Jake Staines
Tim Hergert
This just popped into one of my feeds - I think that it's a great story about a someone meeting the man.
WayneThere was a signing at a shipping centre close to where I worked. We never get signings here in South Africa. I thought ah well what's the point of going. I'm going to stand in a queue and then have this tired person sign my book. I was actually in the shopping centre in the day of the signing and saw Sir Terry and that has forever been a regret of mine that I didn't stand in the queue. Because his writing has meant something for me. Because of the compassion in the way he presented marginalised peoples.
And I missed the opportunity to say thank you.
GinevraCat@Weanerdog @cjust He spoke at UCT while I was a student there. It’s still a treasured memory.
Estarriol, Terrorist Dragon@cjust he was a warm and wonderful person.
Matt HallI might just be in a mood but now I can't see and I have moisture on my face.
Sindy@cjust This is very touching. Thank you for sharing!
Dudley of Yesterzine 
Chip Unicorn
Hedders@cjust He was the greatest.
dogzilla
paul
Rikiti@amiserabilist
I assume you know there are mail client plugins which add a specific header in your emails with this. And also web servers...
Julia Rez@amiserabilist @dogzilla @cjust @ianb
I don't know if sites like techradar or musicradar still emit that header.
If they do, that was me.
Billy O'Neal
Seiðr@cjust I didn't have "crying at the loss of Terry Pratchett again" oin my agenda today, but seems I'll have to cram it in. 
Ludovic Archivist Lagouardette@Illuminatus @cjust Agreed, and I don't even have anything to drink to go with my tears
Sasani 🐧 @cjust I rank Terry Pratchett up with Mr. Rogers, Bob Ross, David Attenborough, Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, Octavia Butler, Stephen Fry, and Steve Irwin. It's difficult to rank such people or say a single person is better than all of them, &c. But all of these people can have lasting positive impacts on wide groups of people and leaving lasting impressions on society overall.
Sorry if that is a little muddled. I'm a bit foggy-minded at the moment.
tl;dr: Terry Pratchett was a truly amazing person.
Sorry if that is a little muddled. I'm a bit foggy-minded at the moment.
tl;dr: Terry Pratchett was a truly amazing person.
clacke: exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛@cjust I've read this before, both this exact fedi comment two months ago and I believe I've seen the quoted post elsewhere too, but I still feel my eyes tear up when I see it.
GNU Sir Pterry, what a fine human.
John Abbe (aka Slow)
Jens N@slowenough @cjust @danlyke
For stories about wizards, may I suggest the "Young Wizards" series by Diane Duane, starting with "So you want to be a wizard"
IMHO vastly superior to anything Rowling has every written.
For stories about wizards, may I suggest the "Young Wizards" series by Diane Duane, starting with "So you want to be a wizard"
IMHO vastly superior to anything Rowling has every written.
Jaime Herazo@aserraric @slowenough @cjust @danlyke
I'm like 4 books behind or so, but Dresden Files, for a much more adult take, just beware that Jim Butcher is eeeeeevil 😂
I'm like 4 books behind or so, but Dresden Files, for a much more adult take, just beware that Jim Butcher is eeeeeevil 😂
viq@jherazob
Personally I found the escalation of power a bit tedious (in first book it's equivalent of gangs fighting each other with baseball bats, book 12 or so has equivalent of tactical nukes), and that I need some palate cleanser between the books, I cannot binge on them one after another.
Also the presentation of women is somewhere between "could be better" and "problematic".
@aserraric @slowenough @cjust @danlyke
Personally I found the escalation of power a bit tedious (in first book it's equivalent of gangs fighting each other with baseball bats, book 12 or so has equivalent of tactical nukes), and that I need some palate cleanser between the books, I cannot binge on them one after another.
Also the presentation of women is somewhere between "could be better" and "problematic".
@aserraric @slowenough @cjust @danlyke
obscurestar@aserraric @slowenough @cjust @danlyke In my trollier moments, I've been telling people Rowlings is a Worst Witch fanfic writer who made Mildred into a Harry boy and that her transphobia is a symptom of her shame.
I'm probably going to Hell but the similarities really are uncanny.
Murdoc Addams 🧛🏻
🇨🇦@aserraric @slowenough @cjust @danlyke
Interesting. I know her from Star Trek novels. I may have to check this out.
Interesting. I know her from Star Trek novels. I may have to check this out.
Ariaflame
CuriosityCatI second this!!
Also, ‘The Lady Slings The Booze’ series, although I’d add a content warning.
(The premise & internal world ideas are *great* - but it does take place in a brothel, so there are stories around various kinds of abuse. Handled v well & with as light a touch as possible, but they’re there.)
I recommend Spider Robinson anyway, but his Callahan series are great to start with. They are a series of stand-alone, but semi- interconnected short stories. ✅
Dan Lyke@slowenough @cjust for YA fiction, Diana Wynne Jones has also been recommended to me a number of times. And I think with the rise of indie ebook publishers, there are tons of worthy authors out there writing good YA with better messages, just waiting to be found.
EJJames
zellyn@EJJames @danlyke @slowenough @cjust +1 for Okorofor.
If you wanna go oldschool, Wizard of Earthsea is good.
In the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon vein is also Stainless Steel Rat.
