On the Passing of Terry Pratchett

As soon as I heard about it I wanted to write about the passing of Terry Pratchett, but what is there for me to say?  I never knew him, and I have no special insights to offer.  I felt a twinge of sadness when I first heard the news, but there was no great outpouring of emotion.  I was (and am) just a fan, and I really only know him through his work. So I suppose that's what I'll write about: Pratchett's books, and how they affected me.

It was Christmas of 1990 that I received my first Pratchett novel.  It's written there inside the front cover of my copy of The Colour of Magic, my name and the date underneath.  I had no idea what it was, but I was a die-hard fantasy nut by that point, and I fell in love with his work.  The genre parody was spot on, even though it was a parody of fantasy I had yet to read: Lieber's tales of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Howard's Conan, McCaffrey's Pern series.  It still worked when held up against the more modern works I'd been devouring, and as I said, I loved it.

From there I read as much as I could: as many of the Discworld books as I could get my hands on; the Truckers series; The Carpet People; even his sci-fi novel Strata (don't ask me about that one, because all I can remember about it is the large-breasted woman on the cover).  The Discworld books featuring the City Watch were favourites.  After a few years I drifted away from the Discworld series as a whole, but I always kept up with the Watch.

Pratchett has often been likened to Douglas Adams, and that's a fair comparison.  Both are very funny, but Pratchett has Adams beat when it comes to sheer volume.  There's also a lot more depth to Pratchett's books, on the whole.  While the Discworld series started as a parody of the fantasy genre, it gradually morphed into an astute look at our own society through a fantasy lens.  I'm not sure when it first happened, but I first noticed it in the book Night Watch, where he explores themes of revolution and authority.  I was astounded by that book in particular, and from then on I couldn't help but notice the little things in his books, the sublime moments that captured the human experience so perfectly.  More than just the funny moments, Pratchett sprinkled his books with moments of pathos, and I hope that isn't something that gets forgotten in all the restrospectives to come.

I've been meaning to embark on a big Discworld re-read for a while now.  It's been decades since I've read most of them, and there are about thirty or so that I haven't read at all.  It's sad that it took Pratchett's passing to give me the motivation, but as I said, I'm just a fan, and reading his books is the only form of tribute I can give.