Bits and pieces

Progress report: the Discworld series has stalled - but I haven't given up yet - but I finished the available episodes of Legends of Tomorrow, got sucked into Pretty Little Liars somehow (??!?), watched two episodes of Good Omens (I know it's an unpopular opinion but: I don't love it, although I do love the book), and have one episode to go on S3 of Stranger Things.  The Mindflayer monster is SO GROSS - I love it.  Very The Thing and The Fly.

I've also watched, and loved, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.  I watch all the Marvel superhero movies but I don't read comics, so my knowledge of Spider-Man lore is broad strokes at best.  But that didn't matter.  Into the Spiderverse is a fantastic superhero movie and a damn fine movie even without the genre tag.  It is funny, heart-breaking and never lets up for a moment.  The voice cast is phenomenal - Mahershala Ali! Hailey Steinfeld! Chris Pine! Kathryn Hahn! Lauren Velez! Lily Tomlin! Nic Cage! Liev Schreiber! and the perfectly-cast Jake Johnson! - and the movie simply gorgeous.  You've never seen visuals like that in a superhero movie.  I plan on watching it again soon because I'm sure I missed a bunch, just sitting there agog.

New goal

Not only have I utterly failed in my easily-attainable goal to watch one movie a month (just one!) to post here, I completely neglected to post ANYTHING for the month of May.  Not cool, man.  My excuse is that I've just been so caught up in watching television series.  I got through the Scooby Doo episode of Supernatural, I've started the guilty pleasure that is Pretty Little Liars, I've been getting caught up on the most recent Netflix-able season of Legends of Tomorrow, I'm two episodes deep into S5 of Black Mirror.  It doesn't end there either:  the final season of Jessica Jones starts in just a couple days,  S4 of Veronica Mars is just around the corner and I haven't even gotten to start in on Good Omens yet, much to my chagrin.  Golden age of television indeed (give or take Supernatural and PLL).

So I am therefore resetting my goal to this: I want to read all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series by the end of the summer.  I've ready several of those books already, randomly, but this time I'm going chronologically.  I've finished the first four - The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites and Mort.  I think I can attain this goal.  These are quick books for me to read - I just need to keep going to the library.

Other books I've read:  Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, a wonderful collection of short stories that cannot be kept to one genre, instead incorporating horror, comedy, feminism and fantasy; and The Troop by Nick Cutter, a body horror/zombie-ish/Lord of the Flies mash-up that's good enough to have a Stephen King blurb on the front cover.

For my viewing pleasure

In the last several weeks, I have

• Gotten halfway through S2 of The O.A.
• Watched all of the most recent season of Santa Clarita Diet
• Re-watched the first half and watched the second half of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Next up is to 

• Finish The O.A.
• Finish S12 of Supernatural (at which point I will have watched all twelve seasons in less than a year.  Yay?)
• Watch Hanna (on Amazon Prime)
• Wait impatiently for Good Omens
• Watch Red Riding Trilogy: Part 1: 1974

At some point I guess I should probably fold that huge mountain of clean laundry that is looming on the guest bed.

Two more by Terry Pratchett

I read these a while ago, when I was still unemployed, and then I got a job and didn’t have all day to sit around the apartment, reading wonderful books and writing about them. So now I don’t remember much and don’t have the time to re-read them. Here’s what I do recall at least regarding Small Gods and Lords and Ladies (both from 1992).

Lords and Ladies reunites us with Granny Weatherwax, the very capable witch from Equal Rites, as she and two of her witchly co-horts must needs do battle against an invasion of the Elves (a/k/a the Lords and Ladies). The Elves are bad news – destructive and whimsical and completely conscienceless – and they have been allowed back into the Discworld via some ill-advised and inadvertent magicks. As is his wont, Pratchett uses this fantasy setting to explore “serious” topics like traditional gender roles, marriage and responsibility, as well as turning some old school faerie tales on their ears. The Elf Queen is very nasty but luckily, in both this book and The Wee Free Men (which I actually liked better than Lords and Ladies), sure gets her comeuppance.

