Terry Pratchett's published his first story when he was only 13 years old. "The Hades Business" originally appeared in a school magazine and, two years later, it was re-published in Science Fantasy magazine, making him a professional writer at the age of 15. His first novel, THE CARPET PEOPLE, was published in 1971 and followed the adventures of a society of microscopic people living in, well, a carpet. Essentially, a children's novel in the vein of John Peterson's THE LITTLES (who, incidentally more...
Terry Pratchett's published his first story when he was only 13 years old. "The Hades Business" originally appeared in a school magazine and, two years later, it was re-published in Science Fantasy magazine, making him a professional writer at the age of 15. His first novel, THE CARPET PEOPLE, was published in 1971 and followed the adventures of a society of microscopic people living in, well, a carpet. Essentially, a children's novel in the vein of John Peterson's THE LITTLES (who, incidentally, would be giants compared to Pratchett's people) and the like, the novel paved the way for Pratchett's style of "grounded" fantasy. Many of his novels are feature fairly traditional fantasy elements in fairly traditional fantasy settings, but almost all of these settings are microcosms of the "real" world--in the case of the Discworld series, for example, all the action takes place on a flat planet that sits atop the backs of four immense elephants who, in turn, ride on the shell of an enormous turtle travelling through space. The Discworld books, which form the bulk of Pratchett's literary work and are his most well-known titles, initially began as extremely clever, and very funny, parodies of fantasy fiction and have slowly morphed into being much more. His 1989 novel, PYRAMIDS, was awarded the British Science Fiction Award and a collaboration with Neil Gaiman, GOOD OMENS, was nominated for the 1991 World Fantasy Award. A prolific author, Pratchett is a consistent best seller in England, where, according to some estimates, his fiction accounts for a little over 1% of ALL books sold in any given year.less...
Birth Information
04/28/1948 England, Great Britain, United Kingdom, British Isles, Western Europe,
I own all of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. I would review each one, but as any Pratchett reader knows, is a helluva lotta books. So rather than spend the next month writing reviews, I'll review the author instead...
Terry Pratchett effortlessly weaves political, social and religious satire deftly in every novel. His background as a publicist for a British nuclear power plant also allows him to warp the reality of his world with surprising tidbits of "real world" scientific information, under the guise of religion or magic.
His characters are plucked out of our social conciousness and are far more complex than many you would find in a fantasy novel. Each book adds a new dimension to both the people and the places in which they live and you are drawn into a fully-fleshed world full of politics, intrigue and just good fun.
Intelligently written, and full of the most wonderfully whimsical prose, each novel works well on its own, but much better when read as a piece of a much larger puzzle. I highly recommend Pratchett to anyone who wants a fun, yet thought-provoking reading experience.
Louise: Thank you so much for hours of intelligent entertainment, Sir Pratchett.
Anita: Thank You.
Mark: Mr Pratchett, I'd like to thank you for the many hours of pleasure my family and I have derived from reading your books.
Patrick: every book from the frist to the last is a joy to read
Peter: Dear Mr. Pratchett, Thank you so much for the delightful wit, the philosophy,quantum physics and years of endless pleasure you have been giving me for ten years now.Death,now, I regard as the Last Friend who will lead me where ever I must go. not that I have any plans in short notice to meet him. thank you and greetings from Belgium,Peter
Bhanu: i just read my first pratchett...color of magic... i think i'll have fun for the rest of my life in discworld!!!
Laura: Better than prozac
John-paul: I was introduced to the discworld books some years ago and im now addicted to them, the comedy and the simularities to real life places and situations are briliant,im sorry to hear terry has been diagnosed with early stages alzeimers and wish him well and look forward to future books.
Andrew: the guy is totally awesome
John: His books are to discworld what the wardrobe was to narnia :)