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Once More* *with footnotes
A collection of Terry Pratchett's short works, fiction and non-fiction, with annotations by Pratchett and by the editors.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 30, 2004
7 people are currently reading
1734 people want to read
About the author
Terry Pratchett
630 books45.6k followersSir Terence David John Pratchett was an English author, humorist, and satirist, best known for the Discworld series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983–2015, and for the apocalyptic comedy novel Good Omens (1990), which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman.
Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.
With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.
In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed three television programmes chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron of ARUK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, at the age of 66.
Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.
With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.
In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed three television programmes chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron of ARUK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, at the age of 66.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
February 12, 2025
This work is a ragbag collection of fiction and nonfiction, a mosaic of literary snippets (one of them being a story that the author wrote at the age of thirteen!), written by the famous fantasy author and Discworld inventor Terry Pratchett.
Heart-warming science fiction short stories and funny fantasy short stories alternate with amusing reports and thought-provoking discourses, as well as a whole lot of other things. I was able to relate to many of them (e. g. his “postnatal depression” after finishing a book), but not to all of them (first of all, his praise for “Mister Nice Guy” Neil Gaiman). Well …
Anyway, it’s still interesting and worth reading for fans, also his humorous introductions and fascinating footnotes.
3.5 stars.
Heart-warming science fiction short stories and funny fantasy short stories alternate with amusing reports and thought-provoking discourses, as well as a whole lot of other things. I was able to relate to many of them (e. g. his “postnatal depression” after finishing a book), but not to all of them (first of all, his praise for “Mister Nice Guy” Neil Gaiman). Well …
Anyway, it’s still interesting and worth reading for fans, also his humorous introductions and fascinating footnotes.
3.5 stars.
June 4, 2008
I really liked most of these stories and essays...though I felt a lot better about myself before I realized that in addition to being funny, Terry Pratchett is also a LOT smarter than I am.
And I found my new favorite quote: "That reminds me why I gave up Dungeons and Dragons. There were too many monsters. Back in the old days you could go around a dungeon without meeting much more than a few orcs and lizard men, but then everyone started inventing monsters and pretty soon it was a case of bugger the magic sword, what you really need to be the complete adventurer was the Marcus L. Rowland fifteen-volume guide to Monsters and the ability to read very, very fast, because if you couldn't recognize them from the outside you pretty soon got the chance to try looking at them from the wrong side of their tonsils." - from the story Alien Christmas.
And I found my new favorite quote: "That reminds me why I gave up Dungeons and Dragons. There were too many monsters. Back in the old days you could go around a dungeon without meeting much more than a few orcs and lizard men, but then everyone started inventing monsters and pretty soon it was a case of bugger the magic sword, what you really need to be the complete adventurer was the Marcus L. Rowland fifteen-volume guide to Monsters and the ability to read very, very fast, because if you couldn't recognize them from the outside you pretty soon got the chance to try looking at them from the wrong side of their tonsils." - from the story Alien Christmas.
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Want to read
December 6, 2017(This costs a fuckload of money as far as I can tell, and features a lot of the stories and articles found in A Slip of the Keyboard and A Blink of the Screen but by Jingo I will own it one day.)
August 15, 2025
Es ist Terry Pratchett. Was muss ich mehr dazu sagen? In einer wunderschönen Ausgabe mit den grandiosen Illustrationen von Josh Kirby.
Diese Sammlung beinhaltet die ganze Bandbreite Sir Terrys. Wir bekommen etwas Scheibenwelt, etwas von Terry in Australien, Reden und Kurzgeschichten aus verschiedenen Stationen seines Lebens. Ein schönes Potpourri aus allem, was Pratchett zu bieten hat.
Diese Sammlung beinhaltet die ganze Bandbreite Sir Terrys. Wir bekommen etwas Scheibenwelt, etwas von Terry in Australien, Reden und Kurzgeschichten aus verschiedenen Stationen seines Lebens. Ein schönes Potpourri aus allem, was Pratchett zu bieten hat.
December 11, 2014
Like looking at an artist's sketches-- its very neat to get an insight into some of the behind the scenes stuff, and early work by Mr. Pratchett. My favourite parts were: the story he wrote when he was 13 about the devil hiring a PR person to make people want to visit hell-- as he (Terry) points out (in a footnote) the pacing is a little off, but the fun originality of the story shine through nonetheless. I also really enjoyed his description of his creative process, after finishing a book-- it's interesting to see the ideas for one of his books take place at the very early stages-- if anything, I was surprised by how developed it seemed so early on ; and it's nice to hear that he also likes to look for distractions when he's trying to work like the rest of us mortals. Finally, and possibly my favourite-- an opening to a never written story about Merlin, but a Merlin who's a bit of a lost time traveler who uses science in place of magic, there're some fun twists in there too, but I kept thinking to myself that I'd love to read it as a full book someday.
