Pete Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 Well... some of you may remember I was going to start up a fansite for Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Assuming I were ever to pick up where I left off with this (the index page ), what would fans of the series ike to see? Granted, some forums would be nice, but how to categorise them? One per book sounds about right... any others needed? The ability to review books would be great for members feature, as would the ability to enter competitions to win free, cool stuff and shop for books and other stuff without leaving the site... Some nice interviews would be grand too I guess... ...but what else? I'm sure I had a nice long list somewhere, but what would you want to see. Bear in mind this is still all hypothetical... but I still have my domain name handy for it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Veteran Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 I remember speaking to you aboot this ages ago! Then there was a lull in my Discworld reading... And now I've started again so make me your no.1 member I think you've said most of what would be cool, but maybe a forum per book is a little much, there are how many now?! A shop would be cool and prizes are always good You could even have a chat with Tezza himself and see if he wants to give us say... two sets of every book he's ever written! But seriously it would be very cool. You could put up things like an interactive discworld map and some pictures of the different towns and cities from each book. You could write about the gods and the titans, some mythology on the turtle and elephants that carry the disc. Remember there's even a Discworld game out whatever it's called. I have it in my footlocker (Discworld Noir ) Character profiles from the book would also be cool, I saw a book that was 'the art of discworld' or something, it had pictures of a load of the characters and then bits of writing on each one. Besides once you've rerad the book with them in it's not too hard to describe them briefly! There's certainly no lack of sources for you to liberate for use so who knows, the possibilities are endless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 Cheers matey, I'll bear that in mind. What I can't do however is have a fan fiction section or write as though I've visited the Discworld, as apparently Mr P prefers to be the only one to write Discworld stories. There's soooo much information out there, but I don't want to go overboard as there's a website at lspace.org (double check that address) that is probably the most complete Discworld resource out there. I shall have a think whilst I crack on with this website later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FullAuto Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 Instead of a forum for each book, try having a forum for each series? You know, the Guards books, the Lancre Witches books or group them by location? You could just have an Ankh-Morpork forum, for every book that features that city. That would cut down the number of forums a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 I did think about that, but then you get the odd ones, and to make it reasonable they'd have to have a forum each or just be covered by a general forum in which they'd all be thrown I suppose it could work if I grouped them that way if I had the book titles in the forum description though... ...what a good idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FullAuto Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 TaDaaa! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 Should I be worried when you start talking about NEW sites while we're not even close to finished with this one Pete? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 Note the use of the word hypothetical in my first post Just reading Discworld books from The Colour of Magic right through to Going Postal again, so it's current in my mind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaughter Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 Hehe, well, not blaming you for reading Diskworld. Read one of them with that neat chest, and it was quite amusing. Nightwatch was also nice. None of them were hilarious though. What are the best ones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 Well personally I just find my way from beginning to end of the series. Kinda hardcore with about 30 books, but worth the journey to see the Discworld evolve over time. Thief of Time has to be one of my recent favourites, with the Holy chap who was recently reincarnated so halfway through every paragraph he breaks from his wise-man talk to shout "Wanna bikkit" and hit people with his toy giraffe. Night Watch was good for filling in the blanks of Ankh Morpork history that had been touched upon briefly by any number of other Discworld books. It's bascially take your pick time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Accounting Troll Posted January 12, 2005 Report Share Posted January 12, 2005 There's going to be a lot of admin work if you're going to have one forum per book especially if you want to include the other Discworld related publications such as the Discworld books aimed at children, the maps, the diaries and Nanny Ogg's Cookbook. And that's before we get on to themes in several books, such as the Lancre witches (Am I alone in thinking Terry Pratchett is getting ready to kill off Granny Weatherwax?). Will this just be about Discworld, or will Terry Pratchett's other publications be considered? I believe Strata was an early go at the idea of having a discworld. I would quite like to see reviews of each of Terry Pratchett's books, and a trivia section about some of the things that were parodied in Discworld - it took me three years to realise that Lord Vetinari's surname was a parody of the Medici family of Florence :o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Veteran Posted January 13, 2005 Report Share Posted January 13, 2005 Here's a cunning and mischevious plan... Why not have a forum for all the different cities or regions of discworld and then to a lesser extent feature as many of the smaller places as possible that actually relate to or are mentioned in certain stories... As I write it it sounds incredibly complicated but if you think about it for long enough it kind of makes sense! That way people coul post about their favourite books in whichever forum seems relevant so say in any particular book the story is based in one city but for a brief time takes place somewhere else on the disc... It's very unrestricted so it may be hard to implement but it would work well as a map system... Start the website with a discworld map then just choose on the map where you want to visit! Go to Ankh-Morporkh to discuss their business or read the papers of news or visit a small outlying farmtown which just happens to be home to some of discworld's more interesting inhabitants. It could work but it would be awkward as hell But then hey, it's not me who would have to do it so I'm allowed to have these ideas Sorry Pete! