Reading Post, Part II
Feb. 23rd, 2016 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWork was a little busier today -- CAP workshop which required me explaining what I do yet again to people, plus credit card reject letters and weekly reports to create -- but I've been in kind of a mood all day and I'd rather talk about:
Terry Pratchett
Now that his adult Discworld series has officially ended *sniff sniff* I've moved onto reading his young adult books. Because you can never have enough Discworld in your life. Of the three I got for Christmas and my birthday, I've completed one and I'm working on the second.
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents -- Terry's first children's book, and the only stand-alone in the set (all the rest center around the character Tiffany Aching, more on her in a minute). It's a great little story that manages to parody both the Pied Piper tales and the rats of NIMH at the same time, while also having a really dark and scary villain. And main character Maurice is great -- while obvious parallels can be drawn to Gaspode the Wonder Dog (both talking animals with dramatic personalities who got their intelligence via Unseen University (though Maurice took a rather less direct path than just sleeping outside the High-Energy Magic Building)), his fast-talking conman with a slowly-growing conscience actually reminded me a lot of Moist Von Lipwig. I have to wonder if he served as an inspiration. At any rate, it's a great little tale for the Disc -- and lead to Terry Pratchett secretly substituting the Carnegie medal he won for it with a chocolate coin so he could unwrap and eat it in front of all the shocked attendees of his official winner's dinner. XD
The Wee Free Men -- this is the one I'm reading right now, the first in the Tiffany Aching series. Terry kind of left Lancre behind after Carpe Jugulum (mostly because Sam Vimes just kept getting more awesome), but here he returns to the general area to introduce us to Tiffany, witch-to-be who lives in a shepherding community called the Chalk and who has to rescue her baby brother when he's swept away by the faeries. Aiding her are the Nac Mac Feegle, who are basically the cast of Braveheart only miniature and strong enough to carry a nine-year-old girl by her boots. I'm enjoying it so far, though the Feegles being afraid of writing surprised me, when an earlier appearance in Carpe Jugulum had them shockingly good at contracts. Then again, I took a peek at the preview of the next book in the back, and it looks like the contract-Feegles are a different band. . .and I'm wondering if this book is actually supposed to take place around the same time as Lords and Ladies, as it deals with a similar theme of a not-very-nice magical world intruding on the Disc and bringing with it some very dangerous beings. . . Hmmm. Guess I'll find out as I keep reading!
Hooray, that's all my books and comics covered -- now time to wrap up replies and go to bed! We're seeing Deadpool after work tomorrow, so I can't promise an update (it's a 7:20 PM showing, so we'll be getting home late), but I'll try to throw a sentence or two up. In the meantime, good night!
Terry Pratchett
Now that his adult Discworld series has officially ended *sniff sniff* I've moved onto reading his young adult books. Because you can never have enough Discworld in your life. Of the three I got for Christmas and my birthday, I've completed one and I'm working on the second.
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents -- Terry's first children's book, and the only stand-alone in the set (all the rest center around the character Tiffany Aching, more on her in a minute). It's a great little story that manages to parody both the Pied Piper tales and the rats of NIMH at the same time, while also having a really dark and scary villain. And main character Maurice is great -- while obvious parallels can be drawn to Gaspode the Wonder Dog (both talking animals with dramatic personalities who got their intelligence via Unseen University (though Maurice took a rather less direct path than just sleeping outside the High-Energy Magic Building)), his fast-talking conman with a slowly-growing conscience actually reminded me a lot of Moist Von Lipwig. I have to wonder if he served as an inspiration. At any rate, it's a great little tale for the Disc -- and lead to Terry Pratchett secretly substituting the Carnegie medal he won for it with a chocolate coin so he could unwrap and eat it in front of all the shocked attendees of his official winner's dinner. XD
The Wee Free Men -- this is the one I'm reading right now, the first in the Tiffany Aching series. Terry kind of left Lancre behind after Carpe Jugulum (mostly because Sam Vimes just kept getting more awesome), but here he returns to the general area to introduce us to Tiffany, witch-to-be who lives in a shepherding community called the Chalk and who has to rescue her baby brother when he's swept away by the faeries. Aiding her are the Nac Mac Feegle, who are basically the cast of Braveheart only miniature and strong enough to carry a nine-year-old girl by her boots. I'm enjoying it so far, though the Feegles being afraid of writing surprised me, when an earlier appearance in Carpe Jugulum had them shockingly good at contracts. Then again, I took a peek at the preview of the next book in the back, and it looks like the contract-Feegles are a different band. . .and I'm wondering if this book is actually supposed to take place around the same time as Lords and Ladies, as it deals with a similar theme of a not-very-nice magical world intruding on the Disc and bringing with it some very dangerous beings. . . Hmmm. Guess I'll find out as I keep reading!
Hooray, that's all my books and comics covered -- now time to wrap up replies and go to bed! We're seeing Deadpool after work tomorrow, so I can't promise an update (it's a 7:20 PM showing, so we'll be getting home late), but I'll try to throw a sentence or two up. In the meantime, good night!
