Discworld marathon blog...

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Anonymous

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#21
Tonyblack said:
Still, it was interesting to read your comments. :) Have you read these two books more than once? You might want to consider rereading them in the course of your marathon and redoing the reviews for these two in light of the sequential reading.
I agree with Tony here.

And as to justify my 'Boo' :

In comparsion to the other books, especially those featuring the wizards, UA falls flat and certainly doesn't deserve a rating above average.
Why?
First off:
The book is too stuffed. There are several plotthreads, some of which don't get fully resolved or are just there as, well, so not every solution in the story comes off as deus ex machina.
Take the whole micromail business for example. What at first glance appears to be a mocking of fashion-industries is in the end just there so the joke that worked better way back in Guard!Guards! can be brought up again.
Then there are the new characters. I would have never thought Pratchett would or could write a character as boring...no, not onlly boring, boring and obnoxious, as the orc.
The Problem is, or one problem, that the orcs don't have a backstory on the disc, so the reader has no sense of danger. And when it is finally revealed the whole -we don't mind you if you stay out of our business- mentality gets sorta ridiculous.
Why? Well, we are told in the book orcs are over evil killing machines. yet all it, basically keeps the orc in question from facing the angry mob is what...colourful candles. (I think this was the point where the book hit the corner the third or fourth time. Yes, UA is the FIRST discworld book i threw into the corner in frustration)
That Death spares him before dosn't help it.
The next thing is the, assumed, mainplot:
When I saw the cover and read the blurp I was actually excited. I think I'm not the only one who thought the book would be about football getting INTRODUCED as a fully fledged sport to AM instead of just something that is played occassionally.
Instead we got what we got. Okay, given, I'm german, I have a similar yet completely different look at the game than people from the Isle (I tihnk it's something genetically ...) but heck, it was so disappointing. (Not to metion the cover is deceiving. I've been looking forward seeing Vetinari as referee)
Aother thing are the various continuity errors that can't even be blamed on the history monks.
And then there were 'facts' thrown at the reader that came out of nowhere (trollcabs, i.e)
All in all I can say, IMHO, the book was too stuffed, had too many errors and was plain disappointing.

Only highlight?

The thing about Pex, as it does open a path for some neat plots.

Keep in mind this is all my personal opinion on the book.
 

Quatermass

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Dec 7, 2010
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#22
LilMaibe said:
Tonyblack said:
Still, it was interesting to read your comments. :) Have you read these two books more than once? You might want to consider rereading them in the course of your marathon and redoing the reviews for these two in light of the sequential reading.
I agree with Tony here.

And as to justify my 'Boo' :

In comparsion to the other books, especially those featuring the wizards, UA falls flat and certainly doesn't deserve a rating above average.
Why?
First off:
The book is too stuffed. There are several plotthreads, some of which don't get fully resolved or are just there as, well, so not every solution in the story comes off as deus ex machina.
Take the whole micromail business for example. What at first glance appears to be a mocking of fashion-industries is in the end just there so the joke that worked better way back in Guard!Guards! can be brought up again.
Then there are the new characters. I would have never thought Pratchett would or could write a character as boring...no, not onlly boring, boring and obnoxious, as the orc.
The Problem is, or one problem, that the orcs don't have a backstory on the disc, so the reader has no sense of danger. And when it is finally revealed the whole -we don't mind you if you stay out of our business- mentality gets sorta ridiculous.
Why? Well, we are told in the book orcs are over evil killing machines. yet all it, basically keeps the orc in question from facing the angry mob is what...colourful candles. (I think this was the point where the book hit the corner the third or fourth time. Yes, UA is the FIRST discworld book i threw into the corner in frustration)
That Death spares him before dosn't help it.
The next thing is the, assumed, mainplot:
When I saw the cover and read the blurp I was actually excited. I think I'm not the only one who thought the book would be about football getting INTRODUCED as a fully fledged sport to AM instead of just something that is played occassionally.
Instead we got what we got. Okay, given, I'm german, I have a similar yet completely different look at the game than people from the Isle (I tihnk it's something genetically ...) but heck, it was so disappointing. (Not to metion the cover is deceiving. I've been looking forward seeing Vetinari as referee)
Aother thing are the various continuity errors that can't even be blamed on the history monks.
And then there were 'facts' thrown at the reader that came out of nowhere (trollcabs, i.e)
All in all I can say, IMHO, the book was too stuffed, had too many errors and was plain disappointing.

