling my enjoyment of the art of illusion, reading this book actually increased my respect for its practitioners.

Next up came Archangel (F.C.) by Robert Harris.  This was a random purchase from the British Heart Foundation shop because I’d read, and enjoyed, Fatherland, Harris’ first novel.  This book has the distinction of being the first ever F.C. that has also been the B.H.L., for whatever that’s worth.  It’s an end-of-the-cold-war thriller that charts an academic’s quest to locate an old notebook of Stalin’s.  It’s one of those strange stories in which nothing really seems to happen and yet it is still somehow quite gripping.  It was a fun read but I don’t really have much more to say on it.

It’s another random British Heart Foundation buy next with The Man in the High Castle (B.H.L.) by Philp K. Dick, which I bought because I was interested to read a Philip K. Dick novel.  It was a great choice and I was hooked from the minute I started readig; it was the kind of book that makes you remember why you love reading so much.

It’s an alternate history novel set in an America following a Second World War which was won by Germany and Japan.  The Axis powers have carved the globe up between them, and this includes North America – the east coast belongs to Japan and the west to Germany.  This kind of premise could have carried out very heavy handedly, but Dick shows an incredibly subtle touch.  We see this unfamiliar world through the eyes of ordinary people and so the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis are only ever discussed third hand.  This makes them seem only more sinister.

In addition to this is a whole subtext about the nature of reality.  Many of the characters are reading a novel-within-a-novel called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, which is in itself an alternative history in which the Allies won the war – which is a reality subtly but significantly different to our own.  There are moments in the story when one reality appears to blend in to another, but it is done in a way that you are unsure as to whether it happened or not.  What is true and what is false? There are no answers here but the questions are certainly interesting.

I first heard of The End of Faith (F.C.) by Sam Harris a few years ago, primarily because he is a pal of Richard Dawkins, and that is always a good recommendation.  It’s a devastating attack not only on religion but on the nature of faith itself.  To be fair, and pardon the pun, he is already preaching to the converted, so luckily there was even more food for thought.  For example, he poses the question as to whether torture be ethical, and asks if pacifism is immoral.  It’s a very well written, intelligent book, but towards the end he lost me a bit with his thoughts on spirituality as they, superficially at least, seem to conflict with his otherwise rational arguments.  It’s pretty brave of him to go down that road though.  A further, petty criticism is the amount of end notes – I didn’t know whether to skip them or not.

My final book of the month was the rather unusual choice of Buying and Running a Florist Shop (B.H.L.) by Alan Peck.  You’d be forgiven for thinking that it was a wacky women’s novel, but it is actually a manual on buying and running a florists shop.  In case you’re wondering, I didn’t buy the book and I won’t bore you with the details on how I came to own such a book.  Strangely, I actually found it to be an enjoyable read. It’s a slim, straightforward volume that gives an insight in to what it must be like to run a small business.  The main thing I took from it is that when you consider the low pay, long hours and undue pressure, being a florist is a thankless task.  I suggest you go out and buy a florist some flowers today.

Books Acquired

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark – Bookmooch – This had been on my ‘wish list’ for years.  I think I remember seeing a programme about it as part of the BBC’s Big Read, but I cannot remember anything about why this made me want to read it.

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett – Salvation Army shop – I decided a while ago to start reading the Discworld novels and then, fortuitously, someone at work gave me a load of them.  Sadly, there were omissions and so any books that are not contiguous in the serial are not on my official TBR pile.  This was one of the missing and so I was very glad to see it.  It was 50p.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad – Salvation Army shop - It was slim, I’d heard of it and it was 50p.  Why wouldn’t I buy it?

Books Given Away on Bookmooch

How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker – I bought this from the British Heart Foundation even though I knew that there was a good chance that I already had it.  It’s the kind of book that you don’t see all that often in a charity shop, so I bought it anyway.  Of course, I already had it at home sat in my TBR pile.  It’s a weird feeling to give away a book that I haven’t read yet.

Result

Books Read 5 – Books Acquired 3, result – A WIN!!!!!

I never thought I’d see the day that I’d record a win in Reading Habits, so it’s champagne all around (if you happen to be in my house as I type this).  Everything is looking rosy – except that we’re already half-way through the current month and I know it’s going to take a miracle for it not to be a big loss.  Fingers crossed.

