Rating: 
Summary: A PATHETIC PARODY
Review: After hearing so much about Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, I decided to give it a try. I mean, I REALLY like parodies, and I'm always on the lookout for new ones. Unfortunately, Terry's first book was VERY disappointing. I've read funnier scenes in SERIOUS fantasy novels (Tyrion Lannister from A Game of Thrones anyone?); the spoofs in this book are just plain dumb. But that's not all that miffs me about this first book. If you ask me, this book was half-baked. All the characters do is wander around AIMLESSLY through Discworld. I have not the foggiest idea WHY they are going where they're going. Many of you compare Pratchett to Douglas Adams. You are mostly right in making that statement. Both are English, both write parodies, both of their books have strange storylines and characters. But the MAJOR difference between Adams and Pratchett is this: Douglas Adams can make you laugh, Terry Pratchett can not. I laughed my head off at the end of Adams's The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Not so with this book. Come on people! What is so funny about a thousand-footed Luggage walking around? Even Disney cartoons can do that! One other thing that really shocked me was this: Terry Pratchett is English, right, and there is NOT ONE poem in this whole "parody?" Douglas Adams has poetry in his parodies. So did Bored of the Rings. How can you have a parody without poetry? It's like a guitar without strings. And because it is supposed to be a parody, it doesn't mean that I expect Pratchett to rhyme like Tolkien or anything. Before you start reaching for the "No" button, let me ask you this: Have you read Silverlock by John Myers Myers, have you read Bored of the Rings, have you read anything by Douglas Adams? Terry Pratchett's later books might be better, but this first book was PATHETIC.
Rating: 
Summary: Read 'em in order for loads more fun!!
Review: I love these books. For a long time, having come to them late, I rambled around, reading them as I encountered them. Once I realized how masterfully Mr. Pratchett puts these things together, I decided to become a true fan and read them in the order written. I just want to know one thing -- how come these English guys can make comedy look so darned easy? Highly recommended, wonderful fun.
Rating:
Summary: You are in a world of twisty little stories, all different
Review: The Colour of Magic is a perfect introduction to the wizarding society of the Discworld. Although Rincewind doesn't seem at first to be the most able tour guide - Lord knows he didn't volunteer or anything - he and Twoflower the Agatean tourist [the first of his kind - wonder why ;-)] stagger, stumble, and ricochet from one zany predicament to the next with the sort of chaos one soon comes to expect from Rincewind's life. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes high fantasy enough to poke fun at it with a magically enchanted pointed stick.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Enjoyment
Review: This is a great starting book for a great series. If you think I'm joking try to find this book at a used book store. You won't find it. It is so good people reread it. Thst's a good book.
Rating:
Summary: The first of many... and long may it continue
Review: On the back of a giant space turtle stand four giant elephants, together they support the Disc World. This book mixes together a failed wizard called Rincewind, an innocent tourist with four eyes called Twoflower and his many legged sapient pearwood luggage that has a mind of it's own! It follows the mishaps as Rincewind is hired to show the tourist around the capital Ankh-Morpork... the more dangerous the situation the more he likes it! Look out for DEATH on his white charger called Binky!! A must to read, and REALLY funny... it's addictive and before you know it you'll have bought all 26 Disc World series and all the other merchandise you can lay your hands on!! Good luck and good reading!
Rating:
Summary: Not his best work, no doubt about it
Review: After reading several books from the series, I decided to obtain the very first book and see (or shall I say "read") how it all started. Although the book goes through all one needs to know about the history of DISCWORLD, the book lacks the magnificent humor and sensetive touch Pratchett uses so talently later in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you Pratchett! (or deliver us from serious writers)
Review: Wow! I picked up this book after a friend, hearing me sound off on how much I loved "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy", put it in my hands and told me not to speak to him again until I had read it. Let me say that I am very glad he did. Not only can Pratchett form a phrase and mix a metaphor to rival the best authors of any genre, ("Disliking him would be like kicking a puppy"..."his black-clad frame resting as nonchalantly as a Rimland puma on a jungle branch") but he can keep you laughing through all this literary prowess non-stop as well. While I have not yet read the other books in this series and thus cannot compare and contrast, let me just say that this book is one of the best I've read in a while. A long while. Certainly one for the library (I actually so mutilated my friend's copy out of love that I had to buy him another one), this book also goes onto my list of 10 best. As a newly initiated Pratchett fan, I urge anyone with a taste for witty parody or even a few guffaws to try this book out.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, funny, funny,
Review: I've been hearing so much about Terry Pratchett lately and, coming from England originally, I felt it was about time I read something out of the Discworld series.From the minute I opened this book, I couldn't stop laughing. It's classic British, sarcastic, witty, satirical humour at its best. His characters are brilliant, his dialogue superb. Rincewind is a fabulous reluctant-hero, and the Luggage is nothing more than brilliant. I read the first book in the series in two hours and immediately got the next two and read those as well. This series has to be one of the funniest things I have ever read. Light, silly, imaginative and hilarious.
Rating:
Summary: Absoloutely-totally-and-utterly-brilliant-and-that's-true!!!
Review: in 1 word i would describe this review as Absoloutely-totally-and-utterly-brilliant-and-that's-true!!! amazingly funny, and a great read. i would sincerley recomend this book to anyone who has a sense of humour, and also those who don't as it's a great starting point to getting one... please read it and give mr pratchett some buissness. (not that he needs it) PS. it is brilliant!!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Tearing down the Gods of fantasy.
Review: Pratchett is irreverent in his disregard for the Gods of fantasy and indeed the norms of rational explanation. He mercilessly slays all the carefully thought out theories of modern science in his creation Diskworld. Just when you think he is going to give a "scientific" explanation for the occurance of something an imp or a dryad hops out and claims the deed. He tinkers with language in a hilarious way, just look at the titles and you can see this coming through. The edge of diskworld (a world suspended on the backs of elephants which stand on a turtle) is prevented from falling off by the Circumfence (not the circumference, it is a fence around the edge). The strongest character in the book has to be the luggage, which is stronger even than Hrun the Barbarian. The luggage follows Twoflower the tourist and Rincewind the unwizardly wizard around on their adventures by walking on its many little feet. This is a book that revels in being funny by breaking all the unwritten conventions. It is irreverent in the extreme and for this reason I suspect that I will be buying a few more of this series. I love a good intelligent laugh!
|