Only highlight?

The thing about Pex, as it does open a path for some neat plots.

Keep in mind this is all my personal opinion on the book.
Okay. That's good analysis, even if I disagree. :)

And I thought that you thought that I gave Unseen Academicals too low a rating. :eek:
 

Tonyblack

Super Moderator
City Watch
Jul 25, 2008
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#23
UA is, I thought, a better book than it first appears. I was horrified by it on the first reading. Part of the problem, as LilMaibe points out, is there is too much going on. There are too many separate threads that don't quite come together. There are so many interesting ideas that it's kind of difficult to get your head around them all. I felt, on the first reading, almost as if Terry had got all the ideas he'd left out of other books and stuck them in this one with a bit of dialogue to hold them all together.

However - on the second reading, it all made much more sense and, for me at least, it worked much better. I still think it has too many ideas and too many separate character threads, but it works better as a story than I first thought (and it's heaps better than Making Money). :laugh:
 
#24
I don't understand the rating system, if I am rating a film, any film:

* is really bad
** is ok
*** is good/average
****is really good
***** is perfect

double that for marks out of ten.

Most DW books for me would be in the ****/***** but of the whole of literature, *** is the average or 5 if it's out of ten
 

poohcarrot

Sergeant-at-Arms
Sep 13, 2009
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#25
That's because you are using a statistically approved Likert scale where there is a central figure denoting a neutral level, neither good nor bad. 8)

Q, on the other hand, is using his own scale and since he is using halves as well, this implies there are 21 different values he can assign to a book. :laugh:
 

Quatermass

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Dec 7, 2010
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#26
poohcarrot said:
That's because you are using a statistically approved Likert scale where there is a central figure denoting a neutral level, neither good nor bad. 8)

Q, on the other hand, is using his own scale and since he is using halves as well, this implies there are 21 different values he can assign to a book. :laugh:
I'm not sure I've ever assigned a book any score lower than 4 to a book. But I've assigned it to Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. Those were chores to get through. Alice in Wonderland gave me a headache. Oh, and Beowulf. The rating is based on entertainment value, with 7.5 being the meridian. Keep in mind that not all books that I have read have gotten this rating, only ones that I did for book-reading (and review) blogs elsewhere.

Atlas Shrugged would get a 3. Barely.

Screw the statistically approved method. I go with my gut. :twisted: You got problems? I got a meson disrupter. And it is for the best to keep your mesons undisrupted. :twisted:

BTW, out of the books that I have read for these book-reading blogs, only 6 got 10/10. They were:

I Shall Wear Midnight

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Doctor Who: The Ancestor Cell

Doctor Who: The Quantum Archangel

The Shining

Monster
: Volume 4
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
#27
Tonyblack said:
(and it's heaps better than Making Money). :laugh:
Tried rereading MM again...it's still not making sense (starting once the plotdevice paraphernalia is introduced)
Might go and give UA a second chance once my brother comes to visit (send him my copy, not willing to buy a new one)
 

Dotsie

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Jul 28, 2008
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#28
Quatermass said:
I'm not sure I've ever assigned a book any score lower than 4 to a book.
For an entirely new experience then, you should Victoria Hislop's The Island (you really shouldn't), or Masha Hamilton's The Camel Bookmobile. Both dross, but then they were reading group books, so someone thought they were good enough to suggest. They got almost universally slated though.
 