@zellyn @EJJames @danlyke @cjust Clearly, I will have to check out Okorofor. I enjoyed the Stainless Steel Rat I read, but I don't remember a focus on people being human to each other? Been a while.
For some reason your comment reminded me of Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures books (and comics), which certainly are that way.
@slowenough @EJJames @danlyke @cjust Oh, yeah, Stainless Steel Rat is old-school sci-fi, so no actual humans. It's why Asimov's Robot stories are so much better! 😂
Okorofor is modern and thus has a heart 🙂
Nicolas Delsaux
Michael Gemar@cjust @hannu_ikonen There are few writers who are as humane and empathetic as Terry while still being as clear-eyed as he was about human nature.
Billiglarper@michaelgemar @cjust @hannu_ikonen
Neil Gaiman comes to mind. He also started the "Books of Magic" series, which actually has some superficial resemblance to Harry Potter.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1093042.The_Books_Of_Magic
@billiglarper @cjust @hannu_ikonen Agreed. I’d also say Douglas Adams, and earlier P. G. Wodehouse. They all recognize human foibles and failings, yet nonetheless have a wry optimism about people.
Nixie@cjust "Harry what?" - Said Vimes.
Wiredfire@cjust in a catastrophe I'd much rather have a bumbling wizzard in my corner with a knack for tripping over heroics and accompanied by homicidal baggage.
alexferrie@wiredfire @cjust The Luggage is the very best pet
HighlandLawyer@HighlandLawyer @wiredfire @cjust To be fair, a close second, although a potentially exploding pet is a bit worrying, even one as cute as Errol
Katie@cjust Pratchett was way too humane, and did too good a job of explaining the faults of society and it’s most powerful members to get those people to invest into advertising and merchandising his work into every crevice of public life. That’s one of Discworlds’s strengths!
Marty Fouts@cjust Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer is a great underrated alternative. (The book series not so much the movie)
R̸̜̕ò̴͓s̵͈͠s̷̮͗@cjust GNU Terry Pratchett
Mr. Big John 
TTDog666@cjust The number of movie references in Moving Pictures was astronomical.
And who else could have you sympathise for Death.
valkyrie_pilot@cjust X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
@cjust even if She Who Must Not Be Named were the nicest person on earth, this would still be the way. GNU Terry Pratchett. Who, like G K Chesterton, knew what was going on.
SuperBezirksvertreterin@cjust In „Moving Pictures“ he came up with the movie title „Valley of the Trolls“ and you gotta love him for that reference alone. „Monstrous Regiment“ is a femmnist manifesto and „Going Postal“ is another masterpiece with a brilliant title.
Oh well. They‘re fantastic in every sense of that word. Now I feel like reading all of the novels again.
Austin Nunn 
🏳️🌈🏁
@cjust we can like both... It's like music. Just because I prefer music with intricate soundscapes and lyrics that make you think doesn't mean I can't also like 4 chord rock songs that are loud for the sake of being loud and have a total of 9 words in the lyrics.
Nikola Kotur
Wolfgang@cjust there is even a school with houses! (Pyramids)
Knud JahnkeAnd frankly said, HP is quite badly written. I read all of it when it came out, but from a literature point of view I always thought that it was disappointing.
unicorndeburghA warning for new readers of Terry Pratchett’s wonderful Discworld series:
If you read the very first book, you may say “Well, that was cute, but what’s all the fuss about?”
It’s not the best one! He became a better writer of more interesting (but still funny!) books over time. It’s also not a 1, 2, 3,… series. There are various arcs, or subs series.
Read “Monstrous Regiment” — a standalone.
Read the Witches sub-series, or Guards.
Martijn VosI actually love The Colour of Magic, but it's definitely different from the later ones. It's very much a parody of 1970s and earlier fantasy novels, and if you haven't read those, not everything might connect.
From Mort onward, he really found his stride.
Good starting novels include (aren't limited to) Mort, Guards! Guards!, Hogfather, and Going Postal. But none of the others are bad choices.
CavyherdOkay, I've read Tiffany Aching. What next?
@cavyherd I think my favorite would have to be Reaper Man. However, I'm one of those folks who needs to read a series in order (even though it's not strictly necessary with Discworld) in which case you would want to start with The Colour of Magic.
Okay, that's the multipleth time Colour of Magic has come up in discussions of Pratchett, so maybe that's a place to start.
One speed-bump for me is getting past the British face tone of the writing. (I don't necessarily dislike it, it just doesn't fit well in my brain.) Maybe an audiobook is the way to go....
@cavyherd it's worthwhile noting this post as well:
https://hachyderm.io/@unicorndeburgh/112700120320713188
The Colour of Magic was his first book, and while enjoyable, his writing certainly did get better over time.
As far as the British style goes, I've found I've gotten used to it, but was raised in Canada, (and many moons ago) so I might've had a bit of a head start.
unicorndeburgh (@[email protected])
@[email protected] A warning for new readers of Terry Pratchett’s wonderful Discworld series: If you read the very first book, you may say “Well, that was cute, but what’s all the fuss about?” It’s not the best one! He became a better writer of more interesting (but still funny!) books over time. It’s also not a 1, 2, 3,… series. There are various arcs, or subs series. Read “Monstrous Regiment” — a standalone. Read the Witches sub-series, or Guards. https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DW-Reading-List-V5-Theme_Characters.pdf