Overall a great read, lots of fun, would recommend to anyone who's a young writer looking for inspiration, or anyone who's a fan of Terry Pratchett.
Overall a great read, lots of fun, would recommend to anyone who's a young writer looking for inspiration, or anyone who's a fan of Terry Pratchett.
October 29, 2015
A random conglomeration of such of Pratchett's short works as they could dig up. (he was a journalist; ephemeral was an understatement.)
but we get feral chickens crossing the road. A defense of The Lord of the Rings as the best book of the century. The story of the pixy that brought down a nuclear power plant and the PR task of corralling that one -- especially when the engineers aren't willing to get behind the line that no one believes it. Orangutans. And more oddities in fiction and non-fiction
but we get feral chickens crossing the road. A defense of The Lord of the Rings as the best book of the century. The story of the pixy that brought down a nuclear power plant and the PR task of corralling that one -- especially when the engineers aren't willing to get behind the line that no one believes it. Orangutans. And more oddities in fiction and non-fiction
January 28, 2010
When it was good, it was brilliant.
My least favorite kind of collection: every short work ever written by my favorite author in the world, including nonfiction. It was uneven, unwieldy, and weird, which is too bad. There were many, many good pieces, but after awhile, I just got tired of trying to find them.
Still, I'm glad I read it.
My least favorite kind of collection: every short work ever written by my favorite author in the world, including nonfiction. It was uneven, unwieldy, and weird, which is too bad. There were many, many good pieces, but after awhile, I just got tired of trying to find them.
Still, I'm glad I read it.
August 2, 2017
I've been dipping into Once More* for over a year. Being short stories, all with introductory notes from Sir Pterry, it's easy to read a few pages and then stop than it would be if there was a full novel.
It's an odd collection of things that have been published elsewhere for the most part. There are short stories, some are even discworld stories. However there are introductions to things, newspaper articles and forewords. These latter give some insight into Pterry's character, although much of that is obvious already if you read his books.
If you've been following my blog for any length of time then you'll know I'm a completist when it comes to Pterry. I've read almost everything that has been published, and since I know that there won't be any more I've been taking my time over the last few books I've not yet read. Some highlights from Once More* include:
- Troll Bridge (which I'd somehow never read before)
- The explanation of how The Hat is an anti-disguise
- The foreword for the millennium edition of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, which showed how some of the deep folklore and mythology went into the foundations of the discworld.
- "Once and Future" - a take on Arthurian legend that would make an excellent novel, but sadly that won't happen.
That list doesn't really do justice though, there's so much awesome in the book and I've really only mentioned the ones I read most recently. I think that if you like reading Terry Pratchett then you ought to read this.
I can say that I enjoyed every piece of Once More With Footnotes. The bits I really liked, which you won't get elsewhere, are the short introductions that give context to the articles and stories. Those are priceless, although the book itself isn't, some people are willing to pay a lot of money for it....
*With Footnotes
It's an odd collection of things that have been published elsewhere for the most part. There are short stories, some are even discworld stories. However there are introductions to things, newspaper articles and forewords. These latter give some insight into Pterry's character, although much of that is obvious already if you read his books.
If you've been following my blog for any length of time then you'll know I'm a completist when it comes to Pterry. I've read almost everything that has been published, and since I know that there won't be any more I've been taking my time over the last few books I've not yet read. Some highlights from Once More* include:
- Troll Bridge (which I'd somehow never read before)
- The explanation of how The Hat is an anti-disguise
- The foreword for the millennium edition of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, which showed how some of the deep folklore and mythology went into the foundations of the discworld.
- "Once and Future" - a take on Arthurian legend that would make an excellent novel, but sadly that won't happen.
That list doesn't really do justice though, there's so much awesome in the book and I've really only mentioned the ones I read most recently. I think that if you like reading Terry Pratchett then you ought to read this.
I can say that I enjoyed every piece of Once More With Footnotes. The bits I really liked, which you won't get elsewhere, are the short introductions that give context to the articles and stories. Those are priceless, although the book itself isn't, some people are willing to pay a lot of money for it....