Small Gods takes place on the Discworld too but in parts far removed from Granny Weatherwax’s realm, where Pratchett takes a close look at organized religion and the matter of faith. Brutha is a young man serving as an acolyte for the Great God Om, the main deity of the Omnians. Brutha isn’t much of a thinker, preferring to spend his days hoeing melons in the gardens, but he is a true Believer, not only knowing by heart all the scripture of Om, the ferocious Bull-God, but having full and unshakeable faith in his god. Which is a good thing because Om has gotten himself stuck in the body of a tortoise, unable to regain his fiery godhead. Only Brutha, the Chosen One, can hear the god Om speak. As you might imagine, that doesn’t end up being such a good thing, involving, in short order, Inquisitors, Exquisitors, crazed hermits, fundamentalists of all stripes, fanatical soldiers and tortoise-eating eagles.

I must continue to thank Kevin C. for introducing me to Terry Pratchett fan. With every book I read, I like him more and more – even if I do get lazy on the book reports. These fantasy novels are so smart and funny, entertaining and involved, and never smug or mean-spirited. I am just thrilled that I’ve only just begun to read my way through his catalog.

Three more by Terry Pratchett

I tend to, not get stuck in a rut per se, but read things in clumps. This clump is Terry Pratchett, as I just blew through three more of his books, the first three Discworld fantasy novels: The Colour of Magic (1983), The Light Fantastic (1986) and Equal Rites (1987).

The Colour of Magic introduces us to the Discworld by following the adventures of Rincewind, the mostly inept wizard, his new friend Twoflower, the Discworld’s first tourist, and Twoflower’s Luggage, hundred-footed sentient pearwood chest which is extremely loyal to its owner and extremely snappish to everyone else. At the end of The Colour of Magic, the three of them are left falling off the edge of the world which, being a flat disc, is entirely too possible.

Fortunately, in The Light Fantastic, Rincewind is the only person who can save the Discworld from a disastrous collision with a malevolent red start, so at least the fall off the world won’t kill him. In other events, Twoflower does get to play a game of cards with Death (who speaks IN ALL CAPITALS and is generally pleasant in skeletal, grim sort of way). And our heroes fall in with Cohen the Barbarian, now 87+ years old and toothless, but still the greatest hero around.

In Equal Rites Pratchett takes a break from Rincewind and Company, instead following the early adventures of Esk, the eighth son of an eighth son upon whom a dying wizard bequeaths his magical wizard staff. Except that Esk is a girl – which fact the wizard didn’t know at the time. On the Discworld, wizards are men and women with any magical leanings are witches, according to the lore, and everyone is pretty adamant about never the twain shall meet. But Esk has an overabundance of raw wizardish talent and so Granny Weatherwax, the resident witch in Esk’s village, takes it upon herself to help the little girl journey to the Unseen University, where wizards are trained. Esk’s parents are reluctant to let their only daughter go … until she turns one of her more annoying brothers into a pig. (Granny makes her turn him back.)

I am becoming a huge Terry Pratchett fan, much like I used to be a huge Piers Anthony fan (until his clever funny books devolved into merely strings of puns after reader-submitted puns). They are funny as heck, clever, observant of the human condition, fast-paced, convoluted without becoming obtuse, and recurring characters pop in from time to time. If you have a taste for smart fantasy that is more hilarious and self-deprecating than angsty and self-important, pick yourself up some Pratchett.

Book review: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

It’s a good thing that Terry Pratchett has written so darn many books, because I like his writing and intend to read a lot of them. The Wee Free Men is one of his YA novels, tangentially related to his more adult Discworld fantasy series. You don’t have to be familiar with Discworld, however, to enjoy TWFM: the story latches onto you from the get-go and never lets up.

Young heroine Tiffany Aching lives a quiet country life on the Aching family farm. She’s an odd girl, prone to too many thoughts and questions, but she’s hardworking and dutiful, and good at making cheese. She has a baby brother, Wentworth, who seems to be always sticky due to his always wanting to eat candies, and she’s not entirely sure she likes him that much – things on the farm were just fine without him. But because she’s a good girl, Tiffany watches Wentworth when her mother asks her too and only once or twice uses him as monster bait.