Hi folks, it’s been a while, lol.

This is the problem I have keeping up with things, start out with the best intentions and fizzle out after a while. But I’ve been busy the last few weeks.

Ok, last post was 20 September, didn’t realise it was that long ago, sorry.

Reasons behind this?

• I have a new boyfriend who I only get to see at weekends, he lives three hours away. So most evenings I now spend chatting to him online.
• Spending evenings and weekends with him means I’ve had to shuffle some things and drop others.
• I’ve also started two evening courses.

Anyway, all this change has been good for me, I’ve re-assessed and rearranged things and now find I’m actually getting to do more of what I want to do.

Back in June I had an idea for a childrens novel, involving witches, fairies and magic. All the good stuff, lol. When I began researching it I came to realise that I have been a Pagan for much of my adult life, so I started looking into the subject. So now much of my time is also spent researching the areas of Paganism that interest me, herbalism, crystals, tarot, mythology and lots more.

So between normal household stuff, a new boyfriend (who happens to also be Pagan), two evening classes and my studies I am amazed that I have time for anything else at all, lol. On top of all this I have just got back from a Discworld Convention that was held in Ennistymon, Co. Clare. I’ve been a fan of Terry Pratchett for 15 years and didn’t know anyone else who read his books, since I found out about the Con and signed up on various forums I’ve met loads of people who would much rather live on Discworld than Roundworld! Over the weekend I made lots of new friends and had a really great time. I’m looking forward to the next one, lol.

I think what I’m trying to say is “Get out there, follow your hobbies, interests and dreams.” 

I’m 42, it’s taken me this long to finally get somewhere I’m happy. I’ve finally met someone who I think could be “The One” lol. and if he’s not, so be it. I’m spending time doing things that I want to do, instead of things other people think I should be doing. There are still things in my life I’d like to change but right now I can’t, I have to accept that. Next year is the time to start working on them. I’m not going to get pissed off about them, I’m going to enjoy my life the way it is, find the positives in every situation. No matter how hard it is sometimes, lol.

I will be back again at some point in the not too distant future, meanwhile if you’ve come this far check out my Discworld pictures at moondawn.wordpress.com and pick up a Discworld book, you may enjoy it and discover that there’s a whole new wonderful and above all funny world out there.

And saved the best till last,

Some of my pictures from the convention.

“Studenten kommen von der Schule im festen Glauben, dass sie nahezu alles wissen, und Jahre später gehen sie mit der Gewissheit ab, praktisch nichts zu wissen. Wo ist das Wissen geblieben? In der Universität natürlich, wo es sorgfältig getrocknet und gelagert wird. Deswegen bezeichnet man Universitäten als Horte des Wissens.” – Die Gelehrten der Scheibenwelt

Here’s a great interview by New Scientist on Terry Pratchett, the prolific writer of over 40 books who is best known for his Discworld Series. Fraught with humor, this article tackles Pratchett’s love of science, fight with Alzheimer’s, and, the impetus for his newest work, Unseen Academicals.

Ireland’s First Discworld Convention is on this month (website here). So I’ve been reading his books like a crazed turtle in a dessert chased by an eagle. It’s inspired some of my latest doodles

Nigel the Barbarian, Coin the Sorcerer and Two Flower.

Affiche américaine (RHI)

Dans une dimension lointaine et passablement farfelue, un monde se balade à dos de quatre éléphants, eux-mêmes juchés sur la carapace de la Grande Tortue… Oui, c’est le Disque-monde… Les habitants de la cité d’Ankh-Morpork croyaient avoir tout vu. Et Deuxfleurs avait l’air tellement inoffensif, bonhomme chétif, fidèlement escorté par un Bagage de bois magique déambulant sur une myriade de petites jambes. Tellement inoffensif que le Patricien avait chargé le calamiteux sorcier Rincevent de sa sécurité dans la cité quadrillée par la Guilde des Voleurs et celle des Assassins ; mission périlleuse et qui devait les conduire loin : dans une caverne de dragons ; peut-être jusqu’au Rebord du Disque. Car Deuxfleurs était d’une espèce plus redoutable qu’on ne l’imaginait : c’était un touriste…

The Color of Magic est une minisérie produite par RHI Entertainment et SkyOne (chaîne britannique), adaptée des romans de Terry Pratchett La huitième couleur et Le huitième sortilège, constituants les deux premières Annales du Disque-monde. Après Les contes du Disque-monde (Hogfather en V.O), Vadim Jean rempile pour adapter cette fois-ci les romans aux origines de la saga crée par Pratchett.

