And now for something completely different - our family's favourite author, Terry Pratchett. It's fantasy satire and very brain-stretching although it doesn't feel it at the time. If one joke sails past you, the next one round the corner will attack you with a fit of giggles. A strong English flavour, n a down to earth way.
I wrote a review of his work a few years ago and updated for republication six months ago. Here is a copy of what I wrote:
Discworld Review
Are you feeling jaded, lacking enthusiasm for the usual printed matter, fed up with gossip magazines and looking for something fun and stimulating?
Read Terry Pratchetts Discworld series. There is a rapidly increasing list of books in the almost unique genre of fantasy satire. This has something for everyone. Theatre, film, detective stories, politics, war, Shakespeare and vampires to name just a few possible topics - you can find a Discworld book to suit almost any literary taste.
For the Discworld is not just another fantasy - it is a genre all its own, a mind-expanding, ego-shrinking experience of culture, writing, history, the worlds best joke and your worst nightmare, all coated with satire at a sophisticated level. One reviewer described it as Tolkien on acid.
Nothing is sacred. Shakespeare, rock and roll, opera, mythology and political correctness - they all bite the bulldust.
A cartoon series was made of two of the books (Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music), but mistakenly aired during childrens prime viewing. This humour is adult. Not in any brown-paper-on-the-windows way, but you need eclectic tastes to enjoy the best of the humour. But kids do enjoy it, because they know that if they miss one joke, another one lurks just over the page.
One side effect of my children reading these books has been sudden bursts of laughter during a tender moment reading the classics. Yes, they finally got sufficiently educated to get the last joke!
What is Discworld? It is another universe entirely, with a world, the Discworld, carried on the back of four giant elephants which themselves stand on the back of Great ATuin, an enormous space-going turtle. The disc rotates, rimmed by a continuous waterfall as the sea falls off the edge. Of course, this requires magic and a universe created by someone with a perverse sense of humour.
There are gods, of course. They live on a centre spire of rock and ice called Dunmanifestin, and are perpetually engaged in an argument with the Ice Giants, who still refuse to return the lawnmower. But the main characters are far more complex and entertaining. From Granny Weatherwax, resident witch of the Ramtops, to Unseen Universitys orangutan librarian (its dangerous working around magical books, stack them too close together and they build up a critical Black Mass) to the magicians raven, unimaginatively named Quoth, youll never be bored on the Discworld. My sons favourite is Last Continent, set on a land called XXXX which is only vaguely Australian. Readers of Scottish history will be especially amused by The Fifth Elephant. The most recent book is Thud, topically about the futility of inter-racial conflict.
The most frequently met character is Rincewind, unsuccessful at wizardry but very successful at surviving. He screams his way in panic through many of these novels, certain that somewhere theres got to be a logical explanation for all this.
Death also makes an appearance. And his horse, Binky.
A subset within the Discworld books are written for children - The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, and the Tiffany series with Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith. In these books Tiffany, a 12 year old girl, is helped by the Pict-sies, an irreverent, violent group of little creatures who were thrown out of Fairyland for being drunk and disorderly. Just think of a horde of miniature Billy Connollys. I heartily recommend these to any child (or adult) with an interest in the absurd. Harry Potter fans, especially, can now graduate to something more stimulating.
Terry Pratchett is a British author who says, writing is the most fun anyone can have by themselves.
I can only agree.
The Discworld series written by Terry Pratchett is available in most bookshops. The first book is called The Colour of Magic. If you look in libraries you may need to reserve them, theyre very popular.
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