Strange things are coming down out of the hills: river monsters, headless horsemen and winter when it shouldn’t be winter. Tiffany, whose Granny Aching (excellent with sheep) was rumored to be a witch, and who rather thinks she might like to be a witch herself, consults with Miss Tick (also a witch) and learns that an invasion of these bad things is coming. And there’s no one to stop them, bemoans Miss Tick. There’s me, says Tiffany.

After having said that, however, the girl isn’t so sure since the witch wasn’t very forthcoming with the witchy education, only leaving a talking toad behind for advice. But when Wentworth suddenly goes missing, Tiffany takes up her weapons (a cast iron frying pan and her Granny’s book, Diseases of the Sheep) and enlists the help of the Nac Mac Feegle, also known as the Wee Free Men, tiny blue Scottish-ish pictsies (not pixies). The only thing the pictsies like to do better than drink is fight and, luckily for Tiffany, they’re really good at doing both.

Pratchett has an incredible ear for accents – and his Nac Mac Feegle are thick with a twisted brogue – and excellent timing to his sentences. His descriptions are marvelous and this is one of the most easily visualized books I’ve read in a long time. The plot hits the ground running and keeps picking up pace, throwing in wonderful characters, tweaked fairy tales, funny jokes and social commentary without missing a stride.

This is only the second Pratchett book I’ve read (the first was Guards! Guards!) and I’ve got to say that I’m totally hooked. I’m planning on delving into the stacks of the SLC City Library (ooh - what a library!) soon and hope that they have a decent stash of Discworld books for me. In the meantime, HUGE thanks to friend of the blog Kevin C. for introducing me to Pratchett’s worlds – and giving me these books.

Book review: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

I cannot believe that I have never read any Terry Pratchett before - it's a travesty! This book came highly recommended both by my friend Kevin C. (who loaned his copy to me) and by fellow blogger and blogcritic Katie (who is MUCH more prolific than I and yet still took the time to put a comment on this humble post of mine) and I loved it. Pratchett writes like a more sophisticated Piers Anthony during Anthony's early years, before his Xanth books became all puns and no story.

Guards! Guards! takes place in the murky city of Ankh-Morpork on Pratchett's fantastical Discworld. A sinister cabal of wizards, in an attempt to take over the city, has summoned a big old dragon. Their hopes of controlling the beastie are soon shown to be futile as the dragon decides that it wants to be king. It is up to the limp Night Guard, led by disillusioned and drunk Captain Vimes, to rescue the city. To this end, the Guard enlists young Carrot, a human foundling raised by dwarves, and an orangutan who just happens to be the Librarian of the University's Library.

I lost track of the times I laughed out loud while reading this book. Pratchett's descriptions of the city's state of decrepitude and the cravenness of its citizenry are very funny, and he is spot-on about libraries and bookstores:

"The truth is that even big collections of ordinary books distort space, as can be readily proved by anyone who has been around a really old-fashioned secondhand bookshop, one of those that looks as though they were designed by M. Escher on a bad day and has more staircases than storeys and those rows of shelves which end in little doors that are surely too small for a full-sized human to enter. The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookstore is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read."

and

"Books bend time and space. One reason the owners of those aforesaid little rambling, poky secondhand bookshops always seem slightly unearthly is that many of them really are, having strayed into this world after taking a wrong turn in their own bookshops in worlds where it is considered commendable business practice to wear carpet slippers all the time and open your shop only when you feel like it."

Anyone who has ever been in a really local secondhand independent bookstore knows exactly what Pratchett is talking about (thanks to Kevin for reminding me of the quotes).

Once again I have discovered a book that has led me to many others: according to these guys, there are 41 Discworld books, including six more that focus on Vimes and his Night Watch. If the town library is sufficiently stocked, I may never write about television again.