Fantasy Books -Terry Pratchett

[icowden]

I'd like to see a live-action that was true to the (or 'a') book, like Going Postal was, or as close as it could be
If a Watch programme was made, I'd suggest Geraldine James as Lady Sybil (Lady Maud, in the TV adaptation of 'Blott On The Landscape')
Enjoyed the railways in Raising Steam with the idea of 'live steam' taken to its literal conclusion

There actually is one called "The Watch", but it's not very faithful to the books.

After the 9 October 2020 New York Comic Con panel, Rhianna Pratchett stated it shared "no DNA with my father's Watch",[44] and Neil Gaiman compared the series to "Batman if he's now a news reporter in a yellow trenchcoat with a pet bat".[45]

 

[icowden]

as far as Kindles are concerned I pretty much only read books on mine - never read "real" books anymore

Same here. I absolutely love real books, but the turning point was the realisation that when my wife turns the light off to go to sleep which she then does in under 3 minutes, I can keep reading on my ipad kindle app with white writing on a black background until the point at which my brain is tired enough to let me sleep.

I don't know how people can just fall asleep. I've tried it and my brain just goes into overdrive, usually wanting to look something up because I've just thought about it and don't know the answer, which then means I can't sleep because I want to know the answer. A good book on the other hand occupies the brain and gives it something to think about as you fly to a new world.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Same here. I absolutely love real books, but the turning point was the realisation that when my wife turns the light off to go to sleep which she then does in under 3 minutes, I can keep reading on my ipad kindle app with white writing on a black background until the point at which my brain is tired enough to let me sleep.

I don't know how people can just fall asleep. I've tried it and my brain just goes into overdrive, usually wanting to look something up because I've just thought about it and don't know the answer, which then means I can't sleep because I want to know the answer. A good book on the other hand occupies the brain and gives it something to think about as you fly to a new world.

I am the same as your wife - well, as far as sleep is concerned - I just lie down and go to sleep

My wife is like you - she reads until she feels like she is likely to sleep if she tries - which can be several hours later

the light on her Kindle is great for her as she doesn;t have to have a light on which helps me and also means the room is darker which helps her

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

There actually is one called "The Watch", but it's not very faithful to the books.

Yes, I saw about 5 minutes of it
If I'd never read the books, it might have been...... erm.......watchable

 

[Bazzer]

I wouldn't recommend Tiffany Aching until you've read at least all other of the Witches, and maybe even not until they are the last ones left.

A good point about the Witches series before Tiffany Aching.

 

[Time Waster]

Just googled the Watch tv series. I remember it and it was a bit meh! Not very good as a programme but if it is not in line with the books then it has even less value I reckon.

 

[icowden]

Yes, I saw about 5 minutes of it
If I'd never read the books, it might have been...... erm.......watchable

I dunno - the jury is still out on that one. It made neither Pratchett fans nor non-Pratchett fans happy. A huge achievement!

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Just googled the Watch tv series. I remember it and it was a bit meh! Not very good as a programme but if it is not in line with the books then it has even less value I reckon.

I seem to remember it - I was looking forward to it until I saw a trailer

which sounder a few hundred alarms

but it was, as has been said, OK as a fantasy based Police thingy

but The Watch is wasn't - way past the point of being an adaption more of a " we got some names and a few of the ideas for the city from and I think the actors have read the books and know about the characters"

 

[Conrad_K]

I started with Small Gods and liked it, but I'd probably recommend "Soul Music" or "Moving Pictures" for a newbie.

I ran a company van off the road one night, laughing so hard I lost control of the vehicle when listening to the part in "Going Postal" where the boiled pig's head came out of the pot wearing sunglasses. Fortunately it was a wide grass shoulder, and after only a little bit of traveling sideways at 75mph I managed to get the van back on the freeway without rolling over.