*With Footnotes
Read
August 26, 2021Pratchett's unique, down-to-earth, funny and 'human' approach is turned on himself, various real life subjects and into some nice digestible bits of fiction in this collection of short writings. Everything from short stories, opinion pieces, speeches and forewords for other publications is included.
Much like Neil Gaiman's "the View from the Cheap Seats" there is a bit of a repetition of ideas as the articles, speeches etc. are drawn from a number of different sources over a period of time so Pratchett reused a few gags or ideas. The chief among these being responses to fantasy being an escapist genre, saying that there's nothing wrong with escaping as long as you're escaping to something and not just from something.
His article "2001, the vision and the reality" is a brilliantly bemused shaking of the head at how the grand aspirations for technology have slipped to the most mundane usages.
Much like Neil Gaiman's "the View from the Cheap Seats" there is a bit of a repetition of ideas as the articles, speeches etc. are drawn from a number of different sources over a period of time so Pratchett reused a few gags or ideas. The chief among these being responses to fantasy being an escapist genre, saying that there's nothing wrong with escaping as long as you're escaping to something and not just from something.
His article "2001, the vision and the reality" is a brilliantly bemused shaking of the head at how the grand aspirations for technology have slipped to the most mundane usages.
June 26, 2012
I don't normally read short story collections. I read plenty of short stories but it's only recently, since foraying into short story writing territory myself, that I find myself reading collections from cover to cover. I used to discriminate, read the shorter ones if I was pressed for time, or the title story, or the one that was recommended to me, or even just read the opening paragraphs of each until I found one I liked and stuck it out until the end. Now I seem to read them from cover to cover, as if they were a novel.
Once More with Footnotes is an odd book. It was published by the NESFA press in honour of Pratchett's attendance as guest of honour at the 62nd discworld convention. It gathers together his short stories (including his first published story), speeches, introductions to other books and articles and journalism. I had actually read several of the short stories online before I became aware of the collection. As soon as I discovered it I immediately wanted to buy it, then discovered that there had only been three limited print runs back in 2004. Only a few thousand copies were printed (and when you sell books by the skip full like Pratchett that's a meagre number). So then I got sad. After awhile though I rediscovered my ebay account and started bidding furiously on the few copies still in circulation. After spending a diriculous amount of money on one book (and I won't say how diriculous) it was just a matter of waiting for weeks while ebay sorted itself out and delivered it. Having read only his novels for years it's amazing to see what he can do with a much more contrained word count.
However the book has some flaws, which I'll briefly discuss first:
His journalism becomes a case of 'Read one, read them all' after awhile. Being the prolific force of fantasy that he is he was frequently asked to write articles defining fantasy, explaining, fantasy, telling how he got interested in fantasy, advice to people writing fantasy, theories on fantasy... While the non-fiction end of the spectrum is well written it all gets a bit samey after awhile.
Some stories are longer than they needed to be. They weren't really edited between their initial publication and being added into this collection so it's fair enough that he was younger, less experienced etc. and overall it was a pretty brave move to leave them as tehy were.
His juvenalia really stands out as being stylistically different to the rest of the book, there's a real sense of him struggling to figure out his voice and style. These early pieces are much more formal and don't flow as well. (that being said they're far better than anything I wrote when I was starting out, and better than most of what I write now. He had an insanely large vocabulary as a kid)
It's hard to figure out what logic there is behind the order of pieces but there's no real continuity or flow. It leads to a very disjointed reading experience. The little introductory notes he writes at the start of each piece, while often unnessecary, help maintain some kind of flow.
But the stories are awesome! Wow, I can barely keep myself from gushing about the first story 'Hollywood Chickens,' which was written as an ecological study of chickens and how they attempt to cross the road (but no-one can answer the all-important why)
There's a brilliant Discworld story where an philosopher tries to outsmart Death (that's the anthropomorphic personality that TALKS LIKE THIS), and a monologue featuring Death written as a transcript of a police interview.
There are some great Discworld moments such as Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax competing at the witching trials or when the Watch investigates the murder of a Punch and Judy stall owner.
There are also brilliant moments where we get to see what fantasy staples Pratchett might have turned to if The Colour of Magic had flopped. One example is the time travelling physicist named Mervin who gets stuck in Arthurian times and rigs up remotely controlled electromagnets to ensure only the person he deems appropriate will be able to pull the sword from the stone. Another is told from the point of view of a labourer on a monolith thousands of years ago trying to deal with a documentary film crew.