Quatermass

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#29
Dotsie said:
Quatermass said:
I'm not sure I've ever assigned a book any score lower than 4 to a book.
For an entirely new experience then, you should Victoria Hislop's The Island (you really shouldn't), or Masha Hamilton's The Camel Bookmobile. Both dross, but then they were reading group books, so someone thought they were good enough to suggest. They got almost universally slated though.
Believe me, you haven't read sh**y books until you've read Atlas Shrugged. Even Twilight was more entertaining than it...
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
#30
Oh, i know something worse then Atlas Shrugged: A 'novel' abou the god Loki from norse Mythology. It's so bad, it's horrible...downright horrible.
Another mindboggler is -tooth and claw- by (i think) jo walton. It's not bad per se, but once you realized that it actually is a pseudo-historical cheesy romance novel like you can get at every trainstation you feel your leg getting pulled
 

Quatermass

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#31
REVIEW: The Colour of Magic


So...yeah. Coming back, to the very beginning of the Discworld series after so long is strange. It's a shock, rather like jumping into a vat filled with ice-cold hydrofluoric acid, and yet, reading The Colour of Magic is considerably more pleasant than that...

Rincewind, a failed wizard with only one, possibly world-ending spell in his head, is roped into becoming the guide for Twoflower, the Discworld's first tourist. From the town of Ankh-Morpork to the temple of Bel-Shamharoth, from the Wyrmberg to the deadly country of Krull on the edge of the Disc itself, Rincewind and Twoflower are on an insane odyssey across one of the strangest worlds in the universe...

I have to confess, this Discworld novel feels very different from the later ones that I am used to. Pratchett was still feeling around as an author, and you feel, at least looking back on it in retrospect, a lot of mythology and background that was later discarded, or at least ignored. The Colour of Magic hasn't much plot to speak of, being mostly a fantasy-style road trip from one adventure to the next.

And yet...what is actually there is so entertaining that you forget about the lack of plot, and merely sit back and enjoy the spectacle. Pairing one of the most cowardly characters in fiction this side of Flashman (whom Rincewind was based on, apparently, though Rincewind is more likeable) with a fearless one (who defies all conventions of being heroic, being, instead, a mildly insane tourist with little sense of personal safety or self-preservation) is a good move.

The opening segment set in Ankh-Morpork is perhaps the most interesting overall, given that it sets up Rincewind and Twoflower's relationship, as well as establishing other characters and organisations that would later play a role in the mythos. It is interesting to read of a Patrician (said by Pratchett to be Vetinari, albeit one who is either obese, or has at least two chins), and the Guilds, even before they develop properly.

I feel it disappointing that the incidents and concepts in later parts of the book weren't developed later in the series (although the Wyrmberg concept does get re-developed into Guards! Guards!, and Krull gets mentioned in The Last Hero), as they were entertaining enough and intriguing enough in their own right, if fairly underdeveloped. There was real, but wasted, potential here.

Overall, The Colour of Magic hasn't aged well as a Discworld book, especially in light of the later books and retcons. But as a stand-alone book, and as a piece of entertainment, it is still damned fine.



8/10

First words: In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part...

Last words:There didn't seem to be any alternative.
 

Tonyblack

Super Moderator
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Jul 25, 2008
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#32
I'm not sure how the Wyrmberg idea is developed in G!G! The dragons both books are very different and from different origins. o_O

And yes, it's a very different style to the later books, mainly because Terry was writing parodies of existing fantasy books in the first few. The Wyrmberg for example seems to be a parody of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider boks. :)
 

Quatermass

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#35
Tonyblack said:
I'm not sure how the Wyrmberg idea is developed in G!G! The dragons both books are very different and from different origins. o_O

And yes, it's a very different style to the later books, mainly because Terry was writing parodies of existing fantasy books in the first few. The Wyrmberg for example seems to be a parody of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider boks. :)
The only McCaffrey books I've read are two of her Brainship books and the first Acorna book. Never read the Pern books...

Re Guards! Guards!: It was that whole thing about 'real' dragons only existing in potentia, and needing both magical intervention and someone's mind to let them out. I wonder what would have happened if Twoflower got his hands on a copy of The Summoning of Dragons and a decent lot of magic. Twoflower may be a decent enough person, but I also think that he is mildly insane. He'd summon a dragon not for power, but just for the sake of having a dragon, without quite realising how dangerous it would be for him, or for anyone nearby. And that is probably a bad thing, rather like summoning Cthulhu to have a unique pet.


