Sorted on book title (not in series order)
I'm going to have to take issue with some stuff in the blurb for this Discworld outing. I really don't know what's wrong with being 5 foot tall (ish), or what's wrong with surgical sandals... but Cohen the Barbarian is just the sort of hero you need. He's crazy brave, crazy about a fight,...Read more
A weathercock has risen from the sea of Discworld, and suddenly you can tell which way the wind is blowing.
A new land has surfaced, and so have old feuds.
And as two armies march, Commander Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch has got just a few hours to deal with a crime...Read more
The 4th in the City Watch subset of the Discword series, JINGO, is about the daftness of war, with some timely observations about racism on the side. Whilst it's mainly a City Watch novel, so Sir Samuel Vimes, Carrot, and the whole team are front and centre, there's also a more hands on...Read more
'Anything you do in the past changes the future. The tiniest little actions have huge consequences. You might tread on an ant now and it might entirely prevent someone from being born in the future.'
There's nothing like the issue of evolution to get under the skin of...Read more
Book 22 in the Discworld series, this is book 6 in the Rincewind subseries, Rincewind being a wizard, if you believe his hat, and an adventurer by accident, definitely not choice.
In THE LAST CONTINENT Pratchett is taking a good hard look at evolution and I just absolutely love...Read more
He's been a legend in his own lifetime. He can remember the great days of high adventure. He can remember when people didn't tell you off for killing dragons. But he can't always remember, these days, where he put his teeth.
Now, Cohen the Barbarian is going on one final quest...Read more
I have to confess to being very disappointed that the only Audible version of THE LAST HERO available seems to be an abridged version (4 hours and 24 minutes worth), unless I'm older and blinder than I thought I was. Which is also part of the reason that I really love this book so much....Read more
As it moves towards a seemingly inevitable collision with a malevolent red star, the Discworld has only one possible saviour. Unfortunately, this happens to be the singularly inept and cowardly wizard called Rincewind, who was last seen falling off the edge of the world...Read more
2nd in the Discworld series - listened to during the year, this time narrated by Nigel Planer - another perfect 6 hours and 54 minutes of listening pleasure :)Read more
On a hot midsummer night in Discworld, everything seems perfect - crop circles are turning up everywhere, the witch Magrat Garlick is getting married the next morning, and everyone's buzzing with excitement.
Unfortunately, the Lancre All-Comers Morris Team has gotten drunk on a...Read more
The fourth of the Witches sub-set of Discworld, Magrat Garlick is getting married to the King of Lancre. Provided Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg can stop the return of those nasty, conniving elves from the magical realm of Fairie.
There are laugh out loud moments in this one...Read more
The Ankh-Morpork Post Office is running like . . . well, not at all like a government office. The mail is delivered promptly; meetings start and end on time; five out of six letters relegated to the Blind Letter Office ultimately wend their way to the correct addresses. Postmaster General...Read more
Less of a review - more of a note to self. If Terry Pratchett published the doodles from the notepad on his telephone table I'd probably read that, so MAKING MONEY was no trial at all, even though it's probably not one of the better of the Discworld novels.
Maybe that's because...Read more
Only in Ankh-Morpork would Lord Vetinari solve the problem of his conman of choice's boredom at the Post Office by putting him in charge of the Royal Bank and Mint. I mean why not a self-declared, out and out conman, known to his boss Vetinari for exactly what he is, in charge of the...Read more
It's Phantom of the Opera, Discworld style, when an aspiring singer and part-time witch wins a part in the big city opera, and quickly learns of a shadowy figure haunting the house. Now her sorceress companions Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg must come to her aid, before the fat lady sings...Read more
I've said before how much I particularly love The Witches subset of the Discworld novels, and I think this is possibly my favourite of them all. Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are particularly resourceful, difficult, funny, enterprising and very determined in their desire to sort out the...Read more
"Be a MAN in the City Watch! The City Watch needs MEN!"
But what it's got includes Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance constable Detritus (a troll), Lance constable Angua (a woman... most of the time), and Corporal Nobbs (...Read more
Book 15 of the Discworld series and my self-appointed challenge of listening to the entire series for start to end is proceeding apace. Granted part of that is because Covid-19 lockdown has meant I'm spending a lot more time driving around doing errands, hence my listening time has doubled...Read more
Polly Perks joins the Discworld army to find her brother Paul. "Ozzer" cuts off blonde braids, dons male garb, belches, scratches, and masters macho habits aided by well-placed pair of socks. Legendary and seemingly ageless Sergeant Jackrum accepts her plus a vampire, troll, zombie,...Read more
Discworld number 31 and again I'm reminded just how wide ranging the references are in Terry Pratchett's series. In this case the novel takes its name from the 16th century tract The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women by Protestant John Knox, arguing...Read more
Death comes to Mort with an offer he can't refuse -- especially since being, well, dead isn't compulsory.As Death's apprentice, he'll have free board and lodging, use of the company horse, and he won't need time off for family funerals. The position is everything Mort thought he'd ever...Read more
Back to full versions, narrated by Nigel Planer, this was 7 hours and 27 minutes of listening joy :)Read more
People might say that reality is a quality that things possess in the same way that they possess weight. Sadly alchemists never really held with such a quaint notion. They think that they can change reality, shape it to their own purpose. Imagine then the damage that could be wrought if...Read more
I'm still wallowing happily around in the audio versions of the Discworld series - working my way from the start to the end and loving every minute of it, despite it being mostly re-reading / re-listening. MOVING PICTURES is, not surprisingly, the story of Holy Wood come to the Discworld. A...Read more
Alone on a desert island—everything and everyone he knows and loves has been washed away in a storm—Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He’s completely alone—or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird,...Read more
Truth! Justice! Freedom! And a hard boiled egg!
Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch had it all. But now he's back in his own rough, tough past without even the clothes he was standing up in when the lightning struck.
Living in the past is hard. Dying...Read more
Listening to the audio book of NIGHT WATCH by Terry Pratchett, I couldn't help but wonder if Sir Samuel Vimes had done something to annoy his creator. He's happily married, awaiting the very imminent birth of his first child with his formidable wife Lady Sybil, when a short chase of an...Read more
“Look after the dead,” said the priests, “and the dead will look after you.” Wise words in all probability, but a tall order when you have just become the pharaoh of a small and penniless country whose largesse—and indeed treasury—is unlikely to pay for the construction of a monumental...Read more
As the blurb puts it, "It isn't easy, being a teenage pharaoh. You're not allowed to carry money, uninhibited young women peel your grapes for you, everyone thinks you're responsible for making the sun rise and the corn grow, you keep dreaming about seven thin cows and seven fat cows (one...Read more
To the consternation of the patrician, Lord Vetinari, a new invention has arrived in Ankh-Morpork - a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all the elements: earth, air, fire and water. This being Ankh-Morpork, it's soon drawing astonished crowds, some of whom...Read more