Il s’agit donc toujours de fantasy humoristique, mais cette minisérie vous dépaysera beaucoup plus que Les contes du Disque-monde. Vous en verrez littéralement de toutes les couleurs. L’humour anglais est présent, mais moins accentué qu’on aurait pu l’imaginer.

David Jason, déjà présent dans Les contes du Disque-monde (dans le rôle d’Albert), tient un rôle important dans l’adaptation des Annales à la télévision. En plus d’être un acteur récurrent, il en est le producteur exécutif. Pour The Color of Magic, il incarne Rincevent (Rincewind en V.O), et est trop souvent exaspérant dans ce rôle. On retrouve aussi Sean Astin (Le Seigneur des Anneaux) et Tim Curry (Cluedo, Le Titanic, Rendez-vous avec la mort, entre autres).

Ma note:

A noter: cette minisérie n’est pas encore sortie en France, sur aucune chaine. Elle ne possède donc pas de doublage français (ni de titre officiel).

Le prochain téléfilm adapté des Annales sera Timbré!.

]]> http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2009/10/30/top-5-abstinent-vampires-no-1-maladict/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:49:46 +0000 Tracy V. Wilson http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2009/10/30/top-5-abstinent-vampires-no-1-maladict/

Maladict: Suave, sexy and off "the b-vord" for the last two years. (Illustration by Tealin)

Our last vampire is fighting an undeniable thirst. The kind of thirst that leads to hallucinations when left unquenched. And they’re not just ordinary hallucinations. They’re flashsides — someone else’s flashbacks. Maladict, from Terry Pratchett’s “Monstrous Regiment,”  is a lance corporal in Borogravian infantry, but his flashsides are full of jungles, Charlie and the whopwhopwhop of helicopters.

He’s not thirsty for blood, though. As a Black Ribboner — a member of the Uberwald League of Temperance — Maladict has forsworn blood and taken up coffee. The Uberwald League of Temperance is like the Discworld’s Alcoholics Anonymous, and many of its other members have similarly transferred their addiction to blood to something less monstrous. Some of them, including Otto Chriek, iconographer for the Ankh-Morpork Times, appear in more Discworld books than Maladict does.

So what’s so awesome about Maladict that he winds up in the top spot above his beribboned compatriots? He has the smooth elegance of the classic vampire. He’s educated and superbly dressed, and he can subtly persuade people to do what he wants. And he hasn’t given up violence just because he’s given up blood. When Maladict and some of the other new recruits overpower some enemy soldiers, here’s what Maladict has to say:

Good evening, gentlemen! Please pay attention. I am a reformed vampire, which is to say, I am a bundle of suppressed instincts held together with spit and coffee. It would be wrong to say that violent, tearing carnage does not come easily to me. It’s not tearing your throats out that doesn’t come easily to me. Please don’t make it any harder.

But one thing about Maladict really sets him apart from Otto — and from the other vampires on this list.

It’s also a major spoiler.

Are you ready?

Maladict is a woman. She winds up joining the Borogravian army at the same time as Polly, the book’s protagonist. Polly has disguised herself as a boy to try to find her brother, and during the first third of the book, she discovers that many of the other enlisted men are really enlisted women. Maladict — aka Maladicta — keeps up appearances as a man until the very end, although before that point some of the women wonder.

This is not at all to suggest that one sex is better than the other. When it comes to vampire characters, though, the men often outnumber the women.  And there are some abstinent women vampires — Alice and Rosalie from “Twilight,” Jessica of “True Blood” — but they’re overshadowed by their male counterparts. So in that sense, Maladict stands alone.