 

[cyberknight]

Dug out my copy of lord of the rings as i have not read it in a long time and as its a paperpack with all 3 books the print is so small i cant read it properly even with my glasses on unless i hold it about 3 foot away

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Dug out my copy of lord of the rings as i have not read it in a long time and as its a paperpack with all 3 books the print is so small i cant read it properly even with my glasses on unless i hold it about 3 foot away


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We are currently watching The Two Towers with the grand-daughter
the 2 grand-sons are younger and have gone to bed so she gets a treat and watches a "grown up" film with us

she never gets to watch stuff like that at home

 

[cyberknight]

We are currently watching The Two Towers with the grand-daughter
the 2 grand-sons are younger and have gone to bed so she gets a treat and watches a "grown up" film with us

she never gets to watch stuff like that at home

i was watching the second series of rings of power and i had a hankering to read it again .

 

[Mike Ayling]

Puff the magic dragon is really sad. I come close to you in reaction to that. And do not start me on the theme tune to watership down (or whatever that rabbit animation film is called). However Bambi makes me think of venison sausages!! Mmmmm!

Brave new world had a huge impact on me in a way 1984 and animal farm never did. I think Aldous Huxley is superior to George Orwell in the dystopian story style. Brave new world opened my eyes politically. And I quite liked catch 22, a very marmite book. I heard it was a book that if you liked it you read it cover to cover but if you didn't you simply could not get through it. Kind of unreadable if it does not chime with you in some way.

Fantasy genre I think has subtext to it. LOTR WWI and WWII, Alice in wonderland - God, Pullman puts atheism into everything I believe. There is a series of books about a tree that became a young woman with incredible powers she had to relearn was about adolescence and growing up. I think Ursula leguin has a lot of subtext in her earthsea books. I suppose you get subtext in a lot of books but tbh I do think that it gets overlooked in fantasy genre personally.

Not read Dune series and doubt I will. Saw part of the film and hated the idea of giant sand worms too much to bother with the books or films to the end.

Not fantasy so much but I got a book secondhand called Storyland by Amy Jeffs. It is British mythology. I guess it will have plenty of giants and the linkage with Biblical tales or characters so much part of British myth. Too big for a holiday book though.

BTW I was looking in the library link in the village for a holiday book. Plenty of selection of crime thriller page turners I was looking for. However I noticed that even the paperbacks had grown to a larger size. I mean hardbacks are usually a bigger book than they would be as a paperback, but in the library the paperbacks were bigger than the old hardbacks used to be and the hardbacks were almost A4 in size!!! Have books become bigger of late or is my memory playing up? Could it just be the ones they stocked?

We're you in the large print section?

 

[Alex321]

Dug out my copy of lord of the rings as i have not read it in a long time and as its a paperpack with all 3 books the print is so small i cant read it properly even with my glasses on unless i hold it about 3 foot away


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We have the standard three volume version, but also have "luxury" copy, which is a single harback volume in a box, with very thin paper and small print.

 

[Alex321]

Not fantasy so much but I got a book secondhand called Storyland by Amy Jeffs. It is British mythology. I guess it will have plenty of giants and the linkage with Biblical tales or characters so much part of British myth. Too big for a holiday book though.

Holiday books for me are supposed to be big, otherwise I'll have finished them in a day or two. I prefer to only take 2-3 large books than several smaller ones.

BTW I was looking in the library link in the village for a holiday book. Plenty of selection of crime thriller page turners I was looking for. However I noticed that even the paperbacks had grown to a larger size. I mean hardbacks are usually a bigger book than they would be as a paperback, but in the library the paperbacks were bigger than the old hardbacks used to be and the hardbacks were almost A4 in size!!! Have books become bigger of late or is my memory playing up? Could it just be the ones they stocked?

Yes, I think they have got quite a bit larger. Not in page size so much, but much thicker IME than they used to be. Most of my older novels (30 years or more old) are between 3/4" and 1" thick. Many now are 2" or more.