Overall Once More With Footnotes was worth the price for the fiction alone. It's not a great place to start if you haven't read Terry Pratchett though, I'd recommend picking a thread on this chart instead and just keep ploughing through those for awhile, but if you've read and loved everything he has to offer and are willing to spend a some moolah then this is a must have.
Once More with Footnotes is an odd book. It was published by the NESFA press in honour of Pratchett's attendance as guest of honour at the 62nd discworld convention. It gathers together his short stories (including his first published story), speeches, introductions to other books and articles and journalism. I had actually read several of the short stories online before I became aware of the collection. As soon as I discovered it I immediately wanted to buy it, then discovered that there had only been three limited print runs back in 2004. Only a few thousand copies were printed (and when you sell books by the skip full like Pratchett that's a meagre number). So then I got sad. After awhile though I rediscovered my ebay account and started bidding furiously on the few copies still in circulation. After spending a diriculous amount of money on one book (and I won't say how diriculous) it was just a matter of waiting for weeks while ebay sorted itself out and delivered it. Having read only his novels for years it's amazing to see what he can do with a much more contrained word count.
However the book has some flaws, which I'll briefly discuss first:
His journalism becomes a case of 'Read one, read them all' after awhile. Being the prolific force of fantasy that he is he was frequently asked to write articles defining fantasy, explaining, fantasy, telling how he got interested in fantasy, advice to people writing fantasy, theories on fantasy... While the non-fiction end of the spectrum is well written it all gets a bit samey after awhile.
Some stories are longer than they needed to be. They weren't really edited between their initial publication and being added into this collection so it's fair enough that he was younger, less experienced etc. and overall it was a pretty brave move to leave them as tehy were.
His juvenalia really stands out as being stylistically different to the rest of the book, there's a real sense of him struggling to figure out his voice and style. These early pieces are much more formal and don't flow as well. (that being said they're far better than anything I wrote when I was starting out, and better than most of what I write now. He had an insanely large vocabulary as a kid)
It's hard to figure out what logic there is behind the order of pieces but there's no real continuity or flow. It leads to a very disjointed reading experience. The little introductory notes he writes at the start of each piece, while often unnessecary, help maintain some kind of flow.
But the stories are awesome! Wow, I can barely keep myself from gushing about the first story 'Hollywood Chickens,' which was written as an ecological study of chickens and how they attempt to cross the road (but no-one can answer the all-important why)
There's a brilliant Discworld story where an philosopher tries to outsmart Death (that's the anthropomorphic personality that TALKS LIKE THIS), and a monologue featuring Death written as a transcript of a police interview.
There are some great Discworld moments such as Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax competing at the witching trials or when the Watch investigates the murder of a Punch and Judy stall owner.
There are also brilliant moments where we get to see what fantasy staples Pratchett might have turned to if The Colour of Magic had flopped. One example is the time travelling physicist named Mervin who gets stuck in Arthurian times and rigs up remotely controlled electromagnets to ensure only the person he deems appropriate will be able to pull the sword from the stone. Another is told from the point of view of a labourer on a monolith thousands of years ago trying to deal with a documentary film crew.
Overall Once More With Footnotes was worth the price for the fiction alone. It's not a great place to start if you haven't read Terry Pratchett though, I'd recommend picking a thread on this chart instead and just keep ploughing through those for awhile, but if you've read and loved everything he has to offer and are willing to spend a some moolah then this is a must have.
October 24, 2018
"No Worries" was an absolute delight. And the rest was also definitely My Cup of (Proverbial) Tea.
February 24, 2022
Nur für echte Fans. Viel Belangloses und nicht wirklich Interessantes. Aber da wo es gut ist, ist es brilliant.
Read
January 4, 2024Dnf for now
March 26, 2017
40 of so books, different collections, some audio, it's pratchett, read and heard some as well, all. Dates wrong.
November 27, 2016
Kurzbeschreibung
In diesem wundervollen Buch findet man viele tolle Storys vom Schöpfer der Scheibenwelt der uns wieder zu unserem Ankh- Morpork entführt und zu den bekannten, wie zum Beispiel Oma Wetterwachs oder Nanny Ogg, aber auch Cohan der Barbar ist dabei und viel andere. Gespickt werden diese wundervollen Kurzgeschichten von Terry Pratchetts Worten und Eindrücken, wann und wo er sie geschrieben hat und welche Motivation die Scheibenwelt auf ihn ausübte.