Previously:
No. 5 — Angel and Edward Cullen (Tie)
No. 4 — Bill Compton
No. 3 — The Citizens of Purgatory
No. 2 — Blade

More at HowStuffWorks.com:
Why is it so difficult to separate “vampire” from “sex”?
A Different Take on Sex and Vampires: Vampire as Gay Boyfriend
Real Vampires You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
How Vampires Work
Who was the real Count Dracula?
Was a Hungarian countess the world’s first serial killer?

Thinking I would make a photo post today, I fished through my drawer trying to find my SD card reader. I don’t actually have it with me… >__> I left it at home with my mom, so she could use her camera. I have to use my laptop, and its safely away in my backpack right now, as I don’t have wifi in here.

I’ll make a photo post tomorrow, maybe.

I’ve been playing the Discworld Mud, as I have been a lot lately.

So, the game uses a bunch of random programming within itself. You can script and code your own aliases to make life easier, and even put simple variables into your description.

When I wear a mask, or whatnot, my character description shows the following, with the item name of whatever it is I’m wearing showing through.

Tiny gnome eyes peer at you through a black and white harlequin mask.

When I’m not wearing the mask, it shows the following instead.

In the spot where his face would be, there is a hole containing a small gnome sitting in an ornate dark purple chair.

Wallpaper Corner!

Definitely not made by me. Also, don’t ask me why they’re both Harley Quinn wallpapers… I do not know why I grabbed them.

For those of you who actually follow this blog, and don’t just click on a link that happens to mention Robsten or the Twilight Saga, I’m sorry!  There’s not been much poetry over the last couple of days, but a lot of clicks.

Yes, I like the clicks.  (And, strangely, “Robsten” seems to generate a whole bunch more than, let’s say, “sestina.”)

But I want to explain to you (who may not understand why in the world I write about this stuff) that I truly am interested in a couple of facets of Twilight mania (besides each of Rob’s cheekbones.)

First:  despite all the poetry I’ve posted on this blog, I am mainly a fiction writer, primarily for children and young adults.  As a result, I am fascinated by the question of what makes people read a book again and again.  And I have to say (without mentioning anything about my own experience) that the Twilight mania proves Twilight et al. to be a set of those much re-read books.

It’s a given that books that generate this type of obsessive re-reading are not always particularly “good” books, i.e. well-written.  In fact, many “good” books, that is, really profound, original, heart-wrenching, or poetic books, are not the most dog-eared at the end of the day (or lifetime.)  It’s almost as if such books are too sharp, too bitter, too stinging, to be savored again and again (in the same way that grapefruit is not typically considered a comfort food.)

This is not to say that much re-read books are poorly written!  (Charlotte’s Web and  Harry Potter are much re-read great books.) Only that good writing alone does not make a book a good re-read.  (Nor does a good plot, good jokes, good suspense, even though one or more of these is likely to be present.)

So what does make a book a good re-read?

To me, the distinguishing factor is that the book creates characters with whom readers like to spend time, sometimes, too, a world in which readers like to spend time.

Reading a book is a commitment.  It means hours in which you are not conversing, i-ming, watching TV; hours, in other words, in which you are alone.  Sometimes, in fact, a book is a way to be alone, a path to privacy in a place with hard-to-place boundaries, such as a subway, or, if you are a child, a family dinner.

Because of the inherent solitude of reading, it is important that the main character is good company—fun, cool (but not too cool as to be unempathetic), willing to share confidences.  Being admirable is helpful too, as long as there are also sympathetic and/or humorous failings and idiosyncrasies.  (Sam Vines, Captain Carrot, Granny Weatherwax in Terry Pratchett, even Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie.)

The world of a much re-read book can, of course, have its dark side.  But it is hard to repeatedly spend time in a world that is overwhelmingly creepy or frightening. (The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, and even Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier, are obvious examples of wonderful books in which the worlds created, or re-created, are just too horrific to motivate re-reads.  On the children’s shelf, similarly, the later tomes of the wonderful, His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman, that is, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, also, with the exception of certain scenes, get both too threatening and rarified for a child’s immediately repeated visits.)

Ideally, the created world, even if dark, has a fun, semi-magical side.  (Hogwarts, obviously; the barn in Charlotte’s Web, Florida, as seen by Carl Hiassen, Discworld, as envisioned by Terry Pratchett.)

