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

Thankyou tekflat. I asked about the time sprout, I liked that book where he first turned up. Anyone here like Rankin?

Oh and for the other person that doesn't get the quote - "mate" is australian for friend and 'Cos is the word 'because, but shrunk ing the wash

The reference to Sam Neil - I don't know the book, but he was born in England and immigrated to NZ as a small child (I really like quiet earth) so depending how you look at it, it could still be an UK reference.

Also people have been saying HGttG was dark and cynical. Since when has that been a bad thing? Some of the best humour to ever come out of the UK has been just that dark and many times ending humoursly but not always happily.

Not a bad thing. Just hadn't thought of it that way until I had a chance to compare with TP. Though agcBen wants it the other way round

And I hate to be unpopular, but I can't stand Rankin. And Tom Holt has gone downhill ever since the advent of TP who he now seems to be trying to emulate. Badly.

But the Baowolf story is good.

Fafhrd and the Mouser?
Well, if you are going to rip off people, you might as well rip off the best, I guess. Though I would still say that such obvious 'targets' are a joke for the fans rather than 'a rip-off', surely?

Tefkat, re: Duncan.

What I quoted was the entire line in the Last Continent (in a conversation about immigration) but obviously a reference to a Slim Dusty (country singer) song that goes "I love to have a beer with Duncan 'cos Duncun's me mate"

So I figure if there is stuff like that in the other books that relate to England there's no way I'm picking it up.

Well the whole point about Pratchett is that the man is such a bloody polymath that most people only get half the jokes (me included).

My ex's fave was Music with Rocks in, because he got about 90% of the jokes. But it was my sister's husband's least favourite because he got about 10% of the jokes. I'd still rather have had my husband than hers though.

a former rock-chick called Ben

Reading the last few posts my two reactions were:

"But I enjoyed Equal Rites"

and

"But I like Terry Brooks"

Before I discovered h2g2 I used to read at least one book a day - sometimes two.

I'm not an uncritical consumer. There are several authors I wouldn't touch again with a bargepole and quite a few books I've actually given up on (though I try to read at least 40 pages to give them a chance to improve).

Terry Brooks' name on a book is a good reason for me to pick it up.
Admittedly his Landover books aren't exactly rocket science (Xanth without the humour?) but the Shannara ones are great.

Alan Dean Foster, anyone?

I appear to have missed a page (AGAIN!)

'twas I wot didn't get the quote Apparition. I understood the overt meaning but got the impression from magrat's quoting it that there must be some kind of pun in there. Not so?

Ah! Thanks magrat.

Yes Ben, I've found with Pratchett that I can read out something I found wonderful, only to be met with blank looks - and conversely other people find humour that had completely gone over my head.

Rereading his books several years later can be quite a revelation.

I'm conviced I average about 20 per cent of the jokes in TP, but the ones I do get are good, though, so...

Mind you, the thing I find most impressive is that because he puts the books out at such a frightening pace, I'm always half fearful that they are about to become automatic potboilers, which is why I was so cross when I detected such a strain in the two I bought twice. But then, luckily, just as I start to get that sinking feeling, no, he comes up with another good one.

I'm not ruling out the fact that my zero experience of Australia wasn't responsible for my lack of appreciation, of that one, mind.

I think Pratchett is generally weaker when he aims his guns at specifics rather than generalities.
I would suggest that Soul Music (rock'n'roll), Moving Pictures (Hollywood), Lost Continent (Australia) and Interesting Times (China/the Far East) are less effective than his books that deal with human nature as a whole-almost any of the Witch books, or trends in society which seems to be the province of the City Guard.
Or maybe that's just me.
Alan Dean Foster-fine writer of potboilers. I like his Flinx stories, and he wrote one fantastic short story about a giant shark which knocks the socks of Jaws (the novel) in about 10% of the page count.

