myrmepropagandist

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett is so clearly what inspired Harry Potter and so much fundamentally a better book I’m frankly blown away.

I’m also shocked at the sudden jump in quality from the first two books. Which are very fun but someone hit the man with the good story telling stick between books 2 and three and can I please be next?

Oct 30 at 10:10pmWeb
Show threadAmin, minor deity of the legume realmOct 30

@futurebird

I want a turn being hit with the stick!! :D

Show threadAmin, minor deity of the legume realmOct 30

@futurebird

#SentencesYouNeverThoughtYouWouldSay

Show threadWeird SocksOct 30
@futurebird
Have you read the Earthsea books?
Show threadPiers CawleyOct 30
@futurebird One of the many things I love about Terry was that he would agree with you about that :)
Show threadHelen LHOct 30
@futurebird I think he was still working full time when he published the 1st two, but then made enough to write full time.
Show threadHugo MillsOct 30
@futurebird Just wait until you get to book 4. That's a whole step up again.
Show threadisotope239 🥸💻🇺🇦😣Oct 30
@futurebird I always figured that Sir Terry started out to write some standard fantasy books then his inner Daniel Defoe kicked in! Just wait 'til you bump into Sam Vimes!
Show threadRobert William VestermanOct 30

@futurebird Oh jeeze, I just read this like a couple weeks ago, and I too was shocked by the sudden jump in quality!

I enjoyed the first couple books, but the silliness level, while fun, got out of control at points. ER had some silliness, and it was still fun, but it seemed much less forced. And both Granny and Esk seemed like... real people? To a degree that I didn't get from any character from either of the earlier books.

Show threadCookiefiendOct 30
@futurebird Rowling owes a whole to Diana Wynne Jones too.
Show threadAO SmithOct 31
@LPerry2 @futurebird
Ha, I always thought of Diana Wynne Jones when people started getting obsessed with Harry Potter. She was a favorite author of my childhood, for sure
Show threadMichael ReeseOct 30

@futurebird I know it has nada to do with Pratchett but I love this quote from Jane Yolen re: similarities between her Wizard's Hall and Mr. Potter (such an excellent humble dig):

(From wikipedia)
Regarding the similarities between her 1991 novel Wizard's Hall and the Harry Potter series, Yolen has commented:

I'm pretty sure [J. K. Rowling] never read my book. We were both using fantasy tropes—the wizard school, the pictures on the wall that move. I happen to have a hero whose name was Henry, not Harry. He also had a red-headed best friend and a girl who was also his best friend—though my girl was black, not white. And there was a wicked wizard who was trying to destroy the school, who was once a teacher at the school. But those are all fantasy tropes ...There's even a book that came out way before hers where children go off to a witch school or a wizard school by going on a mysterious train that no one else can see except the kids, at a major British train station—I don’t know if it was Victoria Station or King's Cross. These things are out there ...This is not new.

Show threadllewellyOct 30
@notoriousiptg @futurebird the whole reason the Unseen University was in the Prachett books in the first place was that wizard schools were a such a common trope that Prachett wanted to parody them. And that was in 1983.
Show threadzahlenzauber*in Oct 30

@futurebird And they will get even better.

The most obvious difference between Pratchett and JKR is, Pratchett always fundamentally liked his characters. Even the "evil" ones.

Show threadAngua Oct 30
@futurebird

The first two were satires of something or other, I forget what, so not really Pratchett's authentic voice. I dislike them for the most part; but they booted up the Discworld and started the most amazing trail of satire.
Equal Rites was essentially a story for Rhianna and she never forgave him for it.

Yes it is one of the inspirations I think, among others.
Show threadaprilfolliesOct 31
@AnguaDelphine @futurebird Among the books he parodied in the first two were the “Fafherd and the Gray Mouser” series and Anne McCaffrey’s “Dragonriders of Pern” series. They were popular in the 1970s. 😀. I’m sure he directly parodied other popular series, but either I didn’t recognize them or I don’t remember them!
Show threadPeter 💙 StevensOct 30

@futurebird

The first 2 are the overture, containing hints of themes that will be developed in the rest of the symphony.

Show threadMFennVT has movedOct 30
@futurebird And, as everyone has said, they just keep getting better.
Show threadQueen of AnxietyOct 31
@futurebird Granny Weatherwax would tolerate nothing les. :)
Show threadSuecrisOct 31
@futurebird I heard such good things about Discworld and tried the first book, but it was too, um ... zany and random? for me, so I gave up. You're telling me he gets better as he goes?
Show threadmyrmepropagandistOct 31

@NoTwit

The second book is like the first.

The third is on another level.

Show threadmyrmepropagandistOct 31

@NoTwit

I think you could skip the second. Although, I couldn't I like to read books in order kind of like a snowplow.

Show threadSuecrisOct 31
@futurebird I might just start with 3 and try it again!
Show threadDave bauerOct 31
@NoTwit @futurebird Do it! You can pretty much read the subsequent books in whatever order you need to, although there is some chronological logic of a sort.