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted January 14, 2005 Report Share Posted January 14, 2005 Everywhere? Even the Sto Plains where all we'll be discussing is miles and miles of cabbage? - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2005 Hehe, good point NKF. Also, the Vortex Plains are pretty bare due to vast discharges of magic during the Mage Wars. I think I'll go with the grouping by "series". Guards, Witches, Wizards, Ankh Morpork Tales and Foreign Parts pretty well covers everything in five forums. In Wizards would go such tales as "The Colour of Magic", "The Light Fantastic", "Sourcery", "Eric", "Interesting Times", "The Last Continent" - just for those who might be wondering where those'd go. I may have missed a Rincewind/Wizards tale, and there are quite a few with the Wizards in that could apply to one of the other forums, but for my purposes I'll stick the book into a category for which the majority of the story applies to Oooh... and a "Young Readers" and "Other" section - the former for "The Amazing Maurice", "A Hat Full of Sky" (and it's predecessor which I'm ashamed to say I can't remember the title to just now! ). The "Other" forum can cover related books like the science of the Discworld books, the plays, the artwork books and so forth. I think they'll receive a lot less discussion. I'm also tempted to put a note in the Young Readers forum saying that these books are totally mis-labelled and are for all ages. I don't really see a change at all in Terry's writing style from the rest of the books, and certianly the Rat King from the The Amazing Maurice is enough to give anyone the willies, young or old! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomb Bloke Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 I remember this idea! You start talking about it every few years. (Half years?) Perhaps you could have one section per series, for example, guards, witches, misc, etc. Then, each book goes under that section with it's own forum page. Add a 'general discussion' page to each section as well, and I think that'd work. *runs off to see if anything has been done with https://www.discworld.com yet* Hey, they've changed from 'under construction' at least. How many years was that page up...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 Probably since the dawn of the internet in answer to your last question My website was always going to be at https://www.theturtlemoves.com and since I still own the domain, it still might be! For anyone wondering why such an obscure title - it's straight out of Small Gods... or maybe it was Pyramids...? One or the other. It was the only vaguely Discworld domain that hadn't been snapped up to point to the amazing Discworld.com webpage that ahs nothing to do with the series Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomb Bloke Posted January 18, 2005 Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 (It's Small Gods. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2005 Curse my failing memory! Still, I'm working my way through all the books for the third time so it'll all come back to me soon enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FullAuto Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 I think I'll go with the grouping by "series". I had a good idea! Yes, me! Ahahahahahahahahahahahaaaa! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 You betcha! Now all I need is three months of spare time to make it happen. So... are you all free in 2027? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Veteran Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 I just finished reading monstrous regiment... How crazy is that? It started off so cool but it kind of got a bit crazy towards the end I thought... I'm IN the military and I don't have as many women on my entire base as there are in that one squad! Worst thing is I was reading the whole book going 'thank God for Jackrum' guess that put me straight I think I have The Truth lying about unread at home so that'll be next on the list! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Well it was only slightly exaggerating real-life events from days of old (and not so old) and actually borrowing slightly from a Shakespeare play now I come to think of it though the name escapes me and I think in that one she went off to find her brother as well...? Gah! My memory sucks even though I am trying to remember back over 5 years to high school Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurker Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Wait until you're trying to remember back over 25 years to high school, then your memory gets really foggy. Now, I did try one or two of those Pratchett Disk World books relatively recently, and they didn't grab me. I think the problem is that I pulled them randomly off the library shelf, an opportunistic grab based solely upon what my local next-door library had on the shelf, which wasn't much. Anyway, for a newb to the subject, it might actually help to have an official list or a recommend list of the order in which the Disk World Books should be read. I should probably start with the first one, if I were to give it a try again, instead of somewhere in the middle or end of the set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 The first few differ very much from the later ones, as you'd expect from a library of books that spans more than 20 years of writing. With that in mind, I would say the books become more refined and less patchy. The first two certainly try to show a multitude of locations whilst not focusing on any one place, and as such the characters don't get huge amounts of attention. Take for example Hrun the Barbarian, who in the first half of The Colour of Magic, doesn't seem to be able to string together much more than the odd three word sentence. Later in the book he's practically Shakespeare, though I believe this may be due to the first book being comprised of four books probably written over a long period. The later books become very clever indeed and very much character-oriented. To actually get to the point... err... start by getting a hold of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic as they're quite short reads. That's essentially the "first book". The latter of the two mentioned there shows the direction the series is going in as it starts to pay more attention to the characters rather than the places in the second half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NKF Posted January 25, 2005 Report Share Posted January 25, 2005 I started reading the series from the Fifth Elephant, and then randomly picked up books here and there until I finally got pretty much the whole series (except the graphic novels/plays and Nanny Ogg's cookbook). Pretty much any book will do. They often build upon one another in many small ways, but it's not essential that you read them all in sequence (with one or two exceptions). I couldn't possibly recommend any good starting point. Guards! Guards! is actually as good a point to start if you want to jump right into the Watchmen series of books. Wyrd Sisters is good too if you want to start with the Lancre witches. Maskerade or Carpe Jugulum aren't bad either. The last one introduces us to the Nac Mac Feegle, which play quite a big role in Wee Free Men and Hat Full of Sky, which have Granny Weatherwax, but not as a major role. To get into the Rincewind series of books (where he's the primary character), Interesting Times is a nice start, and you'll definitely want to pick up The Last Continent after you've read that. The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic should always be read together and in that particular sequence. If you want to follow the lives and times of Cohen the Barbarian: The Light Fantastic, Interesting Times and The Last Hero are to be looked at. 'Cohen' is mentioned in Jingo, but that was a typo and should have been Colon... The Death series: Reaper Man's a fairly good one to start off with. For his grand daughter, Susan, you could try Hogwatch. There's no particular line of Unseen University Wizards books, as they appear throughout all the books, making a big mess of themselves. The closest you can get to a Wizards only book would be Science of the Discworld and Science of the Discworld II, which aren't exactly for general light reading, but are very interesting nonetheless. For the one-offs: Pyramids, Small Gods and Moving Pictures are all as good as any. The best thing to do is just pick up a few of the books and go with it. Some might leave a better impression on you than the others. - NKF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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