and Night Watch
.Small Gods was good and all, but I had forgotten what a truly wonderful (in the most literal sense of the word) book Night Watch was: Robert Peel meets H.G. Wells in the middle of Les Miserables as done by Terry Pratchett. It's a vanishingly rare writer that can move you from laughter to tears and back again within a couple pages.
Now I'm back to books from the New Business stack, following up Dreadnought with Castles of Steel
. Robert Massie is every bit as impressive this time 'round as he was in the first one. I'm going to need to look for some of his other books.
14 comments:
Tam, have you read anything from The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher? I've especially enjoyed the audio versions narrated by James Marsters.
DAMMIT! You already put a bug in my ear to re-read the Death stuff I have, now I gotta re-break-out the Watch stuff? When will I have the time?!
I'm still trying to finish the last book she reviewed (Don't Tread on Me)! Sheesh! I will never catch up.
Glad you like the book Tam! Now I need to go get Dreadnought! Dammit! I will never catch up at this rate.
Me ma really loved Nicholas and Alexandra.
Lot of you folks seem to like Pratchett, is this a series to read in chronological order, or does it matter?
"Lot of you folks seem to like Pratchett, is this a series to read in chronological order, or does it matter?"
It doesn't matter terribly much. I skipped all over the place the first time through and don't feel like I missed anything; he generally sets the scene well enough that a new reader gets a feel for things pretty quickly.
I'll add my recommendation for the Dresden Files - though color me sort of old-fashioned to prefer text to audio. OTOH, I'm reading them as e-books, so how old-fashioned can I be?
(I *also* have them as paperbacks, it's just more convenient to carry an 8 gb card and a PDA than a long ton of paper and ink, somehow)
Night Watch currently ranks as the apex of Pratchett's works to me. The boulder on top of the Himalayas of the rest of the Disc, to be sure.
Night Watch is always a good read, but when I finish this re-read of Use of Weapons (thanks, Brigid) I/m going to go back and visit Reaper Man again.
Heath, you might start with Wyrd Sisters or Witches Abroad.
Tam and Rabbit,
I thank you both for the suggestions. I'll queue up the Amazon cart tonight with a few of his books.
Pretty much any of the series about the city watch were great, but you guys are right, Night Watch is the best of the bunch.
Small Gods will always be kind of a favorite of mine though, it was the first diskworld book that I read. My German girlfriend gave it to me after they had finished reading it in English class.
I enjoyed Massie's book about Peter the Great, but I'm kind of a fanatic about Russian history. Normal people might not like it as much as I did.
I actually thought that "Going Postal" and "making Money" were quite good.
Butcher is quite good both Dresden and his Alera novels. Somehow, I expect that you would quite enjoy the Alera novels, perhaps even more than the Dresden books.
Tam,
Have you read any of the Orson Scott Card's "Ender" series? I highly recommend "Speaker for the Dead", "Xenocide", and "Children of the Mind" in that order.
Gary
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