Books 2nd Edition, Foreword by m0r1arty Options

[monkeyman]

Really? Where did you read that? Did he say why or what his plans for the Discworld are?
He must have some sort of plan in place what with his Alzheimers (). I'm hoping he wraps some things up. Mostly I want to see what he does with Carrot, Vimes and the Patrician (make Careit king, Vimes head of royal guard? Patrician pretends to be dead but goes to live his days with Margalotta?).
Poor Terry

Btw, Waterstones had the hardcover for £9 instead of RRP £18

[Raven]

This morning I started on a book I've been meaning to read for years - A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.

Hur! Good luck with that! I thought I was doing well until I hit the chapter on black holes and multi-universes, then my brain melted and started dribbling out of my ears!

Really? Where did you read that? Did he say why or what his plans for the Discworld are?

I saw him on stage just before Christmas last year, and his plans then were to keep on going as long as he could.

He did say that the next Discworld novel proper would be another Moist Van Lipwig tale, probably centred around the water industry, but I've not heard anything more on that since then.

I think he also mentioned I Shall Wear Midnight, though I don't think it had a title at that point, and he also talked over some themes for further novels, but he didn't elaborate very much except to say that he doesn't tend to plan much beyond the next book to two anyway.

I started The Death of Grass last night, by John Christopher, and finally forced myself to put it down and go to bed at 3.15am! Very good so far, it's like a dark John Wyndham novel.

[Sir_Robin_the_br...]

Really? Where did you read that? Did he say why or what his plans for the Discworld are?

A rather good Guardian article here. Not that much about Discworld but still good stuff.

Pratchett has announced that his new book will be the last in his Tiffany Aching series (Aching is a young witch), and the novel, a bridge between childhood and the adult world, is full of worldly darkness – death, domestic abuse, old women's corpses being eaten by their pets, depression. "I'm a fantasy writer," he says. "Called a fantasy writer. But there's very little, apart from one or two basic concepts in I Shall Wear Midnight, which are in fact fantasy. You have sticks that fly, but they're practical broomsticks, with a bloody great strap that you can hold on to so you don't fall off. And you try not to use them too often."

[Raven]

More here: Meet The Author: Sir Terry Pratchett.

Haven't had a chance to watch it yet!

[widowspider]

Hur! Good luck with that! I thought I was doing well until I hit the chapter on black holes and multi-universes, then my brain melted and started dribbling out of my ears!

Thanks! My brain is slightly better with concepts than the actual maths/physics of it, so hopefully I can get through it. Being a total nerd about Bill Bryson's awesome book A Short History of Nearly Everything will help, as he discusses these theories in layman's terms very well and I've read it about 10 times, so I'm quite familiar with the idea already.

[monkeyman]

Thanks Raven/Sir Robin

@Wids: That Bill Bryson is a really really good read. I'd recommend it to anyone.

[widowspider]

@Wids: That Bill Bryson is a really really good read. I'd recommend it to anyone.

I ruddy bloody love it. I've honestly read it over 10 times. Also his book 'Mother Tongue', about the development of the English language, is excellent even though it was written in the late 80s and is therefore a little out of date.

[Jessopjessopjess...]

For SF readers (mostly Chappers), Peter F Hamilton's 'The Evolutionary Void' which concludes the Void Trilogy, is now out!

[NiteFall]

DAMN YOU LACK OF MONEY!!!

Edit- actually, I have £7 of credit at play.com and they have it for a tenner. I can juuuust afford it.

This post has been edited by NiteFall: Sep 6 2010, 03:30 PM

[Chapman Baxter]

For SF readers (mostly Chappers), Peter F Hamilton's 'The Evolutionary Void' which concludes the Void Trilogy, is now out!

I got it last week, then - as tends to happen with him - I quickly realised I'd have to reread the earlier books to work out what on earth was going on.

[Shack]

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Death narrates story set in wartime Germany. Excellent.

[Jessopjessopjess...]

I got it last week, then - as tends to happen with him - I quickly realised I'd have to reread the earlier books to work out what on earth was going on.

Tell me about it!

[NiteFall]

I'm resisting the temptation to ask who Aaron is. I am glad that I decided to re-read Dreaming and Temporal Void last month though.

[Sostie]

Just finished Darkest Day by Christopher Fowler. The usual entertaining mix of detective/horror story with some interesting nuggets about London's history thrown in, featuring elderly detectives Bryant & May.

Just starting Black Dogs by Ian McEwan

Next week sees the release of John Irving's latest in paperback. Can't wait.

[Jessopjessopjess...]

I'm resisting the temptation to ask who Aaron is. I am glad that I decided to re-read Dreaming and Temporal Void last month though.

All is revealed, apparently, although Hamilton has himself said that people have read way too much into his possible identity thus far, so it could be that he was a very insignificant character.

I am trying to skim through the other books before I get too far into "TEV". Luckily the Void Trilogy has been leaner and meaner than his previous works – particularly with regards to the size of its cast of characters – so I'm picking it up fairly quickly.