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Bex Heber (5 KP) rated Good Omens in TV

Jul 12, 2019 (Updated Jul 13, 2019)

Good Omens

2019 | Comedy, Sci-Fi

8.3

(72 Ratings)

TV Show Rating Watch

I'm a long time Terry Pratchett fan and whilst I haven't read the book, David Tennant and Micheal Sheen were enough of a selling point. They did not dissapoint; the dynamic they have throughout is both entertaining and endearing. However I think this is in large part a credit to the actors rather than the show.

The writing often missed the mark for me, sometimes only by hair but many of the characters never really managed to find their stride. What surprised me most, is that where this was most felt was in dialogue taken directly from the book. Even watching as someone who hadnt read the book I found it noticable and then later confirmed it by reading The Guardian's review. It appears Neil Gaiman was reluctant to take too many artistic liberties, perhaps in tribute to Prattchett but it seemed to hurt the show as a result.

It worked in places, the opening narration felt distinctly and enjoyably Pratchett-esque but even in this case the narration began to become over bearing as it continued to feature heavily in later episodes.

Saying this, I can't pretend I didn't enjoy the show, watching David and Micheal caper around with ridiculous CGI and yellow contacts to boot was always going to be entertaining and there are moments of brilliance, but given the potential of such a ridiculous plot and ensemble, I found the whole thing mostly forgettable.

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Phil Leader (619 KP) rated A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction in Books

Nov 8, 2019

For someone who was as prolific at writing novels as Terry Pratchett he didn't write much in the way of short stories. As he himself comments in this collection of his work this is because 'they cost blood' to write and he wondered how others such as Neil Gaiman could write so many short stories. This is all the more surprising given his grounding in journalism, something that demands producing a story withing a set number of words.

The basis for this seems to be that the nugget of an idea behind a Pratchett book was rarely simple enough to be encapsulated neatly in the short story form; his characters and ideas took time to develop and that's before the addition of the amusing footnotes and his skill at producing pastiche, parody and satire of many different things without the narrative stumbling or swerving.

This collection shows that although relatively few in number, the Pratchett short story was just as fine as could be expected. Sometimes they could be a little rushed to get to the point before the end (best seen in his tale of a gnome from the country that finds other gnomes in a department store - the story that was later rewritten fully as Truckers)

This is also a somewhat eclectic mix. There is the first story that he was paid for about the devil wanting to promote hell, which he wrote at school but it is clear that he already had the flair for writing even then. A few science fiction stories including the prescient and dark #ifdefDEBUG "world/enough" "time" about someone retreating to a virtual reality world. There is the story that formed the first ideas that would eventually become The Long Earth and of course some Diskworld shorts and related notes.

Taken together they show that over a long span of time Pratchett was coming up with great ideas. There is a little uneveness but part of this is due to his writing style being different between Diskworld and his more science fiction based stories (something that confused a lot of Diskworld readers when they read The Long Earth, but goes back even to The Dark Side of the Sun and Strata both of which are very different to Diskworld in tone.

To this end the editors have been wise to have the Diskworld stories as the second half with the 'other' stories at the beginning. This avoids the tone changing too much between stories.

This sounds like it might be for the Pratchett 'completist', like one of those greatest hits albums that comes out with just one or two rare tracks, but really this is a great collection of short stories by any measure. A couple of these are fairly well known - Troll Bridge and Theatre of Cruelty - but there is nothing gratuitous here. And of course there are plenty of laughs and subtle takes on society and humanity.

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Rachel (48 KP) rated Small Gods in Books

May 24, 2017

Small Gods

Terry Pratchett | 1992 | Fiction & Poetry, Humor & Comedy, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences

8.9

(10 Ratings)

Book Rating

Funny (4 more)

Philosophy

Fantasy

Terry Pratchett

Excellent fiction

The 13th Discworld book

Small God's is the 13th book in the Discworld series. You do not have to have read any of the other books to understand this one as it features characters that (mostly) only appear in this book.

As with all of Pratchett's work it is a subtle blend of humour and humanity. It uses amazing characters and situations to highlight the hypocrisy and insanity of real life.

This book focuses on Brutha; a 'slow', ordinary monk for the God Om. It is the biggest, and most ruthless, religion in this part of the Discworld.
Brutha is gardening, as he always is (not much use for anything else) when a tortoise literally drops into his life and changes his world......

This book questions the hierarchy of religion, the wisdom of power, philosophy, the righteousness of war and whether a tortoise really does make good eating.