Für jeden Fan und die wo es werden wollen ein wundervoller Einblick.
Cover
Das Cover zeigt uns die Scheiben Welt mit den berühmten Elefanten im allgegenwärtigen Kosmos um die Bewohner die darauf leben und die Schildkröte sie durch unbekannte Weiten trägt. Sehr schön gestaltet und das nicht nur außen, sondern auch innen mit wundervollen Illustrationen, die mir mehr alle einmal ein Lächeln bescherten.
Schreibstil
Der Autor Terry Pratchett war ein Meister des geschriebenen Wortes und der Erschaffung dieser fantastischen Welt, die mich mehr als einmal in die Welt von Ankh - Morpork entführte. Ich bin begeistert von den Figuren die der Autor nicht nur immer wieder erschuf, sondern auch von den irrwitzigsten Situationen und dem genialen Humor der mir sehr viele lachtränen bescherte. Für mich ein Meister seines Faches.
Meinung
Lasst euch Entführern in die Scheibenwelt und zu ihren Bewohnern....
Denn genau hier kommen wir an. Nachdem uns Terry Pratchett einen Einstieg in das Werk gibt mit seiner unübertrefflichen Art, zeigt er uns auf, wie er zu der Scheiben Welt kam und was er als Journalist für eine Weisheit mitnahm. Und natürlich kommen wir zu den Erläuterungen und zu den Kurzgeschichten selbst.
Sei es jetzt von Cohan der sich mit seinem Pferd unterhält, was sie den mitten im Nirgendwo machen und den Wunsch Cohens Vater zu erfüllen einen Troll und zwar einen Brückentroll zu besiegen, denn nur dann fände er Ruhe, oder mit Oma Wetterwachs die wieder voll in Action ist. Wobei die Stadtwache von Ankh- Morpork hat auch noch einiges zu tun.
Hier kann ich nur anmerken das es sich lohnt zu lesen und ich kann nur von mir ausgehen, die ein Fan von Pratchett ist, das ich schon viele Geschichten von ihm kenne und das es wie heimkommen ist, in dieses absolut verrückte Universum, deshalb kann ich nicht sagen ob es was für einen Neueinsteiger ist, aber ich sag mal so, entweder liebt man es oder nicht und ich liebe es.
Fazit
Absolut toll gelungen!!!
Eine wundervolle Erzählung der Kurzgeschichten um die Welt Terry Pratchetts!!!
5 von 5 Sternen
In diesem wundervollen Buch findet man viele tolle Storys vom Schöpfer der Scheibenwelt der uns wieder zu unserem Ankh- Morpork entführt und zu den bekannten, wie zum Beispiel Oma Wetterwachs oder Nanny Ogg, aber auch Cohan der Barbar ist dabei und viel andere. Gespickt werden diese wundervollen Kurzgeschichten von Terry Pratchetts Worten und Eindrücken, wann und wo er sie geschrieben hat und welche Motivation die Scheibenwelt auf ihn ausübte.
Für jeden Fan und die wo es werden wollen ein wundervoller Einblick.
Cover
Das Cover zeigt uns die Scheiben Welt mit den berühmten Elefanten im allgegenwärtigen Kosmos um die Bewohner die darauf leben und die Schildkröte sie durch unbekannte Weiten trägt. Sehr schön gestaltet und das nicht nur außen, sondern auch innen mit wundervollen Illustrationen, die mir mehr alle einmal ein Lächeln bescherten.
Schreibstil
Der Autor Terry Pratchett war ein Meister des geschriebenen Wortes und der Erschaffung dieser fantastischen Welt, die mich mehr als einmal in die Welt von Ankh - Morpork entführte. Ich bin begeistert von den Figuren die der Autor nicht nur immer wieder erschuf, sondern auch von den irrwitzigsten Situationen und dem genialen Humor der mir sehr viele lachtränen bescherte. Für mich ein Meister seines Faches.
Meinung
Lasst euch Entführern in die Scheibenwelt und zu ihren Bewohnern....
Denn genau hier kommen wir an. Nachdem uns Terry Pratchett einen Einstieg in das Werk gibt mit seiner unübertrefflichen Art, zeigt er uns auf, wie er zu der Scheiben Welt kam und was er als Journalist für eine Weisheit mitnahm. Und natürlich kommen wir zu den Erläuterungen und zu den Kurzgeschichten selbst.
