h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A656723

This is an entry about the origin of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. I don't know whether it is really suitable as an Edited Entry. What do you think?

Hi Gnomon. I think this is a suitable subject for the guide. Although I have to disagree with you about the colour of magic being not being very good. I thought it was one of his best. After the first 3/4 I thought he became rather too formulaic and lack-lustre. But that's the thing about a large body of work - everyone's going to have different favourites.

Hi Gnomon. I think this is a suitable subject for the guide. Although I have to disagree with you about the colour of magic being not being very good. I thought it was one of his best. After the first 3/4 I thought he became rather too formulaic and lack-lustre. But that's the thing about a large body of work - everyone's going to have different favourites.

Hey! Two for the price of one.

Hi Gnomon!

I have to agree with Frogbit, both about the suitability of the subject and the Colour of Magic. It was the first Discworld book I ever read and I still have a soft spot for it.

I'm a bit confused about the structure of the entry though. It seems strange to have the paragraph about Strata appear before the Colour of Magic. What was the reason for this?

Hi Gnomon!

I have to agree with Frogbit, both about the suitability of the subject and the Colour of Magic. It was the first Discworld book I ever read and I still have a soft spot for it.

I'm a bit confused about the structure of the entry though. It seems strange to have the paragraph about Strata appear before the Colour of Magic. What was the reason for this?

Are we in the Plural Zone?

I also have to say that I like The Colour of Magic... but the point about that his books have decreased in enjoyment... but still attractive to readers!

My favourite books are Mort, The Colour of Magic, Pyramids, Feet of Clay and Maskerade.

Now listen very carefully, I shall post this only once. (Bucking the established tradition on this thread.)
First off, yes this is a suitable subject for a guide entry. There's an edited Discworld article here already which yours is a nice companion to. If you want to include a link to it you'll find it here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A292790

I read Strata many years ago, before he'd started on the Discworld books and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I'd never read Ringworld. (mental note to self, really must get round to reading Larry Niven one of these days). It worked for me as a general SF spoof and gave me enough laughs to pick up Colour of Magic when it came out hoping for more of the same. That worked for me too. (Thinks of sapient luggage with hundreds of little legs and giggles ) He kept up the SF/fantasy theme spoofing for the first few I thought before he started picking on wider themes.

Generally, seems like a good entry to me.

MC

This is great stuff, I'd often wondered about it.

I'm not sure about the last bit, with your opinion of The Colour Of Magic though. I'm sure I won't be the only person who read that first (I've only read 5 Discworld books... erk!) in an attempt to read them in the order in which they were written - and because of this they hold it in special esteem. I think it's pretty good actually.

Nice entry. I remember stumbling across the Hindu legend whilst flicking through an encylopaedia and thinking "Ooh that's the Discworld!", I like that Pratchett based his world on a real creation myth.

The first Discworld book I read was Pyramids followed by Mort. I wasn't that keen on Colour of Magic at first but read together with the Lioght Fantastic I enjoy it more each time I read it. I have to admit thought that those two linger on my shelf the longest.

The books have got less "laugh out loud" funny over the years and he seems to be exploring more serious themes now. I still love the books though, especially the witches.

I never got into Niven past the Dreampark books he co-wrote. I really enjoyed them (even though he doesn't seem to like women that much) but never managed to read the Ringworld series.

Niven (and his occasional writing partner, Pournelle) don't seem to like women *at all*. They always get relegated to a suppoting role - if they're not being brutalised. I think their view of women is niave in the extreme. The authors must either live with their mothers, have long suffering wives, or are unwilling bachelors. Having said that, women did play a more important part in Rainbow Mars, although they still spent much of their time naked, and it was a terrible book.

I was being polite about their portrayl of women. They must have had some bad experiences at the hands of a lust-crased, passive agressive, emotionally warped ex-girlfriend.

Mmmm. My favourite...

Another vote for Strata standing on its own two feet as a subtle and entertaining SF novel.

If you're interested, I'm sorry to say there's a small factual error in your article - the Strata-disc hasn't got elephants and turtles under it: 'As the ship passed under the disc there was nothing but a space-black plain on the underside.' (Strata pg 58.)

Solidly written article - I didn't know just how closely Strata was based on Ringworld.

Good article. I knew about the Hindu myth (although I probably wouldn't have been able to tell you it was Hindu) but the Larry Niven bits were new to me.

The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are very different from the other Discworld books, they are much more straighforward sci-fi spoofs whereas subsequent books move into the realms of satire. I still have a soft spot for them because I read them first although I would agree that there is a marked difference and anyone who started with the later books might well be disappointed.

Pratchett seems to have gone back to only churning out one book a year now after the rather disastrous effort that was Jingo.

Maybe, if you really want to overdo it, you could mention each of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books and what they refer to. Like in Maskerade, mention the real names of each of the musicals Walter Plinge wrote. As an uncultured person I miss a lot of the references.

Hi Gnomon, nice entry indeed. A good complement to the other mentioned entry about Discworld.
As I missed Colour of Magic, I did not make any connection with Ringworld, the later novels era to far away from that wonderfull world with just humans in every ecological niche.

This is music with rocks in.

Gnomon, of the researchers that first went to the Ringworld, you missed the most intriguing one: Lucky Teela Brown.

Hi folks! I've been away but am back now. I see that many people like my article, but I'll have to make a few changes. I'll have to change my references to the quality of The Colour of Magic, since lots of you appear to find it special. I thought it was one of the worst of the Discworld books and would not have read any more if I had read it first. But I shouldn't let personal opinion interfere with a good Entry (at least not too much!). Thanks to those who spotted my mistakes: I forget Teela Brown and I had the impression the Strata world had the elephants and turtles.

The new version will be out in a day or two. I'll let you know.