Re-reading is a particular practice of the young and the young (or perhaps, immature) at heart who can repeatedly find sustenance in something that’s already well-digested.  (Sort of like baby penguins.)   This may be because the young (and not young, but immature) are themselves subject to (i) so much fluctuation, and (ii) so much beyond their control, that they find special comfort in the predictability of a “known” fiction.   The combination of the familiar with the fantastical may be especially appealing.

Romance makes a great re-read as well.   First love is a story that has been told again and again and again; is it any wonder that some people don’t mind re-reading the exact same version of it?

Which brings me back to Twilight.

Tomorrow or in the near future (if I get time),  I’ll write about the second facet that I find interesting—that is, what makes people re-see a movie, as opposed to re-read a book.

In the meantime, check out 1 Mississippi by Karin Gustafson on Amazon.

I’ve just finished Terry Pratchett’s latest Unseen Academicals. Not his best, but rather engaging and very funny in places. A welcome return to Discworld after the slight distraction that was Nation.

This isn’t a post about wizards and football (the “subject” of the book) though. Among the moments of humour, telling comment on modern times, the human condition and some downright hilarity a single paragraph punched me squarely between the eyes. I thought I’d share it with you:

“The Patrician took a sip of his beer. ‘I have told this to few people, gentlemen, and I suspect I never will again, but one day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald I was walking along the banks of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I’m sure you will agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged onto a half-submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature’s wonders, gentlemen: mother and children dining on mother and children. And that’s when I first learned about evil. It is built into the nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.’”

Discuss.

Jingo is the fourth of the Discworld novels about the City Watch by Terry Pratchett [reviews of the others here].

Plot:
An island suddenly appears right between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch and triggers territorial disputes. When an attack on the Klatchian Prince happens in Ankh-Morpork, people prepare for war. Sam Vimes gets somehow stuck in the middle of all this and then has to go to Klatch himself because Angua has been kidnapped.

I just wrote that I didn’t love Jingo as much as the other novels about the Watch. Then I though about everything I did like about it and I immediately got a bad conscience and had to delete what I had written. Maybe I didn’t like the overall story, but there was enough awesome in here to fill several books.

[Spoilers]

I loved the focus on the Patrician. One can never have enough of the Patrician. Especially in combination with Leonard of Quirm. I loved the whole thing with the Dis-Organiser. It made me laugh (“the trousers of time” *rofl*), but it also made me shudder (“To Do Today: Die”). I loved it everytime Pratchett speaks about the war machinery, the processes behind it. And I loved how Nobby discovers his more feminine side.

But I didn’t really care about the whole story line with 71-hour Ahmed and that took up a lot of time.

Well, other than that I don’t think I can say much more about the book that I haven’t said before about the other books, so I won’t. [You know that Pratchett is really hard to review?]

Let’s finish this again with some quotes:

‘Why are our people going out there?’ said Mr Boggis of the Thieves’ Guild.
‘Because they are showing a brisk pioneering spirit and seeking wealth and… additional wealth in a new land,’ said Lord Vetinari.
‘What’s in it for the Klatchians?’ said Lord Downey.
‘Oh, they’ve gone out there because they are a bunch of unprincipled opportunists always ready to grab something for nothing,’ said Lord Vetinari. [...] The Patrician looked down again at his notes. ‘Oh, I do beg your pardon,’ he said. ‘I seem to have read those last two sentences in the wrong order.

“Give a man a fire and he’s warm for a day, but set fire to him and he’s warm for the rest of his life.”

The award winning creator of the DISCWORLD  and one of my favourite authors was knighted recently for ’services to literature’.

Pratchett has been a published author since 1971 and created the now legendary DISCWORLD series in 1983 with the release of The Colour of Magic. Now, 26 years later, with the release of Unseen Academicals the DISCWORLD series spans 37 books as well as four “mapps”, three science books, two quiz books, a diary and even a cook book.

The DISCWORLD has also been adapted into two animated series based on adaptions of the books Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters and live action films of Hogfather and The Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic. A third film (Going Postal) is currently in production and scheduled for release over the Easter 2010 weekend.

In December of 2007, Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with a very rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, but says he still has as few books left in him.

The library holds more than 70 books, DVDs and Spoken Word books by Pratchett. Why not pick one up and join in the fun.