Sei es jetzt von Cohan der sich mit seinem Pferd unterhält, was sie den mitten im Nirgendwo machen und den Wunsch Cohens Vater zu erfüllen einen Troll und zwar einen Brückentroll zu besiegen, denn nur dann fände er Ruhe, oder mit Oma Wetterwachs die wieder voll in Action ist. Wobei die Stadtwache von Ankh- Morpork hat auch noch einiges zu tun.
Hier kann ich nur anmerken das es sich lohnt zu lesen und ich kann nur von mir ausgehen, die ein Fan von Pratchett ist, das ich schon viele Geschichten von ihm kenne und das es wie heimkommen ist, in dieses absolut verrückte Universum, deshalb kann ich nicht sagen ob es was für einen Neueinsteiger ist, aber ich sag mal so, entweder liebt man es oder nicht und ich liebe es.
Fazit
Absolut toll gelungen!!!
Eine wundervolle Erzählung der Kurzgeschichten um die Welt Terry Pratchetts!!!
5 von 5 Sternen
September 5, 2009
I have to admit that I "only" read the German version of this book ("Der ganze Wahnsinn", Piper Verlag) - and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to read the English original, regarding the fact that it costs about 200 GBP on Amazon.uk's "Marketplace" at the moment. (So, unless it's going to be re-released some day,...)
Anyway.
This book is basically a compilation of some of Terry Pratchett's short stories, some prologues and introductions he wrote for Discworld computer games and/or CDs, and some "essays" and (at least one) travel report(s). And as far as I know, all of them have already been published in SF magazines, Fantasy magazines and/or other magazines and fanzines he'd been asked to write for. I knew none of those stories etc., since I'm (obviously) living in the "wrong" country.
Again: anyway.
Story-wise, there are some real gems in there, but since I don't know the English titles, I can't tell you which one I loved best. If you come across it: I loved the short story with Santa, the computer and the teddy bear, the short story with the fictional character "Erdan", which came to "life" and, last but not least, the story about Wayne and his records and Death.
I loved the small "insights" Terry Pratchett allowed the reader to have on his work: his views on writing, what writing actually means to him, what's important to and what had influenced him. A very nice, interesting and entertaining read. I don't know whether it's any good to non-Terry-Pratchett-fans, though, but I like to think it is.
Anyway.
This book is basically a compilation of some of Terry Pratchett's short stories, some prologues and introductions he wrote for Discworld computer games and/or CDs, and some "essays" and (at least one) travel report(s). And as far as I know, all of them have already been published in SF magazines, Fantasy magazines and/or other magazines and fanzines he'd been asked to write for. I knew none of those stories etc., since I'm (obviously) living in the "wrong" country.
Again: anyway.
Story-wise, there are some real gems in there, but since I don't know the English titles, I can't tell you which one I loved best. If you come across it: I loved the short story with Santa, the computer and the teddy bear, the short story with the fictional character "Erdan", which came to "life" and, last but not least, the story about Wayne and his records and Death.
I loved the small "insights" Terry Pratchett allowed the reader to have on his work: his views on writing, what writing actually means to him, what's important to and what had influenced him. A very nice, interesting and entertaining read. I don't know whether it's any good to non-Terry-Pratchett-fans, though, but I like to think it is.
June 19, 2012
Sir Terry Pratchett is like the British Mark Twain. Everything he says has a point to it, but it's said in such a way that, unless you're paying attention, you may not get it til later. He's utterly brilliant, and this collection of short stories, correspondence and articles gives the avid Pratchett fan just a little deeper glimpse into his personal Universe.
May 6, 2014
Good read for fans of Pratchett; one of my favorite new habits of the last year has been digging up these short story anthologies of authors I love so I can get more inside their head. If you've read a few Pratchett books its worth reading this so you can have a deeper understanding of the man as you read his work. Discworld is an even richer place because of this book.
February 3, 2016
A great collection of small pieces of Pratchett's writings. From the few short stories he has written (most of which I had read before) to the short magazine pieces, commencement speeches, etc - these were typically quirky and sprinkled with his trademark dry sense of humor.
April 23, 2007
This is a wonderful little collection of various Pratchett stuff that can't be readily found elsewhere. His notes are ferociously witty as you'd expect.
September 2, 2007
A jumble of things. Recommended for the hard-core Pratchett fans.
September 6, 2013
It's Terry. It's good.
September 1, 2010
Task 10.1
February 9, 2012
For the Pratchett completist.
May 14, 2014
Listened to
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