Bouncy Castle said:
Young adult Discworld books must be read at the time they were published
Dear Sir

Please supply one time machine.

Yours faithfully

Bouncy Castle (Miss)
*VWORP! VWORP!*

 

Tonyblack

Super Moderator
City Watch
Jul 25, 2008
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Cardiff, Wales
#36
The Wyrmberg dragons were dragons of the imagination given form by the magical field of the Wyrmberg itself.

The dragon in G! G! was something else. Although I can see certain connections, I do think they are different beasts. :)
 

poohcarrot

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Sep 13, 2009
8,317
2,300
NOT The land of the risen Son!!
#37
Poohcarrot's mini blog :laugh:

1 The Colour of Magic 7
2 The Light Fantastic 7
3 Equal Rites 6
4 Mort 8
5 Sourcery 7
6 Wyrd Sisters 8
7 Pyramids 10
8 Guards! Guards! 10
9 Faust Eric 7
10 Moving Pictures 7
11 Reaper Man 7
12 Witches Abroad 9
13 Small Gods 9
14 Lords and Ladies 8
15 Men at Arms 8
16 Soul Music 10
17 Interesting Times 9
18 Maskerade 7
19 Feet of Clay 8
20 Hogfather 10
21 Jingo 10
22 The Last Continent 9
23 Carpe Jugulum 8
24 The Fifth Elephant 8
25 The Truth 9
26 Thief of Time 10
27 The Last Hero 7
28 The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents 9
29 Night Watch 8
30 The Wee Free Men 10
31 Monstrous Regiment 6
32 A Hat Full of Sky 8
33 Going Postal 10
34 Thud! 8
35 Wintersmith 7
36 Making Money 6
37 Unseen Academicals 7
38 I Shall Wear Midnight 8
 

Willem

Sergeant
Jan 11, 2010
1,201
2,600
Weert, The Netherlands
#38
While I respect your personal opinions and decisions on this, I would like to advise you on changing your scale. If you think an 'average' book deserves a 7.5 you've been very lucky in your reading material :) You've probably got reader's bias (you're reading stuff you know you like, meaning your scores will be on the high end anyhow). I'm predicting a lot of 8-8.5-9 scores which honestly doesn't make for a very interesting list. Compare tv.com, where people can rate episodes of shows. Usually, episodes will score very, very high over there because it's mostly fans rating them. Fans will often rate a bad episode higher than deserved, because, well, they're fans.
 

captainmeme

Lance-Corporal
Feb 13, 2011
415
2,275
Nearish Manchester
www.bbc.co.uk
#39
poohcarrot said:
Poohcarrot's mini blog :laugh:

1 The Colour of Magic 7
2 The Light Fantastic 7
3 Equal Rites 6
4 Mort 8
5 Sourcery 7
6 Wyrd Sisters 8
7 Pyramids 10
8 Guards! Guards! 10
9 Faust Eric 7
10 Moving Pictures 7
11 Reaper Man 7
12 Witches Abroad 9
13 Small Gods 9
14 Lords and Ladies 8
15 Men at Arms 8
16 Soul Music 10
17 Interesting Times 9
18 Maskerade 7
19 Feet of Clay 8
20 Hogfather 10
21 Jingo 10
22 The Last Continent 9
23 Carpe Jugulum 8
24 The Fifth Elephant 8
25 The Truth 9
26 Thief of Time 10
27 The Last Hero 7
28 The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents 9
29 Night Watch 8
30 The Wee Free Men 10
31 Monstrous Regiment 6
32 A Hat Full of Sky 8
33 Going Postal 10
34 Thud! 8
35 Wintersmith 7
36 Making Money 6
37 Unseen Academicals 7
38 I Shall Wear Midnight 8
I have to say that your's isn't quite as in-depth as Quatermass's...
 

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