Terry Pratchett started his career as a crypto-monarchist and ended up the most consistently humane writer of his generation. He never entirely lost his affection for benevolent dictatorship, and made a few classic colonial missteps along the way, but in the end you’d be hard pressed to find a more staunchly feminist, anti-racist, anti-classist, unsentimental and clear-sighted writer of Old White British Fantasy.
The thing I love about Terry’s writing is that he loved – loved – civil society. He loved the correct functioning of the social contract. He loved technology, loved innovation, but also loved nature and the ways of living that work with and through it. He loved Britain, but hated empire (see “Jingo”) – he was a ruralist who hated provincialism, a capitalist who hated wealth, an urbanist who reveled in stories of pollution, crime and decay. He was above all a man who loved systems, of nature, of thought, of tradition and of culture. He believed in the best of humanity and knew that we could be even better if we just thought a little more.
As a writer: how skillful, how prolific, how consistent. The yearly event of a new Discworld book has been a part of my life for more than two decades, and in that barrage of material there have been so few disappointments, so many surprises… to come out with a book as fresh and inspired as “Monstrous Regiment” as the 31st novel in your big fantasy series? Ludicrous. He was just full of treasure. What a thing to have had, what a thing to have lost.
In the end, he set a higher standard, as a writer and as a person. He got better as he learned, and he kept learning, and there was no “too late” or “too hard” or “I can’t be bothered to do the research.” He just did the work. I think in his memory the best thing we can do is to roll up our sleeves and do the same.
This post seems to be making the rounds again so here it is on the word blog
Thanks sooo much for coming along on this ride! I’m so happy to say that Silenced Magic is live on Amazon today. It’s free with Kindle Unlimited, and ’d be honored if you’d check it out and maybe even leave me a review.
Here’s what you’re getting into:
Sean Ollivier doesn’t find out that David Takeda is just your run-of-the-mill comp-sci junior at Deercreek University until Sean accidentally-on-purpose outs himself as a witch. He’s surprised when David’s surprised, so Sean has to ask—isn’t David an elf? Come on, he’s attractive, he’s socially awkward, it all adds up. David insists that, no, for real, he’s not an elf. And what does Sean mean, magic?
David finds out that Sean means magic is a Thing That Exists when he takes David to his usual paranormal hangout to double-check about this alleged not-an-elf business. David has to come to terms quickly with the fact that all the regulars at Sean’s fave coffee shop, Mistletoe, are just a little bit on the abnormal side. Paranormal, actually.
Turns out Deercreek is full of witches, psychics, elves, pixies, giants, werewolves, faeries, and a thriving paranormal underground that swirls around Mistletoe. David and Sean get tangled in all of it as they hack magical databases, expose a new magic, and figure out if a witch and a human have any chance at falling in love.
And because I’m so excited to finally, finally share this with you, there’s an excerpt under the cut (different from the excerpt you can read on Amazon!):
casual reminder that i wrote an 90-page novel when i was eight about a deranged pensioner who wants to take over the world and return everything to “The Good Old Days”, and which included such choice elements as
a really neurotic vegetarian vampire
alice cooper, for no apparent reason
an evil supermodel called miranda goth
three nine-year-olds climbing mount everest in diving helmets
the entire population of scotland appearing out of literally nowhere to help defeat the antagonists
“you can take our lives but you cannot take our trousers"
a few people have been asking me to post extracts from this so uh
here’s something
in 20 years i’ll be telling people how i first heard of the best novel ever written when it was a 500 notes post on tumblr
I’m five foot nine. My hair is long and it’s dark brown. I wear leather a great deal, high boots always, and sometimes glove-soft vests and even leather skirts now and then, and I wear lace, especially when I can find the kind I like: intricate, very old-fashioned lace, snow white. I have light skin that tans easily, large breasts, and long legs. And though I don’t feel beautiful and never have, I know that I am. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be a trainer at The Club.
–Exit to Eden by Anne Rice (aka Rampling), 1985
Hi my name is Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way and I have long ebony black hair (that’s how I got my name) with purple streaks and red tips that reaches my mid-back and icy blue eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Amy Lee (AN: if u don’t know who she is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to Gerard Way but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a vampire but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I’m also a witch, and I go to a magic school called Hogwarts in England where I’m in the seventh year (I’m seventeen). I’m a goth (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly black. I love Hot Topic and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing a black corset with matching lace around it and a black leather miniskirt, pink fishnets and black combat boots. I was wearing black lipstick, white foundation, black eyeliner and red eye shadow. I was walking outside Hogwarts. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of preps stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.
*”Rampling” was Rice’s pseudonym while she was writing erotica, mainly for this and the Sleeping Beauty quartet
i mean ….
lestat is on the my immortal train too lol
Anne Rice hates fanfiction! My Immortal is a satire of fanfiction about the fiction from an author who hates fanfiction. This makes everything even better.
Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes, for obvious reasons. (Where are you hiding, book. Shelves too full. Need moar shelves.)
Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words (Randall Munroe, xkcd)
What If? (same author; so worth it, eldest podling loves them both)
The New Way Things Work – more science, still awesome
*picks up notepad and goes downstairs to stare at library shelves*
Historical Atlas of… by John Haywood. Useful guides, a set of three: Ancient World, Classical World, and Medieval World; 4 million years ago to 500 BC, 500 BC to AD 600, and AD 600 to 1492. Hella useful maps WITH explanation on what was going on WITH good index and glossary in the back.
Any book in the Wonders of series by Brian Cox
Titanic, an Illustratd History, Don Lynch – this book isn’t just useful for getting a non-movie story about the Titanic, but for showcasing Edwardian Life at the time on both that boat and others like it, the fallout, and what it changed in terms of naval navigation, safety, and the importance of Wireless communication.
Norton Anthology of English Literature – dense motherfucking set of books but they’re really comprehensive. (And remember, this is English as in the country/kingdom, not the language. American Lit or otherwise are other sets) Basically starts from the earliest stories we still have in full form and moves on through to the end of the 19th century, since 20th century lit is usually it’s own field
A History of the English Language by Albert, Baugh, and Cable. – I hate this book. I fucking hate it. But if you want to understand why the English language is a complete clusterfuck, this is going to explain it to you in the most comprehensive fashion. Just don’t try to read it all in one sitting or your brain will mutiny.
Language, the Basics, R.Trask – FAR easier to read than A, B, & C above, and focuses on language structure as a whole instead of just English. Useful as fuck.
1491, by Charles Mann – I will probably never stop pimping this book. It’s not a linear narrative, but it’s also so comprehensive and does what a lot of texts still won’t do–acknowledges that civilization in the Americas is far older and FAR MORE COMPLEX than the 13k Clovis hypothesis (which was discreded immediately but KEPT AND TAUGHT ANYWAY).
Native American Testimony, Peter Nabokov – do not keep alcohol in the house while reading this, but if you want actual testimonials about how shit things were during the1800s…here’s a good place to start. Lakota Woman is an autobiography by Mary Crow Dog and is another source for how shit the reservations were/are in the 20th c., though the writer’s husband is often a controversial figure in many circles. (She gave birth to one of her children at Wounded Knee during a standoff with the FBI.)
The rest of it, at the moment, aside from random book finds, is the willingness to reword a Google Search over and over again until I find a thread that leads me to the information I’m looking for–but you said books, so here are books. ❤
Spoiler: yes. Read the article anyway. It’s hilarious, especially if you’ve been in fandom a while. Fandom isn’t mentioned here, but some of the dinosaurs will get a chuckle out of the similarities of author scandals past.
Steel Phoenix Studios 