Soul Music - that was the name of it - thanks BS

B

Glad to be of service ma'am.

well i've waded through the back log and no doubt forgotten half the points i wanted to make

on rankin - i found the armageddon books torturous but for some odd reason persisted - can't think why but susquently i moved on to some of his other books and found them much much better, eg snuff fiction

on DNA and plot - i guess because the first time i read HH i read the first four books one after the other, i did discern some plot - my fav part is in book 3 (i think) when AGrajag comes back a life too early, and it ties in to heaps of things that happened in earlier books - the thing i always find with DNA is that you simply have to read every single sentence or it comes back to bite you - not that that is a chore

on pratchett - after reading all the glowing backlog i have decided to reread and indeed simply read some of TP - i loved him for ages, always considered him different but not as laugh out loud funny as DNA, (more of a snide snigger) but the sheer volume of his work got me down and i gave up after about the first 15 - besides you can never get the damn things second hand and i couldn't afford new books - will have to go see the library some time soon

i must admit i tended to find pratchett pretty predictable too - but i am beginning to wonder if i didn't get a lot of the jokes (being a kiwi) so will have another gander

span

Hiya Sharky. Haven't read the Flinx ones. I was thinking of the ones with the rather inept kid with the guitar and the anthropomorphic rodent(ferret? squirrel?). Spellsinger?

They're all called things like "Moment of the Magician", "Time of the Transference"...

but fun.

Ah!Alan Dean Foster.I loved his Spellsinger series which I read before TP and after DNA.I love all his stuff even the creepy Aliens.I loved Codgerspace but I think that one is for older...well codgers.I recommend his Cyberway but I am digressing.

I still think that it is impossible to compare DNA/TP and not necessary.There is room for all on my bookshelves(well if I put the books two deep on the shelves that is and sort of stack other books precariously in the top of the books on the top shelf).

I think the problem with TP is the amount of hype about his work.I love his work but I do wonder if it is necessary for the average bookseller to give 5-6 shelves to his books.However this is the usual lead in to my usual rant about franchised SF/Fantasy so I'd better stop here.

Incog.

>> There is room for all on my bookshelves(well if I put the books two deep on the shelves that is and sort of stack other books precariously in the top of the books on the top shelf). <<

hehehe. I'm sooo glad someone else admits to having that problem.

Incog.

Comparing DNA and TP is interesting. It's like comparing DaVinci and Constable. Fine artists in their own right, distinctive and vivid, both equally capable of creating something that will wow the audience and both with legions of appreciative fans.

Where TP is clearly Constable, DNA is more of a DaVinci. A man interested in more than just painting.

I'm probably being slightly unfair to Terry - but that's OK because he's a wildly successful author making shedloads of money and I'm a slightly bitter wannabe .

Would people please go and read Tom Holt and Robert Rankin? In volume? And please, please, please check out Holt's other books - not just the comic fantasy novels aimed at the TP market place. He really is terribly good. Get hold of "Olympiad". You'll thank me later.

I found Rankin to be, well, boring. It was the first of the Brentford trilogy, and I just wasn't amused or interested enough. Haven't read Holt yet.

And for the record, I've enjoyed TP when I've read him (although 'The Colour of Magic' was actually quite dull, and put me off for a while). But DNA remains my favourite. I realise I'm personally biased, though.

>>>>I would suggest that Soul Music (rock'n'roll), Moving Pictures (Hollywood), Lost Continent (Australia) and Interesting Times (China/the Far East) are less effective than his books that deal with human nature as a whole<<

I think the Last Continent did deal with human nature. Specifically Australian human nature but nonetheless...

That is why I found the kangaroo to be a respectful and insightful representation of the story-telling tradition of Indigenous Australians (the way they start in the past, move into the present, end in the future, then pull you back to the here and now all in one story [I refer to the atmospheric tales of Patricia Mamajun Torres and Josie Boyle]) and a girl called Ben found it "cute, but not much more."

Why is it that English people keep calling it "the Lost continent"? I noticed one of my professors do the same thing. Is it called that over there?