Just Finished Reading: Mort by Terry Pratchett

But there are problems. It's all pastiche, for example - a take-off of some myth, tradition, or existing story ("Colon the Barbarian" etc.); some of the things which amuse him are too nerdy for my taste; and, most fatal of all, Pratchett, in my opinion, lacks spatial awareness: you never really picture where his characters are or how they move about during those little scenes of his, or how the scenes physically relate to each other - his attempt to describe a battle in "Interesting Times", for example, leaves you with no coherent piucture in your mind at all of how the battleground relates physically to the spot where the terra cotta army is dug up. For me, that flaw alone prevents his books being satisfying as novels. I suspect that the reason is able to write so quickly is that he doesn't bother with the things that really take time for a novelist: the building up of precise atmosphere, detail, and three-dimensional characters.

I think one reason why Douglas Adams works so much better is the underlying, I don't know, bittersweetness to it all. Like it could suddenly stop being funny.

That said, I do remember being Mort one of the more decent ones, and I still think Good Omens is awesome (working with a real writer kept some of his strengths, made him step up the humor, and definitely covered up the weaknesses in the writing I think).

Granted most of the characters are little more than templates. But the constructions are placed so that the whole works. The gnarled old copper with the young idealist. The lonely but powerful old witch with her ideal sidekick, someone less powerful who's rooted in the community. These are parallels with most fictions which are easy to understand; there is a distinction between this and cliche. And most of his books display an easy understanding of human nature (albeit limited to a narrow milieu) and are morally more perceptive than many more literary writers who are too busy chasing praise for their boldness (Hello, Amis) to simply get on with the business of being entertaining, which, by and large, I find his books to be. Hooray for subjectivity.

I agree the best thing he ever did was Good Omens, though.

American Gods >>>> Terry Pratchett's oeuvre. And he does the funny books with the pictures.

i think after i finished reading EVERY TERRY PRATCHETT NOVEL EVER at fourteen i had very little desire to catch up with the new ones, and i'm really not very sure how good he actually is: the children's books are probably more defensible than 'discworld', because trying to do a critical reading of the whole discworld thing is far too much effort, if nothing else

i think search 'small gods' 'reaper man' one of the city guards ones, i forget which, 'hogfather' 'thief of time' (yeah yeah i guess i did read some of the new ones) maybe 'lords and ladies'

destroy um i don't know fond memories etc. i actually can't bring myself to oh dear.

Well it was better than fucking Neverwhere!

"Say 'Nevermore.'"

Raven: "Fuck you."